Wonderland

Here is a photo I took yesterday evening looking west from Lamar Buffalo Ranch located in indescribably beautiful Yellowstone National Park. This is truly my home away from home. I arrived Monday evening to check into a rustic cabin which I am sharing with two very nice men. Shortly after checking in we all received an introductory lecture to our class Hiking Yellowstone: Native American Trails. This is a course offered by the Yellowstone Association Institute and is just one of many courses I have taken here and elsewhere in the park. I highly recommend this organization for its high-quality educational programs and fantastic staff.

Yesterday our class of 12 students took two hikes to see remnants of a 200 year old Indian occupation site. In the afternoon we took a longer hike which ultimately revealed a well preserved but secret temporary structure often referred to as a wikiup. It was truly a treat to have been shown this treasure.

Today we briefly visited another occupation site (a place in the park where there is evidence that Indians once inhabitied the area) then hiked nine miles with total elevation gain of approximately 1600 feet. We enjoyed spectacular scenery and great stories along the way, and had a restful lunch at the bank of the Gardner River. I'll be honest, I was glad to be back on the bus at the end of the day.

This area is quite isolated hence my lack of blog entries. Hopefully I will have another opportunity to add a photo or two and some comments prior to returning to Aspen on Saturday.

Hiatus

As I mentioned previously, Abe, Jamuna and I are heading out of Aspen tomorrow.  I doubt I will have a chance to post any new comments or photos until I return to civilization.  I am looking forward to the wilderness of Yellowstone and I know the kids will have fun at music camp in Dallas.

Practice, practice, practice.

A lost man on the street in New York asked another man, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?". The man replied, "Practice, practice, practice!".

Here is Maya working hard practicing in advance of the start of music school. She will be auditioning for a spot in a quartet which will play Quartet No. 21, K 575 by W. A. Mozart. Let's wish her well.

On another note, I have been wondering why our bedroom seems so darn hot compared with elsewhere in the condo, especially in the evenings when it is quite cool outside. I finally figured out that the boiler room for the whole building is located directly below the bedroom and bathroom. At one point I thought the bathroom had a heated floor (which is does but I made sure it was turned off). As I explored the problem I found an unplugged fan in the mechanical room but had to call the property manager to get an extension cord to plug it in. It will probably help a little but it is clearly not a good solution. I also purchased a box fan to pull air into the room and out the window.

Recon Day 2

We had another busy day. I made a major run to Clark's Market grocery store and stocked up the kitchen. I am hoping not to need to return for at least one day. While Maya was practicing this morning Abe, Jamuna and I embarked on a reconnaissance mission to check out the recreation centers in the area. There are two primary choices and after taking the bus up to the ARC (Aspen Rec Center) we were sold. It has a huge aquatic center, ice rink, climbing wall, tennis courts, game room, and more. We can get a great rate due to our participation in the music school and also because we are renting a place for more than one month. While waiting for the bus we met a nice young lady who is a performing arts major at Northwester University (Evanston, IL). She is here to study and perform opera. Pretty cool.

I failed to mention the water slide. Jamuna was ecstatic to have surpassed the minimum height requirement.

Had a healthy lunch at the condo then went back up to the music campus to look at practice rooms that are available for a fee but decided against getting one. Also had a few questions to ask and wanted to see the dogs we met yesterday. One in particular, Zora (owned by a very nice music festival volunteer, Eric S.) was clearly glad to see us. Will get a photo next chance.

While Abe and Jamuna and Dr. G. were practicing (or playing with Nintendo), Maya and I found the Music Tent (which is actually a large, permanent structure) and Harris Concert Hall to get our photo identification cards. These we will use to gain free or discounted access to a lot of performances. We purchased tickets for the non-discounted shows. Another fortune, well invested (I hope).

We are now all back at home base. Looks like it may rain. Will head to the airport to pick up one celebrity (Prema) and maybe see some others. I was told that in addition to Mr. Connick, Gil Shaham also walked right by us yesterday.

It must be the altitude

While checking out the ARC we met this instructor and a student learning paragliding. It actually looked like fun and though I probably won't do it, I momentarily considered taking some lessons.

Ummm...pizza

Maya is designing her own personal pizza at a nearby restaurant. Abe watches Jamuna do the same. I'm not sure how many more meals we will be eating out as I am headed off to a grocery store in just a few minutes.

Going for it

Several streets within Aspen are configured to be walking malls, adorned with a variety of eateries, art galleries, jewelry stores and such. At the intersection of two such streets is this fountain. Water erupts with seemingly random frequency, offering a challenge to passersby who dare to cut through. Here is Jamuna awaiting the right moment.

Aspen is out of my league....

We have been here just about 24 hours and I have made some interesting observations.  There are a lot of "beautiful people" here.  Men and women in tip-top shape, driving their Range Rovers, carrying little dogs in their purses.  No kidding.  Naturally restaurant food is quite expensive though a gallon of milk is right in line with good ol' Rapid City.

We just returned from picking up Dr. G. from the airport.  As we were awaiting her entry there was a line of limo drivers holding up signs to collect arriving passengers.  I couldn't see what was written on the cards but I found it interesting for such a small airport.  Anyway, I thought I saw Harry Connick, Jr. walk in so out of curiosity I looked at his website and see that he is performing in Aspen tomorrow.  So I guess it was him.

Getting Around Town

There is a handy and free bus service in and around Aspen.  We are figuring out schedules and bus stop locations.  I suspect we will rarely use the van this summer.  Here is Abe jumping on the bus at the Castle Creek Campus.

Dean Joan Gordon

Here is Maya with the Aspen Music School Dean.  She said Maya was the youngest student at AMFS (Aspen Music Festival and School) this summer.  We completed registration this morning and met many nice people including staff, students (one from South Africa!) and dogs.

