Denver

We have returned to Anna Lee’s home town to spend more family time with cousins Jo and Rich It seems in the decades since she left that it has grown into one continuous city from Colorado Springs in the south through Denver to Ft. Collins in the north. Rich commented that the Denver blog from a couple of years ago discussed the tremendous traffic of the city. Well, its only gotten worse as we found during our visit. But what is lovely is Cherry Creek State Park, another in-town park with full camping along a reservoir. We saw a large stag, a doe and a coyote, all near our camp site and really enjoyed seeing the Rockies and the Denver skyline across the lake.

Anna Lee recalls camping in the area as a Camp Fire Girl, long before it was developed. This will be our home base on future trips. We started our time together with cousins Jo and Rich by talking and talking over a Chinese dinner. We seemed to pair eating with talking during the whole visit. The next day, it was wonderful Jewish-style delicatessen at the New York Times Deli.

Then Jo and Rich took us to the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in an old hanger on the former Lowry AFB. After the introductory movie on the beauty of flying over the Rockies narrated by Harrison Ford, we studied the exhibit on astronauts with Colorado connections ranging from Scott Carpenter, a Coloradan, to some lesser knowns who spent a bit of time here. The hanger is filled with planes like this F86 Sabre Jet from the Korean war,

an X-wing fighter from StarWars,

a Phantom jet fighter,

Alan Shepard’s VW bug (an alternate to his ‘Vette),

and a B1 Bomber.

The large exploration area for children had this device simulating wheel travel on the moon or on other planets.

In side rooms were exhibits with tributes to President Eisenhower, artists who painted the nose of planes, clothing for severe climates, model airplanes and more.

Jo, Rich and Anna Lee pose under the tailgun of a B52 bomber.

The horrific traffic almost made us late for the Rocky Mountain Brassworks concert in Lakewood. The venue is small but lovely. The performance included the music we think a patriotic concert should present, music to make one proud and a bit emotional. They ended with the Armed Forces Salute and An American Trilogy. It was a good tribute for Veterans’ Day. Then we spent a day on a drive through the beautiful mountains on the way to Georgetown, an old mining town now tourist destination. At lunch we all shared bites of Jo’s cinnamon roll.

It was good to be back “home” even if the only thing recognizable is the family we had such fun with.