Ouray II

Sonnet and I revisit our favorite Beaumont Hotel for a romantic night away - kids with grand-parents, thank God. Situated in a river valley at 7,700 ft. in the middle of the Rocky Mountains is Ouray - pictured- nicknamed the "Switzerland of America." Hmmm. The town began with the Tabequache Indians, a nomadic band who traveled here in the summer to hunt the abundant forest game and to soak in what they called “sacred miracle waters”. In 1873, the famous Ute Chief, Ouray, reluctantly signed a government treaty releasing the Ute’s treasured San Juan Mountains to encroaching settlers. Chief Ouray was instrumental in keeping peace between the Ute Indians and the many settlers.The town was named in his honor.

By 1880 with the frenzy for precious metals, Ouray grew into a mining town with >2,600 people which was a large number then. Many of the buildings built between 1880-1900 still stand: the Beaumont (1886), the St Elmo Hotel (1898), the Miners Hospital (1887) and the Walsh Library (1899), to the un-restored Livery Barn (1883) and the Western Hotel Salool (1881). In 1983, both the Colorado and National Historic Authorities honored the City of Ouray as a National Historic District. Lucky us!

Mountains

I have a hard time picking a photo from our ride on 10, which is a "maintained" road off the 550 and connects to HW 50 through the Uncompahgre State Park. It snakes through some of the most dramatic, unspoiled vistas I have seen taking us to >10,000. The younger ranges of the Rocky Mountains uplifted during the late Cretaceous period (100 million-65 million years ago), although some portions of the southern mountains date from uplifts during the Precambrian (3,980 million-600 million years ago). Periods of glaciation occurred from the Pleistocen Epoch (1.8 million-70,000 years ago) to the Holocene Epoch (fewer than 11,000 years ago). Recent episodes included the Bull Lake Glaciation that began about 150,000 years ago and the Pinedale Glaciation that probably remained at full glaciation until 15,000-20,000 years ago. Water in its many forms sculpted the present Rocky Mountain landscape. Runoff and snowmelt from the peaks feed Rocky Mountain rivers and lakes with the water supply for one-quarter of the United States. The rivers that flow from the Rocky Mountains eventually drain into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.


I ask Eitan just now what he thought of the mountains yesterday? He replies "Mountains? What mountains?" and "I thought it was boring."

A TV announcement by local law firm Goldwater promises a large cash payment if you have had a colonic transplant. I mean - WTF?

Red Train

Both kids love the ride, which supports the fire service. Sonnet and I observe Eitan who at times difficult and demanding while others a little kid who wants a stuffed animal, which he buys and names "Mellon Bellie Colibear." Surely he is self-aware and independence comes with a price.

Fathers and Daughters

Stan and Sonnet - red engine behind them. The firemen are here in force - serving up a pancake breakfast and giving train rides to the kiddies. Most off them have mustaches and I wonder why, whether New York or Colorado or wherever, mustaches go with the job? Any case, it is cool and I tried one last summer but chickened out before returning to London. I can say with some certainty that I have never met anybody with a mustache in private equity. Too bad to because it would be memorable. Silver and I discuss my industry's diversity and along with mustaches, minorities are also poorly represented. At the annual Super Returns conference which draws >2000 delegates there is not one black person I recall and may be forty or fifty women. Everybody has a similar Hermès tie, slick hair and glasses - in short, it is a mature industry. When everybody looks the same you know any inefficiencies have been wrung out and trouble ahead.

President Bush advises the US Olympics basket ball team that "a best defense is the best offense." This insight seen by like 4 billion people. Why can't he just go away?

Is Edwards the dumbest man in America? To think this prick could have been the Democratic candidate.

Robin

Aunt Robin sells her jewelry in Ridgway. She is a natural and people gravitate to her and her wonderful Southwestern rocks. The kids are excited by the spare ribs and train rides around the grounds. It is a local affair and the setting spectacular. Robin and Ray drive from Le Veta and they are surrounded by many people they know including neighbors who also have booths. Me, I sit in a fold-out chair, drink excellent coffee and people watch - certainly a different crowd from London and fun too. Their are teenagers holding hands (Eitan aghast), women shepherding their husbands to various crafts (Stan says "crap" and I "crapola") and families running amok. OK, ours. Anyway it is a nice day in a small town in America. We are privileged.

