Happy Halloween

I always love to see the different designs that Melissa's kids carve into their pumpkins each Halloween. Lincoln's are usually my favorite because they are so non-traditional. You've got to be really clever to carve a scooter into a pumpkin without the whole thing caving in on itself.

I finally made it down to the Halloween display at Hudson Gardens. Each year they manage to add new characters, usually something related to a recent movie or video game like Roblox or Minecraft. But I thought the giant pumpkin-carving machine was really cute.

At night, Hudson Gardens is packed with families, because all the displays are lit. But as I was walking through, I noticed 3 different cocktail stands next to the kettle corn booths. That's certainly a unique treat for Halloween parents and probably something they really need after Insta-gramming their kids through 30 acres of displays.

Our library put up a Cosplay costume display for Halloween. Now that is a sewing hobby I could really get into - a lot more than traditional old-lady quilting.

While I was at the library I noticed several displays intended to help you randomly find a book to read, like book Plinko, dice rolls, and door selection. I picked up a book based on my horoscope (Taurus). It was all wrapped up in black paper, so I have no idea what's inside yet.

We took a quick fall getaway to Estes Park before the weather gets bad (our temperatures are predicted to "plummet" next week, whatever that means). At this time of year, Estes Park is loaded with wildlife - deer, bison, and turkeys - all walking right out in the open up and down the streets. If I were those turkeys, I'd start finding a place to hide with it being so close to Thanksgiving.

I didn't see any bear, but I saw some very distinctive bear tracks when I was walking back from the coffee shop. That really made my hair stand on end.

On the way to Estes Park we went on a hike in Eldorado Canyon State Park. This is not a place to hike in the summer, because it's loaded with rattlesnakes, but we figured we'd be safe since the weather is getting cooler.

We climbed up to the Continental Divide where we saw fabulous views out over the canyon.

Just below this point were the ruins for the old Crags Hotel - a fairly upscale (for the time) mountain resort. This is one of the fireplaces from the lobby of the hotel. Believe it or not, people used to drive up here on the same trail we hiked up. How they avoided all those boulders is beyond me. I had a hard enough time just climbing over them. The hotel was only in operation for 4 years until it burned down in 1912.

I took an online art class where you poured coffee on the paper after drawing your sketch. I figured it would be appropriate to do my drawing at the Fika Coffee Shop, since I spend so much time there. But after I finished my sketch, I came home and mixed up some Folgers instant coffee to pour on my drawing rather than waste any of my $6 mocha.

And, of course, no week would be complete without a bike ride. Our group is getting smaller and smaller, because most people don't want to go out when it's cold. I figure I'll just add on a few more layers - at least until I can't bend my elbows anymore.

Snow

Last week, the mountains were very barren and dry.

This week, they're topped with snow. It's very pretty, but it's not even Daylight Savings yet. I'm not ready for cold weather.

Since it was still unseasonably warm last week, we decided to go on a camping trip to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. We started off with a hike to see all the aspen trees (it's a BIG Colorado-thing). The yellow is very pretty, especially when the sun is shining on the leaves, but I prefer the red leaves on maple trees (which you don't tend to see around here). Charlie loves going on hikes, because he gets to share my peanut butter crackers when we take a break.

We decided to tent camp this time rather than rent a cabin. We haven't camped since last year, so it took us about 2 hours to set up the tent. We kept getting things backwards, plus it's not as easy to crawl around on the ground as it used to be. I noticed that most of the families around us had much taller tents than ours and they went together a lot quicker. I think if we do this again next year, we may have to look into upgrading (that or go back to parks with cabins).

I've been trying to squeeze in several bike rides before it gets too cold. I'm wearing our new club jersey. It's got the Colorado "C" symbol on it with a 150. The "150" represents the 150th anniversary of Colorado statehood; but we like to tell people that we've ridden 150 miles. I doubt they believe us.

On one of my rides, I rode the new section of the Platte River bike trail. It's been under construction since we moved here 5 years ago, so it was nice to see what it really looked like beyond the detour signs. One section had a giant dog statue that looked like it was made out of aluminum foil. I'm not sure what the inspiration was for that, but it was definitely unique.

I went down into the city this week to do some sketching. They tend to decorate for Halloween a lot more that they do in my neighborhood - more like they did when we lived in St Louis. Maybe it's a city thing.

Since it was raining on Wednesday, I went to the neighborhood Craft Club meeting. This month's project was "diamond painting." I wasn't sure what that meant, but we used that pink tool to pick up tiny beads and stick them on a card (the pink tool was sticky on one end). You can see how tiny the beads are in that little green tray. The card was only about 6 inches square, but it held a LOT of beads. It was fun to do once, but I don't think this kind of painting will replace my watercolor.

