15. Tea and clouds

Week 15 11/5/15

This was our first visit to Julia and John's  new home in Broomfield, Colorado. We spent a week visiting, cooking, hiking, driving through beautiful scenery and looking at art.

The first day we set off for the Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art which has a large collection of paintings and sculpture. Very impressive. We particularly liked the work of this landscape painter, Bill Hughes. This museum owns about 10 of his works, some of which include figures and horses. I guess he also painted some portraits. Besides the paintings at this museum, all of his work is in private hands. Most of the paintings are very large. One was at least 8 feet wide. Of course this photo is just meant to give you a rough idea of the work.

Near the museum is the headquarters of Celestial Seasonings Tea where we had our fill of a variety of any of their teas while waiting for a factory tour.

In the afternoon we visited the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, part way up the front range. This included a nice visitor center, gorgeous views and extensive hiking trails up the mountains. Bears and mountain lions are resident here.

It seemed appropriate that we should see some interesting clouds after that visit. I don't know if the type below has a name. Earlier, we saw three stacked nenticular couds which I wasn't able to get a picture of from the car. Unfortunately they dissipated by the time we stopped.

The second tea venue was the Dushanbe Tea House in Boulder http://www.boulderteahouse.com/. Besides a menu of hundreds of yummy teas and cocktails made with tea, they have a full breakfast/lunch/dinner menu and, of course, tea daily. The gorgeous building was constructed in Dushanbe Tajikistan as a gift to Boulder

The next week we returned to Dushanbe for lunch with my friend Tessa who lives in Denver. 

On Friday we went to the Denver Zoo. It's quite large and most of the animal displays were well done. I liked this setting for gibbons on a series of islands with the walkway among them. The gibbons can swing overhead. There were also rhino in the water, and one can be seen in the picture just to the left of Julia. Or is that a rhino? -  now I'm not sure I'm remembering correctly.