Boulder

Well, we are here! We had a good trip, with all working out just fine. There was plenty of waiting time at the airport, of course, but we definitely prefer that to being in a rush.

There was some turbulence during the flight, but it wasn't too bad. The pilot put the seat belt sign on a few times in response to that. So, all was safe and no worries.

There was a long line of people waiting to get their rental cars, but it moved fairly quickly and we were in a car and on our way to Boulder before too long. Mike had printed out a map from online, so we had good directions. He remembered a lot of it from last year too, so it went pretty smoothly.

After getting settled in our room, he took me to check out the Pearl Street mall area---this is an outdoor mall type area---lots of walking and pedestrians, restaurants, some bookstores (we haven't been in any of them yet), and street entertainers. The majority of the entertainment yesterday were musicians, of widely varying abilities. There was a group of 2-3 people singing (not well), with one guitar, and a hope for a donation. There were larger groups who were much better! There was a man playing a didgeridoo, who had an assortment of hand/foot instruments that he played too, while puffing on the didgeridoo. There was a group of 4 (I think it was 4) people, three of them playing violins, the fourth playing a cello, who were playing something by Beethoven. They were really good, far and away the best of the musicians there.

On our way back to the car, we spotted a statue, sort of bronze looking, a woman in a long dress, holding something in the palm of her hand. I noticed a paint can type pail at the base of the statue, with some money showing. I took a closer look at her and told Mike it was a real person---and it was! About then, Mike noticed her blink, and then the breeze ruffled the skirt of her dress a little bit. Then a little boy came up and started to lift and look up her skirt! His parents quickly intercepted him, and she adjusted her pose---bent down a bit and waggled her pointer finger at him!

An interesting thing I noticed was that a lot of the restaurants seem to have adjustable glass fronts, and they had the window sections moved so that the restaurants were open in the front. I don't remember seeing anything like that in the States before.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, a first for me. It was really good! We brought back leftovers, so I definitely won't have to go find lunch today.

We were up at about 5.30 this morning (we finally gave up on getting any more sleep) and I have a feeling that might be our norm the whole time we are here.

Well, I guess this is enough for now. Take care!