Louisville Glassworks...

Josiah seemed to like the work the guys were doing.

L & N Vacation...

Amelia and Josiah and Grandmolly arrived from Baltimore a few minutes after I arrived from Denver.  Potpie was waiting in the station (airport) to take us home to their house.

So far vacation has been great.  We are overwhelmed by the greeness and water... making us pretty homesick for the South.

Yesterday was the first full day of Kentuckyation.   We did a "how things are made" tour, starting at Glassworks where we watched artists blow glass and make beautiful vases, etc.  Josiah enjoyed it very much.

But not as much as he enjoyed the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.  We skipped the full tour, but we watched the men make bats through the windows and we walked around the free parts of the museum.   Josiah got to hold a Jackie Robinson bat outside of the bat vault where Louisville Slugger stores the model for each bat they made prior to the computer age.  

After hitting a few rounds in the batting cages, we loaded up and drove out to the riverport area, about 15 miles southwest of town.   We went all that way to see a music store that I found online.  It's truly in the middle of nowhere, but it is great.  They are a gibson dealer.  I played an F5 Fern Gibson, that is easily the nicest mandolin I have ever played.  I did not ask them to open the case to let me play the $ 25,000 gibson mandolin.  I wonder if it would sound a lot different than the $8k mandolin?  I think it might... the $8k mandolin DID sound a lot different and better even than the $2500 gibsons.   

I bought a few picks (wegen mandolin picks) and a set of strings on sale, we got some information about where to hear bluegrass around town, and made the trip back to Eastwood, where the Schmitts live now.  

A great first day of Kentuckyation.

Henry the Eunich

Spring springs eternal

Hello to all of our faithful blog-followers out there!  You are both very appreciated.

When one comes to the point in life that he is writing his first blog, there is a tremendous sense of anticipation which is only overwhelmed by the sense of responsibility.  And honestly, I don't understand how people can have so much to broadcast to the world.  My consolation is that the world is not, in fact, listening.  I therefore write (blog) with impunity.

There are, of course, all sorts of things to write about.  And I usually do not have a hard time with finding words-- although quantity comes more freely than quality.

For a quick update, yesterday was the first day of spring -- even here in Colorado-- and we celebrated by taking a trip to the continental divide at Hoosier Pass.   It was beautiful even with snow storms inthe distance.   Amelia's mom and dad were with us, and we took turns carrying Josiah through the snow.  The snow, which I should point out could suddenly become waste deep when the top crust broke through.  It was quite a good time especially for Hank, who was celebrating his first day in the mountains as a eunich.  

We then drove back to Denver (all three members of the Wood family sacked out in the back seat).  We took the long way around over Loveland Pass to get a few more amazing views (this was before Amelia and I both passed out in the back seat.  

Then, last night, we went to the Buckhorn Exchange, the oldest restaurant in Denver.  Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull were regular guests of this place back in the good ole days.   

And that is most of the news.  

The leaves are beginning to turn green, against all odds, and Denverites are emerging from their winter dens.  We spent much of the day today cleaning up our den, which had accumulated quite a bit of dust and clutter.  

And now we are sitting together in the living room, waiting for night to come.