Today was the annual lighting of Woodburn Hall. It is one of the original building of the university. I decided to make dinner, have family over and go see it.
A wreath came in the mail today from Justin’s grandparents. It is from a farm in Vermont. The wreath smells very good. It is simple and beautiful. My type of christmas decoration.
Tomorrow will be the tree decorating day. I REALLY like Christmas! Merry Christmas!
We were in Vermont for thanksgiving. Dinner was at Justin’s Uncle and Aunts house with his family. His aunt often puts together wonderful Thanksgiving tables. Wonderful food. It is nice to go there and see what the table looks like. Mostly the week was very relaxing. We did go to Richford, VT to see some more family members. Nice trip.
Vandy had many walks today. Not always far for the human but when you run laps around the said human, it is far. She doesn’t have to be on a leash. She loves it. The toy of choice (and only one available) is a tennis ball. She runs and jumps. She sucks the world into her nose. I wish she had this life daily. She runs circles around me. I think she went out about 7 or 8 times today to just play. Play trips and bathroom trips outside are often separate for her, she gets distracted. There is a lot of ground to inhale through your nose in this world.
Today I drove 50 miles south to Colorado Springs, CO. Here I went to Garden of the Gods and rode the Cog Railway up to Pikes Peak. It was BEAUTIFUL! All of it. I can’t say I got the best pictures ever. I had a great time though. Very worth the trip!
Garden of the Gods
Somewhere around where the view for “America the Beautiful” was written for. This is taken through a window. That is why the picture is not very good.
Me on Pikes Peak
Ok, three posts today. I did three fun things though. This is the hockey game. The Colorado Avalanche against the San Jose somethings. The San Jose team won. There were fights, yelling, goals… everything. The guy in front of us hit on 3 girls who were all young enough to be his daughter (and one was there with another guy.) Kinda funny to watch. Some alcohol loosening under his skin. Anyways, here are pictures.
Fight!!!
Zamboni
Action shot.
I took a short trip to Red Rocks today. Very pretty place. I thought it would take longer to go see them but I decided against doing the hike I wanted to do. The trail was pretty empty and so it didn’t seem safe to go hiking there. I thought there would be more people. Anyways, below are some photos.
Everywhere you look there are mountains. The land seems fairly flat where we are staying. Far off though, there are mountains. Another problem is that everywhere you look there are powerlines, fences, buildings or a highway. City, I know. I want a picture of the mountains but I do not know where to find the good picture. I almost asked strangers today. I did however park at a canal walking trail today and walked a little ways to see if I could get some pictures. The canal was heavily used so I was never alone and therefore felt fairly safe. On the walk, I happened across prairie dogs. I guess to a lot of the country, they are rodents. But I find them kind of neat. The pop up and down in their holes. And they were screaming at me. There was a whole community of them along this canal. Made my day! Pictures below.
Later on, Red Rocks. Then Hockey.
Today I took the light rail (Denver’s subway of sorts) into downtown. There is a road in downtown called the 16th Street Mall. Once there I went to the Colorado Capital and took a tour, VERY interesting. It is worth taking. There is history in the tour but it is not like sitting in your 3rd grade history class. The guide went over many interesting and funny stories that have to do with the capital.
One of the first things the guide showed me was the view from the west side of the building. From here you can see another state building which has an eagle statue on top. Pictures below is of this eagle (zoomed in very far and taken very quick due to some sketchy onlookers.)
This eagle has its wings high in the air, as you can see. This is also known to be the position and eagle is in when deficating. The story is that the state asked a guy to make the statue for free. So he did. And he made it in this position.
Next, Here is the rose onx marble or something like that. This is found throughout the capital. It is only found here because they mined all of it for the capital. None was left.
In these two pieces of the marble it has been said that you can see the head of George Washington in the right hand piece. On the left, it is said that you can see a turkey. I guess the turkey was what people also wanted as the national symbol. So, people say the turkey is chasing George Washington.
Next is the finial found throughout the capital on the stairwells. These are canon balls. I thought they said that they were from the civil war. I can not figure out what Colorado had to do with the civil war though. My history knowledge is very horrible though. hummmm. Interesting in that they are cannonballs from a war though.
Next is a picture of the dome of the capital. Their capital is based off the national capital. The architect got the domes height off by 5 ft. This dome is 5 ft shorter than the national capital’s dome. The brass star at the top is actually 2 ft. across. Also, it is tall enough for an 18 story building’s height.
Now, for the stained glass windows. A big honor in this capital is to make people into stained glass windows. VERY expensive. This guy (do not know who he was) didn’t like his portrait. He thought his head looked too big. They then chiseled out his head and replaced it. When the light shines through it, he looks like he has a halo. Notice the chiseled out and replaced section around his head.
Next, the mile high marker. The engraving is on the 13th step, on the west side of the capital. Since that was placed, two other makers have been placed by local universities. All mark 1 mile in elevation. I guess none of them believe the other. And in the process, I wasn’t sure who to believe.
Lastly, the dome. Colorado is known for gold mining. The dome is covered in 24k gold. This gold is not from Colorado though. I think it is Italian. but I can not remember what the guy said. The dome has been covered in gold since 1906. it has been redone 4 times. I think that under the gold, the dome is copper. Not sure if they left the copper up. Maybe they removed the copper in 1906 for the gold, I do not know.
That is it for today. Hockey, redrocks and shopping on the agenda tomorrow. Sounds fun to me!
Yesterday I flew to Denver, CO. I have been to Colorado a few times in the past but I have never explored in Denver. Pictures below of my journey so far.
Coors Brewery
Colorado Mountains
More mountains
View of Denver
Wildlife on mountain
Today I went to the main WVU library to find a book by Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers.) I have wanted to read his book for a long time, The World According to Mister Rogers. It is mostly full of little saying by him. Being that our libraries are for the academic setting, there are not many leasure reading sections. You can find some leasure reading books within other subject headings. This one was surrounded by books about getting the most out of your life. Prior to these books about getting the most out of life, there were two other subjects that I thought were interesting (right next to each other.)
Thats right. Books on ethics. Then directly beside those, in the same shelving unit, were books on lying. Notice one title up there, “The Importance of Lying.” Another called “spin this.” Just made me giggle a bit. People have devoted many hours to writing the ethics books AND the lying books.