Wedding Week: Day Four

What a beautiful day in the mountains around Breckenridge!  The morning began at 35 degrees at 6:00 am.  You just can't beat that, especially if you check the weather back home, and all the days this week show a bright orange sun with triple digits below each glaring sun.   

This morning saw the Happy Couple going out for a 30-mile bike ride in the mountains.  Ah, sweet youth!

 The Maid of Honor took a 2-hour hike in the mountains.  The Best Man was flat out on the sofa for most of the morning, most likely a reaction to the altitude.  Come to think of it...he's flat out this evening, too.  Altitude affects different people different ways.  Maybe he will rally by tomorrow.  Or at least by the wedding day.

This afternoon we three gals visited an historic home in Breckenridge, the home of a former slave.  We then zipped by the church, to look at the stain glass windows.  Claire's wedding is at Father Dyer United Methodist Church here in Breckenridge.  It is a charming, small chapel:

 Father Dyer was an itinerant preacher to the mining camps around the Breckenridge area in the 1860s (or so).  I have also been told he delivered mail from Denver to the mining camps, and while doing so, spent time preaching at the camps and in the bars where the miners congregated.  He acquired the name "Father", we were told, when the miners would say, "Oh, here comes the Father" as an endearing nickname.  He later built this church in Breckenridge.  Some of the the stain glass in it nowdays portrays Father Dyer's service to this area.  An interesting historic piece in the sanctuary is a very large cross made of two VERY long, and very old, wooden XC skis.  They were the skis Father Dyer used when he skied out to the mining camps to preach and deliver mail.

From the church, we gals hopped a ride on the town's gondola for a quick ride up the mountains and back - a good time for conversation and relaxation. 

In the late afternoon we three met up with the Groom and his Best Man, and headed to a local brewery to meet up with the first of the East Coast/"inlaw" contingent from Virginia and D.C.  What fun! A good cocktail hour.

From there, we headed home, and immediately out of the car and out for a walk: a walk down the road to view porcupine roadkill. 

The sisters leading the way, skipping down Tiger Road.
 Oh, my.  Am I really admitting to this?  Will the inlaws still accept our daughter?  (It appears we have hauled the future son-in-law over to the hillbilly side...)

And so, Day Four: Wedding Week.