santa fe

25 May was Memorial Day in America, a public holiday, so for Paul's first day off of work, we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico with Dad, who was nice enough to fly us down and back. Mom was planning to come but came down with a wicked cold the day before departure and decided to stay home. The Spanish were the first European settlers to Santa Fe, and their influence is obvious in the architecture. There are building codes that force the adobe structure on most new buildings. Native American pottery and blankets seem to be the key ingredients for decorating and everyone wears turquoise. It's a happening art scene (the healthiest in the US), but on a scale way beyond our budget. We enjoyed the main plaza and surrounding streets with art and souvenirs to sell, but we also went further afield to Kasha Katuwe, a small National Monument about 40 miles from the city.


the cathedral just off the main plaza


a colorful shop near the plaza


iconic dried chilis hanging on a porch


art for sale


one of the many art galleries


the kasha katuwe walk begins with a roomy canyon


that quickly narrows


and narrows


ending with a steep climb and views of the 'tent rocks'


beautiful geology

Before flying home on the last day of the long weekend, we drove the Turquoise Trail south to the small village of Cerrillos, called a 'photographers heaven' by our guide book. It was a bit of a disappointment.


main street cerrillos


a restored cerrillos home

buddha and hockey

Sunday morning, we took a drive up the Poudre Canyon to see The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, a Buddhist temple near Red Feather Lakes. It was a pretty, hour drive to Echo Glen and then a short drive on a dirt road to the Buddhist Mountain Center. Paul’s been to Nepal, so this is not a new thing to him, but it was my first visit to a Buddhist temple. I learned that it’s actually a stupa, a place for the remains of a great teacher. This one houses a man who helped spread Tibetan Buddhism in North America.



The temple is a tall and colorful structure in a pretty valley. It’s a peaceful spot for meditation. While inside, (surprisingly small) a man told us that Timothy could have a small red marble that was among others in a spot cut into the marble floor. We don’t know what it signifies but will save it for him as a memento. If we gave it to him now, he’d swallow it, and I don’t believe that was the man’s intention.



One of the Buddhists practices is to write prayers on a strip of cloth and hang it so that the wind blows it. Every time the material is moved by the wind, the prayer is sent. The first time that Paul told me this I thought it was a rather lazy and passive way to pray.



In the early evening, Bob and Sue, who live next door and treat Timothy like a second grandson, called and offered us two tickets to the local hockey game. They have season tickets but didn’t feel like going out last night. Mom and Dad offered to babysit, and Paul and I went to our first live ice hockey game: the Colorado Eagles vs the Mississippi Riverkings.




It was loud and action packed. We didn’t see a big fight, but there was plenty of slamming against the glass to make it exciting.

The puck is much easier to follow live than on TV. The Eagles won, but only in the last period. The area is a testament to capitalism with advertisements on every flat surface. The big screen TV’s (two of them plus the four on the scoreboard hanging from the ceiling in the center) blasted commercials with every break. Almost all of the players for both teams had beards. I wonder if this is hockey fashion.

horsetooth

After three days of no sunshine, snow and then rain, yesterday dawned clear and warm. The snow was gone from Fort Collins on the day it fell, but the foothills were still blanketed. We wanted to take advantage of the lack of wind, so we took a short walk in Horsetooth Park.



long's peak from horsetooth park


timothy's first time in the carrier that jennifer gave us


pelicans finding some thermal lift above the house

mt rushmore

I can say with shame that I finally visited a place that is in my own backyard yet known to many around the world: Mt. Rushmore.



How can I claim something in South Dakota as my own backyard? When your father has an airplane, your backyard becomes a much larger place. It took us 1 and 1/2 hours to fly up there and a little longer to get home.

tim and i on the wing

We saw both the presidential monument and the unfinished monument to Crazy Horse.

crazy horse

a smaller version of the project

We even had time to stop in at an all wooden church (no nails) built by Norwegian immigrants, but it was closed for the season. It was apparent from the multi-level parking garages and long sidewalks in front of the ticket booths that this place gets very busy in the summer. For us, it was almost a ghost town, and we enjoyed the space and unobstructed views of the monuments and the lovely Black Hills.



I knew that moving back to the US with Paul would mean finally getting to see my own country, and as with so many other things, he's making this dream come true.

breckenridge

Terry and Marilyn Brandt invited us to join them and their children, Sam and Haley, at their condo in Breckenridge last weekend, and we were packing our bags before we even finished reading the invitation. For me, it was an afternoon of skiing that made me wonder why I ever left Colorado.





We all enjoyed sledding. It snowed a little Saturday night and was warm enough on Sunday to melt the icy patches but not turn the slopes to mush.

a view of our condo complex from the top of the sledding hill

sammy off-piste sledding

sammy involved in an abrupt stop

me enjoying a gentler slope

tim dressed appropriately

paul and tim taking a break

Terry is an excellent skier and knows Breck intimately; he took Paul out for a day of intense skiing that exhausted both of them on Saturday.

paul taking a turn on a green slope

breckenridge from the top of peak 8

sammy snowboarding

terry heading down a black slope

paul enjoying the view from on high

denver

Paul and I decided to exchange the provincial life in Fort Collins for a day in Denver last Saturday. It was nice to be back among the skyscrapers and crowds. I even heard people speaking languages other than English. We started at Union Station, the original Denver train station that still functions even though we don't really have a rail service in the US, then walked up 16th Street to the capitol building.

union station

downtown denver

the state capitol building

There's a large park in front of the capitol that is very pretty and full of vagrants. We watched as two policeman ran after one man and wrestled him to the ground. Ah, the big city.

one of the more appealing residents of the capitol park

frontier statue

REI has a flagship store near the downtown and we stopped there onthe way home. They have a play area inside for kids made to look like a small mountain complete with a cave and climbing wall. Tim thoroughly enjoyed himself while Paul found just what he wanted. We didn't take the camera in the shop, sorry.

employed times two

In what I've come to think of as typical Attridge fashion, Paul got not just one, but two jobs yesterday. He's only going to keep one. Last Tuesday, he had his first interview in the US with a man named Andy who has a project with an 1 April deadline. The job would have been a work-from-home, 2-3 month contract, and high pressure. On Thursday, another company, Riv Works, called and asked for an interview on Friday, Paul's second US interview.

While Paul was in the interview, Andy called and left a voice mail message offering Paul a job. Paul got the message when he left the interview with Riv Works; they wanted him to come back for a second interview that afternoon. He did some quick thinking and went back to Riv Works and told them that he had a job offer elsewhere and didn't want to waste their time with a second interview. You've guessed it. They offered him a job. It comes with a benefits package and permanence, so he took it. It also looks like he'll be working on some very interesting, cutting edge stuff. When you start to see interactive video auctions on eBay, you'll see some of his work. He starts Monday, so the 7.5 month holiday is over. We had enough in our budget for another two months, so now we're feeling quite comfortable as long as we continue to live with my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad. We'll have to fight the impulse shopping urges. The office is, on a nice day and if he's in the mood, walking distance from where we're staying now, and he gets to dress casually.

We've been using some of our free time to look at real estate in the area. In a few months, we'll get to put that work to use. That means it's time for ya'll to start making plans for a visit. We will have guest room and we are child and pet friendly. Hmmmm...I think I'll do some furniture shopping on-line.