Our little side trip to Colorado also allowed David to have a couple of important business meetings (which I got to skip), so on Saturday, we headed down to Denver. First, though, we stopped in to our once and future neighborhood to say hello to our friends and motorcycle buddies, the Psykos. (More about them and our Harley adventures here and here and here.) Everyone was very welcoming, which is a plus, since we’ve already committed to moving back to the neighborhood!

If you’ve been following our adventures in France, you know how much we like interesting old architecture, so you won’t be surprised that our favorite place to stay in Denver is the Brown Palace Hotel, where the Christmas lights were still up (woohoo) . . .

. . . and there were shimmering chandeliers everywhere . . .

. . . and you know how much I love chandeliers.

This hotel seemed especially appropriate for us this year, since there are a number of French things gracing the walls, especially in the Palace Arms restaurant . . .

. . . including  dueling pistols said to have belonged to Napoleon . . .

. . . (presumably Bonaparte, although when I tried to confirm that, no one I talked to seemed aware that there were two highly significant Napoleons in French history. Sorry about that, mes amis français!

I managed to talk David into having afternoon tea in the lobby on Sunday, although before the time for our reservation arrived, he had figured out it was definitely a “chick thing.” Over the course of a couple of days, we saw three or four men and probably 70 or 80 women taking tea in the atrium lobby. Still. It was beautiful and tasty, and he survived. I appreciate that he didn’t make me sit there by myself!

It certainly wasn’t all flowers and wine, with technological glitches and human error making Monday live up (or should I say down?) to its reputation. And David is currently suffering from whatever bug is going around. But I imagine you’d rather see and hear about the good parts, so I’ll spare you those details. It does bring to mind a favorite quote:

The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun and some ecstasy. . . . Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home. ∼ C.S. Lewis — The Problem of Pain

Wishing you many pleasant inns on your way home!

We snuck into Fort Collins a couple days ago for a surprise appearance at a friend’s retirement celebration, and it was a truly special evening. Great to be back in our once and future hometown, even though we only had time to see a few of our friends. We arrived late Thursday, and Friday was spent skulking around, trying to avoid running into anyone we knew, so as not to spoil the surprise before the evening event. If we missed you this trip, I promise we are looking forward to seeing you in the spring.

The weather was a bit cold and gray at times, but the lights downtown were glowing and festive:

Christmas decorations were still up at Moot House, and the fire was blazing, providing plenty of cozy cheer.

←Then off to the celebration of our good friend Tom Glossi’s thirty-one years in ministry. So much fun to surprise him–and everyone else, really, since we had told NO ONE we would be there. It was a bit of a preview homecoming, since we won’t be back for good until April. The evening featured another surprise guest, longtime friend of Tom and Lexi and one of my favorite troubadours, Michael Kelly Blanchard. ↓

Michael’s songs have a way of soothing the soul like a healing balm, something we certainly need as the headlines continue to be filled with hatred and violence. With Tom in mind and his characteristic quiet compassion, Michael ended with his song, “The Holy Land of the Broken Heart.” His deep, resonant voice washed over us in a truly holy, transcendent moment. Here’s a bit of it for you:

Oh the eyes of humankind, show the pain that numbs the mind,     Search the sorrow for a sign of mercy in the maze. . . .   

Jesus, Lord of all I am, hold me with your wounded hands,                                Keep me in the holy land of the broken heart.

Amen. Peace be with you.

Woohoo! Long-stay visas were granted, and we leave in less than a month, but we’re STILL packing, including the beautiful book you see above, so I decided it was time for a little more reminiscing of past adventures.

Shortly before heading off to France last spring, I decided to replace my point and shoot with a decent camera. I had been addicted to photography in my pre-mom days, but when our girls were growing up, I discovered it was impossible to simultaneously host the birthday party, carry the cake out to the waiting hordes, and artistically document it all with a completely manual SLR camera, with everything that involved: light meter, f-stop, depth-of-field, focus, separate flash attachment, interchangeable lenses, etc. Yikes. Not enough arms or time.

But now that they’re grown, it’s time. So I found a great deal on an entry-level DSLR, and after playing with it (and fire) a bit at home,

I decided to try it out on a weekend road trip down to visit family in Albuquerque in March of 2013.

Lots of super photogenic sights, like the beautiful chiles above, but after David’s patience had been pushed to the limit, we decided to look for a place for some guacamole and maybe a couple of margaritas. Not sure how we got the nerve to go into this place — It’s called the High Noon Saloon and it’s pretty sketchy looking on the outside, but look what we found inside:

And — bonus — the food was great. Now it’s our favorite Albuquerque spot.

Turns out you can also go wine-tasting in Albuquerque, as there are quite a number of vineyards, but we only went to the Casa Rondeña Winery. It was so beautiful, we just sort of hung around the grounds (and took a few photos, of course).

The next day, on the way back to Colorado, we stopped in Santa Fe for a look around, and happened into this place.

This is the Loretto Chapel, and the story goes that there was no way up to the choir loft and all the carpenters consulted concluded that there was only room for a ladder.  The Sisters of the Chapel made a Novena to St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, and on the ninth and final day of prayer, a man showed up with a donkey and tools, looking for work. Months later, the beautiful staircase complete, the man disappeared without pay and without a trace. Aside from the mystery of the carpenter,  some of the design considerations perplex experts to this day, enough that it was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.*

May your journey lead you also to beauty, story, mystery, and of course, fabulous food and wine.

*Adapted from the Loretto Chapel website.

Portable as we are, a spur of the moment invitation to join some friends in Mexico was immediately accepted, of course. (Did I mention we have excellent friends?) We’ve just returned from six days in a condo on the beach in Akumal, Mexico. Since air travel in coach tends to be a bit of an endurance test these days, David decided to pay a bit extra to give us more leg room. However, since our seats turned out to be bulkhead seats, all my flight comfort gear had to be comfy all by itself up in the overhead compartment. Fortunately, that was the extent of our troubles for the week, so no complaints here.

I never tired of trying to capture the changing light, absolutely breathtaking.

Another view from the balcony. Here’s one of the palapas under which we’d park ourselves whenever we weren’t snorkeling, walking on the beach, or having a drink in the bar (or running up the three flights of stairs to the condo for one reason or another).

Slightly different view in the other direction.

Here is one of our “neighbors” across the street from the condo.

They were a bit shy, but a few times a day, generally around cocktail hour, ten to fifteen of these guys would congregate to see what the trash bins had to offer.

Another view was something we heard before it was something we saw, and we were puzzled. We kept hearing an odd rhythmic sound, several times a day, and finally decided it must be the spin cycle from housekeeping doing the laundry. Then we happened to venture down to La Buena Vida, a beach bar just down the way, and discovered this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all an excellent WARM January mini-vacation. Many thanks to our generous, extremely hospitable friends!