On our last day in the mighty city of Albuquerque, we decided to keep it low-key and just check out a couple nearby sites we found noteworthy. The first such site was the New Mexico Veterans Memorial. It’s well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area.

Brick borders line the sidewalks of the memorial, and families can donate engraved bricks in memory of veterans.

The memorial is expansive, and it has a variety of thoughtful features. (I didn’t take a lot of photos.) There are memorials for veterans of each war; this statue was for veterans of the Vietnam War.

When we were looking at the memorial honoring submariners, we discovered a familiar name among the fallen.

That’s not my grandfather, but that’s my grandfather’s name.

From there we drove through the University of New Mexico main campus and down to the athletic campus. As football fans, we were curious to see UNM’s football stadium. UNM football has struggled as of late, but we were pleased to find a very nice football stadium. And, in stark contrast to Michigan’s more recent switch to a locked-gates policy (dear Michigan athletic department: BOOOOOOOOOOOOO), we were also pleased to find the gate wide open so we could wander inside to enjoy the view.

Real live green grass doesn’t seem to be an abundant natural resource in Albuquerque — the popular ground cover options seem to be rocks and dry brown grass — but UNM didn’t take the easy option of installing artificial turf. When we arrived, the sprinklers were watering the well-maintained natural grass field.

That mountain view isn’t too shabby, either. Good job, Lobos.

In order to have a little more evidence that I really did travel to Albuquerque, I had my dad take a couple photos of me in the stadium.

I know I’m scary, but don’t be afraid. Look! My sweatshirt is waving at you!

No, I didn’t stand in front of section B because my name starts with B. That’s just a happy coincidence.

As I said, UNM football hasn’t exactly been taking the world by storm recently, but it has had its good years. Its more recent good years included a linebacker who has since become one of the best linebackers in the NFL.

Urlacher the Terrifying is still playing for the Chicago Bears…which just so happens to be my dad’s favorite team because he grew up in Chicago. He enjoyed seeing that banner. (I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it; I’m just saying…oh, never mind.)

From the football stadium we drove across the street to the basketball arena — “The Pit” — to visit the store located in the arena lobby. Shortly after we entered the store, we spotted a familiar sight:

Take a closer look at the tag on that UNM cheerleader bear:

Do you know where the Chelsea Teddy Bear Co. is located? Chelsea, MI. Yes, that’s right: we could’ve traveled all the way from Chelsea to Albuquerque to…buy teddy bears from Chelsea. Afterwards, we could’ve gone to the grocery store to buy Jiffy Mixes!

Though I wasn’t in the market for a teddy bear, I was planning to make a purchase. If you know me, you know I’m a big fan of t-shirts. In fact, the only times I don’t wear t-shirts are the times I’m cruelly and unusually forced to wear something more formal. (Thankfully, these times are extraordinarily infrequent. Dear button-down shirt manufacturers: BOOOOOOOOOO.) While browsing the shirts available in the store, I found one featuring a classic UNM logo that, in my opinion, should still be in use as the primary logo today:

They’ve since switched to some boring modern-looking Lobos logo, but…come on. There’s no way the current logo is better than that old sailor hat-wearing, chops-licking Lobo. If you’re reading this, UNM leadership, here’s what I’m saying: you need to switch back to the old logo. It’s at least 100% better than the current logo.

(As an aside…what is it with universities discarding great logos in favor of average logos? And sometimes not even just great logos, but great mascots? Yeah, I’m looking at you, Lehigh. Your mascot used to be the Engineer, a unique mascot full of historical significance. This logo is all-caps AMAZING. And you dumped it for what? The Mountain Hawk? BOOOOOORING.)

(Okay, enough of that aside. Back to the post.)

The arena itself wasn’t open, but we could peer through the gates to get a look at the interior. Once I got a look at it, I desperately wanted to go to a basketball game there. Seriously: The Pit is one of those legendary old gyms that makes you look down your nose at shiny new generic NBA arenas. Check out the photo of the interior at that link. That’s a great sports venue.

From The Pit , we headed back to the base and had a quiet afternoon and evening there.

We left for home far too early the next morning. In the first Albuquerqation post I believe I made clear my feelings regarding early mornings, and believe me, the equally early departure from ABQ didn’t change those feelings. The only benefit to leaving so early was the sunrise.

The drive home was generally uneventful…aside from my missing the Joplin exit and thus delaying dinner another hour because western Missouri is a wasteland. But we survived the wasteland of Missouri and the low speed limits of Illinois — seriously, folks, it’s not 1970 anymore — to make it safely back to Michigan.

In summary: I’m happy to give Albuquerque the official Burrill Strong Seal of Approval. Thanks for a good time, ABQ!