Bree’s school’s newsletter runs a story about preparation for the upcoming performance of Beauty and the Beast. Bree’s part of the costuming team, and is working hard to be ready for opening night on April 20.
Bree and Jan go to Sakura Con, the huge anime and manga convention. It’s too bad that both of Seattle’s big cosplay events, Emerald City Comic Con and Sakura Con, are just a month apart this year — that didn’t give Bree much time to work on new cosplays. Today she wears her Qifrey cosplay, and once again her take on the slightly obscure character gets a number of enthusiastic comments from people familiar with the source manga, “Witch Hat Atelier”.
Jan and Bree are surprised to discover that entertainment in the evening will be a concert for the Japanese group Queen Bee. This is Evan’s favorite extant band; when we share with Evan that Queen Bee is playing at the convention, we receive a lot of 😭 emojis in reply.
Evan would like us to pick up some Queen Bee merch, so in the evening, we return to the convention for the concert. Bree’s changed out of Qifrey and into her “mushroom girl” outfit. The emcee introducing them mentions that this is Queen Bee’s U.S. debut performance. While the band’s self-described “fashion punk” music is not what Jan would normally listen to, Bree’s into it, and the band definitely gives a great show. It’s loud and fast.
After the show we stand in line to buy tour t-shirts. Three of the band members come out to autograph things. Bree gets her shirt signed, and when it’s Jan’s turn he asks in Japanese if they can sign the shirt エヴァン for Evan. Hibari-kun, the guitarist, is surprised to get a request in Japanese, and says it’d be better for Avu-chan, the band’s singer to do the honors. The band seems happy to talk in Japanese for a moment, and asks how Jan and Bree know Queen Bee’s songs. Jan replies that Evan is a big fan, and they’re delighted to hear it.
Before Bree walks away, Avu-chan complements Bree on her pink mushroom hat. “Thank you!” says Bree, “You’re amazing!”
For day 2 of Sakura Con, Bree and Jan are joined by Bree’s friend, Marina, and Marina’s mom, Lika. Marina wears her stellar San cosplay from Princess Mononoke, and she’s stopped every minute by someone wanting to take a photo.
Bree is wearing an update on her Fern cosplay from Critical Role. With the help of her cousin, Brian, she’s constructed Fern’s elaborate wood (and PVC pipe) staff, complete with a light-up LED lantern. She’s added a cape, as well as new shoes with little cleft goat hoof attachments. (Fern is a satyr.) The staff is pretty heavy, and the shoes aren’t especially comfortable, but the cosplay looks great. People in the Critical Role fandom love it, and she also gets complements from people who don’t know the character. One charming little girl comes up to her to tell her, bashfully: “I like your dress”.
The convention has the usual mix of very cutesy cosplays/merch and dark, aggressive cosplays/merch. Jan sees two people dressed as some kind of forbidding soldier: head-to-toe tactical gear, guns, and skulls for faces. The two death soldiers are walking along holding hands.
Jan, Angela, and Bree head to Aspen, Colorado for a skiing vacation. Angela had visited with Evan just as the covid pandemic was breaking, and aside from the looming threat of a global health crisis, the two had enjoyed Aspen. This is Jan’s second visit to Aspen — the first was probably 40 years ago, with Lyn and Chris.
The flight to Denver is uneventful. At the Avis lot, we walk towards the designated spot holding their rental vehicle — only to discover that’s a stupidly large pickup truck. Angela goes back and manages to get us moved to a normal car.
It’s a long 4+ hour drive to Aspen, but it’s a nice spring day. We particularly like the drive through Glenwood Canyon, where we stop at the Grizzly Creek rest area.
By the time we arrive at our hotel, Angela’s not feeling well, possibly the result of the high altitude. She’s purchased bottles of supplemental oxygen that are supposed to help with the adjustment, but she still feels sick. So far Jan and Bree are feeling okay.
