Black Hawk-July 30, 2017

About 10 days ago we made a spur of the moment to Black Hawk. We're always in a hurry when we go there so I never get to take all the pictures I want to take. I will share a couple now. We will go back the first of next week and I will take time to take some decent pictures, hopefully.

As usual the Monarch had changed out the orchid display. I prefer

the vivid colors but I love all orchids. I do not have the green thumb

for growing them. I have tried and failed. Actually I can kill a cactus, too.

 

 

It was raining and we were going pretty fast down the mountain

but still I enjoyed seeing Clear Creek this full. Normally I see it nearly

empty or frozen. It was full enough to have fishermen lining the banks.

 

Maybe the pictures from the trip next week will be better. It is a nice part of this state and I want others to see that. For the record, Clear Creek is where Coors gets the "pure mountain water" to make their beer. Wouldn't it be dreadful to find out they used tap water?!

 

 

More of Neil-July 28, 2017

I just realized that I had not posted all of the pictures I had from the Neil Diamond concert last Friday.

Prior to the concert everybody mills around doing nothing.

I remarked that this looks like an ant farm but with oxygen tanks.

(All of Neil's fans are "old"!)

 

In the really old days everybody lit cigarette lighters.

Now everybody uses their cell phones. So much safer!

And it makes for a prettier picture, too.

 

We are still talking about this concert. We may never forget it. Neil Diamond has given us some fabulous concerts over the years especially the 2000 concert , but this one is embedded in our memories for lots of reasons.

 

Concert-July 23, 2017

There is more to tell about the Neil Diamond concert last Friday than I can put in one day's post on this blog. So I will share something funny in this one.

This is the QR code I loaded onto my phone.

It contained the tickets to get us in the door.

I do like that you no longer have to carry paper tickets.

 

 

This lady was in front of us. I remarked that I bet she didn't have to load the

QR code because they could just scan her shirt!

Playing together, at last-July 21, 2017

All the times we have kept all three girls, Hannah and Zoey either play together or fight. Daisy is with us. Yesterday we decided to sit Daisy at the table with the other two. We could tell instantly that she was so happy she did not know what to do with herself. She was grinning from ear to ear and giggling and babbling. It was so much fun.

You can see a hand near Daisy's back just in case. The other two

were trying to ignore her and she was fine with that. She was just

so excited to be at the table.

 

They are all growing so fast it's hard to keep up with them.

 

Cheyenne again-July 16, 2017

We made another trip to Cheyenne this week. It is so close and such a nicer drive than going to Denver, so it is likely to become our new place to explore. We discovered that almost all of 17th Street in downtown Cheyenne is eating establishments. And there are many more all over the place. There are some great shops and traffic is not too bad yet.

This is the spot we chose for lunch this week. 2 Doors Down.

 

They claim they have been flipping burgers since 2009. They also serve fish, chicken and pizza.I will say they have the art of serving down to perfection. The food was excellent but what impressed us most of all is how we were greeted when we arrived. A lady walked up to us and said "Welcome! I haven't seen you in here before!". That said a lot. Obviously this is a spot for locals. We have learned while traveling that a restaurant cannot stay in business if the locals don't support it. So we always seek the places that have cars surrounding it with local license plates. We thoroughly enjoyed this eating experience from beginning to end.

 

In the next block was a beautiful very old home.

The Nagle-Warren Mansion. Built in 1888.

 

This mansion has a wonderful and rich history from the stone used to build it to the people who have lived there and changed it. It is now a B&B. I checked the rates and it is only $188 per night. (Note the use of the word "only"). This house faces 17th Street but the side street is House Street. House Street was exclusively for oil barons in the 1880s. Unfortunately not all homes survived the years as beautifully as this one did. Nagel was the original owner who built the home. Warren is F.E. Warren for which the local Air Force base is named. That brings up another interesting fact. Warren Air Force base is the only air force base in our country that has no airport. Not even a single landing strip. One is left to question that but I decided just to accept it.

 

Since it is such an easy drive to Cheyenne you may see more posts about that city in the future.

 

Family wedding-July 11, 2017

We went to a family wedding on Sunday afternoon. It was west of Lyons, CO. We have not been to Lyons in many years. It was startling. The number of marijuana dispensaries caught us off guard. And the huge crowds of people walking the streets was something we don't see often. Most of them wore minimal clothing and had full body tattoos. I am not judging. I'm just saying we have not seen anything like that in Colorado in recent years. After we got through the crowds, we went up a mountain west of town. It was a single lane dirt road all the way to the top. Dreadful road. But the view from the top was nice.

On our way there I kept my eye on a storm that was developing just north of our location. I kept saying I hoped it skipped us.

The developing storm. It did have lightning in it.

 

The outer edge of the storm did reach the mountain we were on so the wedding was delayed 15 minutes. Then the wind started howling and it blew so loud during the ceremony we could not hear a single word that was said. It was dark, too, so I couldn't take pictures. Of course my pictures didn't matter anyway. The storm passed while we were eating and it was so hot outside you could not breathe. So everybody stayed in and danced. I held Daisy until she fell asleep. That was the extent of my dancing!

 

When we were leaving I just had to take a couple of pictures of the surrounding scenery. It really was pretty.

 

 

Do you see the two houses built on the cliff? No way I would live like that!

 

The tall structures in the distant background are the Coors brewery in Golden.

And beyond that is Denver.

 

Last but not least, my favorite.

I never cease to love the unique beauty of sunsets.

 

Nice wedding. Beautiful scenery. Long but enjoyable day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Seashells by the seashore-July 8, 2017

While spending time with all three girls this week, Jerry mentioned he really wanted them to be able to travel long distances so we could take them to the Gulf coast. By far it is the prettiest coastline anywhere in the continental United States. That led to a discussion about seashells. Jerry remembered we have a box of shells in the garage. So we carefully unwrapped the shells and showed them to the girls. Even with their lack of knowledge of shells, they were impressed.

Here are a few of the shells. That moon snail in the upper left corner

is as big as my hand.

 

 

One thing you learn by living on the coast is that the biggest and prettiest shells come in after a huge storm or hurricane. These were gathered after a tropical storm. We had more bags full of shells than we could keep. So we picked out our favorites and took the rest back to the beach.

 

I had forgotten about these shells and about the many hundreds of sand dollars I have. It was like opening Christmas gifts. So much fun. Such good memories. And the girls loved it, too.

Moving day-July 3, 2017

Yesterday afternoon the playhouse was moved from our garage to its home at the girls' house. To say it was exhausting is an understatement. But it is there and we have our garage back again.

Out of our garage and ready to move.

 

At its new home.

 

The girls discussing their impending ride to the back yard.

 

It finally made it!

 

Now it needs a tent with net sides over it to keep the critters out. Foxes, feral cats, bees, wasps, spiders and who knows what else call this yard home. We did buy one tent and put it up yesterday but it will not work. We will go shopping again today. But for all intents and purposes the girls have a nice playhouse in their yard. My imagination goes wild when I think about what this would have meant to me when I was a little girl.