The first day I was in Colorado was intended to be a nice lazy day of doing nothing, but then Rosie mentioned "pizza", and my eyes popped wide - I can't get pizza of any quality where I live in Tennessee, so I was ready to go instantly!! We headed for Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs for supper.

Below is a little gallery of a few shots that I took as we drove to Idaho Springs. It's easier just to enlarge the photos by clicking on them in the image gallery, than to take up a lot of space on this page by including all of the photos at their full size.

Just click on the first photo. The first time you visit the site, it will take several seconds for the image galleries to open, but after the first photo enlarges, you can proceed to the other photos by clicking the little navigation arrows that appear at the bottom of the frame. When you're done, leave the gallery by clicking on the round button with an X on the bottom right side of the picture frame. You use the same technique on the other image galleries on this site.

Steve Canyon, for any not old enough to know, was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. The comic strip ran from 1947 until 1988.

The statue is dedicated to "...all airmen who wore the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States in time of conflict...".  And it recognizes the contribution made by all American cartoon characters in selling U. S. Savings bonds.

The people of Idaho Springs have also named a nearby mountain canyon, "Steve Canyon" in his honor.

On the way out of town after eating, we stopped so I could get a picture of the Steve Canyon statue.

The next day, after visiting Pikes Peak, we stopped to see Miki and Joe. Here's another image gallery of photos taken at their house.

We all had dinner together that evening at a local restaurant.

One day later, we drove over to spend some time with AnnaMaria and Butch.

The next day, this would have been Thursday, Matt and Rosie took me to see Boulder, another city I had never visited before. The drive there began with a surprise, because we had not left our neighborhood when we saw a coyote casually sauntering right next to the street.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the mountains were a very pretty added attraction to our drive. The city of Boulder itself was pretty much what one would expect of a college town, but surrounded by some beautiful scenery. The other highlights of our day were the visit to NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and our lunch at the Chautauqua Park Dining Hall, where I had one of, if not THE, best burgers I've ever eaten, the Hall Burger.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is an excellent place to visit. You can easily take part in a lectured tour, and there are dozens of interesting displays, many of them interactive. They do a superb job of clearly explaining their research and findings.

The following day, we took a walk around Matt and Rosie's new neighborhood, and saw the retention pond which is a welcoming location for the Mallard ducks. The cement walkway next to the pond was a nice warm bed where a garter snake could sun itself. I noticed that the native plantlife bordering the subdivision hosts a decent number of milkweed plants, which will provide habitat for the endangered Monarch Butterfly.

In the evening, we went to visit Julie, Philip and the girls – Mikaylis was rehearsing her Halloween makeup, and Peyton entertained us with her violin.

The domino games that Matt and Rosie play at the community lodge are becoming one of their favorite pastimes...especially for Skeet.

END

I have to mention that we did also spend an enjoyable afternoon with Andi, Kelly and Kellen, but I have no photos of their visit. This was a total breakdown on my part. I think it was because Andi, Kelly and Kellen came to where I was, so I didn't have to think about taking my camera, as I would have, had I gone to visit them. In this event, I simply was enjoying their company and never thought about the camera, which was sitting in the bedroom – out of sight/out of mind! Anyway, we had a good time. We all walked over to Matt and Rosie's really nice community lodge, where we guys had fun playing a few games of pool. Then, when we came back to the house, all the adults enjoyed watching Kellen mow the little patch of lawn out front – as someone once said, "Work fascinates me; I could watch it for hours."