ROAD TRIP JAN 8, 2012

Sister Stacie and I had made plans to run down to Boulder to retrieve her forgotten sunglasses and to exchange my Colorado bird reference handbook, which was missing its first 35 pages!    Bear's cancer diagnosis and pending chemotherapy put a damper on that until sister Terri agreed to look in on him during the day.

As long as we were going out of town and because I didn't know how long it might be before I could do this again, we included plans to go to Elizabeth to visit Sydney at The Gabriel Foundation (TGF).   Then we decided to come home via Lyons, a great little town with a wonderful quilt shop.

We took off around 8:00 a.m. and the first and utterly wonderful thing that happened was Stacie spotted a bald eagle in a tree near my house.  Bald eagles spend the winter along the Cache La Poudre river which winds through this entire area.  Everyone sees them except me!  I hadn't seen a one since I moved here and I frequently visit the likely spots,  trying to catch a glimpse.  Here are photos of the eagle as we spotted him and then a close up courtesy of photoshop. Check the upper center of the photo.

This was a very auspicious start to our road trip.  Next it was off to Elizabeth, a small town southeast of Denver.  The night before, we had expected snow and only gotten a light dusting in the Fort Collins area.   As we got closer to Denver we realized the snow volume was increasing.   Then the  country roads into Elizabeth grew icier and snowier and weren't plowed!  We took our time and arrived later than we had planned, but safe and sound.

Julie Murad is the director of TGF and her home is located on the compound where the general aviaries of the sanctuary are.  It is a gorgeous home with a breathtaking view, full of light and harmony and grace.  Sydney is lucky enough to live there with Julie at her house, as he is an education and outreach parrot and must maintain his charming personality through interaction with people.  Here is the view from Julie's sun room, where many birds are either recuperating or have special needs that prevent them from living in a flighted aviary with a flock.

Here are some photos of us visiting with Sydney and Julie's critters:


Stacie laughing at Syd's jokes

 

Valerie hearing all of Sydney's latest news



Stacie enjoying one of Julie's darling dogs






Sydney and Valerie - an eternal bond

 From Elizabeth we hopped over to Boulder, grabbed the sunglasses and exchanged the book and were off to Lyons.  The trip from Boulder to Lyons is just beautiful and the snow was where it was supposed to be and not on the road!  We went to the Quilting Hands Quilt Shop and found that it had expanded its footprint and had a larger sale area!  Being on budgets, we shopped carefully and got a few great deals.  By now it was 3:00 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch, so we went to one of our favorites, Oskar Blues Grill and Brew, a very cool bar and grill in Lyons.  Stacie had the goat cheese/spinach ravioli and I had my usual gyros plate.  From there, we took the back way home on Highway 287 through old Loveland and into the College Avenue area of Fort Collins. 

All was well at home with the kitties and Terri had even left me some samples of her purchases at the Fort Collins Savory Spice Shop - yay!  It was a tiring but wonderful day and my heart is always joyful after seeing Sydney Eugene.