AHB List

Heading up McCaslin Road in Superior towards Hwy 36 and Boulder, Rita notices a small helicopter at 1 o'clock. I suggest that it is probably the helicopter from Rocky Mountain Metro (formerly Jefferson County) Airport used for pilot lessons.

Rita: That's what I want to do! And land one on a glacier in Alaska (flashbacks of her recent adventure).

Rex: You and Andrew can take helicopter classes after I'm gone. You'll be able to add it to an after-his-bucket list. 


So, we begin thinking of other things that could go on the list. 


Further down the road, Margaritaville comes on the radio.


Rita: That's where I want to go: Key West.

Rex: Add it to the AHB list.


Rita: No, I can't wait that long.

Midnight Sun Express

Clickity-clack (in the daylight)...

Clickity for audio/video

(Part of Beth and Rita's incredible Alaska adventure.)

English Pub on Sloan's Lake

It's a delight to stumble upon something both unique and tasty: Such as GB's Fish and Chips in Edgewater, metro Denver, just across from Sloan's Lake. (There's a second location on Broadway.)

Besides several English beers on tap (plus a few domestics), GB's serves up a variety of fish, with cod at the top of the menu, along with traditional chips. There's even pretend newspaper lining the baskets in which the fish and chips are served. Shepherd's pie, plus bangers (no mash, though), helps complete the pub's UK offerings, although the view out onto the lake is pure Denver.

An acquaintance of Rita's, an English native, testifies to the authenticity of the fare. He and his wife have visited GB's four times since Rita first mentioned it to them.

One has the impression that English football (soccer to us Yanks) is important to the proprietors, with photos of games and even a Pele jersey hanging on the walls.

One warning: the two restrooms in back are off a dark hallway, and a close look at the artwork on each door is necessary before picking the room of the appropriate gender.

Summer Time

Summers are always interesting and challenging times when we have young children to entertain. As they get older, though, it's always nice when they can come up with things they like to do.

Today when I got this picture from Beth, I fell in love with it! She calls it "Summer in the Blair House."

Bergen Park Elk

Waltzing right through Bergen Park, CO's business district...

The folks in the red car needed reassurance; 

yes, I told them, these are elk. (Photo by Rita.)

The wapiti move into more residential territory.

What can one do at a Mexican restaurant?

Ask Abbi...

On the Casa Blanca patio, Arvada.

(The chips were immersed in the water glass,

after a polite hug of each one.)

A Humoresque Sense?

For the Winter Park condo, the decorator had a curious sense. While most of the pictures are simple, abstract themes with hints of mountains and winter, the print in the master bath is ever-so-slightly implicative:

The young Victorianette reclines on the pier with exposed petti's while holding on to her critical parasol. 

Her would-be beau is, no doubt, relating the results of the latest boat race on the lake. 

(Reflections from the window opposite required a photo from an oblique angle.)

What might mom and dad make of this hidden picture in their private domain?

In the off-hallway bath a print of similar vintage provides a potential source of humor for the teenage children as they while away their winter get-a-way:

Witness the consequences of illicit spirits.

(Reflections from the lights above the sink required the "from-above" angle of the photo.)

Hmmm.

Update:
More thoughts: Is this the designer's retro-prediction of the couple in bath 1 picture some decades down the road?  Problem with this speculation: compare the color of pic 1 with the sepia overtone of pic 2.

Should anyone, anywhere come across this blog and post, feel free to provide your own interpretation. But keep it clean!

ATVing in Sunshine, Alaska

Beth just posted this on youtube today and thought you might enjoy a little glimpse of the fun we had on our Alaska adventure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOADu-Iev5I

Another Eagle Nest

What is it about Rocky Mountain eagles? Here's another who prefers a nest on a power pole:

Lake Granby Eagle Nest.

Compare with a cousin's nest in Silverthorne.

Grand Lake Experience

Rented a pontoon book from Grand Lake Marina on Grand Lake, Colorado.

The boat and the temporary captain.

Captain takes the helm.

Note the wake...

Happy passenger Rita, focused captain.

Rita takes the helm. Uh, oh.

