Enjoying the Sun

It may not be "warm", but it is sunny! We took a chilly and windy stroll on the beach already. Since it was low tide a lot of people were shelling - picking up shells. We found 9 matching shells Mary can give to her students when we get back so that takes care of that gift.

There were also a lot of very large, whole clam shells on the beach as you can see in this picture.

This next picture shows a lot of shells scattered on the beach The large black spots are the large shells.

As long as you are in the sun but out of the wind it's very pleasant. But get in the shade wand wind, and B-r-r-r-r!

Next up is shopping for groceries and seeing the area.

Time to get warm!

We are doing a quick jaunt to what should be a sunny and warm Gulf Coast beach in Florida. But this year "global cooling" is showing its muscle and then temperatures won't be anything close to the low 70's they traditionally are in mid February. But it will still be sunny, a lot warmer there than here, and it will be a nice break from the snow. Walking the beach will still be nice, hearing the waves, and feeling the sand on our feet. Ahhh....

While we are registered for a July British Isles cruise, we are seriously considering a switch to a very appealing Alaska cruise. I'm sure we'll be talking about that and may be making the switch next week once we get back.

Gotta keep those vacation plans coming!

Ah, to be Retired....

I this "last minute deal" email today from Princess. No way we can do it, but if we could, what a deal! Balcony cabin to tour the entire Pacific ocean for under $3,000/person!

WORLD CRUISE SEGMENT - Los Angeles to Sydney
27 DAYS from Los Angeles to Sydney
Itinerary: Los Angeles, Honolulu, Fiji (Suva), Vanuatu (Vila), Noumea, Bay of Islands, Auckland, Picton (for Marlborough Sounds), Sydney

In a few years we'll be able to take advantage of these last minute deals...

Aspen Wildlife Sightings

We saw some interesting wildlife in the past 24 hours. As we left the party last night and walked the 1 block to our motel, we saw some people gathered. When we stopped we saw they were watching a bear sitting on the front lawn of a house just across Main Street! It was too dark to get any pictures (I tried) but you could see the black outline moving around, especially when a car came down the street. Very cool - but a bit unnerving as well. I'm just glad he stayed on the other side of the street.

Mary had wanted to see a bear in Aspen - and now she did!

Today while we headed north on Hwy 82, Mary spotted an elk by the side of the road as we whipped past at 55 mph! I saw it for a moment, then it turned and headed back away from the highway just as we passed it. We must have been about 30 feet from it.

We enjoyed a wonderful dip in the Glenwood Hot Springs today - spend close to 2 hours in the pools. So relaxing. Make us wish we lived closer. Tonight we are in Eagle and flying home tomorrow. Sure has been a great vacation!

Starting Home

Had a nice day yesterday. Went to church at Messiah Lutheran yesterday. It was very nice to sing hymn up tempo for a change! After that we headed to Windstar, an ecological organization started by John Denver and continued by his brother, Ron, for a program and member reception. It was super windy there, but we listened on on JD singer, walked the property, and visited the John Denver statue. (Picture is from last year when the weather was better.)

Next was lunch at Woody Creek Tavern, another JD haunt, before heading back to Aspen for a 3:00 concert.

The evening concert was by singer John Adams and was nice since he sang several songs that I had not already heard a few times this weekend. He has a Dutch accent which was OK on most songs but came out very strong in a few. Made for some interesting listening. After that we went to the after glow party, then back to our room to watch the end of the Rockies game.

Today we have an event called "Goodbye Again" at 10:30, then we head to Glenwood Springs for a dip in the famous hot springs pool. That will be very nice and I'm glad we have time for it this trip. Bring on that 104 degree water!

Tomorrow we stop at Georgetown (where John Denver's The Christmas Gift was filmed) then head for the airport for our flight home.

It's been a nice trip!

JD Sanctuary and Maroon Belles Pictures

I found a compatible USB cable so I was able to upload pictures that way. I took a nice video at the John Denver Sanctuary which shows how it all fits together, but I may have to wait until I get home to upload and prepare that for viewing.

So enjoy the pictures!

As you can see it was a bit cloudy at the Sanctuary, which consists of a spread of large rocks with various John Denver songs inscribed on them.

It was sunny at the Maroon Belles and there was still snow on the trees when we got there which made for some cool photography. Both Mary and I took way too many pictures, but that's how it goes when you are in a photogenic, scenic place like this.

Two more JD concerts today (Saturday) - great music played by very talented musicians!

Aspen, 2009

Yesterday was a pretty long day. After flying to Denver Wednesday night, we drove to Aspen, arriving about noon. Went to the JD Sanctuary, then to a 2:00 concert, grocery shopping, supper, then to the Wheeler for a very cool "doing their own thing" concert - all the "name" musicians playing some of their own music. Last year there was a cool Sunday afternoon concert with Mack Bailey, Chris Nole, and Pete Huntlinger playing their own music - it was a wonderful jazz experience. With that success they organized this event at a larger hall and with more musicians. After the concert we headed to the JD sing-along, people gathering to sing JD songs together. But after waiting for nearly an hour (and 2 cups of tea), nothing had started. Just as we were about to leave, they started so we stayed for a few songs, then bugged out after a very long day, only to find the internet was down at our motel.

Our Wednesday travels had a bit of an adventure. We arrived an hour late at 9:30 Mountain time, 11:30 Eastern, we got to our rental car and found it was a Chrysler M300 convertible. Not a big issue with the ragtop, but there was no trunk space for our luggage due to the convertible mechanism. So we traded back to a nice Chrysler hatchback and got to our motel about 1:00 Detroit time. We got settled then crashed for the night and slept in to 6:30.

We got up this morning to bright sunshine so we headed to the Maroon Belles and had a nice time walking in the snow and enjoying the views. Unfortunately I left my photo card reader at home so I'm not able to post any pictures at this time. But that's how it goes.

Well, time to head to a preview of a newly released set of JD convert DVDs. More to come later!