Busy and Happy Weekend

This weekend, one year ago, our wonderful son married his love.  

 We enjoyed being part of the festivities then and we are lucky enough to be here to share their anniversary joy this weekend.     I didn't take many pictures, we just savored the moments.

Friday night Dave and I took the light rail from Littleton (near Chatfield State Park) into Union Station, downtown,  to meet Jesse and Erin for dinner at Bistro Vendome and the opening concert of the Denver Symphony's season.

The evening was warm enough to sit outside and we were treated to a delightful French bistro meal (including a life changing lentil salad) before walking to the Boettcher Concert Hall a few blocks away.     The entire evening was a gift from Jesse and Erin for the mother's days and birthdays we are rarely able to spend together.   So sweet.....and so appreciated.      We had wonderful seats to hear and see Jon Kimura Parker play Brahms and Strauss.  

 After the concert ended Jesse and Erin walked us to the Theatre District rail station for our ride home.   The evening ended with a bang...quite literally, a bang!    A terrific thunder and lightning cell moved over downtown as we walked, the thunder claps rolling through the canyons of high rise buildings.  It was the most incredible sound, you could almost feel it!   Erin did not share our enthusiasm, however......    The accompanying rain held off until we were safely seated on the train, but poor Jesse and Erin were left to walk back to their car in a torrential downpour (I think they actually called Uber to save them).

The next afternoon, Saturday, the happy couple came down to Chatfield for a cookout and some more of our good Oregon wine finds (and a couple Oregon sweatshirts!)   By the time the steaks were cooked it was quite chilly but we toughed it out and ate until it was dark.

Lewis hangs on Jesse's every word.....

she really did like those potatoes, honest!

Today, Sunday, we had a special champagne brunch together on the porch at the Boulder Chautauqua.   Jesse and Erin stayed at one of the cottages at Chautauqua
last year on their wedding weekend,  Dave and I hosted the wedding eve's Welcome Party there, and many of their friends and family members rented accommodations for the weekend so it is a place near and dear to all our hearts.
The setting is bucolic, the people friendly and the food delicious - it didn't disappoint again this morning.

sigh....

Our tummies full, we walked into Boulder and along the Pearl Street Mall.   We stopped by one of the design projects Erin recently completed.    We've heard about it, but it was wonderful actually seeing how all the little details fit together and how well the space works.    Erin and Dave talked business.

Erin explains

yes, that does look like a runny egg on Dave's shirt....

We picked up a bottle of our favorite Olive Oil and made a few other purchases along the way, including a Christmas purchase and a small amount of ice cream was consumed.

It was a long and lovely day.    We left Jesse and Erin at their house and drove home to spend the evening with our patient poodle.    We sat outside with a glass of wine, discussed our full weekend and watched the stars come out (Lewis watched 4 deer grazing very nearby, he's not really interested in stargazing).

   

This and That Wednesday

Nothing exciting,  just everyday life.   Dinner's with Jesse and Erin (Thai last night), lazy mornings outside, clouds and sun each changing our mountain views, fragrant melon from the small Littleton farmer's market, clean laundry, a little woodworking, poodle grooming, and  occasionally small model planes buzzing overhead   And so it goes.

Mr. David's Traveling Woodshop

P-51 RC model plane

maintaining this beautiful face is exhausting for a guy

Roxborough State Park

After another relaxing morning (is there any other kind?) we thought we'd check out Roxborough State Park.  This 3000 + acre park was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1980.   The published description sounded intriguing and there are a few more modest hikes that we'd like to take later this week.

On our way we drove through beautiful, rolling yellow hills, past large equestrian facilities, cattle grazing range and quite a bit of earth moving in preparation for what we assumed would be another housing development.

Aurora Rampart Reservoir

Since we have a Colorado State Park Pass on the jeep we were able to just drive into the park without stopping.   The road leading to the Visitor's Center is quite short and there are no other roads in this park.   Signs urged us to enjoy the beauty, to immerse ourselves in the pristine landscape and to help preserve it for future generations.

The huge, red spine of the 300 million year old Fountain Formation fills your eyes.  

Their color and shapes contrasting with the verdant green scrub oaks fairly shout at you as you wander the trails.

As I stood framing the shot above, I heard the very loud, and very unmistakable  warning of a rattlesnake in the undergrowth nearby.    I moved.

His comment, however, made me remember to look around me and notice the little things while I was being wowed by the big views.

most extremely cool seed of the Mountain Mahogany bush

We'll be back again.

Potching in the Platte

As I said before, we've not been doing anything really exciting but enjoying our time here nonetheless.  

downtown Denver silhouette above the Chatfield Dam

On Friday we spent the day with our sweet patient Lewis.   He's always so willing to just take his cookie and hop on the bed, content to snooze away the hours while we're off exploring or visiting, so its important to make sure he has some fun in between.     Fun for Lewis most often involves a ball.  