After the meeting, the Travel Club sponsored a Travel Expo with reps from several different companies. We've sort of given up international traveling, but it was interesting to hear about some of the US programs sponsored by the Road Scholar group (the company we went through when we biked the Katy Trail).

Bruce started taking a Tai Chi class over on the family side clubhouse. He said the instructor is good, but a bit of an entertainer always telling jokes. I thought Tai Chi was supposed to be quiet and meditative, but I don't participate in that sport. 

And speaking of sports, Melissa posted a picture of Lincoln wearing his Broncos football uniform. Except for being the wrong color, he'd fit right in here, because Colorado people are nuts about the Denver Broncos. On the radio today, they were talking about their 4-2 "winning streak." That doesn't necessarily sound that great to me, especially when compared to the Chiefs 4-0 status so far this season. But I don't dare bring up the Chiefs... Denver people hate them. 

Dolly Parton Day - 9/25

When I was in the car today, the radio DJ's said it was Dolly Parton Day and they were getting dressed up to go downtown to a celebration at Governor's Park. I couldn't figure out why it was Dolly Parton Day until they explained it was September 25: Nine to Five. Ha, ha... very clever. Then I found out that the entire country was celebrating. You would think Nashville would be the biggest, but there was an entire parade in the New Orleans French Quarter with Dolly look-alikes. If I had a poofy blonde wig, I'd probably go downtown myself.

Instead, I went on a bike ride with the club. Two days ago, the trail was swimming in mud. We got 1.5 inches of rain, and all those construction sites around here had massive mud slides - most of it dumping onto our brand new trail. Which incidentally we just found out is going to be shut down for a year after only being open a couple months so that the construction crews can use it for their equipment... sheesh.

We've had a drought all summer, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the creeks we rode past. Muddy water was rushing underneath the bridges and up onto the grasslands. We never had to turn around, but we did have to walk our bikes around spots where the trail was flooded about 5 times. My bike was a mess by the time I made it home.

Luckily, Bruce, Charlie, and I went on a hike earlier in the week before the rain started. We went to Castlewood Canyon State Park - one of my favorite spots.

I hiked up to the top of the bluffs but then sat down to paint while Bruce and Charlie continued on the trail. The sky was so blue, you could clearly see Pike's Peak in the distance.

I went to a presentation by the Legendary Ladies at the Senior Center. They are a volunteer group of performers who focus on historical Colorado women. One was portraying the head of the Denver Mint, another was a rich socialite who owned the Hope Diamond, the third was a Signal Corps telephone operator in World War I, and the last was Augusta Tabor whose husband made a fortune in silver but would have lost it all if not for his wife's business sense. She was my favorite character.

Sunday was the Pooch Plunge - the day they close the swimming pool for the season. Charlie was so excited. He really isn't a swimmer, but he loved that there were so many dogs there... and especially their owners. He loves going up to people to get a pat.

They had a bag of treats for all the dogs and a cookie truck outside with both dog and human cookies. 

Speaking of pets, Brian adopted a pair of brother/sister kittens named, Boo and Scout. The white one, Boo, is a male; Scout is his sister. You can tell they didn't have any trouble making themselves right at home. We never had cats when the kids were growing up. Matter of fact, I've never owned a cat, just dogs. I can't believe we raised a cat-lover.

Busy Week

One of the great things about joining the Parker Senior Center is the local bus trips they offer. On Tuesday, I rode the bus to Evergreen, Colorado for lunch at the Creekside Cellars Winery. I'm not really a big wine drinker, but I'm always up for going out to lunch. I ordered the gnocchi, which is usually served in a cheesy white sauce, but this chef was Italian, so we got it with a red tomato sauce garnished with pistachios. The bread was the best part though - a crusty ciabatta... YUM!

I didn't realize that Evergreen is just up the road from Kittredge, one of my favorite places to go for barbecue after a hike. It's an old mountain town literally built into the side of the mountain. When you go into some of the buildings, you can see the rock face that they cut into to build the structure.

After lunch, they gave us an hour to shop in the 6 stores that made up the downtown. I found a quirky coffee shop in the old Evergreen Hotel. I thought my chai latte was much tastier than the 3 swallows of wine I got on my wine flight at lunch.

Two days later, I went with the Senior Center on another bus trip - this time south to Manitou Springs. A long time ago, Native Americans thought the mineral waters in Manitou Springs contained "special healing powers." There are still fountains along the sidewalks where you can fill your water bottle with the naturally carbonated water. But I noticed there were also warning signs next to the fountains saying that the water contained elevated levels of manganese.

I decided to skip the water and found another coffee shop. The Mate Factor Cafe is a favorite of the Wandering Women - YouTube influencers I follow. But it turned out to be a huge disappointment to me. I'm not one of those healthy, organic girls. I think my chai latte was made with matcha tea, which in my opinion tastes like lawnmower grass. And my cranberry muffin was gluten-free, meaning it tasted like cardboard.

