Monday – 20 June 2011
And so, back to the grind.

The weekend was good. The trip to Denver was successful; then again, it’s kind of hard to screw up “Go to a wedding reception and hang out with family.” We left at o’dark-thirty on Friday morning and got back last night. I slept for the first three hours of the outbound leg of the trip. That’s fine, as I woke up in Rock Springs, WY… which was the farthest west I’d been on I-80. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We found our hotel and a place to eat, Johnny’s Asian Bistro, and visited with the family for a bit before heading back to the hotel to call it a day. A very long day.

Saturday, we got up, had a bite to eat and then went gallivanting. Our first stop was the Denver Botanic Gardens. It was a very nice walking garden, with many varied sections in the middle of the city. We walked around. I took pictures. It was good. Next, we headed to the Five Points part of town to check out their Juneteenth festivities. We also ate at the Welton Street Cafe. That’s right: Soul food in the city. And it was VERY tasty and satisfying. Next… well… we were going to visit the Black American West Museum, but it closed earlier than we realized. We then went to tried to get to Caboose Hobbies, a train shop whose ads I’ve seen in various magazines. After a lot of detouring – thanks to construction and roads being closed for events downtown – we made it. It was a good-sized shop, with something for modelers of all scales. I didn’t buy anything to add to my railroad, but I didn’t come away empty-handed, either. Back to the hotel for a little rest and to change… and then on to Hannah and Parker’s wedding reception, the true reason for the visit — Hannah and Parker make a lovely couple, might I add. The fete had gotten under way before we got there, but we only really missed the “feeding each other cake/smashing cake in each other’s faces” part of the evening.  It was nice to see and spend time with people, including members of the family we didn’t see on Friday evening. Back to the hotel for the night… after a stop at the local Baskin-Robbins.

Sunday, we slept in (a little) and then got back on the road for Salt Lake City. The ride was fairly uneventful, although it felt much longer than heading out to Denver. SaraRules and I ran a couple of errands – including finding dinner – before holing up in the house for the night and watching Ghost Rider… which I didn’t have to coerce her to watch, I want to add!

This morning, the “return to the usual” was hard, as I didn’t seem to want to get out of bed and face the day.

Stray Toasters

That’s good for the first day back.

Namaste.