Aspen, Day One. We’re taking it easy today so that we can adjust to the town’s altitude — we’ve jumped from sea level to 8000’ at the hotel, and the mountains are much higher.
We poke around Aspen for the morning, then have a nice lunch at French Alpine Bistro. Bree accidentally left her ski jacket at home, and in any event it would probably be too warm for the spring weather, so we go shopping for a lightweight skiing shell. A lot of the town’s ski clothing stores focus on fashion instead of functional gear, but we find a place that has the right kind of stuff and somewhat miraculously find a ski shell in Bree’s size. For his part, Jan forgot to pack a bathing suit, and buys a pair of hiking shorts that will double as a swimwear.
After that we rent skis for the next three days. It’s the end of the season, so everyone seems to be moving at a relaxed pace.
We try out the hotel’s nice rooftop pool. Dinner at an Italian restaurant called Mezzeluna sounds promising, and Bree is always in the mood for pasta, but sadly the food is just okay.
Aspen, Day Two. We spend the morning skiing on Aspen Mountain. The weather is beautiful, but the condition of the snow isn’t great. It alternates between slightly ice and slightly slushy, so as we’re skiing we’re constantly pushed a bit too far forward or backward. Aspen had a big dust storm a while ago, which has coated every run that’s not groomed with fine reddish-brown dust. (One local describes the snow and dirt combination, “snirt”.)
By the middle of the morning, Bree’s not feeling great herself, so she heads back down to the hotel. Once she’s at a lower altutide and has rested a bit, she perks back up. Angela and Jan spend the rest of the morning skiing, and eat lunch at the Sundeck lodge at the summit.
We walk around the town a bit more in the afternoon. We eat dinner at a steak house called the Steak House which is in a house, so they definitely have their “steak” and “house” bases covered. The food is quite good, and we all enjoy the meal.
Aspen, Day Three. After eating breakfast at a nearby cafe, Bree’s a little tired, so she naps for another hour before we head to the slopes. Today we focus on skiing on the lower half of the Aspen Mountain resort to avoid altitude issues. We have a nice lunch at Apex Tavern near the base of the gondola. The restaurant is probably packed during the high season, but in the spring it’s easy to get a table. We rest at the hotel for a bit, then spend the rest of the afternoon skiing.
Dinner is fondue at the French Alpine Bistro. They make it differently than we do, but it’s still great.
Aspen, Day Four. It snows! It’s much colder this morning. After a very slow breakfast at the hotel, we drive 20 minutes to the nearby Snowmass ski resort. As we’re setting out, some snowflakes begin to fall. It also looks like there’s been some snow overnight — there’s a layer of clean, white powder covering up last week’s layer of dust. We have a great morning of skiing. In the middle of the morning, we’re on a ski lift when suddenly the snow changes from flurries to a full-on blizzard. We can’t see very far. The blizzard lasts for ten minutes, then goes back to flurries.
We have a decent lunch at Aurum, then head back up. Our favorite runs of the day are off the Big Burn chair lift: the terrain is fairly high up, and there’s more fresh snow. We particularly enjoy skiing through the trees on the Powerline Glades. Before leaving Snowmass, we stop for tasty crepes at The Crepe Shack.
Dinner back in Aspen is at Aspen Parc. The food’s quite good, and enjoyable on top of a great day of skiing.
Liya has been part of several dance groups this term. Tonight there’s a show of dances from at least 3 of the groups, which we enjoy watching online. (The photo shows one of Liya’s dance groups; she’s 4th from left.)
Aspen, Day Five. When we wake up, we discover that the town’s had a bit of snow overnight — and the low temperature has covered the roads in ice. We eat a quick breakfast so we can get on the road as soon as possible for the drive back to the Denver airport. As we’re taking a turn onto the road out of town, our car slides a bit; the roads are quite slick.