The Olympics open with a bang! as Michael Phelps sets a world record and blows out the field in the 400 individual Medley. He is impressively cool and relaxed - which must scare the bejesus out of his competitors. Could he be my hero? It is either him or Dara Torres, races one of the fastest relay split ever but it is not enough for Gold, which goes to Netherlands. Heroes are hard to come by these days and here are two bona fides.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Here are the little dudes doing their favorite thing: watching television. I'm pretty sure if we left food and water, we could leave the kids for, like, a week. Sonnet an I have a date last night at the movies - "Pineapple Express" (adolescent, violent - great). Two teen-agers baby-sit and I remark the divide - they are clearly not impressed by my orange cowboy hat and white flit-flops, though we make back some ground with our SUV as one remarks slyly: "sweet ride." Yes, to them, we are adults and I suppose we are too. Today we head to the Ridgeway Craft Fair where Aunt Robin sells her big and beautiful Southwest Jewelry. Sonnet now stresses to get us out of the hotel ("can't you do something to help us get out of here?" she pleads just now, angrily). And so I go, brother. We are outta here.

True Grit

Goudy: "How many men have you shot since you became a marshal, Mr. Cogburn?"
Rooster Cogburn: I never shot nobody I didn't have to.
Goudy: That was not the question. How many?
Rooster: Uh... shot or killed?
Goudy: Oh, let's restrict it to "killed" so we may have a manageable figure.

LaBoeuf: I wouldn't count too much on bein' able to shade somebody I didn't know, fella.
Rooster: I ain't never seen nobody from Texas I couldn't shade.

Rooster: Baby sister, I was born game and I intend to go out that way.

Ridgeway

We explore Ridgeway National Park which is about 7,000 feet and in Ourrey County not far from Ralph Lauren's ranch. The nearby San Juan Mountain Range has 14 of the 53 fourteeners (Fourteeners, Dear Mother, are mountains over 14,000 feet.) Among them, 14,150 foot (4,310 m) Mt Sneffel which is most prominent from our hike. The geography also notable for its layers - ridges - which back up against the blue sky offering various shades of color or darkness. The area is famous for the filming of John Wayne's "True Grit." There is a reservoir lake where we spend the mid-day and picnic then to the Stanfills for Stan's plum cake. Yum.

We take a vote the swimming pool and Madeleine exclaims "four to two - we win!" When I tell her perhaps she has her maths wrong she informs me that her two "buddies" (stuffed animals) cast the deciding votes.

I read V.S. Naipaul's "Among The Believers" which records his travels in the East shortly after the Iranian revolution. Naipaul is generally disdainful of Islam and worse, the fundamentalist who wish to return the region to its faith and yet are dependent on the West for technology, medicines and remittances. Our Pakistan fairs poorly and described as a country founded on hate: of foreigners and Hindus. Politics and progress sacrificed to faith and hence the perpetual ongoing military rule despite attempts at Democracy. The poet Mohammad Iqbal whose vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India inspired the nation - yet he is criticised for denying the peaceful co-existence of Hindus and Muslim. Not all Pakistanies subscribe to Iqbal of course and when we were there in '97 many were openly afraid of the Sunni Islamists in Afghanistan (the Taliban) who had taken power in '96. Now they are in Pakistan's mountains.

Stars And Stripes

"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."
Dick Chaney, March 16, 2003

"We do not torture."
George Bush, November 13, 2005

Gunnison River

We visit Black Canyon, where a sign post tells us:

"Over a billion years ago, molten rock was squeezed into fissures forming the light-colored bands which form Black Canyon's otherwise dark walls. You are standing on one of these bands. As the hot fluid slowly cooled and hardened, minerals formed into crystals. Look closely; you may recognise flecks of mica, feldspar, quartz, and perhaps even garnet.

"These bands of lighter colored igneous rock - called pagmatite dikes - are more resistant to erosion than the dark gneissis (sounds like 'nice-es') into which they introdude. Consequently the pegmatite weathers more slowly then the gneiss. The vertical position of the dikes here, combined with their resistance to weathering, has produced the fin-like appearance of parts of the canyon's walls. You will see pegmatite at almost every overlook.

"The pegmatite dike you see across the canyon nearly half a mile away is the same one you are standing on! Imagine the cutting power of the Gunnison River."