Chatfield State Park covers a huge amount of real estate.  Most people bike the miles of paved trails, picnic under the trees or swim/boat/paddle/fish in the large reservoir, but there are a few quiet places where you can enjoy the Platte River.

a bit of bushwhacking required to get to the water

Some access points are harder than others, but the result of that is most people don't bother and you can have it all to yourself.    Right up our alley!     We made very sure there was no poison ivy along the "path" we chose.

"sit-stay" while Dave checks out the beach ahead

OK!

what's more fun than a potch in the cool water on a hot afternoon

chase the ball into the water,
chase the ball into the dirt,
makes no difference to Lew

sometimes the ball becomes the color of the beach.....
can you find it?

can he?

a wet dog is a happy dog

a tired dog is a good dog

We tired Lewis out properly and he didn't even even raise his head when we left Beluga later to have dinner at Jesse and Erin's house.    We shared some of the wonderful empanada's we had purchased earlier in the week.    None of us can pass up an opportunity to gorge ourselves on Rincon Argentino's little pies!
No pictures....to busy, nom nom nom.

Saturday we had a relaxing morning, baked a peach pie (the fabulous Palisades peaches are in season right now) and met Jesse and Erin at a sweet little restaurant in downtown Littleton, JaJa Bistro.     Later they came back to Beluga for pie.

Mr. David, my current sous chef, does a fine job of peeling and slicing the peaches

BCA

second cup clouds

Boring Couple Alert!      We haven't been doing anything of consequence.    Jesse is in the middle of a painful back "episode" so he's been working from home, standing up at his computer, ear buds connecting him to long distance meetings from his kitchen.  

the man's Palomino reminds me of my own mare, Chamois, years ago

We're about half an hour's drive from Jesse and Erin's house, most of it on fairly busy streets but in the beginning we get to drive through the wide open spaces of this park.   People are riding bikes or hiking along the paths, boating in the lake or riding horses through the high grassy meadows.


Yesterday Dave cut their small lawn (the first time he was behind a mower since the summer of 2014) while I washed our sheets in the huge new washer there.   I took no pictures.

Today Dave and I drove up to Boulder on a few errands.   We had a lovely lunch at Brasserie Ten Ten, one of our favorite restaurants, checked out the Boulder Elk's Lodge for future overnight sites, did a bit of window shopping on the Pearl Street Mall and picked up a dozen Empanadas from Rincon Argentina for future consumption.   Mmmmmm

Tonight's pre-sunset was very odd, it looked like the clouds were being colored brown by a forest fire somewhere.

Up to date

So, I told you we're here in the Denver area, at Chatfield State Park.  We had to move sites right after Labor Day and we're now settled in site #74 with a partial view of the Reservoir and open mountain vistas to the west.

the view from #74

Sunday evening we had dinner with Jesse and Erin at a sweet local restaurant very near their new house.    We walked down the street and ate outside.    It was so nice to see them both, its been too long.

Yesterday afternoon,  Labor Day, they invited us to their home for a cook out and we got a chance to just relax, visit and enjoy.

We took a couple of our wine tasting purchases to enjoy before and during the meal.

They've found a great little house where they each have their own creative spaces.

After I show you our side trip to the Fantasy Canyon we'll officially be caught up and current.

On our last day in Vernal we didn't want to take a long car odyssey, we wanted to see something relatively close by because we had some housekeeping details to take care of before we broke camp and moved on.

Fantasy Canyon sounded like just the ticket for a morning's entertainment.  We drove about 20 miles south on route 45, across the Green River and turned onto Glen Bench, a flat gravel road.

Once on the gravel road we twisted and turned and crossed through a labyrinth of dead end side roads and washes servicing the surrounding gas and oil fields.   The only other vehicles we saw were the white work pick ups trucks and tankers occasionally passing by in a cloud of dust.

one gas well looks pretty much like another

It was an 18 mile drive through no where.   If it weren't for the small wooden BLM signs placed here and there we would have been hopelessly lost.....all gas wells look remarkably the same after a few miles.

We finally reached a leveled, rock edged parking area.   We were completely alone.

There was a small placard and a warped picnic table the same color as the surrounding dirt.

The scenery we had been driving through was monotonous, unremarkable, tan and gray, flat and bumpy, dusty, rutted and barren.    What we found when we got out of the jeep was anything but.....

We wandered about the small canyon, up and over the formations.

 Some towered over our heads, and some lounged at our feet.

One area made Dave feel like he was wandering through Henry Moore's prototype studio.....

Some of the formations made us laugh and think of childhood fairy tale
characters.

Fantasy Canyon was a side trip well worth taking.

In case your eyes were tired of seeing only gray pictures, here is a bit of tonight's color over the mountains.