Thankfully, once we’re out on the highway, the road surface is mostly dry. Everything’s fine until Vail Pass, and then there’s a big snowstorm. Traffic moves along at a comfortable, slow pace. We’re very happy when we’ve made it through the mountains and descend to the outskirts of Denver. Our reward is lunch at a forgettable Mexican restaurant off the highway.
We make it to the Denver airport with plenty of time and settle in at the gate — only to learn that the flight’s been cancelled. A volcano in Russia is spewing ash into the atmosphere, and it’s being blown over the Pacific Northwest. The ash can damage airplane engines, so Alaska Airlines has cancelled all their flights to Seattle. Angela quickly hops on a text chat with a customer service representative, and we’re rebooked on a flight through Boise for tomorrow. Meanwhile, Jan gets us a room at the airport Westin.
The Westin’s pretty nice, actually — not a bad place to be stuck for 24 hours. We spend most of the afternoon reading in our room. Angela works out at the gym, while Jan and Bree try the pool. Bree and Angela go back to the room. Jan tries going back via a different elevator, which takes him to what is apparently a different 12th floor than the 12th floor our room is on: the little hallway plaque showing directions to different room numbers doesn’t list our room number! He eventually has to retreat back to the pool to get onto the right side of the hotel.
In lieu of saying “Excuse me” when leaving the dinner table, these days Bree sometimes says “I rise!” in a stentorian superhero voice before getting up and clearing her place.
We watch Bree’s school’s spring musical performance of Beauty and the Beast. Jan’s brother Chris happens to be in town for meetings with REI, so he comes, as does Lyn.
Bree has invested a great deal of energy into creating a costume for the character of “Madame de la Grande Bouche”, the lady-in-waiting who has been turned into a wardrobe. Bree’s designed and created a full ballgown for the costume that includes a number of features. The gown has drawer panels in front that serve as functional pockets — during an early scene, Madame pulls various articles of clothing out of the drawers. The gown’s other trick is that the panels are detachable for the show’s final act, in which Madame and the other characters are released from the curse and turn back into people.
The cast and crew of the show do a great job. Madame is played by a sophomore named Mazzy. The combination of Mazzy’s high-wattage acting and Bree’s costume serve to give Madame an outsize presence on the stage.
Jan and Angela fly to Victoria, BC, for two nights to celebrate being married for 25 years.
We have a pleasant flight up on Kenmore Airlines. During the flight, Angela catches sight a whale swimming in Puget Sound. It’s raining just a bit as we land, but the weather clears and the rest of the day is sunny.
It’s been a few years since the two of us have been to Victoria, and we do a number of favorite things: walking on Government Street, lunch at Murchie’s, book shopping at Munro’s.
For dinner, we talk a long walk around the inner harbor to Boom and Batten.
(Bree stays in Seattle — on her own for the first time ever!)
After breakfast, we walk over to Beacon Park to visit their petting zoo. As we enter the park, we see a temporary sign that indicates “Herons are nesting in the trees”. Sure enough, the tall pines around us are full of herons. Every so often a heron flies up to a nest with a big stick and works it into position.
At the zoo gate we’re greeted by a strutting peacock. A small crowd forms around us for the zoo’s daily opening. Like us, everyone’s coming for the event that comes a few minutes after opening time: the Goat Stampede, in which a couple dozen goats are herded from the goat barn in one corner of the zoo to the goat petting area at the opposite corner.
The Goat Stampede is as entertaining as ever. Afterwards we spend some time with the goats, then walk around the rest of the small zoo. It’s turning into a very nice day, and we have a pleasant walk back to the hotel.
Happy 25th Anniversary!
For lunch we have high tea in the hotel. Dinner is a nice course menu at The Courtney Room.
We go to Butchart Gardens on the outskirts of Victoria. There’s some rain as we leave the hotel, but it’s stopped by the time our bus arrives at the gardens. The gardens are beautiful as always. We have another high tea for lunch, and also make a stop at the carousel.
We enjoy another nice, short flight over the sound back to Lake Union in Seattle.