Spectacle(s)

Madeleine and I spend the afternoon together. More correctly, I beg her to join me at the Coffee Trader and she agrees only after being promised a treat (Sonnet stays with Eitan who watches a ManU video). At CT I suggest we go to buy sun glasses for me and she immediately pipes in "great! I need new glasses too." We argue a bit and I hold up three fingers -she replies "four!" and so it goes. At the optometrists, Madeleine picks out a green, octagonal pair - no indecisiveness here (the lens BTW are non-refracting). After the spectacles we go to Silver's hair salon and again she has a vision: short on the side with a fringe - which BTW I learn was verboten by Sonnet sometime earlier. The whole thing looks, well, a little Harry Potter-ish which seems reasonable as the kids have been listening to Harry every night since, like, forever.

Madeleine announces she is the Number One student in her class. Eitan, from back seat and side of mouth: "yeah, right."

Hotel

Here is the boy in front of the Red Arrow in Montrose. We have a "suite" which gives us plenty of room to spread out. Mountain views comprehensive. It is family style fer sur and we are groovy. Sonnet will run tomorrow morning and gets out her kit. We plan on Telluride for the day tomorrow.

Any Day

Here are the kids in the dying light - I promise one last swim before bedtime. This shot taken moments before Madeleine pushes Eitan in - water quite cold - and he scrapes his bottom on the pool side. He screams and Madeleine does the natural thing - runs to her room and peeks out the window corner. I pull Eitan out and take him indoors and under the sheets. His pride hurt, that's all. My day begins trying to get my US Robotics USB phone to work with Skype. It doesn't. My day ends plugging in a VCR to watch the Soprano's. After much agitation, it does. In the middle we goof around, buy some books and crapola, go to the Montrose pool where Silver swims every morning, crack of the dawn. In short - just like any family holiday: we spend a lot of dough, get irritated with each other, have some fun, see the grand-parents and then hotel together for Harry Potter and late bedtime. I plan to stay up most of the night watching the final season of my favorite mobsters. Long over-due, Dear Reader, long over. Due.

PS: Eitan has a water-gun which he now points at me for this photo.

Montrose

We pull into Montrose following a six hour drive over the mountains ("Are we there yet dad? Are we there yet dad? Are we there yet dad? Are we there yet dad?.. . . "). We cross Monarch Pass, or the highest point, in a mountain rain-storm and have sympathy for cyclists, poor souls. We stop off at the Coyote Cafe, where we have been before at Highway 24 & 285. Our waiter Jennifer tells me she is from Minnesota and her husband New Jersey. After 9/11 they drove to Colorado and have never considered leaving. The idea of London is fascinating to her, as is the kid's accents. In similar vain, I speak to a check-out gal at Targets who is in her granny years - she is going to London with a tour group this month "but we won't stay there too long 'cuz it is so expensive." Instead her group will head to Stoke-On-Trent to see the pottery (I was not aware it is a centre) and I recommend the V&A and Courdault Art Institute. I buy the kid a stack of comics at the gas-station thinking it will be a distraction and yes, you guessed it, they fight bloody hell for certain issues - Spider Man and Fantastic Four seem to be the favorites. So yes, a distraction.

I nap at the pool yesterday and Eitan places a cheetoh under my nose to see if I will wake. "Dad it was there for like 20 seconds" he giggles. And apparently a large crowd amused too.

Eitan jonses for a football so we go to Walmart at 9PM after visiting Stan and Silver for dinner. He practices his ball-control skills in the isle. He has been on-edge for his Manchester United DVDs which arrived chez Stanfill earlier.

Thea

Here is Thea in front of her house in Dinner. She belongs to Whitney and Frank and has grown considerably since we saw her last. While the boys are at Coors stadium, the girls go for the mall and pizza and ice cream. Madeleine loads up and is satiated and content - I find her sprawled on the bed watching Harry Potter. It is 10PM, Dear Reader, or two hours past bed-time. We are on the summer program for sure. Sonnet packs madly as we prepare to drive over the Rockies, cresting at 12,000 feet. It is a scenic drive which we have done before - the reward is a natural s spring pool which I believe at 125 meters is the longest pool in the United States and grandparents. Eitan is way-excited for some Manchester United videos he knows await him in Montrose. The moving circus moves along.

Madeleine asks me to write our nanny Natasha: "When you come to our house (to check on things) could you please look after Astra because I did not manage to take her in my back-pack. She was too big. Love Madeleine" (Astra is a stuffed animal)

First Baseball

We are in Denver following a 6AM flight requiring a 3AM wake-up. Oh boy. We visit Beecher and daughter Whitney, who is Sonnet's cousin. She has two children who are super cute - ages 4 and 2 - and we spend the afternoon at the pool where the kids splash for five hours. Nothing new here. The evening highlight for the boys is baseball: Rockies v. The Senators at Coors Field. Eitan has never seen the game before and is excited - his eyes big when he sees the field for the first time on a perfect evening. Bill treats us and Whitney's husband Frank and we sit around shooting the bull and eating hot-dogs. Eitan, for the record, polishes off a slushie, hot-dog and fires, strawberry cone and candy floss (cotton candy). His face is covered in it and he is one happy boy. He keeps his concentration for most of the game but by the 7th it is all over. Besides, our side is losing and it is past bed-time. Including Eitan.

