8/2011 an additional memory on Glenwood Springs

I don't have any photos to document it, which is probably why I forgot to mention it, but on the train rides to and from Glenwood Springs, we actually saw wildlife. We spotted a bald eagle soaring and then landing on a tree. That actually happened twice--once on the way out and once on the way back. Don't know if it was the same bald eagle or not. We saw an elk. The train had come to a stop at some point, probably waiting for another train to pass, and an elk walked within 50 yards of the train. It was as if on cue. We also spotted a black bear, looked like a teenager--not a small cub, but not full grown, frolicking (literally) in some tall grass very near the track.

8/21/01 Great Lakes

Have I ever flown over the Great Lakes before? I'm sure I have, but I sure don't remember it. I must've not been paying attention. This is an impressive view. And guess what. They are really big! Hahahaha

This occurred about 5 minutes after the windmills. I'm narrowing down the location of the farming windmills and now I know what "the big body of water" was in the last post.

8/21/2011 windmills

I'm not sure what part of the country we are flying over....we are about 90 minutes away from landing in Boston, and about 5 minutes after I took this picture we were over a really big body of water. As I looked out over this farmland I could see that every patch of land (presumably each field) had a giant windmill on it. It literally looks like windmill farms. A) I'm amazed at how big those things must be for me to be able to distinguish the three blades from this high up, and B) I'm fascinated with the terrain and the big body of water and wish I knew where I was located.

8/21/2011 Window Seat

I can't believe how quickly my time in Reno has passed. Thank you Jacque and Dan for a wonderful working vacation and for 6 fun-filled days and nights. Nothing beats great friends combined with amazing food, good "spirits," and fun activities.

It takes sooooo long to fly west to east. Today is going to be a long day. I got up at 4:45am PST to leave by 6 to be at the airport by 6:15 for a 7:25 flight. I'm on my way to Phoenix where I'll change planes for a 6-hour non-stop to Boston. Hopefully I'll catch the 6:35pm Concord bus to Portland and then drive two hours to Farmington and arrive home by 10pm EST.

8/21/2011 Burning Man

Now this is one heck of an event. There was even an art display in the airport about it...photos of the craziness from the last 24 years. On one if my trips out here, Jacque and Dan took me to their hunting "cabin" for Memorial Day weekend and in our sightseeing along the way we were in the area of Burning Man and they told me about it. "Unique" is the best word I can use to describe it.
It starts next weekend and culminates on Labor Day. I just missed getting to be here for it, though I gotta tell you, I'm not sure I'd really care that much about going.

8/20/2011 Last Night in Reno

Tonight, Jacque and Dan took me to their favorite restaurant, Washoe Steakhouse. We were going to meet their friend, Jackie, and depending on how busy the night was, we might be joined by Craig, the restaurant's owner. Delightfully, Craig was able to spend a lot of time with us and we were joined for a short while by another regular customer, Steve. It was a perfect night for sitting out on the cozy patio, and it was yet another amazing evening of great friends, amazing food, and good spirits. (They were actually incredibly fabulous spirits, but "good spirits" just has such a nice ring to it and captures the mellowness of the evening.) I can't remember the last time that I was so engages in such great conversation that lasted four hours before you looked at your watch and said, "Where has the time gone?" it was definitely a magical evening and even if you don't have the amazing company I had, I HIGHLY recommend the food, the atmosphere, and the service at Washoe.

8/19/2011 Greek Festival

Opa!! Friday night we attended the Greek Festival in Reno. Oh my!! Incredibly yummy and very festive. We bought $10 tickets in advance and when we arrived, they gave us $10 in chips to use to buy food. Wait. Does that mean we got in for free? Or was our food included in the price? Either way, it was fabulous. The entertainment included a lot of Greek music and dancing.

My favorite (and it was all great) . . . lamb chops.

Slicing up the Greek sausage right off the grill.

They're making donuts . . . fried dough drenched in honey with cinnamon and walnuts.

If you're going to have a festival that's cash only, you better have an ATM. Even if it's just temporary.

8/18/2011 A "Modern" Museum

If modern means keeping up with the times then the Nevada Museum of Art is a modern museum. It's also a museum with modern art in it, but I'm talking about the museum itself in its principles and practices. In the Egyptian exhibit, you could rent audio tours that included an audio player of some kind where you could listen to detailed descriptions of items in the collection. OR, if you saw a sign with a red cell phone icon on it and a number, you could call a specific phone number on your cell phone, press the number on the sign followed by the pound key, and listen to the detailed information on your own cell phone. I saw it in Washington DC at some of the monuments two summers ago but this is the first time I've seen it in a museum like this. Very impressive.

And then there was this notice! Wow. We are into MODERN times now.

8/18/2011 Nevada Museum of Art

Jacque and I took a little time off on Thursday to go to the "To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum" exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art. The Egypt exhibit was very cool and then we toured the rest of the museum (also very cool) and had lunch in the Café Musée which was chic and yummy. It was a great way to spend the morning.

8/17/2011 Relaxin' in Reno

This is why I can justify leaving Maine in the middle of summer. What a great week of just hanging out with Jacque and Dan on their gorgeous patio in the beautiful weather that Reno was having while I was here. This is the life. :-)

7/9/2011 30 Years with American AAdvantage

I never would've guessed it had been that long. I knew I was a member since very early on (I once had a ticket agent tell me that I didn't give her all of my AAdvantage number because it didn't start with a letter . . . but in the olden days, they were just 7-digit numbers), but I couldn't have told you when I joined. Obviously, American has been keeping track. :-) Happy Anniversary to me and to American's AAdvantage program!