Why Yellowstone ?

I believe it has been asked why I go so often to Yellowstone National Park.  That is certainly a fair question and I will give it substantial thought next week.  Oh, here is a shot I took yesterday as we were driving toward  the greater Denver metropolitan area.

Arrived in Aspen

We arrived in Aspen this afternoon and are now settling into our rental condo for the summer.  We stopped over last night in Ft. Collins, CO so had a relatively easy day on the road both yesterday and today.  The van was full but made it up to Aspen (elevation approximately 7900 feet above sea level) without any trouble.  The condo is nice, with four decent bedrooms and a nice kitchen and sitting area.  It was warm today and we learned that this place does not have AC.  I think that will be OK since it cools down in to the 40s F at night.

We have already met a very nice man (Jeff) who lives in the same building.  It was neat that on our walk back from dinner at Little Annie's (delicious) I saw someone energetically waving at us.  It was Jeff and his lady-friend. So, we know people in town and have already run into them on the street.

I found out that very few (if any) residential addresses in Aspen receive mail delivery and that everyone has a PO box.  We are Netflix subscribers and I had already switched our delivery address to this condo.  So...I had to go to the post office to inquire about receiving mail.  The gentleman there said we aught to just have mail sent to general delivery.  That will give me a nice excuse to take a 45 minute walk a few times each week.

We still have a lot to discover here at the condo and in the area.  We did stop a the Chamber of Commerce booth downtown (just a few blocks away) and collected information about a wide variety of available activities.  We will want to find a tennis court and a swimming pool right away.  I found out that the fly fishing is quite good, and accessible.

Tomorrow we will pick up one of the girls' violin teachers who will be here with us for a few weeks to help Maya with practicing and preparing for her various challenges at the Aspen Music School.  We will also get Maya registered at the school tomorrow.  Friday Prema will arrive for a couple of weeks.  On Sunday Jamuna and Abe will depart DIA to attend a music camp in Dallas.  After dropping the kids off at the airport I hope to meet up with my friend John, a Yellowstone Association volunteer program assistant whom I have come to know over the past few years.  We will caravan to the park where I will be taking a field course at the Yellowstone Association Institute and he will be returning after a brief break to his duties at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch.

No photos yet today but they will follow soon.  I hope to make an entry in this blog every day for our future reminiscence and to keep interested friends and family informed about our summer activities.

Back from Sound Encounters, MO, and AR.

After a 12-day, 2300 mile road trip we are all under the same roof again for a couple of days. Jamuna survived and enjoyed music camp. Abe, Maya and I spent several days in Arkansas and Missouri (Branson) with Amachi and Apachin. After leaving Branson, Abe, Maya and I drove to Ottawa, KS, to watch the SE final concert and load up Jamuna and Maya L. for the long trek home. We stopped at a motel near St. Joseph, MO, for about six hours of sleep. Thankfully we made it home safely.

After I dropped Jamuna and Maya L. off at SE, I hung around for a day then drove to Roaring River State Park near Cassville, MO. I was lucky to get the absolute last site available. This is not a place for peace and quiet but I did enjoy the experience. There were evening programs by park naturalists of which I was able to attend two - one on spiders and one about snakes. I rented a fly rod outfit, bought a license and tried my hand at fishing. The fishing was fun but the catching, well, was not very productive. It was HOT and HUMID, day and night. It rained quite a bit the first night I was there. This was the same night the flash flooding occurred in west central AR that resulted in the catastrophic deaths of many campers there.

Today we are starting the process of picking and choosing what to take with us to Aspen, CO, where we will be most of the summer. What a place to be stuck for two months!

Roaring River

Here is a shot of the campground one afternoon. The river water which emanates from a cavern about one-half mile upstream is so cold and the air so full of moisture the cool microclimate above the river cannot hold all the moisture, hence the fog.

 This is the cavern spring from which the river flows. Just downstream, behind me as I took this shot, is an old but functioning trout hatchery.










This is the reading I took one evening after the day had cooled down quite a bit.  The relative humidity was higher than the air temp.

Jamuna at Sound Encounters

Jamuna has been at music camp for several days and having a nice time. The musical work is great but I suspect she is loving the independence of truly being "away" at camp. Here she is by her dorm.

























Here is a view of the hallway in Jamuna's dorm. It didn't seem quite so sterile once if was full of energetic musicians.

Catching Up...late May

Shortly after Uncle John left to head back to southern Utah, we all loaded up to head east to Minneapolis to attend the bi-annual meeting of the Suzuki Association of the Americas where Maya played in one of the youth orchestras. It was a nice honor for her to have been selected through an audition process to be the concertmaster of her group. Jamuna and Abe had a lot of fun seeing friends from Texas and Rapid City who were also there. Unfortunately I was ill with a URI during much of the trip.

One major highlight of the trip was that we made new friends from Philadelphia while we were there.

We visited the Mall of America to play in the amusement park located there. It is quite a place.

Photos to follow, hopefully.

Catching Up...mid May

After Mom and kids returned from a music trip to Texas and Jim returned from a week of running around (visited friends in CA then quick trip to Yellowstone for a great Yellowstone Association course "Into the Bear's Den"), we received a visit from Uncle John. We did a lot of hiking and geocaching in the area of our home. Also made a trip with Pop Pop to a nice Black Hills overlook.

First Post

Our family is going to have a busy summer full of music, traveling, and many new adventures. I thought it would be nice to keep this journal of events not only for our own future reference but also for family and friends who might occasionally be curious about our activities. Furthermore, it will push me to learn the new skill of blogging and compel me to jot down thoughts and observations on a regular basis. So, here we go.

PS, I am open to suggestions about how to improve this blog so please feel free to contact me with comments about content and design.