Category: Travel

I know what you're thinking. “I'm so sick of seeing their stupid hiking pictures. Don't they ever do anything else?? How much good clean family fun can one quartet of humans and canines have, anyhow?? Well at least this time there aren't any pictures of that unbelievably cute baby in her pink hat. Thank goodnes for that.”

To which I can only say …
1) Yes, more hiking pictures. And even more here.
2) Lots of other stuff, really … we only hike once a week, sometimes barely that. This week, it was Meyer Ranch. Lovely spot. Gorgeous wildflowers. We here in Co have to make the most of our summers. Winters aren't as bad as some places, but they can get nasty and feel very ong.
3) Here she is … hehe. Continue reading “Weekend Wrap-Up”

We had chosen to stay inside Mesa Verde, so we were right there when we got up the next morning. We paid a short visit to the visitor's center and got tickets to take ranger-guided tours of the more prominent dwellings. Continue reading “Mesa Verde”

Well I finally managed to get all the pictures from this past weekend gathered together, sorted, and uploaded to Flickr. It took a small miracle. Now, about that trip.

We left Denver after work on Thursday and took a long drive to Alimosa, where we stayed the night.

The next morning, after a nice breakfast at our Best Western, we drove out to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, but it was absolutely incredible to me. It's so wild to think that in the middle of mountainous state, there's these HUGE piles of sand. The people look like ants on an anthill. We walked around on the dunes, found a bug, played in the mud and the sand and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

After a lovely lunch at the Sand Dunes Oasis, including wonderful PIE, we went back down the road a bit and headed for Zapata Falls. It's a nice short hike with interesting terrain along the way. That leads to a wonderful river that you hike along (and in!) … until you come to a cave … inside there is the waterfall. And it's incredible. So refreshing after a day in the hot hot sun.

After that, we headed further south towards Durango. We got to drive through the gorgeous Rio Grande National Forest, and among other things: see goats, eat icees, have a blow-out (Tabbs, you'll kill me for posting this when you're 16 – but remember – it was daddy who took the picture!!), and admire the scenery. We made it into Mesa Verde late Friday night. More on that later …

Sunday was hike day, of course, but our group doubled in size since we were watching Liam and FeBe and Kelly and Erica tagged along. We went back to Corwina Park which is now officially one of my favorite hikes. You go through such variant terrain and I love the babbling brook that's along the trail for the first mile or so. It was a nice hike made more difficult for me because of the step class I'd attended on Sat. Still nice though.

Afterwards we got ice cream and took the babies home for naps. Soon enough, it was time for Kelly's birthday dinner at The Fort.

And just like that, the weekend was over. Loads more photos here and here. Sorry for the slight darkness in the photos. The camera was set wonky and they were slightly under exposed. I'm too lazy to correct them all though. Just imagine them brighter.

And the tourist fun continues next weekend when we head to Mesa Verde and Sand Dunes.

We had the opportunity to play tourists in our own state this weekend because my sister's friend and roommate from college, Erica, is in town. We started off the day with a trip to the Paris Street Market. It was way hot and though we enjoyed looking, no one bought anything.

After a quick lunch, we gathered up Matt and went to the highest auto road in North America, up to 14,127 feet on Mount Evans.

Loads of photos, here and here.

Next time Matt tells me to book the earliest flight, remind me to ignore him. We got up at 3:30 AM Nashville time this morning to catch our 6 AM flight. That's 2 AM Denver time. Blah.

We had a very nice trip. Here's a rundown:
* Tabby got to meet two grandparents (Matt's dad and stepmom), her other great-grandma and her uncle Bryan
* We saw a huge snapping turtle
* Tabby got to spend some more time with her grandma and auntie
* We ate deep fried candy bars
* We met up with two friends from college and saw another get married!
* We visited two Nashville institutions and our Alma Mater
* We saw a human chess match
* We (Matt) swam with two doggies
* We took tons of photos

There's no place like home.

Welllll … best paid plans went asunder. The hotel we were staying at lost internet connectivity and so I couldn't post anymore. Bummer. I still snapped a few photos though … so here are the last few days, minus photos from my mom.

Day 4: Downtown Oakland, Beard Papas, BART trip, Jersey Boys
Day 5: de Young museum, Golden Gate Bridge overlook, Goats for Hire
Day 6: meeting up with family, and a trip to Los Gatos (photos to follow)
Day 7: Haight Ashbury

We got in last night and we've been up to our elbows in laundry and weekly preparations. Lots more to share …

I could have sworn I put this up earlier, but for some reason it didn't make it.

Day 2 (Sunday) was our trip to wine country. I was mostly in it for the beautiful scenery, but I did enjoy a little wine as well. Here's the photos.

Hopefully I can get s'more photos up tonight!! We've been busy busy.

Well yesterday was a pretty low-key day. We got going slowly and though we had larger plans, we spent most of the day in Japan Town, which, though probably larger, is in my mind a sort of Japanese-themed mall with neat restaurants and fun shops. Full photo journal here.

In the evening, we had a delicious meal at Donna and Eddie's house, compliments of Eddie. Unfortunately, I was a bit too knackered to take any photos .