A Girly Weekend - Part I

Tonight I saw The Secret Garden; last of this year’s Davis Musical Theater season. I love the book, and was anxious to find out if the musical is any good. I was thinking possibly not, because ages ago I bought a used audio cassette of the musical and the music made no sense to me at all.

In The Secret Garden, the spoiled brat heroine Mary Lennox travels to England after everyone she knows in India drops dead of Cholera, over night. So Mary moved to England to live with her only relative, a strange hump-backed Uncle who, of course, lived in a typically wealthy gothic mansion & grounds. Here’s the thing - the child is accompanied by uninvited travelers; the ghosts of her past life. She’s not the only one either, her Uncle Archie entertains many of the same ghosts since his beloved wife’s death. So for the entire play there were ghosts in and out, singing along with all the action (to demo what happened before Mary came to England). So, that’s why nothing made sense to me until tonight, when I saw the live production.

I didn’t go alone of course, I went my theater buddy Cornetta & I invited Mommy Nancy. We had fun, the theater company obviously saved the best for last – who knew Davis had so many amateur, yet stage quality singers. How does the town pull that off? How!?

Nancy & Cornetta; divas of the theater

Yes, I cut myself out of the photo. So sue me.

HEY, I'm talking hair!

Whew! The 2 day marathon in Vallejo is o-vah! My hair is officially wearing the look that I hope, as the Scotts say, will 'see me ooot (out)'. I wrote a while back that while in Colorado I was told about a new style (system?) of 'braiding' hair called Sister Locks. So that's what I was doing all weekend, getting my hair done by a nice lady, Lana, my new 'hair consultant'. She was sweet enough to let me just stay at her house for the entire braid-a-thon, saving me the (1.5 hr drive) between Fair Oaks & Vallejo on Saturday night.

The entertainment while getting my hair done was a marathon of movies, from I am Legend & Good Luck Chuck to The Bucket List - 5 movies in all. The Bucket List the most thought provoking. I'm now formulating my own bucket list (things I want to accomplish/enjoy before I kick it). I was insufferably pleased to realize I've already crossed several things from 'Claire's Bucket List', such as seeing Alaska, birding Yellowstone & the Florida Everglades, seeing a Blue Whale and getting my birding life list up over 500. V. cool. On the flip side, some things on my list are doomed to failure. For example, my Mr. Right must have died in Viet Nam or more likely, last week in San Francisco, he married Mr. Right.

Ok, back to my hair. Here's a smiggin of a photo immediately after my hair was done. Notice how very fine the individual 'Sister Locks' or 'braids' are. Again, cool.

Fresh Locks
It's going to take a while for the hair to settle in and not look drastic. What with my pale scalp and dark hair, my head looks like a checkerboard just now. I'm thinking 'scarf' - at least for a month or two.

Best Laid Plans

Our week was up at our Denver Inn. So, after a final breakfast we headed northeast, up, up, up to Estes Park - which is not a park, but is a sleepy little town just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. We found our motel easily enough and then went exploring. There were loads of beautiful elk, the males were only just beginning to grow this year's antlers.

Ready for his close-up


The littlest Rocky Mountainaires


Rocky Mountain Pastoral Scene

On day one we mostly drove around enjoying the sights. On day two, we were off find White-tailed Ptarmigan, one of the critter that I wanted to visit Colorado to see. Ptarmigan live above the timber line Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans - there was NO WAY we were getting that high up onto the mountain.


For the Rocky Mountains, winter is only just bundling up and moving along to make way for spring. All the wildlife looks a bit haggard; the elk need brushing and the Rocky Mountain Mule Deer - well it has to be said, they're just a mess.


For mercy's sake, anyone got a brush handy???"


More 'grooming challenged' wildlife
We toured Rocky Mountain N.P. for two days before deciding 'It's beautiful but it sure isn't any Yellowstone'. Ok now, that's SPOILED for you. Really - it is beautiful, though. I'm happy to have seen it. Anyway, on our way out of the park we spotted cars piled up, which means there was wildlife a'foot! We checked out the slopes by the road and could just barely make out a critter on the cliffs above.


A Rocky Mountain Bighorn Arse -dead center in photo

Yes! Through an ennsie space in the pines we could just about almost spot a stray member or two of a herd of Bighorn Sheep. I got out the 'big guns' (my camera w/telephoto) and waited for the sheep to move through the open space. Mind; none of this required me to do more than turn off the car engine and sit (in the car). Yes, Big Game Hunter Claire, the laziest camera hunter on the planet, was ready to very-nearly-almost stalk her quarry.

Barbara was patient. We sat for maybe twenty minutes and the sheep butt above was the best shot of the series.

Then Barbara did the UNTHINKABLE. She got OUT OF THE CAR! She walked maybe 25 feet behind the car and looked up the slope. What was sprawled all over the blasted hillside? Yes. SHEEP!


Rocky Mountain Time Out

Who knew moving your own arse could amount to a better photo opportunity???? yeah, yeah, shut up about it already


Bighorn Sheep

We decided to skip a third day at Rocky Mountain N.P. so we could head to Southeastern Colorado where I could search for lifer birds. However, again, the Earth Mother had other plans. Barbara got a very sad phone call. Her boyfriend's little step granddaughter had passed away in the early morning. The child hadn't been sick, she died of accidental poisoning by one of her medications. Devistating news. We decided to cut our vacation short and head back to California immediately.