Whirlwind Saturday

Bad Dad flew to Colorado last weekend and I can't believe we packed so much into 2 days. This is just some of what we did on Saturday.

We started out at the Research Aviation Facility Open House.  The NASA P-3 was airborne, but we saw NSF/NCAR's Gulf Stream 5

and the huge C-130 nicknamed "Snowflake".

They were in the middle of FRAPPE, the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment campaign, and trying to make up for schedule slips during the 3 days of steady rain earlier in the week.  My interior photos were kind of dark and blurry, so go to the the FRAPPE website to see better photos of these airborne laboratories.

After that, we were famished.  RAF is near many Vietnamese grocery stores and restaurants.  Yelp pointed us to Pho Bay, where I enjoyed gumbo.  I'd read about Vietnamese Cajun.  Sadly, I forgot to take photos.

After nourishment, we headed over to Denver Art Museum and saw a fantastic collection of 20th Century Japanese prints.  I need to go back and spend more time in that gallery.

Of course, we had to swing by the quilt gallery and see the rotating display of selections from the DAM's extensive permanent collection of quilts.

We then tried to go to the Denver Botanic Gardens, but the parking lots were at capacity and the garden looked jammed.  It was also hot, so we cooled our heels at nearby Tattered Cover Bookstore, where I purchased the August issue of Burda (the UK, not American edition).

5-9 PM, the botanic garden offers 2 for 1 admission to DAM members (our LACMA reciprocal membership qualified us for the discount).

I love walking through gardens in the evening and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells. Look at the contrast in textures and scale in this gate

and in these flowers gone to seed.

The Chihuly sculptures added to the ambiance. Does this orange column remind you of desert dodder?