Today we are Breaking Bad as a family

Today I'm really excited because I get to do something for P. He was and is still a fan of the show Breaking Bad. The main character Walt White is a high school chemistry teacher who finds he has cancer. In order to pay for the cost of treatment he begins to manufacture meth. During the five seasons the show depicted this nice man's spiral into drug manufacture, horrible acts, and even murder.

The show was initially set in Riverside where we used to live and is a short 23 mile drive from our home. But the cost was too high for Sony Pictures, so it was reset in Albuquerque. Lucky for us we had to drive through Albuquerque to get to the last National Park we are visiting.

When we lived in Humboldt County we would drive or fly to Southern California to go to Knott's Scary Farm. P always made sure we would go during the day solely so I could get my Snoopy fix. We would stay at the Radisson Hotel and ate their over priced breakfast because Snoopy would drop by to pose for pictures. So there I was a grown adult getting all excited over a short person wearing a dog costume. P did that because he wanted me to be happy and would not even get embarrassed by my behavior around Snoopy. Today is time to pay P back for indulging me so often.

This is Walt's house on the show. There is one scene where Walt tosses a pizza still in the carton onto the house's roof. The actor actually did it in one take, with the pizza flying out of the carton. The show ended three years ago and people still flock to the locations. There was a family in a van with New Jersey plates that would arrive shortly after us at the locations.  The elderly couple who own the home are sick of the attention. They are also sick of jerks throwing pizzas on their roof.

Much to P's dismay the house was being painted yesterday. There are signs warning tourists to remain on the street. I pointed that out to my husband, but he knew the sidewalk is public property. Before I could point out that it didn't matter the lady came out and told P to get off the sidewalk and stay on the street.

This is Saul's office, he is a sleazy lawyer who laundered money for Walt.  You can tell he is a sleaze ball just by the gaudy decor.

Saul's office is actually a bar called Sinners and Saints.

They left Saul's office door intact, it was funny that SS knows who Saul is. Maybe disturbing but she does remember her Baba watching the show.

A1A Car Wash was another money laundering operation. When Walt's wife finds out about his illegal activities she is initially horrified. Then when she realizes how much money he is making things change. Skyler then helps her husband launder money through the car wash.

The car wash has changed ownership a few times, but it remains structurally the same. 

This candy shop produced the crystal meth (blue rock candy) for the show. We bought a bag but I forgot to take a picture. I will add it later.

Inside the candy shop.

Jesse Pinkman's house. 

Dog House where Jesse made many of his drug transactions.

Jesse was Walt's student in high school. Not much of a chemistry student but a hell of a good meth producer.

SS decided to sit this one out, she was busy eating.

Tuco's headquarters. Tuco was the major meth distributor in Albuquerque. Walt was working with him until Tuco;s people beat up Jesse. So Walt retaliated by blowing up his headquarters.

In real life Tuco's headquarters is a coffee shop called Java Joe's.  We had an interesting encounter at this location. We saw a man taking pictures with his phone. He approached us and asked if we were fans of the show. The man lives in Buffalo, New York and was in Denver on vacation. He took a flight to Albuquerque just to do the self tour. He asked if he could shake our hands because he was excited to meet other fans. I am a bad fan, I started watching with P but lost interest as Walt became more and more dark. I did watch the finale, and the blue margaritas we made that night were delicious. P wants me to watch with him and I'm up for it. We might allow SS to watch non violent parts so she can say she was there.

Another location that was used as is, Crossroads hotel. This is a shot from the show, not a real prostitute.

It doesn't have the best clientele in real life, just like in the show. I did not feel comfortable getting SS out of the van in this area.

Jesse's and Jane's apartments.

The actor on the booth played Mike, a "fixer" who worked with Walt. This is his favorite diner, in real life is Loyola's.  We arrived after closing time (2:00 p.m.) and could not get to Mike's booth. Do you see the blue building outside?

That let us know we were in the right place. We really had a blast visiting the locations, we are geeky that way. SS was into it as well because it was practically a scavenger hunt. We missed going to Los Pollos Hermanos which was a Twisters (fried chicken), and sadly it went out of business.