The 70/70 Quest Is Complete!

 Yes! On the final day of 2022, we completed our 70/70 Quest with....

The Kendall & Paula Abode Tour!

What might that be, you ask? Well, it turns out that, during the 49 years that we have been a couple, we have had nine different homes in Boulder (a number we were unaware of until we decided to tackle this 70th item). And, as our grand finale for 70/70, we thought it would be rather fun to tour around Boulder to gaze upon each of these abodes (lurking around the outside of each, taking selfies - nothing weird about that, eh?). The bonus to this quest, in addition to revisiting our old haunts, is the reawakening of many fine memories.

Abode 1: Hastings – living with Kendall’s parents – and, thus, where I first met Kendall's parents!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 2: Canyon Creek – our first home together. A furnished apartment with two twin beds; Kendall's mom kindly showed us how to tie them together to make one comfy bed. It is also the apartment where we, for the first time, prepared a dinner for The Parents. We can’t quite remember what we prepared but are pretty sure it was something better than the steady diet of peas & potatoes that we were living on at the time.

 

 

 

Abode 3: Blue Spruce – an apartment complex next door to another apartment complex that actually had a pool. Kendall liked sneaking into that pool until the day they followed his wet footprints back to our apartment and put the kabosh on his pool hopping. This is also where we were living when I first met Kendall's big brother Steve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 4: Back to Canyon Creek, this time an efficiency apartment where, when Kendall surprised Paula with a birthday party, all the party goers had to hide in the bathroom (the only room with a door) until Paula came home!

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 5:  Arapahoe – our home when we became a married couple! Thus the home where we had a post-wedding party for friends who shot champagne corks from in front of our apartment to the field next to the apartment complex. Who knows? Those champagne corks could still be buried out there somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abode 6: 18^th & Aurora – the “flood” apartment…a basement apartment that seemed to have a propensity for flooding. It also had a set of steep-ish steps down to the apartment which liked to ice up. It was on one such icy day when we were coming home from Thanksgiving dinner with friends (to which we had brought many of the dishes), that Kendall slipped on the steps and broke all but one of the dishes. (We do still have that one dish!)

 

 

 

Abode #7: 15^th & Euclid - another basement apartment and the apartment where we were living when both of us were in grad school making many friends for life. With its handy close-to-campus location, there was many a joyful party held within these walls.

 

 

 

 

 

Abode #8: 29^th Street – our first house! We couldn’t believe all the space. We could both be in the house and not even see each other! And we could shout YooHoo’s! back and forth and not bother anybody! It was amazing! There were many momentous firsts while we lived here in addition to first house: first career jobs (Paula at CU, Kendall at the Children’s Museum), first dog (Loki, March 1981), and first child (Sasha, January, 1985)! The photo shows a second story on the house – added by the folks who bought the house from us. When we lived there, it was a one story, two-bedroom home with the original third bedroom having been converted to a bookshelf-lined den with a fireplace…the room that totally sold us on the house.

 

 ....And that brings us to Abode #9, Davidson Place, our current home...

our home of the past 37 years and filled with countless memories

…where Sasha took her first steps and learned to climb stairs.

…where Sasha’s little brother Paul spent his entire childhood.

…where we brought home Jester Bones VaughanMiller then Taz the Amazing Cattle Dog.

…where Kendall started many of his multiple careers: preschool teacher, parapro, librarian.

…where we have enjoyed our retirement years.

…where we hatched many a quest.

 

 

 Hmmmm.... What's next?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost there! #69 of the 70/70 Quest

 Christmas Eve! We have both tested negative for Covid! Finally! We can see our kids who are both in town for Christmas (staying at Paul's Covid-free house) and add the penultimate adventure to our 70/70 quest: Caroling! Specifically, caroling at Paul's house! Kendall and I grab our warm clothes, jingle bells, and a very excited Taz pup and dash off to Paul's for a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells on his front lawn. Mission accomplished! Both kids awake, #69 checked off the list, and the first of many holiday hugs amongst the family!

More Catching Up - The Covid Questers #s 67 & 68

Covid caught up with us in mid-December which threw a wee hiccup into our pursuit of the 70/70 quest. After a bit of scurrying around on the web, we found two entertaining items we could do from home with Kendall quarantined in the way downstairs and me trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid Covid in the way upstairs.

#67 of the 70/70 Quest: Cheese Making Class!

Kendall Miller, the consummate student

Even before Covid, we had been looking around for a cooking class. Art of Cheese came to the rescue with a "Holiday Appetizers and Desserts" cheese-making class offered via Zoom. They did a great job of providing easy to follow instructions and demonstrations, introducing us to the making of three kinds of cheese: Quark, Chevre (Fromage Blanc if not using goat's milk), and Mascarpone and then how to turn those cheeses into a variety of appetizers and desserts. I see a cheese making and tasting fest in our future with Chocolate Chevre Truffles and Mascarpone Stuffed Dates high on the list of tasty treats.

#68 of the 70/70 Quest: Audio Information Network of Colorado (AINC) Holiday Concert!

...and now there were two of us with Covid.  No matter! The quest continues thanks to AINC (where I currently volunteer and Kendall had volunteered for years) which came through with a Zoom Holiday Concert that Kendall could watch from the downstairs and I could watch from the upstairs with texting and hollering going back and forth. We did manage one quick peek at each other mid-concert when Kendall offered a sing-along performance.

Chef Kendall's concert
watching setup

Pajama clad pjv's
concert watching setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling much perkier - Kendall Miller performs!

Catching up on the 70/70 Quest - #66

B52 - the largest plane outside the Wings Over the Rockies hangar

For our 70/70 Quest #66 we visited the Wings Over the Rockies museum which had been on our 70/70 list from the get-go. Serendipitously, we made the trip on November 27th which would have been my dad's 111th birthday. Serendipitous because Paul George Vaughan was a captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII and had a life-long love of flying. Wings Over the Rockies is located at the former Lowry Air Force Base where more than one million people were trained in a wide variety of aerospace skills between 1938 and 1994. After the base closed, volunteers arranged for the creation of Wings Over the Rockies and organized the transfer of several Air Force assets to the museum. Its collection has grown to over 80 aircraft and spacecraft, intriguing exhibits (including working flight simulators, extensive information about the Amelia Project, a Colorado room, and more) and thousands of aerospace artifacts, with a strong emphasis on its Air Force roots.

B1 - the largest plane inside the hangar

 

Kendall in the Colorado Room

Tribute to Royal Canadian Air Force Volunteers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sonic Arrow - perhaps the fastest vehicle in the museum
built to set a land speed record but never had a chance to try.
Hmmm... is Kendall taking notes?

  ...And moving on to fantasy...

Anakin and his pod racer

 

X Wing from the rear
Hot engines!

3/4 size X Wing used for Star Wars opening in Japan

 

 

Happy Birthday Pop!

Paul George Vaughan and his Spitfire, WWII