Aspen, Day 2

Sorry, no pictures.  At our motel, we have a very intermittent wireless signal so uploading picture is problematic.  

This morning we headed out to the Maroon Bells.  Unfortunately there was a snow storm in progress on the mountains when we got there.  After a while it cleared and we got some pictures and we took a walk around the lake, which at this altitude caused slight shortness of breath.  And we did experience our first snow of the winter as we walked around.

After hanging out there for a while, waiting for the sun to come out we headed our for lunch at the Woody Creek Tavern, a place where John Denver liked to hang out.  Since it was JD weekend, they were playing his music, much to the chagrin of the staff and regulars.  We had a nice lunch, then headed back to Aspen.  As we got close to Aspen I thought I spotted some sun on the Maroon Bells so we headed back out there again, but it didn't last.  We hope to try again on Monday as we head out for Denver.

The afternoon concert could best be described as "interesting".  Little/no JD music and lots of folk music.  One guys claim to fame was a song he wrote in 1965.  

Tonight's concert was fabulous!  It started at 7:30 and ended at 11:15 with only one short intermission.  Lots of different artists and many, many songs --  a very enjoyable event even for a casual JD fan like me.

So we're at the Mountain Chalet sing-along now.  This even happens every night -- people gather, musicians play, and people sing along.  Last night we stayed until 11:30 and we heard it didn't break up until 1:30 am!  So who knows how long it will last tonight.  I brought a cup with Diet Dr Pepper to held tide me over....

So that's Day 2 - two more concerts tomorrow.

Arriving at Aspen

We made it and are in Aspen.  Our flight was uneventful, taking off on time and arriving on time.  Our goal was to arrive at Aspen by 4:00 which we almost made, arriving at the park for the opening service at 4:02, due to many delays.  

We sure noticed was in increase in carry on luggage now that Northwest charges for all bags. As expected, we had a full plane - no empty seats.  

Once we got to the airport, it took forever to get our bags.   Mary eventually got her suitcase, but then the conveyor belt got jammed so they had to wait for a maintenance guy to un-jam it.  Having landed at 10:15, we finally headed to the car rental bus at 11:15 just to see one pull away.  We got on the next bus which was packed and we ended up at the end of the line.  After waiting a while I notice a Blue Key members line and went over there.  Sure enough since I joined their club, our car was ready and waiting for us!  That only cost of 15 minutes...

We were expecting the drive to Aspen to take about 3 1/2 hours since it was 11:45, I figured we had a little time to spare.  So instead of fast food, we had a nice burger at a local place - probably cost us another 10 minutes.  As I get on the road I see the mileage to Glenwood Springs are start computing - Looks like a 3:35 ETA at Aspen.  Then we hit lane closures.  I lost count, but the big one was about 30 miles long and we ended up doing 30 - 35 mph behind a long line of cars lead by a large heavy truck.  So now I'm getting worried and counting up all the  minutes I'd wasted.

We made it to Glenwood Spring at 3:25 and had 40 miles to go to Aspen.  The road to Aspen has lot so traffic signals and speed limits in the 45 - 55 mph range - not looking good.  But I found a couple of other cars zipping along and followed them and we made it to the park at 3:59!  But by the time we parked and walked over, they had just started the service.

So all's well, that ends well.  Mary saw several of her JD friends and we got some good pictures (which we have not uploaded yet) including one of her with Jim Connors who wrote "Grandmother's Feather Bed" (She was thrilled!)

That's it for now!

Weekend Conference

This weekend finds Mary and me in Lansing, Michigan at the annual Michigan Church Extension conference.  We're at a very nice Sheraton hotel - same one as last year - and the conference is going well.  Today we had an excellent keynote speaker talking about Discipleship followed by some breakout sessions.

Tonight is a banquet, followed by awards.  The morning brings some additional reports and a worship service capped by a very nice brunch.

Then it's back to Dearborn for a short week since we head for Aspen on Thursday!

A Good Reason to Cruise Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs. 

Gotta Love it!

The Bridge walk

We had a very good time on the Mackinaw Bridge walk today.  Everything went about as planned except it took me much longer than expected to return from St Ignace with the car.  The walk itself was not hard at all.  By the end my legs were getting a bit tired since I'm not used to 10K walks, but you barely felt the climb and the downhill.  We were both amazed at the number of people who did this walk.  When I headed back to get the car, there were people on the bus who were just starting the walk at 11:20!

Once we got headed south we had lunch in Spike's Keg O' Nails  since that was where Mary's dad like to eat when in Grayling fishing the Au Sable river.  Then came the looong ride home, with lots of traffic and several slowdowns for no apparent reason. We finally got home at 6:00 p.m. after getting up at 5:10 am.  After unpacking, we got a pizza for supper started getting ready for tomorrow.

So that's how our day went.  Very enjoyable, but also very long and tiring.

Sunday in Northern Michigan

We had a very nice today today.  After a quick breakfast at Burger King we headed to Hartwick Pines for a walk in the woods.  There was a nice paced trail through the forest, but I had a big disappointment.  One thing I recalled from my earlier visit (waaaay too many years ago to admit) was a very big pine tree with a fence around it.  Well, it turns out that tree lost it's top 35' due to a 1992 lightening strike and died in 1996.  So The Monarch is no more.  8-(

After leaving Hartwick Pines we then headed to Cross Village for lunch at a Polish restaurant called Legs Inn.  There was no traffic at all as we approached Cross Village, but when we got there, the place was packed with motorcycles and bicycles!  I'm not sure why the motorcycles were there, but the bicycles we due to the annual DALMAC bike rally. The place was packed but since we arrived at 1:30 most of the crowd was leaving so we only had a 25 minute wait for a table.  We enjoyed a polish beer while sitting on a swing and overlooking Lake Michigan from a high cliff.  Lunch was great!  Mary had perogies while I had kielbasa and sauerkraut.

So we were finally on our way to Sault Ste Marie, arriving at 4:30.  After some relaxing time, we headed downtown for a whitefish dinner.  As we arrived we saw a large ship entering the Poe lock so we went out to watch it. After that we checked the schedule and saw another ship was arriving soon so we waited and got this great picture which I've titled "Walking the Boat".  Like someone with that tiny line is going to have any affect on a ship of that size!  After watching the ships pass through the lock we had a great dinner, got an ice cream chaser next door and walked around the downtown area.  

So we had a great, relaxing day, are all settled in for the night, and are looking forward to tomorrow's Bridge Walk.

Peter's Birthday

We're on our way north for the Bridge walk.

Yesterday we drove to Seibewing for our great nephew's 1st birthday party.  Peter did a good job of opening his gifts  - there were lots of them - and then enjoying his 1st birthday cake.  The cake was a miniature Pooh - as you can envision from the remains in the picture.  

They had lots of snacks and held an outdoor barbeque with nice salads for supper.  

We exited about 7:00 and headed for West Branch where we were surprised to find a very nice motel!  It has an interior pool/play area and we had an interior balcony room overlooking it.   

Our plans for today are to visit Hartwick Pines as we wander north to Sault Ste Marie. Should be a nice day!