Thursday, April 19, 2019 FIRST FULL DAY IN COLORADO.................YIPPEE!!!!!!!

Christa and I took Riley and Oliver for a walk.  There was a beautiful view of the Flatirons.  When we returned, Nik was preparing breakfast: toast, eggs and bacon.  While eating, we decided to go to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. I suggested to Christa that we take snack foods and drinks but she decided to pack sandwiches.  We finally started out around noon.

We enjoyed the Visitors Center as well as the wildlife drive.  We saw muledeer,

bison

and prairie dogs.

Then we drove to a nearby park and had lunch.

Then we headed to Roggen, a ghost town in Weld County that I saw on ghosttowns.com      It is really a semi ghost town.  We went inside an abandoned motel

and saw this abandoned gas station.

Christa seemed to be having a particularly good time and wanted to go to more ghost towns.  We looked at our info and decided that the others in Weld County were too far away and it was pretty late in the afternoon, so we decided to head back to Westminster.   

I took a nap and then watched DESIGNATED SURVIVOR.  Christa prepared a delicious dinner of chicken with peppers and onions, corn on the cob and garlic bread.      We made reservations to take a tour of the Stanley Hotel tomorrow!!!!

Day One: Trip to Colorado: April 18, 2018

OK..............today is the day.  Christa and I have been in contact making plans for what to do and where to go while I am with her and Nic.  I suspect she is somewhat stressed out, and I don't understand why.

Anyways, I started the day pretty much already packed up. I went to Carrie's program to have lunch with her.  It went well!   Then back home, I completed packing and tried to take a nap, but of course I couldn't..............I was just too excited.

Mary Ann called me a few minutes after three and asked if I might be ready at 3:20 instead of 3:30 and I said I thought so.  She arrived and helped me get my stuff into her car.

  Once at the airport, I  got through the initial processes pretty quickly BECAUSE I had pre-registered online before getting there.  I even was able to get into a security check line that was shorter and faster.  This meant that I had plenty of time at my terminal to wait.  I took out my book and settled in.

   After a while they announced that they hoped two people would voluntarily give up their seats because they overbooked.  They kept offering more money!   I think one person did volunteer but in the end they called Passenger Humphrey up and I think she lost her seat.

It seemed that we boarded a bit late.   My seat was great, I guess I chose it when I booked my flight. Second row in, with lots of leg room. I did not know that Frontier does not pass out drinks and snacks....and it was a four to five hour flight.  At least I did not have to use the teensy bathroom!

The Denver airport is kind of big and I finally got to baggage claim, there were still some folks from my flight waiting for their suitcases.  Turns out I was on the wrong level, but I called Christa and she figured that out and I took an elevator down to the fourth level where they were waiting.  

I was SO tired!!!!!   

Once back at their new house (which is gorgeous), they showed me around and I got settled in.   It was a long day and I was glad it was over.  I am so happy to be here with Christa and Nik!!!!!

IMAGINE COMMUNITY GARDENS Volunteer Orientation April 14, 2018

Pam and I went to the Volunteer Orientation this morning at THE WELL in Getzville.  The meeting was boring but I am glad we went, since most of the people who are involved in this outreach did not come.  Here are a few pictures.

Friday April 13, 2018

I joined Carolann Hill, Peggy and Pastor Craig at church this morning, where we got coffee, tea, etc and cookies ready to take over to the school next door for the teachers.

This is an outreach they do a few times a year and Peggy asked me to help.

I forgot to take my camera, but it probably would have been hard to take pictures anyways since I had a huge flat box of cookies (from Carson's) in my hands most of the time.  The teachers all seemed to enjoy this.  It was fun to see an inside of an elementary school with kids artwork all over.

