Memorial Day Weekend Is Here!

The annual Boulder Creek Festival starts today at 10 a.m. and runs through Monday.  The hours are, Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Monday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  The Festival is free to the public and features something for everyone: 9 separate event areas with 500 vendors showcase everything from community arts and crafts to health alternatives and technology while 4 performance stages feature a spectrum of music and dance. The Festival also features carnival rides, food and beverage vendors, and the signature event: a rubber duck race down the creek! Join us over Memorial Day weekend 2013 for the 26th Annual Boulder Creek Festival®, the best event in Boulder!  The Festival sprawls along the Boulder Creek Pathway, from 6th to 13th Street (the Boulder Public Library is closed until Tuesday).  And one of the big draws will be the Bolder Boulder Road Race, which begins about 7 a.m. on Monday.  
   Estes Park will be hosting an Art Market at Bond Park this weekend, as well as a Western Heritage Antique Show at the Fairgrounds, Barn W.  And the national Park Service was able to get Trail Ridge Road cleared for it's annual opening - but temperatures up above 8,000 feet are expected to be in the 40s and low 50s this weekend, and there is a lot of snow piled up alongside the roadways.  (Trail Ridge Road climbs a bit above 12,000 feet at its' apex.)
   Parking spaces at the beach on Assateague are available and open this weekend, via the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  The National Seashore has gone back to using ground clam shells for the parking area surface, so there shouldn't be chunks of asphalt floating around after the next big storm.  And, after reading the 1 p.m. Friday headline that traffic was backed up for 20 miles, waiting to cross the east-bound section of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I was happy to be in Boulder.  (I'd rather be on Chincoteague itself, but at least I wasn't trying to drive there from the west side of the Bay!)

Supper, Catnip, and Memorial Day Weekend

I have 63 pages left to red to complete Inferno.  It is very good and keeps up a whirlwind pace with a lot of twists and turns; it's fascinating.  We've been very chilly here, mornings, since the beginning of the week - temperatures have dropped into the 40s every night, and it's not until noon that I really feel warm again.  But we're supposed to be in the 80s for this Memorial Day weekend - and, hopefully, the nights won't feel too chill.  I had supper at Turley's last night - and I say that tongue-in-cheek, because Bea had buttermilk pancakes and I had French toast, with us splitting the bacon and eggs.  But we sat and talked and relaxed and had quite a few good laughs.
  This morning, however, I found a late-night post from her on Facebook, stating the police had knocked on her door in the early hours because there had been a break-in in one of the apartments. So as soon as I walk Rosie, I will rush home, and try to see if I can discover anything.  Bea should be up by ten, so I can call and ask her for particulars, if nothing else...
  I gave Cloudy and Shady some of the organic catnip I purchased the other day - Cloudy has never responded strongly to catnip, but I was somewhat shocked that Shady got so high he fell off the dining room table.  He was not hurt, just embarrassed, but wanted to get back up to imbibing the catnip as soon as possible.  Nedi plays with his catnip-soaked toys very intently for about ten minutes each, while Lovey eats her catnip and then runs around like a nut.
  I hope to take a lot of scenic photos tomorrow, on Magnolia Mountain, in Nederland, along the Peak to Peak Highway, and in Big Thompson Canyon.  It should be a very fun and relaxing day trip - and, hopefully, Bea will take some photos of me, so I'll have a few different ones to share...    Enjoy the up-coming Holiday weekend!   -  And, if you're on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, visit the Native American Powwow in Eastville; in Boulder, visit the Boulder Creek Festival!