A day in Los Alamos

The morning dawned somewhat chilly but sunny and beautiful. As we drove off towards Los Alamos, the temperature rose to a very comfortable 70 degrees. The area through which we drove was also very beautiful with a plain on one side and mountains just behind that. As promised, the last few miles to Los Alamos were very winding as we crossed the mountain range in front of us, but we arrived safely in late morning.

Los Alamos is a very attractive city, which was built almost from scratch during World War II. There was only a ranch school and a few farms in the area, all of which the government bought up, displacing those who were living there. There were no poor people since everyone in town needed a  government clearance to be there, and were either related to the Manhatten Project or were providing some kind of service to these people. Even today, we had to pass through a checkpost at the edge of town before we were admitted. I guess we didn't look very dangerous, since the lady in the booth just wished us a good day and passed us through, but I doubt if there are any other towns in the US that have a similar checkpost.

Today, there are a fair number of attractive shops and eating places as well as attractive housing and two interesting museums, but defense department research still seems to be the major industry of the town.
We visited both of the museums. The Los Alamos Museum had exhibits that began with prehistoric people who had lived in the area and went forward to the Manhattan Project, including an especially interesting section on Robert Oppenheimer, who originally headed the project and eventually lost his government clearance during the McCarthy period.
The second museum, larger and more modern than the first, had a large section, which included an 18 minute film, on the role of the Manhattan Project in the defense of the United States and a smaller section on other government research (e.g., the Hubble Telescope) that has less military relevance. It was, all in all, a very stimulating morning.

After lunch we were back on the road on our way to Albuquerque. Most of the drive was on Interstate 25, with a speed limit of 75 miles per hour - quite a change from yesterday. This was the week of the Balloon Fiesta, where hot air and helium balloon enthusiasts from all over the world come to fly their balloons. This is quite a major event which draws thousands of people and hundreds of balloons, so we looked forward to seeing some of them take off next morning. We also spent most of the evening planning other things we would like to do during a day in Albuquerque.