In Colorado, they say that Mothers' Day represents the first day of spring. It's about the first time you can "almost" guarantee that it's finally stopped snowing. Bruce went to Lowes on Mothers' Day weekend, and he said the place was PACKED with people buying garden plants. Luckily, most of the flowers in our garden survived the winter. Matter of fact, all that snow seems to have made all my perennials multiply to twice their size... at least the ones the deer didn't eat.
For Mothers' Day, we got carryout from a new restaurant called, Waldo's Chicken. OMG, was that ever good. I got the chicken tenders, onion rings, and collard greens. I'd have to say that the onion rings were as good as the ones from HiBoys, and I've never found anything that can compare.
I can't believe that it's already the middle of May, but that's because I took a week off to go to Chicago and St Louis. Courtney and I participated in International Urban Sketcher Week. Clubs all over the world got together to sketch and then posted their pictures online. We met some of her friends at Millenium Park downtown near the lakefront.
It was a bit chilly sketching outdoors with the wind coming off the water. But we managed to find a bench in the sun. Since it was a Saturday, there were a lot of vendors doing giveaways. The comic bookstore across the street had a line around the block with people waiting to get a free comic book. We got free protein bars and a chance to spin the prize wheel from the Barebells food truck (we both won keychains and a sticker on our spin).
Courtney had to go to her pottery class in the afternoon, so I took a walk down Michigan Ave. I forgot how unbelievably crowded that street can be. I stepped inside the new Harry Potter store to see what it was like. There was a huge line of people waiting to place their orders for butter beer. I'm not sure what butter beer is, but I figured it wasn't worth waiting an hour to find out.
I passed a cluster of Mexican statues, probably on display for Cinco de Mayo. I would have stopped to sketch them, but there was no place to sit.
So, then I took the train out to Oak Park. They'd also had a sketch meetup earlier in the day. And since the sun was starting to warm things up, I thought I'd do a sketch of the Frank Lloyd Wright studio. When I was walking over to the studio, I saw a big group of older bikers all dressed up in costumes. I'm not quite sure what they were representing, but they looked like they were having a good time.
On Monday, I flew to St Louis to meet up with my Nerinx friends. Since I had an early flight, we went out for a late breakfast and then played Splendor until it was late enough to head over to Ted Drewes for our annual Cardinal Sin. I think this visit was somewhat prophetic given that just a few days later they promoted the Cardinal from Chicago to Pope.
I spent a little time wandering around the Delmar Loop, since I was staying at the Moonrise Hotel. The Loop has certainly changed in the 4 years we've been gone. The buildings that used to house our old bank have been torn down and apartments are being built in their place. They certainly have a ready pool of renters with Washington University just a couple blocks away.
St Louis is way ahead of Denver in the greening-up department. They've had a ton of rain this spring, so everything is very lush. I wonder what all that foliage will look like in July when the rain dries up and the temperatures soar. But for now, the whole town was very colorful with spring flowers.
I went over to the Chrisman Studio to do some sketching. He's turned his whole side yard into a quirky sculpture garden with castoffs he's found at old antique shops. He also makes a lot of his own sculptures from scrap metal and used car parts. I could probably spend a month sketching here.
But I had to get back to Denver, because I had a few field trips lined up. The first was a tour of a cannabis cultivation facility with the Parker Senior Center (interesting place for a bunch of seniors to go). I'm probably the last person who would ever tour a marijuana factory, but it really was quite interesting. The first part of the tour focused on the agriculture of growing the cannabis plants and how they used every single trick of biology and photosynthesis to get the plants to yield the biggest harvest possible. Then they discussed the extraction process to make edibles (gummies) and CBD oils.
I didn't quite understand everything they were saying, because they talked so fast. But our tour guides were certainly happy people.
That evening, I went to a happy hour for members of the Parker Arts Center. It was being held in a very upscale jewelry store, so the hors d'oeuvre spread was really top-notch. The jewelry was nice, but way too pricey for me. I don't tend to wear much jewelry and if I do buy something new, I usually get it off Amazon. The next day I went to a fashion show at the clubhouse with these same ladies. The lady next to me was one of the models.
My final activity of the month was the annual Club Fair. I worked the Bike Club table for a while and then went over to the Ladies Out to Lunch table. I don't run the membership of that club anymore, but the lady who does was handing out mimosas. I guess that's a sure-fire way to get people to join your club.
