Denver trip, 2022 – Family, friends, quilts, baseball and RAIN!

I missed you all! A lot has happened in the last few weeks and I’ll start with my Denver trip – what fun!!

The adventure started before we even left Sacramento. We were booked on a Southwest flight that was cancelled, as were all the other SW flights to Denver out of Sacramento that day. Of course it was a mess with everyone trying to figure out what to do. Our choices were a flight arriving at 2AM, or something that would arrive late afternoon the next day. None of that was assured as there were LOTS of people trying to get on those flights. We decided to just drive – we’d arrive about the same time, would enjoy the scenery AND, it was a sure bet.

I seemed to be driving for most of the pretty parts, so I don’t have any great photos. This might be a little blurry, but you get the feel. The American West is such a beautiful place! We happened to be in Utah at dusk during Pioneer Days and it was magical – we were surrounded by fireworks, an unexpected pleasure. The drive was long, but a delight.

After a 1200 mile drive, we arrived a day late, mid-afternoon. My son had set up a large Airbnb in Littleton, about 11 miles from Denver. It is a lovely town and the house was perfect for our whole family: both sons, my 2 sisters and a few spouses thrown in for good measure. I cooked most meals, which was my pleasure, and made for better family time together. There was even a neighborhood park close by! The weather was perfect….mostly; more about that later.

I got to spend time with my adorable grandson. I won’t be posting any photos, but I got a nice visit with him. Of course he’s adorable and cute and smart and all boy! Just take my word for it. It filled my Gramma heart.

One of the planned highlights was going see the Rockies (baseball) play. The Rockies play at, of course, Coors Stadium. I’ve been there a good bit and it is always a good time. The stadium is beautiful, has lots of food options and the vibe is very family-friendly, safe, fun and upbeat, every time I’ve gone. That is not the case at many baseball stadiums! We watched the Rockies lose to the White Sox.

A few things of note about the game. You probably know that Denver is the “mile high city”. See that purple line in the upper deck of the stadium? That is one mile high!

I had not been to Coors Field in several years, and one of the things I liked most about the stadium was the view of the Rocky Mountains. No more:

I was surprised by that.

The real adventure began when the game was over. Note the beautiful blue sky in the photos above? There was a 15% chance of rain. 15%. Remember that. Late in the game, the sky looked like this. There was lightening far away. Still, 15% chance. No problem, right?

We stayed until the end of the game, and as we started the long walk back to the train, the skies opened up and it. let. loose! It was a gusher of a downpour, the kind of rain that would have been no match for an umbrella. But, we had no umbrella because, there was only a 15% chance of rain, right??? It was coming down in buckets, over an hour straight. But worse, there was constant thunder and lightening, non-stop, all around us.

Ya know how each kid has a skill set? Here we were, a hapless group of 6, no clue where the train was, in a torrential downpour, accompanied by constant thunder and lightening. The youngest son (engineer of course) had a lightening ap and assured us that even though it appeared to be surrounding us, at no time were we closer than 1,000′ to lightening strikes (according to the ap). Older son is an Eagle scout who has done some time orienteering, so he was our navigator. Without the two of them, I don’t know how this would have gone down.

There were very few places to duck into, we were just stuck in the pouring rain, stumbling our way to the train. And of course, once we arrived at the train track, we had a good 30 min wait. At least there was shelter there. But what an adventure! The temps happened to be mild so we didn’t get cold, but it would have been a real problem if the temps had just been a bit cooler.

This photo, before the game, unaware of what awaited us:

We made it back to the rental, safe and sound.

My sister is a Board member of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, about 15 mi from Denver. It is an excellent museum and I’ve seen several great exhibits there over the years. Of course we had to see the current exhibits, “Sew Many Pieces, 3,000 and Counting: The Jeananne Wright Private Collection” and, “Roots, Refuge, and Nature; Forging Relationships with My Environment, The Valerie C. White Solo Exhibit”. Both exhibits were fabulous.

Permission to post photos rec’d.

Overview of the exhibits:

The small pieced quilt exhibit was fascinating – so many pieces! I loved that the signage also included how the collector came upon the quilt. I am always appreciative when collectors agree to share their quilts with the public.

This quilt just glowed from the vibrant colors and from the beauty of the velvet and silk:

Very unusual piecing arrangement; and over 37,000 pieces!

The photo of the following quilt doesn’t really convey its texture. Individual diamonds were merely basted onto a substrate, giving a delightful bumpieness to the quilt:

“T”, for Temperance!

I so enjoyed the Valerie C. White exhibit; its use of roots as a metaphor was intriguing. I had time to ponder her work; the more I looked, the more I noticed.

Such quiet beauty, the first piece in this series:

Love this whimsical piece, a self portrait:

Ah, but the trip was not yet over. I snuck in a visit with Susan Cleveland:

We had a grand visit and her Hubby grilled one of the best steaks I’ve ever had! Here’s the view from her studio:

Yeah, that’s Pike’s Peak back there. She’s got it rough.

We took a hike in her neighborhood and found some delightful wildflowers:

Susan is always creating, and I spied this new work that will soon be a class:

Those pieces are about 12″ I think? They are adorable, filled with detail:

Susan’s work is always about the detail. She is calling this series “Stitch by Stitch” and has created the most clever way to make it easy to stitch out those “blocks”. And look at that fringed little inside border, with that tiny little ribbon, and the ribbon “sashing”. She figures out ways to make it easy and accurate. I’d love to make one of these. It was such a fun visit!

I packed a lot into 4 days, no? Next week is all about Long Beach! It was a wonderful show in so many ways. I can’t wait to share it with you.

I’ll share at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday

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