After our hour of shopping (these trips seem to be big on shopping and eating), we went to the Miramont Castle for a tour. I'm not really sure why this building is called a castle. It was built in 1895 as a private residence and features 9 different styles of architecture. I will admit that one of the back walls had a notched battlement like you'd see in Medieval castles, but the rest of the structure looked somewhat Victorian, but also like the architect couldn't really make up his mind. I always enjoy touring these old homes, because the furniture reminds me so much of the stuff we had in our Central West End house. We even used to have an old mannequin just like the one on display.

After the tour, we had an afternoon tea rather than lunch. I think I like teas better, because there's such a variety of food. The portions are tiny, but we had 3 different courses of food... delicious, especially the desserts.

Of course, no week would be complete without a bike ride. This time I was the leader on the Platte Trail, because the last time our president took people on this trail he got lost. But before I met the group, I went to a gaming shop called, Enchanted Grounds (which also served lattes). This store is like those that Brian goes to in Seattle. You can buy games or you can play them there. They had a whole display of 2-player games, which I'm tempted to go back for and investigate further.

And to end the week, I took Charlie to the groomer and myself to CVS for a flu shot. Oh, and I also went to the dentist for my annual cleaning, but it's a little hard to take a selfie when you're lying half upside down with the hygienist's hands in your mouth.

Happy Birthday, Courtney

Twenty-five years ago, Courtney graduated from high school. The funny thing is the reunion committee couldn't find her address, but they managed to track us down in Colorado. It's hard to believe it's been that long since she graduated. Courtney spent her birthday weekend going to the beach and participating in Bike the Drive in Chicago - the day they close down Lake Shore Drive to cars and only allow bikes. She rode from her house all the way down to the Field Museum. Even though she frequently bikes to work, it must be really relaxing to be able to bike on a wide road and not worry about getting run over.

Courtney's birthday also happened to fall on Labor Day this year - the last day in September it can possibly be. We, of course, spent a big chunk of the weekend doing yard work and home maintenance projects (mostly cleaning). Even with the drought this summer, several of our perennials grew like crazy. So, Bruce split them and replaced the plants (mostly bushes) that didn't survive the heat. I've been noticing that more and more of my neighbors have been digging up their dead lawns and replacing them with a more drought-tolerant landscape. Even the governor has authorized replacing some of the bluegrass in front of the Governor's Mansion with native plants.

My St Louis friend, Joyce, passed through Denver on her way to Beaver Creek, so we met up at the Lil Coffea Shoppe for a quick catchup. Not quite as tasty as our usual Ted Drewes Cardinal Sin frozen custard, but the conversation was great.

With angst over gender-identity these days, I thought this sign outside the restroom at the coffee shop was kind of quirky, but clever. It's nice to see someone putting more emphasis on hygiene rather than who's using the toilet.

I decided to try some different activities this week. I attended another Artist in Residence workshop at Hudson Gardens. This topic was on collage. The artist provided tons of old magazines for us to cut up and glue back together. I thought I'd be clever and do a mix of old and new with the frontiersman and the space shuttle. That's an astronaut peaking behind the beaver.

I went to the garden early to do a little sketching before the workshop. Since it was a Saturday, there was a bluegrass band playing on the patio of the coffee shop. This is the same coffee shop that my bike club often stops at when we ride the Platte River trail. You can't see it in the photo, but there are about 50 bikers sitting off to the side taking a break from the trail. That's why I never go out bike riding on weekends - the trails are too crowded.

But I did go out riding during the week downtown to REI. I needed to exchange my zip-off hiking pants. While I was there, I also tried on a new pair of photochromic transition goggles. With the sun coming up later, it's too dark to wear traditional sunglasses early in the morning. But the new goggles work great. I don't know how they do it, but they adjust to changing light conditions.

I also had to take Charlie to the vet this week to get his booster shots. He's always excited these days when we go someplace in the car. But when we got inside the vet's office, I think he realized where we were, because he turned right around and headed for the door. He got lots of treats, though, from the girl who gave him his shots. Plus, after it was over I took him next door to Murdoch's for a new toy. This is supposed to be a cow. It looks really strange, because the body is made out of ropes - a toy Charlie normally loves.

I also finished reading my book for this month's challenge. I chose Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I had to read it in high school (which incidentally was 55 years ago based on the invitations I've been getting to my 55th reunion). It used to be one of my favorite books and I still think it is very intriguing, though after seeing how the world has changed the past 55 years, my reasons for like the book are quite different. I've been on the waiting list for the Project Hail Mary book for the past several months, but my turn finally came up. I was going to read it to satisfy the Book Never Read but Saw the Movie category. Well, I didn't like the movie, and the book wasn't any better. In fact, I didn't even finish, so I can't really check that off. It's disappointing, because I think it could be a great story, but Andy Weir is just a bit too wordy for me.