Fourth Festivities

“A place can really make your heart skip a beat, especially if you have to take a plane to get there." --Andy Warhol

Hey everyone! Though it doesn’t actually take a plane to get to Creede, there have been many times Thomas and I wished we had that as an option given the 4-5 hr drive over several mountain passes. Unfortunately, the only pilot we know lives in the British Isles. But as usual, this trip was worth it. We headed down on Saturday to celebrate the 4^th. It was a smaller crowd this year, so it was pretty mellow. I didn’t even get to make it to the theatre. This year’s shows are Crazy for You, The Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Jesse James (this event actually occurred in the town of Creede back in its Wild West Days), Sweeny Todd and Enchanted April. I really want to catch those last 2 at some point this summer. But I did get to spend lots of quality time at Sans Souci catching up with my parents, petting the dog, walking about and reading. The scariest part of the trip was when the ladder my dad was standing on collapsed and he fell and fractured a rib. I saw the whole thing happen – too frightening for words. Luckily the rib was the only thing injured.

I also got to see my aunt Cindy, her husband Bob, and their best friends Donna and Ron. Donna was something of a rock star to me when I was a kid so it was great to catch up with her once again. We had a bbq on Monday at Rio Loco, Cindy and Bob’s new place. The weather cleared up enough so that we got to spend most of the day outdoors at the fruit stand, aka their gazebo by the Rio Grande. Aside from Scout trying to steal fish from the fishermen (Bob and Ron), it was a fun and relaxing day.

As anyone who’s been to Creede can attest, the one thing it needs is more restaurants. And this summer it actually got two: Kips Grill and Cascada. I especially enjoyed the latter. The owner has brought in a group of Russians to work the place. Vicki from Belarus was our waitress and she was quite friendly. I can't imagine the culture shock she must be going through though.

On Tuesday we went to town for the Creede parade. We all agreed that there were more people there than ever. I’m talking thousands. The town normally has about 600 residents so this is a big deal. The parade is so popular probably because the peculiarity of its floats (one was a truck full of guys with signs that said “Happy 50^th Birthday, Joe” – basically anyone can have a float) and the massive quantity of candy and beads handed out. It’s gotta be second only to New Orleans for beads handed out per capita. We all got a string, and my mom got more than anyone. The parade started off with a WWII fighter plane buzzing Main Street. I have to say that was my favorite part this year.

Thomas and I had to take off after that to head back to Boulder. We watched the fireworks that went up over Folsom Field from the hammock on our deck. It was twenty minutes of splendor. We were serenaded by a group of tipsy college girls on the other side of the fence. I was shocked by the number of patriotic songs they knew – Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Proud to be an American, etc. I didn’t know they taught kids these songs anymore, so that was a nice surprise.

-Sunday