Leaving Aspen

Today was a leisurely day with our only activity to drive from Aspen to Denver. It was a beautiful, clear day so we went across Independence Pass.  The scenery was fabulous as you can see from Mary's pictures.  There was still quite a bit of color on the Eastern side of the pass and, while they had little or no snow, seeing the mountains one more time was inspiring.  

So you get one more set of mountain photos.  What a great feeling to experience being in the Rockies!

We stopped for lunch at our favorite place in Georgetown, The Happy Cooker.  I was disappointed they no longer offer quiche on their menu, but we found good options to eat.  We walked around town while waiting for our table.  The food was excellent and we were only 45 minutes from our Denver hotel so we could enjoy a leisurely lunch.

Tomorrow afternoon we fly back home.  It's been a very good trip, especially since it is been 2 years since we were in these mountains.  I did not know how much I missed that feeling until we drove through them last Wednesday

Aspen Day 4

 

Today is a grey day with scattered showers. In the morning we walked around the Aspen Farm Market and enjoyed seeing the town.  Lots of fruits and vegetables for sale along with many other market type items.

After lunch, we headed to a wedding! We met Ron Matthews when he first came to Aspen around 2014.  In 2017, a big JD fan had her tickets all purchased, but then died suddenly, so her daughter came to Aspen-in-October in her place.  She liked it and came back the next year and one of the guitar players caught her eye.  Well things developed over the next few years and today they were married in Aspen!  Since we were one of the first people Ron Matthews met and we know him fairly well, we were privileged to be invited, although we were told to keep it a secret.  It was a Hawaii-themed wedding followed by a champagne and cake and reception.

This evening we went to the Chris Collins and Boulder Canyon Band concert. They took a different format than usual, and counted down the top 22 John Denver hits.  It was a very enjoyable concert.   The band has some excellent musicians who got to show their skills in a couple of songs.  On both sides of us were a pair of first time attenders, and it was pretty cool to hear how they were experiencing Aspen in October.  

Tomorrow we pack up and head to Denver with a possible stop at Goergetown for lunch.

Aspen Day 3

We visited The Grottos this morning and took the short trail to the cascades.  This is something we like to do each visit to Aspen.  We were amazed to only see one car in the small parking lot when we arrived, but when we left, there were 6 cars and a lot of hikers. All appeared to be taking the long trail back to the Grottos and the top of the Cascades.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch with singer Mack Bailey.  Great conversation about his charity, Music Therapy Retreats, along with what's going on in his life and his family. 

The afternoon event was a concert by Ellen Stapenhorst.  She is a folk singer in the traditional mold, singing a wide variety of self written songs about various topics.  A couple of her songs had political overtones with most addressing various events in her life. She is quite a breath of fresh air with her concert being a mix of story telling and singing songs.  Quite the free spirit.

The highlight of the evening was the Mack Bailey and Chris Nole concert!!  As expected, it was magical and you could tell the guys were having a great time on stage.  

Mack sang most of the songs, but Chris Nole sang 3 songs.    The crowd was very lively and sang along with nearly all of the songs.  A couple of times Mack stepped away from the microphone and just let the crowd sing. 

At the end, Mack's wife Rachel and their son Hyden joined Mack on stage for the encore.  

Aspen Day 2

It was a beautiful morning so we walked to the JD Sanctuary. The east end of it was near our hotel so we entered that way rather than the traditional entrance.  It was interesting to see it from that direction.  The river was very pretty and had good flow.  We enjoyed seeing it with no one else around.  It was such a pretty day that we lingered for a while before heading on for our morning errands. 

Enjoy these pictures (click to enlarge). 

The bottom two are of the original area of the JD Sanctuary.  

After lunch we headed back to Snowmass Chapel for the Singer/Songwriter event.  This is the one event where you were not to hear any John Denver songs. The four artists did very good.  Ed Stowers sang a few parodies of John Denver songs which got a good response from the audience.  His first song was a parody of "Follow Me" but aimed at Facebook users (think about friend requests...).  It was very humorous!

The evening concert was by Ron Matthews with Paul Swanton.  It was a typical very good 2 1/2 hour concert filled with lots of John Denver songs, including many lesser known from his earlier years. 

He played a number of medleys which he assembled along a theme.  

Overall it was a good day.  Tomorrow is an Ellen Stapenhorst concert in the afternoon followed by the Mack and Chris concert in the evening!

Aspen - Day 1

Today we headed through Glenwood Canyon, and stopped in Glenwood Springs for lunch and shopping before heading to Aspen and our AirBnB condo.  We had a beautiful, clear day as you can see from these pictures in the Canyon.

The canyon never ceases to amaze me.  We stopped at two of the rest areas in the canyon to walk around and take in the scenery. 

The bottom right picture was yet another scene of colorful aspens that we could not resist taking.

Our afternoon event was the traditional Meet and Greet which is now held at Snowmass Chapel. The event was moderated by Laurie Stowers, with five guitar players leading the singing of three songs:  Back Home Again, Farewell Andromeda,  and Rocky Mountain High.  

Tomorrow we plan to visit the JD Sanctuary before our two scheduled concerts.

Visiting Colorado

Today we flew to Denver, then drove west to Eagle.  It was great to be back in the mountains. We were both amazed at the amount of color this year - we do not recall seeing this much or this intense amount of colorful golden aspen trees on other autumn trips.  What a beautiful drive and let me assure you that these pictures do not do it justice. 

