5/1/09 Happy May Day! Usually it is a warm Spring day for May 1 but today has been cold (42 degrees) and overcast here in Colorado. Darn - we had to pick the year with no Spring to head north....
We had a lovely 4 days in Denver, visiting my twin sister and her family, with a quick day trip to Boulder to visit friends too. Finding a place to park the rig might have been a challenge, but Sam's Club in Denver right on Broadway, allowed us to park there the entire time. Because it had a big parking lot, with businesses all around it on the busy streets, we were in the middle and away from the noisy traffic. My sister lives with her partner, Debbie, and their 12 year old son, Joseph, not too far away, so we were able to have lots of time with her, and many delicious meals. It is nice that she is retired now, so we could have more time together on this visit. Here are a few pictures from our stay there:
Debbie, Marsha & Joseph, with their cat, Caleb:

Mary & Marsha On a Walk at Washington Park

Elaine, Debbie, Marsha & Joe On Their Deck

On Wednesday we drove to Boulder to spend the afternoon and evening with Tom & Kimbra Eldridge. Tom and I were on the Santa Clara Swim Club together as kids, went to the same high school, and ended up teaching together for years at Cupertino High. Now that Kimbra has retired from being the harbormaster in Santa Cruz, CA, they have bought a home in Boulder because they are avid skiers. We had a delightful time with them, seeing their new home and exploring Boulder, a place we had never been before. It is a lovely college town with a great pedestrian mall area called Pearl Street. We went down there for a stroll and also some Happy Hour specials on appetizers and drinks.
Elaine, Kimbra & Tom with some tulips at the pedestrian mall in Boulder:

Mary, Elaine & red tulips:

Unusual yellow tulips with pointed petals in the pedestrian area:

Today we left Denver and started heading slowly towards Illinois. It was drizzling and cold when we left and it stayed cold all day. When we got to Sterling, CO we decided to stop to see some of the wood carvings by a local artist, Bradford Rhea, which have made this town a real tourist attraction. He carved figures in local dead trees, and as they started to deteriorate, the some of the carvings were cast in bronze. They are scattered all over the town, so we got a tour of the place as we tracked down the carvings. My pictures weren't very good because the day was so dark, but we got a few good pictures of some of the carvings that were inside places like the library.
Seraphim, in the library:

Windlace, in the library:

Mary with a bronze clown sculpture in a local park:

There is also a fairly good museum here called The Overland Trail Museum. It records the greatest migration of people our country ever experienced, because the Overland Trail was the road that led to the goldfields in California in 1859. There are lots of interesting artifacts in the main buildings but the real gems are the 14 outbuildings. There is a blacksmith shop, an 1891 one room schoolhouse, a print shop, a general store and soda fountain, a 1915 stone block house, a barber shop, a 1910 barn, a restored railroad caboose and train depot, and many more. In many ways it was kind of a trip down memory lane, since we were familiar with some of the artifacts, such as the old wood burning kitchen stove, which my aunt used to use on the farm; the old wringer washing machine; and the general store had lots of products in it which we had seen as kids. Remember Dad's root beer, horehound candy drops, the old Coca Cola chest ice boxes, etc? There were also some great quilts, but the one I liked had distinct stitching around all the patches. Here is a picture:

I'm sure we would have spent more time poking around here but it was too cold! Hopefully, tomorrow will be warmer, as we proceed on our journey.