July 25-31, 2019 Palo Alto, California to Fort Collins, Colorado

This is the hot tub and cold plunge at the Watercourse Way bathhouse and spa in our private hot tub room, There is also a sauna , shower and bed to rest on. We had an hour in here, then 90 minute massages. We were noodles after the hot tub, totally relaxed after the massage. My sister Judy treated me for my birthday. This place is wonderful. Today I flew back to Fort Collins. This sculpture is in the San Jose Airport. It is huge and it rotates. It is called Space Observer and it takes pictures of people and such and you can see them somewhere, but I didn't find out about the picture till to late. 

Looking out the plane window over the San Francisco bay with fog creeping in. Soon after that we had clouds the rest of the way back.  

My darling husband John picked me up in the airport and took me out to dinner in Fort Collins for my birthday season. The mermaid bowl is in the kiln for it's next firing.  

My new flat lap arrived. It is the green thing. I can bevel and polish glass with it. It took most of the day to unpack it and then set it up. I started some beveled jewels, will post photos when I get them polished.I am so excited.  I went biking before dinner and was rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. 

Sunset over the old power plant. I played with my new piece of glass equipment- a flat lap beveler/polisher and made these. They are harder than they look, I ended up with way too many angles and that made it too hard to get all polished. But I learned a lot, the next batch will look better. 

If you don't know what they are supposed to look like they look good. Sunset on my bike ride tonight. 

John took me out to dinner at the restaurant at the new hotel near us. Great dinner and nice time, thank you darling. He also gave me these beautiful roses and a barbie dress with $$ limbs, plus barbie's necklace and purse. 

Lilies blooming in front of the house, I planted them before we left on the RV trip. Sunset last night. 

I fused these two bars to make into more jewels. I will cut them apart with my wet diamond jigsaw, but the saw is awaiting a part, so it won't be now. I made this jewel last night. It came out right and was much easier because I had more of an idea of what I was doing. I glued the 4 pieces of glass together with UV glue that I activate with my new UV light. 

It was cloudy at sunset so not a lot of color, but really cool clouds. I set the jewel I made yesterday in a bezel, it looks very nice. I am working on many more.

July 22-24, 2019 Palo Alto, California

80's and sunny.

Historic downtown Nevada City as we drove through it on the way back. The whole area is  gold mining country. I played in hills like these growing up. Oak trees and golden grass. 

Judy and I went on a nice hike at Foothills park, It is a Palo Alto city park. Very lovely.  

This lake is in the middle of Foothills park. Flowers seen on our hike.

We had dinner tonight with our friends Bec and Emmett. We usually only see them in the Death Valley area. It was fun to see their house. Here they are cooking in their kitchen. Em is cooking on a very cool induction cooktop. I love the colors of the kitchen. The backsplash is lovely water jet cut glass. 

Judy with the wonderful appetizer of watermelon, mint and feta cheese. Judy, Em and Bec in their very comfy back patio couch where we had drinks and appetizers. 

I sure am glad that the 50 sunblock that I used is gluten free and vegan. . . We hiked a 5 mile loop in Baylands Nature preserve. It is the largest tract of undisturbed marshland remaining in the San Francisco Bay. This is looking east across the bay from the view point. 

This young man is walking 8 dogs from a doggie daycare place. Swallowtail and some purple flowers. This line of chains is the Wind Wave piece of art. The sign says It interacts with nature showing how the wave motion of the northwest wind echos the movement of the water. The piece allows people to see the wind, like the surrounding water is composed of ripples and waves. Mostly it it didn't do anything. I love this tall golden grass as a child, it was taller than me and I could stealth through it. Or sit down in it and be completely hidden. 

Judy looking out over some grasses with orange dodder growing over it. Dodder is a parasitic plant that smothers it's host. Interestingly it is also seen in Death Valley. A view over Baylands, the white strip in the middle is millions of birds. 

Millions of birds. Pelicans, sea gulls, herons, ducks, and many other shore birds. Really fun place to watch. 

Great egret, egret head poised above the foliage, a pink legged stilt, this yellow anise is taller than us and forms hedges around parts of the trail and poppies. We had dinner at our friends Mac and Rod's house tonight.  Rod, Mac and Judy toasting with appetizers in the backyard. They live in this huge 100 year old adobe looking house with beautiful gardens. 

Mac and Rod's living room. Mac is a woodworker and made much of the furniture in this room. It was fun to see them.

July 17-21, 2019 Palo Alto-Nevada City, California

I am out visiting my sister in Palo Alto, California.

The pointy canvas roof at Denver International Airport. I haven't been out here in a long while. There is a Westin Hotel built at the end of the terminal(the blue mirrored windows) and a park below the hotel. A photo of the Rocky Mountains as we flew over them. 

More Rockies from the air. Judy, Sue and Jill at dinner. Jill cooked us a yummy enchilada dinner. Judy is my sister and Jill my niece. 

We had lunch today with our  friends Nancy and Annie. They lived across the street from us growing up  and are childhood friends of my sisters. It is always fun to see them. This is my brother-in-law Laurie's ashes in front of his computer. He passed away a couple weeks ago. When they got the ashes they didn't know where to put them, so they put them here where he spent a lot of his time. Judy will take them to Canada to be where the rest of his family is buried. But for now he is in one of his favorite places.  

Jill my niece tells me this is a buried unicorn in downtown Palo Alto. The beautiful blue flowers are lilies of the nile, the plants are huge this year from all the rain they got this winter. My niece Jill and my sister Judy. We are having a fun visit. 

I am with my sister now at the Storytelling festival. This is our air B and B, which we won't be spending much time at since the festival is 9am-10 pm over the weekend.  

It is in North Columbia, population ? at the historic school house which is now the community center. These are two of the embroidered tapestries showing the history of the area on display. Very beautiful. 

Judy and I. We are not yellow, it is just reflected off her neon sweatshirt. We were not allowed to take photos in the amphitheatre but I could not resist this one. This is Dalrymple MacAlpin, one of the story tellers with his cute family. He is wearing his tartan for his ancestors in Scotland. He told Celtic tales, played the harp and sang.

The festival is in the middle of a big sheep ranch that has been in the same family for 4 generations. During the evening performance you can hear the sheep with bells on and bleating going back into the barn for the night. This is a dirt road we walked around on. 

Another day at the Story Telling festival in the amphitheatre. Blackberry bushes and sweet peas. 

A great mermaid hood ornament from a 1932 Nash. Vultures in a dead tree, a black berry and sweet pea blooms. Sunset was lovely. 

Sunset behind the historic schoolhouse and the entrance to the festival and the ice cream vendor beside the school house.

After our third grueling day of listening to fabulous storytellers we had dinner on the deck above our cottage. Some flowers from the garden here. These other photos are the Mystic garden here. They represent from left top to bottom Right: The star of David, The mystic symbol of OM and the Moorish Sufi symbol, Yin and Yang,  the Christian cross, the butterfly symbol or symbol of immortality, and the three  gunas. There is a little folder in our room with explanations. 

A couple of sunset shots.