Saturday, August 30, 2014

Castles, Thrones, and a vacation far, far away...

I'm back!  I always say that a one week vacation sucks at least three weeks out of your life!  One week to get ready, one week to be gone and another week to catch up again!  Well, I am back and just about caught up again....still working on getting into a routine again, but that will come.  After all September is just around the corner and that means (at least for me) a nice spurt of organization and re-focusing on getting things accomplished.

I had a wonderful trip back to see my Mom and Dad.  I also had a wonderful visit with my brother and his wonderful wife as well as my niece and her family.  To tell the truth the majority of the trip was spent around the dining room table talking....it was really great to spend so much time just hanging out with my family, just catching up on everyday stuff.  Very relaxing!

It turns out that my parent's neighbor is a metal sculptor.  He worked with some other artists to create this piece inspired by the Game of Thrones - we got to see this in a gallery downtown, then I got to take my picture in it!

The next day we took a drive up in the mountains to take in Bishop's Castle.  The day was a bit overcast, but perfect in temperature!  The castle is amazing.  All built with rocks picked up from the surrounding roads by one man.  And amazingly beautiful ironwork.  If you look really close you can see people in that top tower!  No way you could get me that high!!!
You can walk all the way around this level on the iron grating.  Scary!  (Can you see a theme here?  I don't like heights...)

 Some pretty stone work here - you can see this is right below the main level roof.
 Looking up at the iron bridge between turrets!
 Catie thought this big arm was fun!
 Mom on the big chair!
 And here's Dad!
 Here's a view of the nearby road - you can see where all the rock comes from!  The next day Catie and I were off to Denver to catch our late night flight home.  We spent a bit of time at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs - always a beautiful spot.  I had planned a visit to a quilt shop nearby, but all the roads were blocked due to a huge bicycle race event.  It took us an hour to get back on the highway, so we decided to play it by ear and head to Denver.

We went for an early dinner at Casa Bonita  - I've wanted to go back there for years!  So much fun, the food is good and the atmosphere is so unique...definitely on my list for next time.

Thanks to Google and our phones we found a great little quilt shop in Denver!  Fabric Bliss!  It was amazing - just a little shop, but it had all the fun fabrics I was hoping to find on my trip.  And they sell online as well!  I will definitely be back - if you are ever in the area, you should put this shop on your list.  Welcoming, bright and the staff is awesome.  I am so happy I found this shop!
Our last quest before heading to the airport was to find the mile high step at the State Capitol!  I love visiting Capitol buildings...we were too late to go inside, so that will have to come at another visit, but we had a nice walk around.
And found that step!
We made it to the airport.  Traffic was a bit crazy, but I was mostly worried about the very black clouds we saw ahead.  I kept envisioning the Tornado Shelter signs at the Denver Airport!  Thankfully we got to the airport in one piece and our plane left on schedule.  The flight was a little bumpy which was scary to my daughter, but we survived!  I had so much fun on my trip, but am happy to be back home again.  I am looking forward to sharing more of my quilting projects soon...lots of projects in progress to take care of!

Have a Happy Labor Day weekend!

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