Eitan introduces a new game: fighting with hands-behind-back. Madeleine jumps in and the idea is to kick and trip-up the opponent, ie, dad. This lasts for about a minute or until the pain of a direct hit sinks in and I find myself scrambling. Away. In. Fear.

Madeleine: "I just kicked your bo-uls" (balls)

My Wife

Here is everything I could ever want in a woman (in front of "8" at Indian Spa Resort). I learn London BTW is wet, like pouring. Last year's August was the rainiest on record so this would seem to be a good month to be gone from the UK. Moe is preparing his spaghetti tonight and the kids complaining about their bath - the first, I might add, in several days. I tell Eitan if he doesn't argue it, I will buy him all sorts of crap at tomorrow's baseball game: "I scratch your back dude, and you scratch mine." He replies calmly: "YOU planned the baseball game so actually it does not count." I then cut to the quick: "if YOU don't do the bath now I will get your grandfather involved" which seems to do the trick.

Mary and Amado

The kids arrive yesterday in a stretch-limo, thank you very much. We are excited to see them but I must say: I did not miss them. I recall a Simpons episode where Homer and Marge have the weekend to themselves and Homer loses his beer-belly, grows hair and becomes his former lothario. Of course it all reverts instantly when Bart et al return. Not that I feel like this, Dear Sister, but I have enjoyed time with our friends and beautiful Sonnet sans kids. The rest of our weekend is poolside or at Taylor's Refreshers which is the Gold-Star in hamburgers and '50s comfort food.

Driving to Berkeley after sad good-byes, the kids holler at the top of their lungs. I allow them to do so until I don't. Now they race around the backyard with Gracie who blasts them with the lawn-hose. They are momentarily fascinated by ants. Tomorrow head for Denver on a 6AM flight: bru-tal. Grace suggests we send the kids to bed dressed. Not a bad a idea.

Wine

Here she is at the Silverado winery. Sloan co-founded Sextant Partners, a successful executive placement firm which services the private equity and high finance communities. Today she contemplates her next business opportunity, which targets a similar theme, and we are all happy to provide our two-cents. She does have some expert advisors if I may say so myself: four MBAs including Mary who is Partner at strategy consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (a fun moment occurred at the Shramsburg Vineyards whilst tasting "sparkling wine" - in our group was a young fellow who had finished his PhD in molecular biology. Mary notes her firm hires PhDs "all the time" and encourages him to send her a resume. Cool.) Sloan contemplates her start-up against other commitments like school and family, but I think she is prepared to launch and I/we are all excited to see where it goes. Husband Rob founded successful a trade finance business. Bravo.

Napa

Friday morning we drop off the kids with Sloan and Rob's nanny and, sans kids, drive to Napa for a day of wine tasting and adult time. We meet Mary and Amado at the Indian Springs Resort, which exists since the 1920s and has both a family and movie star feel - there is a 33 meter pool with natural spring water and shaded lounge areas for the bathers. Cooled spring water, spiked with cucumbers and lemons, is found about everywhere and Sonnet and I indulge in afternoon messages. This after a day in the vineyards, mind you, so we are pretty er relaxed. Sloan organised this weekend to celebrate various 40th birthdays and we dine at Martini, a famous local where we drink more champagne.

Napa is an obvious pleasure source for those living in or around the Bay Area. Strangely, I did not explore here often growing up - perhaps due to the Bear Valley house or state drinking age - by the time I was legal, I was gone. The obvious striking thing here is the weather, which is hot and dry (it is POURING rain in London BTW). Evenings cool down so the climate year-round temperate and ideal in summer. Then there are the grapes, which fill every nook and cranny of everywhere. Spotting the valley are the wine houses, second or third homes and restaurants like Tra Vigne and Auberge du Soleil. Not surprisingly outside St Helena is the Culinary Cooking Institute of America and we present a collective bow as we drive by. I spent two years in Sonoma at Help The World See and while Sonoma has excellent wine and its own valley flava, it does not match Napa for le chique and style.