Albuquerque High

If you’re a six year old, what’s the coolest thing about Albuquerque, New Mexico?
Is it the renowned American Rattlesnakes Museum http://www.rattlesnakes.com or the deliciously greasy Lindy Diner along Route 66?
Nope! It’s East High, the school featured in Disney’s made-for-TV movie, High School Musical. A certain six year old hoped that my colleague and I would make finding the real school our personal mission while we attended a conference for work. We thought, “how hard can it be?” we’ll do our work and then snap a shot of the place where real Disney magic happened on our lunch break.

It wasn’t quite so simple, turns out that we were easily distracted and our mission ended up taking us on some adventurous detours through the city. We’d recommend:

-Eating all sorts of meat at the Brazilian restaurant Tucanos
(http://www.tucanos.com/)
-Window shopping for hand-made jewelry in Old Town
-Posing with a giant frog and other public statues
-Oogling over some offensive but well-endowed cowboy cactus souvenirs
-Buying brightly colored pottery
-Taking some photos of the amazing mountain views and the faux adobe architecture.

By the end of our trip the school was still nowhere to be found. The pangs of guilt hit us as we got in the cab to go back to the airport and realized that we would have to leave- our mission un-fulfilled and a six year old disappointed.

We drove toward the airport distracted by our upcoming flight when suddenly my colleague looked out the window and her mouth fell open- she barely had time to croak out- “THERE IT IS” before we turned the corner and it disappeared from view. As we were driving out of town we had passed the old Albuquerque High School. No photo- because we couldn’t rationally ask the cabbie to screech to a halt mid-intersection- but now we know it is there.

The school, built in 1914, is no longer home to students but it has recently been renovated into quirky loft apartments, original flooring and bleachers left intact! http://www.abqhigh.com/ So on your next visit to Albuquerque—take a tour through the school’s lofts- watch the movie- and snap a photo for us!