New Snow for Suzie's Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Memorial Day Morning and Suzanne's Birthday!! I woke to new snow on the mountains and clouds drifting through the valley---always my favorite scene!
This was the view of Kendal from my front walk---you can just see the dusting of new snow over the older snow; it was 40 degrees and my little new pansies were glad they were covered last night!

As always, Boulder Mountain had a bit more white. Actually, quite a bit of white! Also take note of the Silverton Brewery truck that now lives next door to me! (You'll have to zoom in...)

So, anyone who is coming to spend the 4th of July, bring one set of warm clothes---long pants, jacket and SOCKS!

Happy Birthday, Suz...I wish you were here to relish the snow and have tea with me by the fire!

A Week On the OBX!!

With high hopes for finding warm weather and beaches, Silverton friends Ruth Ann (my frequent travel companion) and Kim (school superintendent playing hookey from school since she had worked all the way through Spring Break) and I walked merrily onto an early morning airplace and winged our way to Norfolk, Virginia, a short 75 miles from our condominium on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We were delighted to find that our resort had one foot in the Atlantic and the other foot in Currituck Sound with less than a mile of sand between! Our first day was spent enjoying/exploring the Wright Brothers National Monument at Kitty Hawk, NC. Here we are with the monument, situated on top of the hill from which they launched over 1000 glider flights before trying powered flight on the flat sand below. I like the motto engraved at the base of the monument to Orville and Wilbur: "Achieved by Dauntless Resolution and Unconquerable Faith."

The next day we traveled to Roanoke Island. This island was where the first British immigrants settled, organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. Here I am touring a replica of the ships those 1500s adventurers crossed the Atlantic in---very small with very few conveniences. (I would much rather be on the Grande Europa, delivering cars!) In this photo I was trying to get the guide to lapse from his Elizabethan speech but was unsuccessful. He insisted on pronouncing all letters, as they did, including such words as "k-no" for know!

Next we started on the lighthouses for which the OBX (have you figured that acronym
out? Yep---outer banks!) is famous. This snap was taken looking down the spiral stairwell of the Currituck Lighthouse at Ruth Ann, and shows most of the 214 steps to the bottom. These wonderful brick lighthouses, tallest in America, range from 75 to over 200 feet tall. Several are black and white and are painted in different designs so the sailors could tell where they were.

Currituck Lighthouse has not been painted and stands as a solid red landmark on the northern end of the barrier islands called the Outer Banks. The view from the top was spectacular:

Ocracoke Lighthouse is a pristine white and is located near the cove on Ocracoke Island where Blackbeard the Pirate had his home base. (He really did exists!) We took a ferry to get to the island and, amazingly, it was free!

The tallest of them all is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, topping out at 208 feet. Ruth Ann and I climbed it and enjoyed the view of the famous Diamond Shoals from the top. These shoals, which are very dangerous shifting sandbars, have caused the demise of endless ships through the years. We were told the area has the most dangerous quicksand in the world. As an interesting family note, Maggie and Travis saw this lighthouse being moved inland in 1999. The shore was eroding away and there was concern that the lighthouse would topple.

Finally, we saw the Bodie (body)Lighthouse--with another arrangement of black and white paint. This lighthouse, as well as the others, were involved in various kinds of danger and intrigue during the Civil War, which reminded me over and over of just how old they are.

En route home we spent a day in Norfolk and took a harbor tour of the Naval Base there. If you wonder where billions of your tax dollars go, that is the place to go look! We saw this new carrier, worth several billion dollars and longer than three football fields. It carries over 6000 crew and who knows how many airplanes and helicopters; it is huge!

What a delightful trip; I am a lucky lady to have such good friends who love to travel! Kim and I enjoyed seafood; we watched movies and slept late; everyone bought books to read about the area and did a lot of sharing---it really was a vacation!

Should/Could This Be a Budweiser Ad?

Dear Blog-Readers,

This blog entry is actually aimed at Travis and Suzie, as their parental home is in the midst of some changes and I thought they'd be interested. However, the rest of you may enjoy seeing what is going on during "Springtime in the Rockies" in Silverton. Welcome aboard!

The contractor, hereinafter called Rick (I've always loved the word hereinafter!), arrived a few days ago to cut a doorway from Travis' electronics workshop loft into Suzie's room. It required moving a good amount of treasures, starting with lumber milled by Charlie and saved by Travis for a future woodworking project.

Travis, here is your blue-stained pine. It should be wonderfully dry by now after nearly five years in the sunroom!



Next came chisel and drywall saw and the next thing I knew we had a doorway from Suzie's room into the loft! It gave a great silhouette of a neon Bud sign, which gave me the idea for a Bud commercial! (Do you recognize it?)

So, I rushed through the new doorway and looked back into Suzie's room, and what should be the predominate sight? Yep! The Bud sign!!!

Now began the tote and carry routine, as Travis still has a goodly number of containers of interesting things ranging from tools to meters to fuses to rolls of wire to nifty little paper cups printed with playing card symbols. After a considerable amount of carrying and dusting and scrubbing, the view into the loft looked like this. (Note: the workbench is gone!)

The final shot into Suzie's room clinches the Budweiser idea---please also note the shovel and garden tool division under the loft ladder!

Rick will return soon to begin the actual work. I'm already picturing Audrey and Finn chasing each other up the stairs, through Suzie's room and the loft, down the ladder, through the kitchen and then up the stairs again, laughing and shouting all the way. It will be fun!

Coming soon: North Carolina Outer Banks posting.