Finally, time for a little break. I made my way back up to Ashland, Oregon, to have some relaxation, do some sightseeing, and see some more Shakespeare at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I did the long drive up fairly speedily and checked into my bed-and-breakfast, the same place I stayed last year. After resting up I walked into town for some dinner, and then over to see a play. It’s very warm here; I guess it was a month later when I came last year when it was a bit cooler.
The first play I saw from this visit was, A Wrinkle in Time, based on a very popular children’s book. It took me quite a while to get into it, as they used a device of reading a lot of exposition from the book in the play. The play itself seemed to be very tied into people’s experience reading the book. Since I’ve never read it, that was somewhat hard to get my arms around. It didn’t help that I was tired from the drive up. But as the story progressed to the different worlds, which were handled visually quite interestingly, it got me more engaged. Overall I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as someone who was a big fan of the book. As always with OSF, the acting was very sharp, and the staging was interesting.
Tomorrow is an off day for the Festival, so I’m planning on some sightseeing. I’m looking forward to the relaxing, and the rest of the plays.
Tonight I saw the last play in 
With my last day of vacation, I woke up to beautiful blue skies in Frisco. With no particular plans I spent the morning in Frisco, going down to the edge of Dillon Reservoir after breakfast. The mountains and water around there are beautiful.
I primarily went to Buffalo Bill’s grave because I vaguely remember it from my early childhood days giving a great vantage point over the city. The day I was there, it was pretty hazy and the view towards downtown Denver wasn’t great. I don’t know if it’s always like that these days, or if I’ve just hit the city on bad air days.
My Colorado Shakespeare experiences behind me, I left Boulder to get a little time up in the mountains before my vacation ended. My Colorado luck continued to hold, and I didn’t get a nice clear blue skied day. Nevertheless, as I drove along the road from Boulder to Golden, I was reminded how beautiful the the front range looks along there. I ultimately made my way up to my old skiing grounds to the city of Breckenridge. Even though it was a Monday, the town was quite busy and crowded. I guess that’s Colorado these days. I had a nice lunch, and walked around the downtown a bit.
The third day of my little vacation started off with a trip down to Denver to go to the 
After making my way back up to Boulder, I got up to The Hill just in time for a classic summer afternoon rain to come pouring down on me. I dodged in to have some dinner, and by the time I came out an hour later it was all dry. It stayed quite warm although the clouds never went away throughout the play.
I started the day with an aimless walk around Boulder from my motel. There was a path then led down to Boulder Creek, and across a bridge, then eventually to the Pearl Street mall. I had an unusually good breakfaast at a local restaurant, 
I saw my second play from the 
Tonight I saw yet another Shakespeare play, from yet another (new for me) company. This time I was back at my alma matter for the 
This play was performed in the University Theatre, which is on the CU campus, just down from The Hill. They used a simple set consisting of a basic wooden structure with some stairs and platforms that were periodically reconfigured, but it worked fine. The acting and the overall production was outstanding. The sword fighting during the battle scenes was particularly energetic and realistic. I was happily surprised to see that Falstaff was played by Michael Winters, who I saw do such a great job last summer as King Lear in Ashland. He was also a wonderful Falstaff.
A lovely warm summer evening at Concannon vineyard provided occasion for another wonderful