8/16/2011 First In 'n Out Experience

I have heard sooooo much about In 'n Out that when it came up as an option on Urban Spoon (Jacque and I were playing with new apps on our iPhones and Urban Spoon is one of my favorites), nothing would do but we had to go. It's my first time!! I had heard so much about it from my cousin Ara and from Rodney and from others besides that I had to go.

It was good. It was incredibly efficient, very clean, great atmosphere. I had a regular hamburger that was good and obviously fresh (you could tell not just from the signs that proclaimed it but from the taste). The fries were okay. I expected more since you get to watch them cut the potatoes right there. If they're that fresh, they should taste amazing. I don't think I would drive hours out of my way to go to one (which I know people that do that), but I would eat there again if the opportunity arose. Mostly, I'm just really glad to say I finally ate at one.

8/15/2011 Reno and the Vets

The Vietnam Veterans of America are having their 15th biennial convention in Reno this coming weekend and Wow! was the airport getting ready for a big welcome! There were welcome tables decorated in red, white, and blue throughout the terminals and this was the greeting in baggage claim. Thank you veterans for all that you have done and all that you do to keep America free!

8/15/2011 Above the Clouds

I love the window seat. :-)

8/15/2011 Denver Airport (again)

Alas, it's time to leave. It was an amazing and action-packed 7 days, but I must go. fortunately, I'm heading to Reno to work 'n play with Jacque and Dan, so that makes the leaving a little easier to take. At least I'll be distracted.

So here I am in the Denver airport again. I didn't see this last time, but it seemed appropriate with my Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Buses and Segues Oh My) theme, that there should be an airplane INSIDE the airport.

I just learned that the Denver airport was designed to resemble the Rockies or at least represent all the mountains in the area. I learned it from the mom sitting behind me when we landed last week who was pointing it out to her young son. Here you can "kinda" see that design feature.

8/15/2011 The Gallery

"The Family" (Rodney, Dain, Sara, and the boys) have lived in Aurora for almost exactly a year now. Dain and his dad have done A LOT of remodeling and fixing up on this house. It's been fun to see the change and improvement over time. But Rodney has never really made his room "home." Now he was ready to do that, and I was thrilled to get to be a part of it. Yesterday, we went to Michael's and picked out some really nice frames (on 40% off sale and then found a coupon for 25% off that price). Last night, he went through his photos (he has a LOT of photos) and set aside about 20 that he really liked. He had to like the look as well as like the story that went with it or the emotions that it evoked. Instead of trying to narrow down from 20 to 9 while looking at them on his laptop, we just sent all 20 to WalMart's online photo shop and had them all made into 5x7 prints. This morning while he was in school, I picked them up. It worked out perfectly! We had choices and could work with groupings and figure out what looked good together and what looked good in these frames. He ended up with 3 pics of the Oregon coast from 3 different trips (from when he lived in Oregon), 4 that represented each of the seasons, and 1 that was just very special. AND we got them all hung. You can't see the amazing photography in these pics, but you can see that we accomplished a great thing. My favorite part? I got to keep all the 5x7 prints that didn't get picked to go on the wall!!

8/15/2011 First Day of the New Term

First Day of School Picture! This is Rodney's third term and Dain's fifth term. I ran errands while the two of them carpooled to their orientation classes.

8/14/2011 Last Dinner in Denver (for this trip)

We almost had a big dinner for 7 adults and 2 kids at Cheddar's but there was a 45-minute wait, so Dain and Sara (and Sara's parents and their friend) had dinner at the house and Rodney and I went to Thai Garden, which was quite nice.

8/13/2011 Mini Hollins Reunion

When I was editor of the Hollins Columns my junior year in college, Susan Bright was a talented first year student who joined the staff. By second semester, she was my features editor. With a name like Susan "Bright" how could she be anything but my "Star Reporter"? Well now she lives in Lafayette, CO, so I borrowed Rodney's car (after dropping him off at work) and drove to Lafayette. Bonus! Rebecca de la Vega lives near Susan and they're in the same band, Stubborn Gray, as well as the same church praise music group. Rebecca was hosting a cookout and jam session so that's where I went. It was great to get the Hollins gang together again! Rebecca actually graduated from Texas Women's University which is right next door to my second alma mater, North Texas. Small world!

Susan and her partner Kathy Rosser:

8/13/2011 Water Woes at the House

Dain's parents were here while I was here. They live about 90 minutes away and often stop in and visit and help with the kids and help with the house. His mom had JUST finished doing some gardening in the newly sodded front yard when they saw water coming up from the city water works cover in their driveway. Oooops. There goes the new gardening. Look how deep the hole is!! They found a big split in the water pipe. Shoveling and digging and sweating is not exactly how one would like to spend a beautiful summer day. :-(

8/12/2011 Water Park

It was Friday afternoon and Dain and Rodney were doing things, so Sara and I took the boys to the local water park. This is in a big city park just a few miles from the house in Aurora. And there's also a big covered picnic table area and a really nice playground. After playing in the water, we went to the playground for some more fun before dinner.

8/11/11 Trail Ridge Road

After Alpine Visitor Center, we took the Trail Ridge Road (only open Memorial Day to Columbus Day) back to Estes Park. The road reaches a high of over 12,000 feet.

Trying out my app called "Pano" that lets you create your own panoramic photos. (You have to manually align the pics, but it merges them into one .jpg like this.) Somewhere out there is a mountain range called Never Summer Mountains and in it are Mount Cumulus, Mount Cirrus, Mount Nimbus, and Mount Stratus. Well named.

Lava Cliffs

I think this is a Clark's Nuthatch. Whatever it is, it was awfully cute and didn't mind posing for this photo.

We left the park around 5:00 and ate dinner at Village Inn. What a glorious day!