1) First as to who is doing most of the driving on this trip! Being on equal footing on this trip and in our relationship, we have been sharing the hours behind the wheel. However, since I grew up in an area of flat cornfields and at the most 500 ft. above sea level the elevation and twists and turns of the mountains are literally taking my breath away at times. So Jeff drives up and down the mountain and laughs at me as I grip the "oh s***" handle and grasp for breath (not to mention the invisible second brake that she apparently has in the passenger side floormat!)
2) Denver is known to have predictable rain showers at 3pm every day (this fact was made known to us by Jamie's sister, Becky) and sure enough - yesterday when we arrived shortly before 4pm - it was indeed sprinkling! Today - 100% dry in Estes Park.
We got to the Visitors Center around 10:30 AM and realized there were few no rangers to provide answers to our question on where to hike. Things we did know; it took us 1.5 hours to get to the park from Denver, while taking 16.5 minutes to pass through Boulder, also, we started at an elvation of approx. 5200 ft and arrived at the park at more than 8000! Instead of park rangers, the visitors center had lots o' stuff for sale, I even caught a gigantic moose f
lirting with Jamie. Check out the pictures, I do not lie, it was a HUGE moose!
After I tore myself away from my new moose friend and Jeff convinced me that we didn't have room in the Honda Civic to take him home to CA. We continued up the mountain to find some great hiking and ahhhh views!!! We ended up at the Deer Ridge Trail and had ourselves a nice 4 mile roundtrip hike. Our favorite part, 80% of the way back was all UP HILL! But I took some really great pictures and if any of you have 
never gotten out to this part of the United States - you really must put it on your future vacation list. It would take days to do the entire park but what we did get to see - was fantastic!We managed to continue to work out our legs and walk around downtown Boulder. I very nice liberal college town full of dirty hippies.. complete with a gourmet food store for your pets.. OH MY!!!! Well, we are going to close now, it was a great day, I am looking forward to Utah and Arches NP... we are going to get some more hikes in at Arches, I can't wait to show ya'll the pictures.
Have a nice weekend!
-Jeff and Jamie
P.S. For those of you that helped us with the prediction of Stacey and Bruce's Baby. The big day was today, July 21 at 12:37 p.m. (CST). His name is Ethan Harrison Blomme and he weighed in at 8 lbs, 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long! Congratulations Stacey and Bruce! Welcome to the world Ethan!
3 comments:
See, I told you about the rain in the Denver area!!! Hope you didn't get too wet. Did you walk by the mint and hear the voices coming from under the ground??
Here's another Colorado fact you may not have known. The architect who designed the ped mall in Boulder for the campus is the SAME architect who designed the ped mall for campus in Iowa City! Cool huh?!
Have fun in Utah. Met a couple at my last science workshop who were headed to the Arches this week as well. If you run into John and Elizabeth tell them I said hi! ;-)
-Becky
Hi Guys!
Sounds like you are having a great trip. The heat here is downright oppressive (Daddy helped me with the spelling on that). So, I hope you appreciated those sprinkles!
Uncle Jeff, didn't you live a few years in a liberal college town full of dirty hippies? That's I heard Mommy and Daddy say ;)
Have a safe journey 'home'.
-Brookie
One of your mountain photos is now the background on my PC at work. I feel better already - can almost feel the cool breezes and hear the stream in the background. Now I just need to watch out for bears!
- Denise :o)
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