Many hillsides had small blotches of color as you can see in the bottom left picture.

The bottom right show a more wide angle view of a colorful hillside.

Tomorrow we will head out through Glenwood Canyon and on to Glenwood Springs for lunch and grocery shopping before heading to our Aspen condo.

JD Tribute Concert

This concert was as good as expected, and in some ways even better!  It opened with an entirely new orchestral arrangement which is the Late Winter to Early Spring from the Season Suite. It was all instrumental and was accompanied by some new video which set the tone for the entire concert.  Most of the songs had a video of John singing, with four sung by Mack Bailey. 

The set list included some new songs not performed in prior Tribute concerts like "Druthers'" and "Feather Bed".  The final encore was Rocky Mountain High which, being n Colorado, was very well received.

After the concert we talked to Mack's wife Rachel for a while then headed out to the Meet and Greet to chat with Mack and Chris Nole.  

Mary spotted John's son, Zak, in the crowd so we chatted with him for a bit. 

All in all, a great evening!  Heading home tomorrow with a few weeks before our next trip. 

Rocky Mountain National Park

How nice it is to be back in the mountains!!  Our day started with a beautiful drive through the foothills to Estes Park.  We could even see the foothills as we headed out as you can see in the picture on the left.  US-36 is a very nice 2 lane road with wonderful scenery.

As we entered Rocky Mountain National Park, what came on the radio but Rocky Mountain High!  How appropriate!!   It's been way too long.  We drove as far as the Alpine Visitor Center, then drove back to Denver to get ready for tonight's concert.  Along the way we took quite a few pictures.   Here are four of them. 

Top Left is looking toward the park from Estes Park.

Top right shows snow on the mountains.

The bottom two show some of the high range.

As we were driving out of the park, we were surprised to see a fox just off the road! Since you can only stop at turnouts, by the time I stopped and walked back to the spot, he was heading down the hill.  But by then he was far down the hill. If you click on picture on the right, look for the white spot in the center.   The only other wildlife we saw were a few chipmunks. 8-)

After visiting the park we had a nice outdoor lunch in Estes Park.  That was until we had an unexpected visitor jump up on our table! No need for zoom on this picture since he was only 18" away!!  

I'm doing a separate post for tonight's concert.   More to come!!

Quick Travel Turnaround

Mary and I are in Longmont, Co tonight.  Yes, it's rue that we just got home last Friday, and today we flew to Denver to attend a Mack Bailey and Chirs Nole  performing John Denver Rocky mountain celebration concert tomorrow evening.  No pictures today (I would have posted on of the Rockies, but the haze was too thick to take a picture), just a travel day consisting of a flight and drive to our hotel.

We plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow before heading to Denver for the concert. Lots of pictures tomorrow!!

Last Sea Day

We are well on our way to New York City and going about 19 mph. The sea was pretty calm this morning, but at noon it was "glassy smooth" as you can see in the picture on the right.  The only time I recall experiencing seas this smooth was in the Baltic Sea where there are no ocean swells.  By 4pm we are seeing some small swells, but the ship is riding very smooth with no noticeable motion.

We completed our initial packing this afternoon.  That task was completed after dinner when we added our dressy clothes to the suitcases before setting them out.  We have Princess transfers to the airport and a mid-afternoon flight, so we will not be rushed in the morning.  We just need to get to the ship's departure lounge by 9:00 am.  

Dinner tonight was fabulous!  Shrimp cooked in a garlic-butter sauce, followed by prime rib, with baked Alaska for dessert!  The prime rib portion was huge and we both forgot about taking a picture.  Oh well. What a nice send off dinner.  Much better than the landfall turkey dinner we've had so many times in the past.  

We are scheduled to arrive at 7am tomorrow morning.  Suitcases are packed and put in the hallway where we will next see them on shore. It's been a very interesting 10 day cruise, with 5 of those days in port!  But we got to see Bermuda, enjoyed great service on the ship and smooth sailing.  What more could we ask for?  

Bye, Bye Bermuda

Today was originally scheduled to be our only full day in Bermuda so nearly everyone had excursions booked.  Ours was a boat ride to Hamilton with a walking tour and time for shopping. The picture on the top right is the famous Bermuda Clock tower on their Parliament building. 

We also visited a beautiful  Anglican cathedral (bottom left)  and enjoyed a Rum Twizzler (the national drink of Bermuda) on the ride back to our ship.

In general it was a pleasant ride to town and a pretty good walking tour, but it was hot and we had already done our shopping yesterday, but we looked and did buy a couple more gifts and souvenirs. 

After we got back to the ship we enjoyed a pizza lunch. 

Sail Away was scheduled for 4pm with All Aboard at 3:30.  From our balcony we watched late comers heading for the gangway. An excursion bus rolled in at 3:25 so those passengers made it on OK. However at 3:35, they announced that two passengers on one cabin were not on board!   So we watched - and waited - and watched some more.  But they never did show up!  Shortly after 4pm, the ship cast off lines and headed for New York.   I feel sorry for the couple that missed the boat, but the ship did all they could to accommodate them.  

This evening's dinner was Surf and Turf.  YUM!  Steak and Lobster, and both were excellent.  As s special dessert, the restaurant manager made Cherries Jubilee for the passengers in Reserved Dining.  

What a nice way to end the day.  

Tomorrow is a sea day as we said at near full speed (21 mph) for New York City.