Travel to the US

We had the opportunity to travel to the US to attend a wedding. In late July, our nephew Ian married lovely Amanda at a beautiful setting adjacent to the Boulder Creek in Boulder, Colorado.

We had a chance to spend some quality time with family we don't get to see often enough and also to meet and spend some time with Amanda's family.

It's a "short" trip to get from here to Boulder, Colorado. Much shorter than the trip to get from here to say upstate New York. Approximately 10 hours shorter. We were able to make it from here to Denver in two long flights and then a drive from Denver to Boulder. That only added about 45 minutes. I think it took longer to get the rental car than to drive between the two. Not too bad!

We arrived several days before the event to have a chance to shake off jet-lag and spent some quality time with family and I spent several days looking at the bluer than blue sky!  I did read in a promotional brochure about Colorado that the skies are bluer.

We visited quite a few spots in and around Denver, Boulder and Golden Colorado.

We were able to meet a docent friend at the Denver Botanical Garden which was really nice.  Hi to Deb and her husband Ray for taking the time. We were so glad it worked out. As I write this, a corpse flower is blooming at the DBG. Glad to have missed that. There was a sculpture exhibit in the DBG at the time. Deborah Butterfield's "The Nature of Horses" is a collection of horse sculptures located throughout the DBG which are cast bronze and painted. Look like driftwood, don't they? Fabulous.

In Boulder, we visited the Chatauqua National Historic Landmark site. Chautauqua history in brief: In the late 1890s, a group in Texas wanted a summer school for teachers in a cool climate. The Chautauqua Movement was such a powerful and popular cultural force in the United States at the time,they partnered with a railroad company, packaged the school with a chautauqua. Boulder and the Texas group came together! The site for what originally was called the Texas-Colorado Chautauqua was expressly chosen for its spectacular mountain setting and its health-giving environment. Located at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons and one of only 24 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Colorado, the Colorado Chautauqua is one of only a few remaining chautauquas in the U.S. It is considered THE western representation of the cultural movement that swept the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is the only site west of the Mississippi that has been in continuous operation since its founding and with its original structures intact and used for their original purposes.

 Some more pretty pictures:

We traveled to Golden as well. I say again, bluer than blue skies!

It turns out that Buffalo Bill Days was happening. We arrived too late to watch the parade but by the number of people in town, this is a huge summer event in Golden. I didn't remember this, but Buffalo Bill died and is buried on Lookout Mountain in Golden. Since the 1940s or so there has been an annual celebration.  Near the police station we saw this interesting sign.

While in Golden, we visited a small quilt museum. As someone new to quilting, I was fascinated by the applique work but equally by the decorative and artistic quilting done to create a beauty like this. All of the quilts incorporated animal shapes and other natural elements into the quilting pattern (though some did incorporate quilting such as stippling) after finishing the applique work, etc.  Gorgeous.

Along the road on one of our outings we saw multiple cars parked at the side of the road with lots of people staring off at something in the distance. We simply had to stop to investigate. What were they looking at ? A lady moose!

We did not see any elk, except this sculpture in downtown Boulder.

In the evenings in the summer there are street performers all about in Boulder. We had the chance to see several guys juggle lit torches.

The wedding was held on our last full day in Boulder. The couple was sent off on their honeymoon with a serenade of cow bells! All the best to Ian and Amanda!

The morning after the wedding, we left Colorado to visit more family in New York. We had just a short visit and then it was time to get back on planes and return home. The flight back: 34.5 hrs and days of jet-lag to follow. I haven't figured out the secret yet.