Friends and Family

Saturday, 2 June 2019
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Temps: Hi 73F (23C) / Lo 45F (7C)

We have just over a week to go before we head off on our jaunt across The Pond.  The basics of settling into our home are completed … decorating to be finished when we return.  The arrangements for keeping our home safe in our absence … well, let’s just say that they are taken care of as well.  The accoutrements for my nephew’s wedding are checked off the shopping list … except perhaps for shoes.  The trip planning is done … mostly.  We know what we want to see and do but how much we accomplish in that regard will depend on whether we can speed up our “quality over quantity pace.”  Somehow, I think the former is going to win out … again.  But that’s OK … it’s the memories we make that count.

Speaking of which, we have a doozy of a memory to add to our remembrance banks.  We didn’t have to go far for this one … just opened the patio door and stepped outside.  As often happens this time of the year, a light afternoon rain was sprinkling.  The preceding thunderstorm, with tiny bits of hail, was long gone.  In its stead — a beautiful, full rainbow … two of them to double our pleasure.  It was just such a rainbow last year that sealed our decision to buy the property that we built on.  We look forward to enjoying many more such rainbows right here on the Colorado prairie.  Don’t even mind the rains that present us with these beauties … they are of short duration most of the time and help to green-up the land and fill the reservoirs.

Double Rainbow = Double Pot of Gold?  We can hope!

But that was yesterday.  Today we had another beautiful day to meet up with old friends — Sonia and Boris … accompanied by Sonia’s aunt, Svetlana — and new friends — Lori and Bret — at the Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder.  We will all be cruising together this summer and sharing a three-day tour in St Petersburg, Russia.  The tea and food … all good; the camaraderie … priceless.

Forgot to take a group photo … so this panorama of the teahouse will have to do.
(If you would like to see more photos of this amazing tea house, click
here to go to my online gallery for photos from our March 2019 tour.)

We were about to leave for Boulder this morning for the brunch date I mentioned above when Mui got a surprise text from his cousin — İsmail.  He and Leyla, his wife, are visiting from Rhode Island … two of their daughters live in the Mile High City.  The last time we saw them was 13 years ago.  Of course, we could not pass up the opportunity to get together … if only for a brief few hours.

So, after bidding our brunch-mates farewell, we drove to Ya-Ya Euro Bistro in Denver.  The food … no idea since we were full from brunch and abstained … but the bottomless mimosas were good; the camaraderie … priceless.  The latter perhaps even more so since we got to meet the latest addition to the family … Zeynep & Trifon’s 8.5-month old daughter.

A brief but fun reunion.  (The parents prefer not to have the baby’s photo
posted on the internet … so no photos of the cutie.)

After our reunion, Mui and I continued south, detouring to the Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree to pick-up a few items I had on hold at one of the stores … pre-trip shopping dontcha know ;-)  Then onward to the house to have a quiet evening at home in preparation for tomorrow’s outing … another day trip organized by the USAFA ITT/ORC.

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