My Only Sunshine

NOLA

Last week Buster and I went to New Orleans.  He had the annual AAPG convention and I had never been to NOLA so I went along.

It was so lovely and lively.  I can't help but love a city where there is jazz in the streets.  This man was a fantastic clarinet player.

I had such a great time just walking the streets taking pictures and soaking up NOLA.

There weather was perfect and the beignets were even better. 

This last one is one of my favorite photos. 

While in New Orleans we had one of the best meals I have ever experienced.  We ate at Emeril's NOLA restaurant.  The food was very very good but the service was even more amazing.  I wanted to bring home all the waitstaff so they could be my buddies.

CHA Summer 2009 - Craft Rock Stars

This year is my first ever trip to a CHA convention and while I am trying to look calm and collected I find it hard to keep my cool faced with all of the crafting rock stars.  How often do you stand this close to Tim Holtz while he smiles right at you?

 

How about everyone's favorite Crafty Chica?

 

Maybe Suze Weinberg is more your speed?  She posted a photo that I took today on her blog.  Oh, and what a great day I had with my friends Lisa Pavelka and Jenny Rohrs.  Does it sound like I'm name dropping?  I am, because I spent my day being awestruck and I may well have embarassed myself. 

I haven't even mentioned the best part, I met Carol Duvall!

 

Tomorrow it's all about Vickie Howell.

Don't forget to check out Craft Critique for the rest of my coverage of CHA Summer and to see what the other Craft Critiquers got to see.

Denver Trip Photos, Day 3 and 4 - Natural History Museum and Estes Park

Before we left for our trip to Denver Bug made one request.  She wanted to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  You see, she had done her homework.  Bug found out that Denver had a T-Rex bone which is something not many museums have, and she wanted to see it.  Not only that, but we got to see a cast of the T-rex from the AMNH for a second time.  You can never get too many dinosaurs.

The museum was great.  They have one of the very best gem and mineral exhibits I have ever seen.  The girls were thrilled to see all of the aquamarine, which is the state rock of Colorado and the worlds largest uncut rhodochrosite.  We also got to go to the planetarium to see Cosmic Collisions voiced by Robert Redford.  There isn't much in this world more fun than going to the planetarium with brilliant children who have boundless energy and curiosity.

 

After a day of nature indoors we spent a day with some natural nature?  Hmm, you'll see what I mean.

We drove from Denver out to Estes Park via Boulder.  It was a lovely drive through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  As we started to get into the mountains we pulled off the highway to have a look and to take the Girlies' picture in front of the Estes Park sign.  We got a wonderful surprise while pulled over to the side of the road.

Chipmunks!  They were everywhere.  Big ones, little ones, tiny little baby ones.  We shouldn't have fed them, but they were very hard to resist, as were the Girlies.

 

The cute little critters would come right up to Bitty and clap their tiny hands together.  She named them all, and there were more than I could count.

 

 

Given half a chance, Bitty would have invited them all into the car.

 

 

After a lovely lunch in Estes Park and some yarn shopping we headed for Rocky Mountain National Park.  The peaks in this park top out at 12,000'.  At those altitudes they were having snow.  Being from Texas, being snowed on in June (really being snowed on at all) is very novel.

 

 

 

 

Look, pretty little snow angels.

 

 

This is one of my very favorite pictures from the trip.  Isn't my Buster so handsome in his natural habitat...  Rocks?

Earlier I told you how Bitty fell in love with the chipmunks.  Well Bug loves wildlife too but she was more captivated by these guys -

 

She took that picture.  The Elk were amazing in RMNP.  We weren't even 50 yeards from them.  We could see all the funny fuzz on their antlers right up close.

 

 

 

Bug took this picture too.  I got the impression that this particular elk felt the same way about Bug that Bug felt about her.  They watched each other for a very long time.

 

 

That's pretty much it for my pictures of the trip to Colorado.  We had a wonderful time and I am always amazed at what good travelers my daughters are.  They think they want to go to Paris next.  We'll have to wait and see on that one.

I Faces - Sepia

I decided to use a photo from our trip for this week's entry at

Denver Trip Photos, Day 2 - Golden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denver Trip Photos, Day 2 - Idaho Springs

Obviously my children are the kids of a couple of geology minded people.  They wanted nothing more than to pick up every rock in the state of Colorado and bring it home.  We narrowly missed the weight cut off on all of our luggage coming home.

I didn't intend this shot to look like a full color spread for Ford.  That being said, if Ford wants a copy it can be had for a few bucks.

 

 

 

This guy was the point man for a group of river rafters.  He turned just in time for me to get a big smiley pic.  I need to see if I can find this rafting company online.  I got really good photos of them all.

 

 

Tell me if you've heard this one...  Why did the geologist cross the road?  To get to the other slide?  Not funny? Ok ok, but this picture of a tiny little geohusband and a big mountain is.

 

Denver Photos, Day 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bitty took this shot.

Bug took this one.

Bug took this one too, but she wasn't drinking it.

   

iPhone Thursday - Colorado Style

This version of iPhone Thursday is being brought to you by Buster, the letters A - A - P - and G, and the state of Colorado (also my iPhone that is hoping to be upgraded to 3GS soon!)

Last Saturday we flew to Denver Colorado.  When I say we I mean Buster, Bug, Bit, Bob, and Me (the Mommy also know as the other Buster.)  You see, Buster had his annual convention for AAPG (See Welcome sign above)  AAPG is the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which basically means Rock Geeks.  I can say that because I'm a rock geek too, just not an AAPG member type rock geek.

 

While in Denver we stayed at the lovely Magnolia Hotel.

 

It has a Starbucks just outside the door.

 

Around the corner from the Magnolia is Denver's 16th Street Mall.  The first day we were there the La Piazza Dell Arte was going on.  Artists representing different stores and restaurants in downtown Denver were creating amazing chalk art in the street.  We had a wonderful time seeing the art as it was born.  Check back here to see the pics I took with my DSLR.

 

 

On Sunday we drove up to Idaho Springs and then on to Golden, CO.  Golden is the home of both Coors Brewing Company and the Colorado School of Mines.

 

Doesn't this look just like the Coors can?

 

We always seem to have to buy this kid new shoes while on vacation.  She got these which were on SALE at Niketown Denver.  She tells me they are FAST.

 

Here's Bug with her finger mustache.

 

Here are some bones from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

 

This is the view from the tapas place we went to in Estes Park.

 

Here are the tapas.

 

Here are Buster and Bitty at the park headquarters for Rocky Mountain National Park.

 

Here are the snow capped Rocky Mountains.

 

Here's the snow we played in.

 

Gratuitous Bug in the Mountains shot.

 

Here we are on the flight home.  Wait, I should say, here we are in hour 2 of sitting on the runway hoping we will get to take off and fly home.  More on this later.