Yesterday morning we took a nice long walk in the park where Brownie visited with other dogs and took care of business.  We watched busloads of rafters arrive and set off down the river though surprisingly there were no kayakers around.  Then I gassed up before hitting the quilt store, only to find out that they're not participating in RBR this year.  I didn't even return to the other quilt store, which couldn't be bothered to post their hours.

I stopped at the top of Wolf Creek Pass and this year, for the first time in a long time, there was snow in the shade at the top.  Brownie and I walked across the meadow with two girls, their mom, and grandma; he was a big hit.  It was no real surprise that he was not thrilled with the snow.  Mom took a pic with my phone of us by the snow, but my service was bad and it never 'sent' to my e-mail.

Of course it was wonderful to arrive at the hot springs!  First thing I did was unload Brownie's things (food, water, bed) into our bedroom.  He barked at Cheryl (Neil's part-time caregiver) when she came in, but caught on right away that there is a lot of activity here and went with the flow as people kept arriving.  Neil's 4 siblings and spouses are in town: Don (ReVae) from Minnesota, Keta (Brian) from Chicago, Amy (Val) from Minnesota, Suzanne (Rick) from Todos Santos, Baja.   Brownie made friends with everyone... except Shadow, the cat.  They're still working things out. 

Terry whipped up a delicious fajita dinner for the 12 of us, and the wedding cookies she'd baked for dessert were also a big hit with everyone.

Love the way the new addition for Hilda is coming along.  Michael is here today, working on it. He was thrilled with the cases of Rockstar I brought for him, and the new (not yet released?) flavor Alex included may be Michael's new favorite! 

He showed me the picture of the mammoth bud 

he got off one of his plants last summer.

Today Brownie and I made our first outing up to the pools.  First we stopped at swimming pool, where we met Daisy, a chihuahua/Jack Russell mix the same size as Brownie.  She was more interested in him than he was in her, and I didn't get a picture because my camera wasn't handy, but maybe next time.  

Then we continued up to the Party Pool, as serene as ever.  

I didn't want to over-do my first day in the sun, but stayed long enough to clean the steps with the wire brush.  Brownie wasn't thrilled with me being "away" from him, letting out the occasional whimper, but he did admirably though managed to tangle himself up several times.

We stopped at the swimming pool again on the way down, visiting in the shade with Eileen and Kate.  Of course Kate had brought her guitar to the hot springs, though she didn't have it with her at the pool today.  I love her voice, and look forward to another 'concert' this summer.

  Sabra's elephant tattoo is in honor of her recently deceased mother, 

who loved elephants.  

Her two kiddos were playing on the steps there and wanted to 'meet' Brownie, but he wouldn't really cooperate.  I'm guessing he was afraid I'd put him in the water.  Of course it's against the rules for dogs to go in any of the pools.... but Brownie doesn't know that. <g>

It's a lot quieter here this afternoon.  Terry and Hilda went to Salida to spend the rest of the day with the Seitz siblings while Cheryl and I hold down the fort here.