Captain Matt. Watch out!

Tony and Andy (Kelly's brothers) - passengers and entertainers.

Rita, Kelly, Matt.

Andy at the helm, Tony, Kelly.

We're not the only vessel on the lake.

Kelly takes control. Forward is forward, reverse is backwards.

Blue Bloat houses under a dock house. Very cool.

Star Wars on Grand Lake. Beebudulbeeedoopdoop.

R and R, lake and mountain.

Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria?

Papa hiding...

Yesterday I (Grandpa Rex) served Mass at our local parish. In the chapel (family room separated from the main worship space) were Grandma Rita, Mary and Abbi (age 2 1/4), Andrew, Sarah, and Mackayla (age 13 mo), and Matt and Kelly.

As part of the rubrics (instructions) for the Mass, during the Eucharistic Prayer, the deacon kneels at the Epiclesis (invocation of the Holy Spirit), and remains kneeling until after the priest-celebrant (Fr. Joseph in this case) elevates the chalice and genuflects. Both priest and deacon then rise at the same time.

After Mass I'm told some of what was going on in the family room. First, Abbi pointed at the distant altar and said, "I see Papa." Then, later in the Mass, Abbi is a bit disturbed. "Where did Papa go? Papa hiding." Fortunately, in a few minutes, "There's papa!"

Abbi, Deacon Grandpa, Mackayla

It's great being a deacon-grandpa.

Skyride & Fox

Morning in Winter Park:

 Skyride to the Village

Village

Lunch at the Back Bowl - Recommended!

Skyride back to the car (in the rain).

Rita, standing on air (so was the photographer).

Waterlogged fox.

10,000 yr old artifacts from Yellowstone

While Rita was trying on clothes at Coldwater Creek in Silverthorne I picked up the Summit Daily newspaper and saw an AP article about artifacts in Yellowstone. I didn't want to take the store's copy and forgot to pick up another. But, since it was an AP article, isn't that what search engines are for?


A Bing search for 10,000 yr old artifacts yellowstone park produced this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38005209/ns/technology_and_science-science/.

BOULDER, Colo. — Researchers say they've found a 10,000-year-old hunting weapon that had been preserved in melting ice near Yellowstone National Park. ... [Research associate Craig] Lee says increased global temperatures are causing glaciers and ice fields to melt, releasing artifacts as well as plant material and animal carcasses.

Craig Lee and artifact.

Of course, as others have pointed out before, if global warming is exposing evidence of previous human activity in such locations as Yellowstone, doesn't this imply that those locales are no warmer today than then? What mechanism was responsible for a warmer climate 10,000 yrs ago? We need to explain not only now but then; fortunately, such mysteries can keep earth and climate scientists off the street. 

(The web version of the Summit Daily AP article, without photo, is here: 

From Another Time

Christmas 1985:

Grandma Louise with Andrew, Brian (hiding), and Paul, Kymberly, Michelle, Mary, and Beth.

Brian, Andrew, Beth, Kymberly, Uncle Barry, and Paul.

Twitteranalysis

A recent Princess Expedition & Cruise to Alaska by daughter Beth and Rita produced a lot of TwitterTraffic, as one analyst has learned. I thought it might be interesting to go beyond Twitter into the larger Internet to see how much activity Twitter posts by Beth and her compatriots generated on other websites (some of which, admittedly, are operated by the Tweeters). What I did was search for either a single term or a simple combination of two terms and how many results Google produced. Here are the results (of course many are duplicates from one search to the next):

"#FollowMeAtSea": About 17,100 results

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@PrincessCruises": About 6,900 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@earthXplorer": About 1,930 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@CruiseBuzz": About 1,730 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@BethBlair": About 1,600 results

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@theplanetd": About 1,480 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@OrlandoChris": About 1,520 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@Gadling": About 1,120 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@traveldudes": About 906 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@RickGriffin": About 761 results 

"#FollowMeAtSea" AND "@Travelogged": About 501 results 

This is a lot of Internet activity for an 11-day adventure.


One could try this experiment on other search engines as well to see what results they might give.