Home: There and Back Again

I was about to set off on another overseas adventure, but my temp job ended a little earlier than expected, so I decided to take a few days to go visit my parents in the southwest corner of the state. It was good to spend some time there (and spend some time sorting through my things, which have been in storage since October 2014, when I sold my condo and began this adventure). It's a beautiful place.

My parents are not city people. They like being out in the middle of nowhere, where this is as crowded as is gets.

I went out with Dad one night to keep him company as he moved irrigation pods on the pasture.

They'd recently undertaken a project to change the old irrigation ditch to pipe, resulting in a more efficient use of water. This raised area used to be a channel.

The sky was quite impressive.

That's the corner of Mesa Verde, where there are cliff dwellings, some of the oldest remaining settlements in North America. Farther in the distance is Ship Rock, in New Mexico.

I grew up riding (my Mom was a trainer), and it was nice to be back on a horse for a little while.

Alpenglow on the La Platas.

It was late April, but no one had told the mountains that. On the way down from Denver I'd taken the more southerly route for safety's sake, but on the way back the roads had cleared enough that I could confidently take one of the more scenic northern routes. These pictures are from Lizard Head Pass.

The next set of pictures are from just outside of Telluride.

It was a good trip!

Denver Snapshots

The Denver sky put on quite a show for me as a welcome home.

I went almost immediately into rehearsals for the Denver Center Theatre Company's New Play Summit. (Out of character manicure courtesy of my Aunt.) It was great to be back.

I was reading stage directions for Tira Palmquist's play Two Degrees, which went on to be picked up for a full production the following year. It was great to be in the room with the writer, actors, director, and dramaturg as they brought this show to life.

A slightly different Smaug than the one at the Wellington airport, but I still chucked him under the chin for good luck. This one guards the Education floor in the Tramway building, my home away from home whenever I'm in Denver.

This is Denver these days, still a mix of old and new, but construction is everywhere.

I went to visit the art museum on my birthday (it was closed).

So instead I went to the Colorado History Museum.

I especially like this display, the time machine. You could move it to different places on a map of Colorado, then the screen would play short videos about events from different years that happened in that area. It was cool, and definitely appealed to the Doctor Who nerd in me.

Being back in Denver meant being back in proximity to my stage combat teacher. Last year's Rumble in the Rockies (an annual weekend stage combat intensive) was Three Musketeers inspired. I am an absolute sucker for any and all adaptations of this story.

There was a freak spring snow storm that dumped a ridiculous amount of snow in a very short period of time toward the end of April. I barely made it home, and essentially parked by ramming my car in the direction of a snow bank.

My housemates and I bonded by building a giant snow dragon, who guarded his treasure chest.

And I made this tiny snowman.

Of course the next day was bright and warm, and as you can see above my snowman was suffering on the mailbox I'd placed him on the night before. Never fear, he was happily rehomed.

Went to a hockey game with friends. I'm not usually a sports person, but I do enjoy watching hockey live.

We were able to celebrate my Grandfather's 98th birthday as a family. He passed earlier this year, just short of his 99th. Quite a life.

My Uncle's father designed this sundial, which resides in a park not far from their house.

It was nice to be back in view of the mountains for a little while!

...but soon, I was off on more adventures!

Flight to Winter

Soon I was winging my way back to Colorado, for the first snow I'd seen in fifteen months. The flight back was quite impressive.

This is another photo heavy post, lots of landscape under the cut.

Downtown Denver!

And the airport!

DIA, where landing on ice is apparently no big deal.

So here I was, home again.