Check out our handsome G-Man, stepping into his own as the sole Nack rep at Hoover Middle School. Here’s to a great year, kiddo!
Here he’s rocking his “WEB” shirt, denoting his role as an ambassador to help younger kids get acquainted with the school.
And here he’s being Peak Hen, taking beautiful morning photos—including ones featuring insulators. 😌
Can it really be, we have a high schooler in the house?! And yet, the day has come—Finn’s first day as a Bellarmine Bell:
We were glad to help kick off the year right at yesterday’s picnic & Mass, where we met Bellarmine chancellor Fr. Wade. Here’s to a great first year!
After rolling into Denver on the Mountaineer, we were delighted to reunite with Margot & Finn (who’d driven down from Leadville), then rest up at our cool hotel just across from the Rockies’ baseball stadium.
From there we were off to Denver’s famous Brown Palace Hotel, an 1892 icon, to celebrate my folks’ 50th anniversary 🎉.
Though the hotel was founded by a Brown unrelated to Leadville’s famous Unsinkable Molly Brown, she did stay there just a week after escaping the Titanic (!). We were happy to add our names to the illustrious guest list, alongside everyone from the Beatles to Bill Clinton.
Dinner was exquisite, as you can see in the gallery. Thank goodness the chocolate truffles are exclusive to the location, as otherwise we’d all be equally round in no time. 😅
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Following our great morning in Arches, the big show finally arrived: we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train in Moab! The train itself (about which Henry could of course provide excessive amounts of detail 😛) was really lovely (clean, spacious, featuring overhead windows), as were all the staff.
Hen of course did his Hen thing, charming the crew by sharing his love of railroad minutiae & insulators:
The ends of the train cars featured neat covered vestibules that let us get some fresh air while shooting photos. I’ll always be grateful that Henry’s quick thinking (and keen observation of telephone poles suddenly disappearing) alerted me to an oncoming tunnel, thereby saving me from smashing Adobe’s new 360º camera into a wall! Here’s the slightly scary footage:
Happily the rest of the two-day excursion was far less dicey, as we wound our way from high desert through gorgeous river valleys:
After a quick overnight in beautiful Glenwood Springs, we arose for Day 2, kicking things off with Henry meeting the train crew & getting their printout of the previous day’s operating instructions:
Honestly it couldn’t have been more perfect, and if you’re ever tempted to make the trip, consider it highly recommended!
We were of course a bit sad that the journey, like all good things, had to come to an end, but it was great to roll into Denver & reunite with Margot and Finn for a great 50th anniversary celebration dinner with my folks. More on that next time!