NOOL and Arsenal

 

This morning Travalon and I took a quick walk on the trails behind our hotel, which run next to a prairie dog village. A magpie screamed at us, but it was too quick for Travalon to take a photo. At first we didn't see any prairie dogs, but just about the time we needed to turn around, I heard one bark, and then I saw it. And then we saw tons of prairie dogs! Travalon took photos.

And these are the mountains you can see from our hotel.

We went to a church called Nativity of Our Lord for 9:30 Mass, and can I just say how much I love that their website was NOOL.org? It was a huge, ugly, modern church, but the hymns were all traditional Christmas carols, and the ordinary was all Latin chant, which to me was a fascinating juxtaposition. I think the priest was Vietnamese. Getting out of the parking lot was a bit of a challenge...

We went with my aunt, uncle, and cousins to a brewery for brunch, but neither of us can remember the name. We do remember how good the shrimp and grits were, and our drinks were so pretty.

Then my aunt and uncle took us to Arsenal, which is a huge nature preserve just ten miles from downtown Denver that used to be an arsenal. (When they kept talking about Arsenal, I kept thinking of the English Premier League team. Travalon was so happy because his Wolves tied with the Tottenham Hotspurs today.) From the Visitors' Center (where we bought stuffies and hoodies), you could see Long Peak, which is in Rocky Mountain National Park, way over by Estes Park. 

And lots of other snowy peaks.

Arsenal is renowned for its wildlife, including endangered black-footed ferrets, which are nocturnal so we didn't see any, elk, mule deer, and especially bison. Check out the sign.

My aunt and uncle said sometimes you don't see bison, and I said we get it, every time we bring people to Horicon Marsh, all we see are Canada geese and a few mallards. But then... we saw bison! Right by the road! There were tons of cars, so we had to wait our turn to get a good view.

They are majestic animals, but very dangerous, and people weren't supposed to get out of their cars, but some did anyway. However, nothing tragic happened. One bison did cross the road, but the others behind it changed their minds and didn't. There were so many! We saw tons in the distance too. Then we saw these deer that look nothing like deer back home.

Maybe those were the mule deer, because we also saw some deer that looked a lot more like the white-tailed deer back home. We didn't see any elk.

This one was mooning us.

When we went back to the Visitors' Center, Travalon took more snowy peak photos.

This is Long Peak again.

We went back to the hotel to pick up my mandolin, and there was a glorious sunset.

Then we went back to my aunt and uncle's house, and my uncle, Travalon, and I took a walk in the growing darkness on the path behind their house. There were a lot of Christmas lights back there; this tree looks kind of like a person.

After that, my uncle and I jammed while my cousin went to pick up dinner. We did our three songs and some others, including "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead which went particularly well. We tried "All of Me" by Willie Nelson, but while it's in G, I couldn't get all the chords because it was a bit more complicated than a 1,4,5 song. We jammed for an hour and then were so tired! My aunt made sweet potatoes and asparagus for us, and my cousin brought us Raising Cane chicken tenders. I also had two Christmas cookies, and they sent us home with a bunch more. 

We called it a night early enough to go swimming, or I should say I swam in the cold pool, while Travalon hung out in the hot tub. 

We were charmed to see such a loving household of four people and three cats, and he said maybe it's time we get another dog, so we may revisit this question once we are back home.

Famous Hat