Happy Anniversary!

Hard to believe Bruce and I have been married for 46 years. We decided to spend the day together hiking up Spruce Mountain with the hiking club. I was a little leery about the 5.5 mile hike, as I haven't been very active over the past winter. My neighborhood Starbucks is only 2 miles away.

But I made it to the top of the mountain (not really all that much of a climb, especially when the trailhead parking lot is only 350 ft below the peak). The top is called "Windy Point," but while the wind was chilly, it wasn't really blowing that hard.

Bruce loves hikes like this, because he likes to get right out on the edge of cliffs to take photos. He wasn't the only daredevil this time though. The leader wanted to take a group photo right next to the edge. Luckily, she had a wide-angle lens, because some of us stayed back by the trail. I was afraid all the extra weight of 21 people standing on the lip of that rock might break it off.

This week I decided to teach myself how to use the RTD light rail. I've been wanting to go downtown, but it's a nightmare to drive through Denver (one of the bad things about living in the suburbs). So I downloaded the app to buy tickets, drove to the closest park & ride, and hopped on the train. It was quite a long ride, but I got to see a lot of places I haven't yet seen since we moved to Denver, like Century Link football field where the Denver Broncos play. Their practice field is in my neighborhood, and I've driven by that a million times; but this is where they officially play their season games.

Another reason I wanted to go downtown was to check out the Amtrak station. Amtrak's California Zephyr is the only train running through Denver, but it goes all the way to San Francisco on the west to Chicago on the east. Some day I might consider taking it to Chicago, but that's a 2-day trip across Nebraska. I'll probably stick with Southwest Air for the time being.

Around noon, I decided to stop for lunch. There were plenty of restaurants downtown, but most people seemed to be sitting at the outdoor tables. I thought it was awfully windy for that, so I got some sushi from the food court at Whole Foods and ate in their 2nd floor mezzanine. I had a great view of Union Station, so whipped out my paints for a quick sketch.

While I was walking around downtown, I finally saw the first sign of spring in Denver - a blooming redbud tree. I've also noticed that there are a lot of Bradford pear trees starting to bloom. They must be easy to grow in Denver. My neighborhood still looks pretty barren, but most of the landscaping was just put in within the last couple years. The trees and bushes may not be mature enough to bloom yet.

In sad news, Teresa's long-time boyfriend, Brad, died this week. His poor little heart just gave out. Teresa met Brad a long, long time ago when she was working at Payless Lumber. Brad and his son are the only people I've known who thought driving across western Kansas was "interesting" (they were both truck drivers). Brad always used to come with us when the whole family went out to dinner, but I haven't been to a family dinner since before COVID. But I guess the nice thing is that my final memory of Brad was watching him walk out of Rancho Grande holding hands with my sister, Teresa. He will be missed.