Paradise

A on a very difficult math test=Manicure + Pedicure

Paradise, according to K!

Where's Waldo

Standing in line at the Louis Vuitton store

A room with a beautiful view of a clock tower and river

Watching a demonstration-really pretty tame, there were bands and snack bars had been set up

Hotel with a lovely courtyard

Incredible sycamore tree

Buying antiques

On a train with way too much luggage and boxes of purchases

Adorable hotel room

Buying more antiques

Did you guess France?  Just back from a week in Paris, a couple days in Lyon and several days in Avignon.  The strikes were not nearly as bad as depicted by the media.  We did some antique shopping and hauled home lots of paintings.  Sorry about the blury iPhone photos!

Golden Lions 2, Other Team 0!!!!

K played her best game ever!  I was so proud of her!

Blessing of the Animals

Dogs, cats, stuffed animals included.  In past years we have seen snakes, rabbits and birds.  Things were pretty tame this year.  Yes, the big kid in the black is K!

The Long Road Home

I planned the trip home so we did not have to spend any really long days in the car.  We drove from Aspen to Vail and stopped at the farmers market, then on to Golden (outside of Denver) and had lunch with friends and then on to Colby, Kansas where we spent the first night.  The next night we drove to Kansas City for the night and then on to St. Louis for the next night.  And finally home.  Nothing to see along I-70.  Not true!  K thought that the Prairie Museum and Prairie Dog Town were so much fun.  I loved the wide open spaces, blue skies and fields of sunflowers.

The largest barn in Kansas at the Prairie Museum-we got to climb around in the haylofts

Five legged cow at Prairie Dog Town

Identifying hides at the Children's Museum in Kansas City

Tight rope biking in Kansas City

The Meadows

Kimmie called one morning to see what we wanted to do for the day.  Hiking and biking were out because I was not feeling well (note to self-do not eat Sushi in Aspen) so I suggested going to the Meadows for lunch.  Kimmie and I grew up in what is now considered the chic West End of Aspen.  Many of the old Victorian homes have been torn down and replaced with billionaires homes.  When we were growing up it wasn't so chic-just the part of town where everyone with kids lived because it was close to the elementary school.  Our Victorian house is still standing.  The best part of living in the west end was the proximity to a resort (I don't think it was called a resort back then!) called the Aspen Meadows.  We all took tennis lessons there and then would use the pool afterwards. There are some lovely sculpture gardens where we loved to play-it started to rain right after lunch so K did not get to play in the sculpture gardens, maybe next summer.

The other great feature of living in the west end was the series of irrigation ditches that ran throughout the neighborhood.  We used to spend hours and hours building bridges and floating things in the ditches.  A favorite activity was to build something (could have been a stack of leaves tied together with grass or a bunch of twigs), drop our "boats" in the water and hop on  our bikes and ride to a designated spot to see whose boat arrived first.  K spent over an hour playing in one of the ditches, in spite of the cold and rain.  

Today the Aspen Meadows is a conference center and the pool is gone.  Who would have thought that the mid-century style of the Meadows would be so popular again?  Aspen Ideas Fest was going on while were there and it lunch we sat next to Condalisa Rice and Walter Issaccson.  K loved her Arnold Palmer that Kimmie introduced her to.

K building a boat.  I think that is Lance Armstrong's house in the background.

Doggie Valet

We loved the Residences at Little Nell where we stayed in Aspen.  The service was great-the valets even provided dog sitting services.  Every day K stopped and played with this dog who the valets were dog sitting. I love how the dog had his bed and ball with him.