After that I went over to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Hiroko.  I took a cigar box full of items that I think my grandmother (Bob's mother) saved when she was young.  It is some letters and several postcards.  I think I found the box in a closet when I was a teen and that my parents said I could have it.  I left it here at this house when I moved away to go to school, and then I found it again after my mother died in  1979.  It moved with me to Oneonta and then back here!  I got it out a couple of weeks ago and posted a scan of a graduation program from a Catholic school here in Lockport.  After I posted the scan, Uncle Bob called and asked to see the box of items.  I left it with him today so he can spend time going through it.  I had a nice visit with them.

I had planned to go to the rummage sale (Grandma's Attic) at Covenant Church in Gasport, but I decided against it.

I went over to Faith Tab for a CONNECT Team Meeting with Peggy, Dee and Elaine.  The team is a new thing, the four of us will be sharing responsibility rather than Peggy doing all the work for the seniors group.  I think we generated a lot of good ideas.

I met Peggy and her friend Bev at Kalamata's Restaurant

so we could celebrate Bev's birthday.  I had the BBQ ribs.  We had a nice time.

Meet TEDDY ROOSEVELT at the Lockport Library

I spent the morning with Mary Ann at Roswell and then we went to lunch at OUTBACK STEAK HOUSE.   We both had the six ounce sirloin, which came with two sides.  

This event was held at the Lockport Library tonight.  I asked my friend Pam to join me there. 

Mark Carra is the name of the man who does the impersonation. 

The first half hour, he spoke about his (Teddy Roosevelt)'s life and the second half he spoke about nature and animals showing pieces from his extensive collection.  Its apparent that he and the real Teddy Roosevelt were both interested in this.

One of the men who attended this event brought this picture of Teddy Roosevelt in:  

FRIDAY April 7th, 2018: Return to New York

We did not rush this morning, and I had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel.  I prepared myself a huge waffle, and ate about half of it.    I think we left around 9:40 a.m.

We stopped for lunch in Medina, Ohio at a Bob Evans...................we all enjoyed it.  I had the chicken pot pie and a side of carrots.  We all shared the two huge biscuits that came with my meal.   We had a laugh about how the three young female servers did not know what a buckeye is. After all, OHIO IS THE BUCKEYE STATE and they haven't been out of school long.    I purchased two bags of candy before leaving.

The weather seemed to deteriorate after we got to New York.  By the time we got to Niagara County it was snowing lightly, but the snow was not sticking.  It was still light out, so Marsha was not concerned about driving home.  Cindi got her car out of the driveway and we loaded her stuff into her trunk.  She called me less than fifteen minutes later to let me know she arrived home safely.

I had my leftover spaghetti from LaRosa's for supper!  It was SO good to be home!!!  It was a wonderful trip, and we have a lot of great memories.

THURSDAY APRIL 8, at the ARK ENCOUNTER !!!

After breakfast at the COMFORT INN, we headed south towards THE ARK ENCOUNTER, it was about a 45 minute drive.

We parked and then walked to the ticket center,

where we turned in our tickets and were given wrist bands.  We were taken by shuttle bus

to an area closer to the ark and we walked the rest of the way.

It was VERY chilly and windy ans we were glad to get inside. There were NO lines, probably because of our early arrival.

There are three floors to the ark.  My entire set of pictures can be seen here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157695398100205   and here are a few of my favorites.

 this one is from one of the short movies.

We had a late lunch at EMZARA'S BUFFET which is just outside of the rear exit of the ark.  

The senior price was very reasonable.  It was very noisy and crowded, but the buffet offered just about everything!  Then we went into the gift shop.  This was my favorite part (I do not enjoy gift shops much).  

Then we headed back to Lawrenceville, Indiana,  to our lodging at the COMFORT INN.  We rested up for a couple of hours until it was time to go out to supper.  We decided to go to WHISKY'S FAMILY RESTAURANT

(it was recommended to Marsha and I by Gary Beers, who we met yesterday at his shop.  We all enjoyed this restaurant.  I had a teriyaki steak salad, which was huge and very good.

Back at the hotel, we played a game of SCRABBLE, which Cindi won.  I went back to the room early while the other three continued playing games.  I read for a while and got a good nights sleep.