On stage and ready to perform at the Aspen Music Festival.
Enjoy an excerpt from the performance of Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor.
Our outing to Maroon Bells was spectacular. We spent several hours hiking through the White River National Forest at Maroon Bells.
The bells are two of the mountains located in the Rockies that are in excess of 14,000 feet. The area is said to be one of the most photographed locations in Colorado and it was easy to see why this is so.
Usually, at the higher altitudes, there are coniferous trees, but not broadleaf trees. The aspen is an exception. We saw lots of Engleman spruce and quaking aspen growing together.
Maroon Lake provided a beautiful setting for the first part of our hike. We even saw a beaver den.
The meadow was filled with all kinds of wildflowers.
We enjoyed roaming through all of the aspen groves.
While hiking, we saw a waterfall, a glacial deposit, a rock we took a "lichen" to, and some interesting wildlife.
Getting home from Aspen was an adventure in and of itself. Wish I had Dorothy's ruby slippers. We were waiting at the airport for our flight when the sky opened up. One of the employees at the airport said that in the 30+ years she had worked there, she had never seen anything like it.
Huge bolts of lightening were striking very close. We could see it out the windows that surrounded the waiting area. The thunder was so loud that the building shook. The rain was falling in torrents. Hail was also coming down.
The water level rose very rapidly and then water started seeping in under the doors. The gate area and TSA were flooding. We were evacuated to another area of the airport. A couple of hours later it was decided to close the airport and cancel all flights.
We managed to find a hotel and book another flight for the next day. This flight involved flying to Denver, waiting around, and then flying to LAX. We got to the Aspen airport at about 9:30 am and arrived home at about 6:45 pm. In spite of the hassles of traveling home, our Aspen adventure was a memorable experience!
