November 2020 Road Trip: White Sands National Park

Our friend’s Dan and Meg suggested that we visit White Sands National Park on our road trip through New Mexico. We arrived shortly before sunset and paid our 25.00 entrance fee. The fee was valid for seven days, but we only had an hour. That said, we both felt that it was worth the stop. Even though our visit was brief, the park was magnificent and giving money to the national parks is a good cause.

At first, the park didn’t seem like much. We had to drive about ten minutes into the park to see the huge gypsum dunes and to truly appreciate the beauty of White Sands National Park.

It was a quiet afternoon, but we did see a few families picnicking and using plastic sleds to slide down the dunes. I wish we had brought a sled! We walked around and took pictures as the sun was setting, which provided spectacular shots of the sun streaking through the clouds.

White Sands National Park is a worthy detour if you’re driving through New Mexico. The sand is super fine, powder like grains and it glitters in the light. It makes everything glow. I would love to experience the park in the summer on a blue sky day. Unfortunately, it really isn’t close to many other sites that we are likely to visit in the future, but I’m happy that we were able to experience it.

After leaving the park we caught this fiery sunset, such a contrast to the pale sand.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Sixteen

Week sixteen, and we added a few more “new reality- social distancing” firsts to our list.

We went on our first day trip to Vail and Breckenridge. We woke up at 5am to beat the holiday crowds on our two-hour drive. We made such good time, that we had several hours to kill before meeting our friend’s Julie and Ryan for breakfast.

It was a great day and I will write a full-blog review in the future. Both cities encouraged masks and social distancing. It seemed like more of the Breckenridge visitors complied with safety restrictions, but overall I felt safe in both towns. We wore our masks, kept our hands clean, and we were careful in crowds. We enjoyed two restaurants and quickly learned the importance of planning ahead with reservations during covid, as the restaurants were operating under a reduced capacity. We were lucky to eat!

In Vail, we rode the gondola and walked through the Betty Ford Gardens. This gorgeous river shot was taken from a covered bridge in town.

Breckenridge was less fancy than Vail and more down-to-earth. Unfortunately, it rained during our visit, so we didn’t do much besides eat pizza and walk down the main street. I look forward to returning and going on their gondola, which unlike Vail’s, is free! Vail’s gondola was really expensive.

The mountains at Breckenridge are picturesque.

All of the rain, meant a beautiful rainbow. So many rainbows in Colorado! We found this one in the town of Frisco. No filter on this picture, it was really this vibrant.

My other covid first was a trip to the dentist for a teeth cleaning. They had tons of safety procedures in place and few patients. It seemed as safe as possible under the circumstances, and I figured that keeping up with dental health was too important to delay.

We had a lazy day at home for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, like many places, we have people in our neighborhood who insist on using fireworks. We live in a high fire danger area, so they are 100% illegal.

It’s also frustrating, because of the morality of it all. They are illegal for safety reasons, but we also have kids in our neighborhood who have been affected by local school shootings, and others with PTSD. We have pets who are terrified. I too have childhood gun drama that gets dragged up with fireworks, so I’m sensitive. We didn’t lodge any complaints with the police, but several neighbors confronted those using the fireworks and it turned ugly. It makes me sad and frustrated that this is happening in our community. I can’t believe that the desire to use illegal fireworks is stronger than reason and compassion. It’s unbelievable.

We finished watching the first two seasons of “What we do in the Shadows.” It is one of the funniest shows that I have ever seen. We are now anxiously awaiting season three, which is sure to be delayed. We also watched “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. It’s not a very funny movie, but it was certainly sweet and uplifting, probably just the type of movie we could all use at the moment.

I made Ratatouille from a Noom recipe, and it was delicious!

I sent a personalized card created by Punk Post to a family friend ( my mom’s best friend) who lives alone and who has been having a hard time. She called me crying, because it was so nice to get a card in the mail. This was a reminder to be better about checking-in with people that I care about. I feel like I’m handling things well, but others are not.

And finally, cute cat pictures of Tom. Slinky is cute too, but he doesn’t pose for as many pictures! Tom loves that big brown ball, and in this picture he was holding it and meowing for attention. He loves for us to throw it,and he will retrieve it! Who needs a dog?

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Fifteen

It looks like reopening the country is backfiring. Cases are skyrocketing, and many areas are making the tough decision to close down again. I’ve not noticed any changes in Littleton. It still feels like things are somewhat back to normal here.

We were invited to our neighborhood block party on Saturday. A few weeks ago, it felt okay to go, and I signed up to bring a “Better than Brad Pitt” cake. I don’t particularly have a thing for Pitt (give me Gosling, Reynolds or Bale), but many years ago, I found the recipe online, and it has been a big hit every time I make it. It’s a pineapple and coconut cake= delicious. In the end, we decided that it was too risky to attend. The gathering was somewhat large and some, not all, of our neighbors are not as worried about wearing masks and social distancing. I felt guilty for signing up to bring the cake, so I still made it. I walked over with another neighbor, who had also decided it was risky, and we dropped off our stuff, but only stayed for a few minutes. I was sad to miss out. I hope this doesn’t knock us off the list for future invites, as I’d love to get to know our neighbors better when it is safer. Ultimately, I know this was the right decision for us.

Instead of the party, we took a drive, and ended up in a very strange part of Colorado, called Central City. In the mid 1800’s Central City was a gold rush boomtown. Several streets are still preserved with Victoria era architecture and old signage.

It was like walking on a movie set and very cool. Unfortunately, the area is also depressed, with many stores shuttered. I would blame it on covid, but when we drove to the other side of town, we discovered several huge casinos. I think this is the likely culprit. The old part of Central City could be very trendy, if they cleaned it up, and filled the vacancies. Right now, it seems dodgy with some old, small casinos, America’s first dispensary, and several antique shops.

In other covid news, today I spoke with a student that I tutor from Brazil, and he told me that a family member had just died from Covid. My student was distraught and crying. Although I only spoke with him for five minutes, as he was kind enough to call me to explain why he needed to cancel, I felt overwhelmed by his suffering. This is the first time I have spoken with someone who is grieving a Covid death. I felt incredibly sad and overwhelmed by the situation.

In non-covid news, I was excited to learn that I passed to the second round of NYC Midnight’s 100 word Microfiction Contest. On Friday evening, I received my round #2 assignment = I needed to write a comedic story that involves the action of snorkeling and I needed to use the word “Scam.” It was a fun challenge, but I’m not as confident with my submission as I was for the first round.

We are on a revitalized health kick. Dan got some scary news at the doctors, but luckily it is something that can likely be controlled with diet. Last winter, I also got different, but in the same vein, health news. So we both need to stop the covid baking/drinking/eating crap shenanigans. We went to Sprouts, and bought a bunch of produce. In a first for me, we bought a whole pineapple. I usually buy the pre-cut fruit. Dan had a cool pineapple coring tool from when he was single, and he showed me how easy it is to prep pineapple. It was delicious and my husband is adorable!

We missed not having rum with our pineapple juice!

Other exciting news is we booked a trip to England at the end of October. The kids will meet us in England, and we will have a week with them, plus an extra week for Dan to work in London. I’m trying to temper my excitement, in case it doesn’t happen, but it isn’t easy. I’m so excited to see the kids and family, plus have some tourist time in London- including on my own, so I can go to all of the museums that no one else in the family cares about. It’s the best of all worlds.

We had an amazing sunset this week.

And the obligatory cute cat picture. This is a rare moment when they are sharing the cat tree. Tom always wants to be on the top, but Slinky usually wins.