Sunday, March 16, 2025

The Perfect Landing

 

Mt Blue Sky

This month, my husband has been going for Cardiac Exercise Rehabilitation in a cardiology center in our Colorado Front Range area a few times a week, following the coronary bypass surgery he had in January. He's been doing well and building up stamina and strength as he continues to heal. I often accompany him, and sit in the center's lounge and read a book. 



One day last week, after his exercise session, we decided to go to a restaurant at the nearby Centennial Airport for lunch, called The Perfect Landing. We heard they had a delicious menu and a nice view of some of the takeoffs and landings of the local air traffic.



We weren't disappointed! It was exciting to watch the jets and smaller planes take off or land while we dined.


My husband had the Corn Flake Crusted Crispy Walleye Fish on a Baugette (top photo in the collage), and I had the Maine Lobster Roll on a Portuguese Split Bun (bottom in the collage above)  Both were 
delicious!
 
My husband has been advised to eat a Mediterranean Diet post-op. and we have been eating that way very vigilantly, so this was a rare treat and the first time we dined out since his surgery.



Another treat was seeing the magnificent snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance from the restaurant windows!  March is usually Colorado's snowiest month and happily, the mountains have been getting large snowfalls while our front range area has not seen excessive snow.


A view of the distant Rocky Mountains from Denver International Airport, east on the Colorado plains. Quite a different view!


The local deer have been enjoying the warmer days that we've had lately.


Relaxing in the sun and dreaming of Spring!

PS: Thank you to all who commented on last week's post about my attending the PBS Antique Roadshow last May! See that post on this link. I received the following information follow-up this week about the three episodes that will be shown soon and the special antiques that the appraisers discovered:

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Sunday, March 9, 2025

I Attended the PBS Antique Roadshow!

 

Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

Last year, my daughter and I were excited to hear that the PBS ANTIQUE ROADSHOW was coming to the Denver Botanic Gardens in the Chatfield Farms extension in Littleton Colorado! To attend the show, we entered a ticket lottery and kept our fingers crossed that we would receive tickets. Happily, my daughter won two tickets! Naively, we thought we would be sitting in an audience like many of the television shows we attended in New York, but when the tickets arrived we were told we had to bring an antique for evaluation to be admitted. That led to a search throughout our possessions as neither of us collects antiques, and we did not think we had any valuable family heirlooms. Finally, we both found something we thought might be interesting and looked forward to attending the show.



The day of the show taping was May 29,2024, on a beautiful spring day. The TV airing of the show will begin this month.

From their website: "Part adventure, part history lesson, and part treasure hunt, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW marks its 29th season in 2025. A 22-time Emmy® Award nominee and former Critics' Choice Award-nominee, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is PBS's most-watched ongoing series!"
 

The location was perfect!

It is managed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm located along the banks of Deer Creek in southern Jefferson County. Chatfield Farms is home to historical buildings dating back to the 1800s, 2.5 miles of nature trails, and numerous wildflower gardens.


When we arrived there was already a long line of people waiting to enter.


When we entered the grounds we saw that tents were set up throughout the farm, serving different purposes.



We entered a triage tent where we showed the items we brought. We were told what categories our items were classified as and were given a map to show us where to queue up next. 



We waited in the "Decorative Arts and Silver" line, as I had an object determined to be of that nature. The line was very long and it took us over two hours to slowly advance to the tent. Many people had umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. We enjoyed seeing what items others on the line brought and conversing with those around us. In a few instances, a film crew took videos of the line and asked us to cheer for the camera.




All the QR codes displayed on the placards are still functioning if you'd like to see the information they lead to on the ANTIQUE ROADSHOW website.




We were finally close to the appraisers' tent!





This is the object I brought to be appraised. It is an Eastern Orthodox religious icon that once belonged to my maternal grandmother, who had immigrated from Ukraine in the early 1900s. Although it is a dear possession for me for that reason, the appraiser unfortunately told me it did not have great value otherwise. 



Guests with interesting or valuable antiques were directed to various filming locations where they would be interviewed and told by another professional appraiser what their items were worth. That is the most exciting part of the televised show, to see what treasures were discovered, and how much the experts said they were worth!




The next line my daughter and I waited on was "Sports Memorabilia," and, thankfully, that line was much shorter!




This is what I brought--a signed photograph of  Mickey Mantle, a famous New York Yankee Baseball star from 1951–1968. When I was twelve years old I wrote a fan letter to Mantle, as he was one of my favorite baseball players and I was thrilled to get this photograph as a reply. I kept it all these years! The appraiser was a very nice man who was from the NY area and he liked the photograph very much, but he told me that there are many "fraud" photos and other signed things in the sports memorabilia world. And that I needed to have to signature authenticated through a service such as Beckett, experts in doing this.  He said with certification I could probably sell it to a collector if I wished. My daughter brought her collectible, a Yankee Baseball player Derek Jeter's rookie card, and he gave her the same advice.



My daughter and I were happy to have had the experience of seeing how the PBS ANTIQUE ROADSHOW was conducted and viewing many of the wonderful objects that others brought to be appraised, As we walked toward the exit we spied a lucky someone being interviewed under the trees. The episodes showing the Antique Roadshow in the Denver Botanic Chatfield Farms on Littleton will be aired on PBS on March 24, 2025-hour one, and also on March 31, hour 2, and April 7, hour 3. To see a slideshow of photos from the Littleton filming on the ANTIQUE ROADSHOW website click here.
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