Santa Fe, Last Thurs & Fri

Last Thursday I drove 6.5 hours south on 25 to Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe was one of the places I most wanted to see this summer along with The Grand Canyon & Cheyenne, which I've seen among many other places along the way to and from. Three places I wanted to see but didn't are Yellowstone, San Francisco and Las Vegas, but I'm OK with it because there is a ton I've seen & done and more to discover here on the Colorado Front Range. They can wait til next spring.

So I was told to definitely check out the Folk Art Museum, and I did, and given a list of great restaurants, that I left on my dresser in my apartment. No problem because I stayed with my friends Alix & Anderson. This is their cute little guest house rental with private patio, so cute, close to downtown. They took me to their favorite taqueria and breakfast cafe. I'd put both on that list. We gabbed Thursday night over beers & veggie tacos. Friday morning Alix went to biology class and Anderson & I walked to the cafe to eat eggs with green chili sauce in the shade. I forgot how much I like green chili sauce and my friends' company. It was a heart warming visit. Thanks guys.

Anderson. He & I worked at First Carolina Deli in Greensboro, and he was a good friend of Brian's.

Their toilet sat on a step above the floor high enough for my feet to dangle. Strange & new to me.

Friday morning before leaving for Durango, I walked around downtown & The Plaza. It was very adobe and there were lots of tourists.

I love the smell of a leather shop.

check out the work at the top of the pillars

getting closer to The Plaza, the heart of Santa Fe tourism

This Church faced The Plaza. The Plaza was disappointing. Basically it's a park surrounded by tourist shops & street vendors.

Aztec Cafe

The International Folk Art Museum was a trip. Very kitschy. And I enjoyed looking through it. Some pieces, like these Mexican masks, I fully admire the craft & esthetic, and others were awkward. Really not much different from many other fine art exhibits.

Indian dolls. I love their unique faces, and their clothes are done really well.

i forget

i think the tag read 'an example of African Urban Art'

tiger love

weird plastic multi cultural table setting with a plastic cockroach in the corner

These dolls meditated so much their arms withered away and fell off. It's a child's toy to encourage enlightenment.

A Haitian artist makes these masks out of paper mache in reaction to the injury and damage caused by the earthquake last year.

I wanted to buy this Day of the Dead statuette until I flipped her over & saw $92.

Look closely and you can see engraved tattoos on the chest & arms.

84 heading north to Durango, 4 hour drive

Pike National Forest, Aug 21

Sunday I met a hiking group in Denver at 9am to carpool back to Bailey, CO, for a day hike in Pike National Forest. It borders Lost Creek Wilderness where Justin & I's hellacious 28 mile hike took place. If my memory is right, Grandma Clark told me once upon a time that we are descendants of Zebulon Pike.

I hope thats right, how cool. It was a very enjoyable 8 mile loop- no big climbs or rocks to climb around. So all attention was spent socializing. My carpool group was so much fun, a very out-going group of Mark from NY, Eiko from Japan, & Kasia from Polland. We really enjoyed each other's company, it was refreshing and much needed. After the hike 20 of the 27 of us ate lunch at 3000 Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant in Conifer, half way back to Denver. Good Day.

Mask Project

First mask I made loosely in an hour. Very gargoyle like.

The second I wanted to be serene & smooth. This is the beginning shape.

Now it's finished & drying to be fired soon.

I'm making 3 more of similar size & mood, this time using clay that has smaller or less grog so it doesn't have such a grainy texture.

Another trip to Durango, Aug 3-9

Not many pictures taken during this trip. We met up with my mom's cousin, my second cousin, Jen, for brunch and rafting trip down the Animas a couple miles through town. Meeting up with her was high on the list of things I gotta do in Colorado. Check. It was a lot of fun. She is as wonderful & strong as I remember.

Cheyenne Frontier Day, July 29

I drove north 2 hours to Cheyenne, WY, that Friday to check out the Frontier Days. Thirty-three years ago my parents went, thats how I heard about it. 7 days of rodeo? real cowboys kinda? I gotta see this! Best in the country, the announcer said. Twenty bucks a ticket best I guess. This smiley guy in the glasses sold me a corn dog and gave me one for free, after I dropped the first one trying to take a picture of the Coffee Wagon. After that I found my seat for the rodeo. I forgot my zoom lense so the pictures of men chipping away their vertebrae on the backs of bulls & broncos are useless (see below). But it was a hoot to watch- very suspenseful, big injuries could happen like that.

Sure enough a small bronco hurt his back leg. Suck. It changed everything. I left and walked around the fair part of it. Campers brought their best memorabilia, antiques were sold at very high prices, the Boot Barn sold T-shirts with rhinestones, and Native Americans sold jewelry in the "Indian Village" complete with teepees. Not after too long I got bored and starting taking pictures of women in skirts & boots for Ryan. He loved the slide show.