Sister Alice’s birthday is May 28th, which happened to coincide with a Rockies v. Cardinals game at Coors Field.  She mentioned  it to Mom, and the wheels started turning. I got a phone call, and Operation: Swooping Condor was born.

The “official” plan: Mom and Sister Alice would drive to Denver for the game, where they would meet Kathay, who lives nearby. After the game, the three of them would go back to Longmont for the night. Since they would be driving Sister’s car, Mom told her to empty the back seat, since Kathay “needed a lot of leg room.”

The actual plan: I would fly into Denver, where Kathay would pick me up from the airport. The two of us would surprise Alice at Coors Field — a Larkette reunion. Then all four of us would go on a Boulder expedition the next day.

The problem: Keeping Operation: Swooping Condor quiet for a month!

Somehow we managed to do it. I give Mom massive credit for not spilling the beans.  On the day of the event,  Kathay and I took the bus in from Longmont.  As we drove in, we saw Mom and Sister Alice standing in the stadium in a window overlooking the parking lot.  The plan quickly became complicated, as they could see everyone coming and going.  I stayed about four paces behind Kathay as we made our approach.

Mom bounded down the stairs with our tickets to give them to Kathay, who then stood in line. Again, I follow a few paces behind. Sister Alice stepped to the overlook once more while we were in line, and almost saw me! I quickly turned around and started chatting with two nice Rockies fans behind us.  I snuck up the stairs in the midst of a group of people and shouted, “Happy Birthday!”

The look on Alice’s face was worth the plane ticket. She was clueless. If only I’d had the camera!

The Rockies won 15 to 4. We were rooting for the Cardinals too, since Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman played for the Larks.  Mom offered to take off her Larks shirt and wave it, since we forgot to make a sign.

Sister brought the binoculars. We were a bit high up…

It started raining in the 9th inning. We still managed to get an usher to take our picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the game, we waited in the car for the crowd to dissipate. Sister finally understood why her car needed to be cleaned out. We flipped through Sister’s CD collection to find the latest Neil Diamond release. Apparently it was awful.  But we mocked it so long, we fogged up the windows in the car. We were just waiting for a cop to come over and tap on the windows. Fortunately, we  headed to Longmont before we had to offer up the Neil Diamond CD as bail.  We called it a night, after a nightcap at Mike O’Shay’s, a great Irish pub on Main Street Longmont.

The next day meant Boulder and the Buff. I always eat at the Buff when I’m in  Boulder. It’s a tradition we had to introduce to  Sister Alice and Mom.  The mochas alone come in mason jar. Mom was so impressed, she had to take a picture.

This was shortly before Mom suddenly took in a sharp breath, her eyes as big as dinner plates, a hysterical giggle barely escaping her though her hyperventilation. She was speechless for  a minute, and then excused herself from the table.  We stared in amazement at each other, and then I went in search of my mother. When she finally returned, she shared that she had seen a ten-year-old boy with a SNAKE wrapped around his neck! In Boulder, anything is possible.

After eating enough food to feed a small militia, we embarked on Pearl Street, where you will also see all kinds of God’s creatures in various forms.  We stopped in every Tibetan store, as usual. Mom and I now have matching Tibetan singing bowls.  The Crystal Dragon had moved, sadly, so we could not share the wondrous bumper sticker wall with Sister Alice.  She was quite approving of Boulder, since it  sparked happy memories of Madison.

We topped the evening off with a showing of Pirates of the Carribean 4, which was surprisingly good. We hit all of the bases, movies, bizzareness, and baseball. If only we had the time for a Scrabble game!  We had so much fun, that we’re thinking about making it an annual excursion!

 

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