Tag: Golden

A Wedding Day In Colorado

It was still dark in the hotel room when I awoke that morning. I noticed a faint colored light coming into the room through the small opening that remained between the two closed curtains. I had to investigate.

My timing could not have been better. It happened to be the moments just before sunrise, and our room on the sixth floor was on the proper side of the hotel to observe the phenomenon as it was happening.

You can see the downtown Denver skyline in the pictures.

We had plenty of time to get ready for the events of the day after waking up. The wedding ceremonies were to take place in a mansion on Lookout Mountain at the foothills of the Rockies, just outside of Golden.

The wedding was held outdoors.There were two ceremonies. The Hindu ceremony included many rituals.This ceremony ended shortly before noon.

There was a short break before the Jewish wedding ceremony took place during which there was opportunity to take a few pictures.

It was getting hot by then.

The Jewish wedding ceremony was officiated by a cantor.There was the traditional breaking of the glass towards the end of this ceremony!We enjoyed the South Indian vegetarian lunch that was served after the wedding ceremonies. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little while before the reception that was to take place in the evening.

We took the scenic route back to the hotel, descending down the slopes of the Windy Saddle Park section of the mountains,overlooking the town of Golden on our way down from the foothills of the mountains,including a closer view of the famous Coors brewery from one of the viewpoints along the way.

We returned to the mountains for the reception later in the day. It was held at a club. It was a beautiful location. Evening turned into nighttime as we enjoyed the drink and food and listened to speeches from the families.The celebration continued as we took to the dance floor and boogied late into the night. Many calories were shed (and much water was drunk in order to stay hydrated!). We were amongst the stragglers that left only after they turned off the music. It all had to come to an end some time!

As we departed the club, we were warned about the presence of a bear in the parking lot. Fortunately, none were encountered.

We slept well that night.

Arrival in Colorado

As I mentioned in my previous blog, our trip to Colorado started out with an early morning flight the day before the wedding we were about to attend.

The drive from home to BWI airport was on empty roads in the darkness before the break of dawn. We were able to find a parking spot in the Express Lot closer to the terminals. Surprisingly, the Southwest terminal was packed with people even though it was only around 5:00am. So many people traveling at that time! Thankfully, all the lines – bag check-in and security – moved quickly. The flight was full.

We overflew both the BWI airportand Dulles International airporton our way to Atlanta. At Atlanta, we were delayed on the taxiways for over 20 minutes while a gate was cleared for our aircraft to park at. Our aircraft made a figure-of-eight move between two temporary halts on two different taxiways during this period of time before finally moving on to a gate. It was quite confusing. At the same time, we heard that there was a ground stop on all Delta flights all over the country due to a software problem in the system. Angela’s flight’s departure from JFK could have been delayed. And Atlanta, where we were, was also the central hub for Delta flights.

From our stalled aircraft, we could see Delta flights lined up for takeoff. The thought occurred to me that all of this could potentially also impact our own flight. The day could have started with delays for all of us!

Thankfully, all issues were cleared up for all flights involved quickly. Delta seemed to have addressed their issue quickly, and flights were soon on their way, and our aircraft was also parked at a gate well before our connecting flight to Denver was expected to take off. I got some breakfast from the terminal. It was a mistake. The coffee tasted awful – I like to say it tasted like cardboard, but then again, I have not tasted cardboard – I think!

The flight to Denver was uneventful as far as I can remember. The flight arrived on time. This is a picture of the airport as our aircraft was preparing to turn around and come in for a landing.This is a picture of the main Terminal at Denver International Airport.

We met up with Angela at the baggage carousel, got our bags, and headed out to the car rental place. The process was smooth, but took time. We drove away from the rental place in our Toyota Camry towards Golden, CO – actually to our hotel in a place called Lakewood, just a few miles east of Golden.

We could not check into the hotel immediately upon arrival because we had gotten there an hour before the earliest check-in time. We spent the extra time exploring the downtown Denver area by car. Denver feels like a small town when compared to the big US cities that I am more familiar with. It is easy to get around, there is a lot of open space, and it seems to not be crowded. The skyline of the downtown area is typical of a big city in the United States.It turned out that Lakewood (and even Golden) are easily accessible from the downtown area – both by car and even using a public transport system. Denver seems to have also invested heavily in long-term growth, with what appears to be a very nice light-rail metro system – with lines radiating out in all directions, into the distant suburbs, from the downtown area. The downtown is connected to both the airport in the east, and to Golden in the west, by train. The system is relatively new and seems to be still under development. There is significant room and scope for the city to grow further.

Once checked into our hotel room, we had a short time to rest before heading out to the welcome event at a golf course in Golden. People were still arriving from different parts of the country for the wedding that was to take place the next day.

After dinner, we stopped at the local Target before heading back to the hotel. Blueberries and packaged chocolate croissants were picked up for breakfast!

A Busy Time

I got back from my trip to India just a short while ago, but it seems like an eternity has passed already. The pace of life has been intense the last couple of weeks.

The first week of my return, with the singing event with the chorus happening at the agricultural fair in the evenings, was quite tiring. My last day of singing was particularly busy, but also enjoyable. We ended up singing more than we usually do. The crowds on the streets were heavier in volume than at the beginning of the week, and, in most locations, people would actually stop on the street to listen to us sing. (Some would stop just to take our picture, seemingly not paying attention to the music itself, but that is par for the course at the fair.) We even had requests from people – including one invitation late in evening to sing at the rabbit barn! One of the highlights of the evening was when we sang The Cup Song to a bunch of little kids who were minding a booth. They joined us in the melody.

Two days after my last singing day at the fair, we were up early in the morning, at 3AM, to get ready to make our way to the airport, heading for a wedding in Golden, CO. The purchase of the least expensive airline ticket that we could find meant that our flight departed before the sun was up.
The routing to our final destination of Denver included a stopover in Atlanta for a change of flights. That detour made the journey much longer than it could have been.

That day turned into a long one, including a late evening out in the time zone that we had ended up in, two hours west of where we had started the day. There was a welcome event that evening to set the stage for the wedding the next day, after which we set off in search of the local Target store to get some supplies for the rest of the trip.

The day of the wedding started off very early, one of the factors being that the body had not had a chance to adjust to the change in time zone. I was up before the sunrise.

The wedding events were spaced out throughout the day, ending in an evening reception at a club located in the foothills of the Rockies, overlooking the high plains of Colorado. It was indeed a unique and wonderful setting for a wedding reception.

The day after the wedding, we set out on a drive through Colorado that lasted three days. The drive included many different adventures that I hope to write further about. It was both a challenging and exhilarating tour. I am also happy that we came out of the whole trip without anything untoward happening to us – since events did not nearly always follow an expected path. It is good to remind oneself once in a while that we are not really always in control of things even though we think we are.

We arrived at Denver airport early in the evening on our last day of travel to catch a late evening flight back home.

Evening gradually faded into the nighttime soon after our departure from Denver.We arrived at BWI shortly after midnight, overflying parts of the city of Baltimore on our way in for landing.It was the early hours of the morning by the time we got back home and went to bed.

And now it is back to our old routines. Suffice it to say that we were in a very different space both physically and mentally just a couple a days ago.

And now further travels await!