Demolition Day 2 - Worn Out!

Scott and the girls

We finished day two of the kitchen and floor demolition and I am worn out. It's been a long time since I've worked this hard. We got a lot done today and only have about an hour to do tomorrow to finish everything up. We got most of the wall removed; only two 2X4's left to remove from the ceiling and the hallway carpet, baseboards and tack boards. Beds were also delivered today so we get to sleep on a bed again. No more air mattress for awhile.

Working hard or hardly working?

The kitchen and wall are gone!

We ran a couple errands after the demo today. We needed to buy a light for the spare bedroom that we're staying in and then some odds and end stuff.

We met Mike and the girls out for dinner at Chino Bandino after and it was awesome, such a great hole in the wall restaurant. That was the first thing that Scott had eaten all day, he was starving.

Fun with Uncle Scott

After dinner we dropped the girls off at Jessica's and headed over to see Adam and Rachel. It was so great seeing Adam and meeting his fiancé. I'm glad that we're going to be in the Valley for the winter so that we can spend more time with both of them.

We got back to the condo and hit the sack. We we're able to rig an awesome set-up in the bedroom so that we can watch movies on the laptop. So we threw in a DVD and called it good for the night!

Demolition Day 1

Condo before demolition

Kitchen before demolition

We got a nice early start today on the condo but first things first; I needed cleaning supplies and a vacuum. We borrowed the vacuum from friends and bought cleaning supplies and a new lock for the front door.

I worked on cleaning the condo while Scott worked on tearing up the carpet. Between the two of us we cleaned both bathrooms, the hall closet and spare bedroom closet, as well as vacuumed the entire condo, pulled all of the tiles up from the kitchen floor and half of the carpet.

Tomorrow we should be able to finish the carpet removal and two beds will be delivered. We're both hoping that by the end of the week we'll have the entire kitchen out as well as the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room.

Taking up the tiles, demo day 1

Demo day 1 - taking up the carpet

I love demo, it is fun! The only bummer is that we're going to be living with bare bones in the condo until the kitchen is installed at the beginning of December. Oh well, I guess Scott will be doing a bunch of grilling!

Our Road trip is coming to an end

Our road trip is pretty much at the end with this past trip to Texas. We are still unaware with where we're going to end up. It's a toss up between Bend, OR and Prescott, AZ. We made the decision to stay in Phoenix for the winter to help my parents with their condo and to be with my side of the family for Christmas. At least we get to enjoy Phoenix at the best time of the year!

We both fly back to IN on Monday to visit our families since we will be in AZ for the holidays. It will also give us a chance to get some of our clothes and necessities that we need for the winter and then we will drive one of my parents cars back.

My parents are in the process of remodeling their condo and Scott and I are doing some of the work. I will continue to blog as we make progress with the condo and anything exciting that we do over the winter. We're both looking for 6 month contract jobs for the winter and are planning on hitting the road to either Oregon or Northern AZ come April or May. I guess we now have plenty of time to make our decision!

In the next few days I'm going to do a quick summary of our trip. I'm excited to actually look back and read all of the posts again. Look for more from us in the future!

On the road again

We left Austin this morning at 7:15. The drive was uneventful again; nothing too exciting. I think I slept for half the trip! I must have been worn out from the last few nights.

We're staying at my parent's condo now. When we got there we turned the air on and made a quick trip to Walgreens for water and disinfectant wipes. I gave all of the counters and toilets a quick once over before getting ready for bed.

We're sleeping on an air mattress for the next couple of nights until the beds are delivered which is no biggie... until the huge roach crawled across the floor! Yikes!! At this point it's almost 10pm and both Scott and I are thinking that there's no way we're sleeping on the floor with roaches so we quickly jumped into the truck and headed over to Lowes to buy bug spray. Thankfully there was a Target closer and Scott made it through the doors with about 2 minutes to spare. Once we were back at the condo Scott sprayed for bugs and made me feel a bit more at ease. I don't think I'll truly feel comfortable until the beds arrive!

Otherwise, we had a relaxing night playing two handed euchre.

Last day in Austin

Taking Ume on a walk

We finally got up at a decent time today and decided to take the dogs on a nice long walk since they didn't get much of one yesterday. We headed over to Lady Bird Lake, a place where Laura takes the dogs often.

There was a nice dirt trail along the lake that many jobbers, walkers, and bikers use. It was nice and thankfully shaded by the trees. We ended up walking our way to the place we went the first day with the dogs and let them go for a swim. There was such a cute lab puppy and a couple cute german shepherd puppies, it was fun. Ume does such a good job with his recent blindness you would hardly even know! It's also fun to watch Gaia swim. I think she was meant to live near water as much as she goes in it!

We had a lazy afternoon but did pick up a couch for my parent's condo from one of Laura's clients. We also went to a frozen yogurt place for a quick afternoon treat.

Later in the evening we all played a couple rounds of dirty clubs and Laura cooked dinner. She made us lamb chops with butternut squash soup and sautéed arugula. The dinner was awesome!

We leave tomorrow, what a bummer, it's been so much fun here!

We've gone batty!



For the third day in a row we slept in past 10am...boy do we have it hard!

Today was a very low key day. We ate at a Tex - Mex place for brunch. Laura scored a free record player and speakers curbside and we went shopping!

After brunch we headed over to Lowes so that Laura and I could look at paint samples for our parent's condo. We dropped Scott off at the house and Laura and I headed to an outdoor mall in North Austin. The plan was to check out a gluten free bakery. The bakery was a huge disappointment! We were hoping for something similar to Sweet Freedom in Philly and it wasn't even close. We opted instead for a drink from Starbucks.

We then headed back to Whole Foods in downtown Austin. It was so much fun. Of course, we sampled more wine and bought a couple more bottles. It was fun to just walk around and enjoy the store. We also bought some gluten free chocolate pudding that we both shared before we left the store. It was so good.

Waiting for the Bats!

Austin is famous for their bats which reside each summer under the Congress St Bridge. At the height of the season there are over a million bats. Each night at dusk the bats leave the bridge to go looking for food. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of insects are eaten each night. Neither Scott nor I had seen the bats and wanted to check them out. We sat in a grassy patch beneath the bridge with tons of other people. There were many families. It was fun sitting there because you could hear the bats but couldn't see them. As soon as dusk came, about 7:15, we could see what looked like a black cloud leaving the underside of the bridge. It was cool. We tried to get pics and took a video but it was too dark. They say that sometimes it takes over 45 minutes for all of the bats to leave. At the end of this month the bats will leave for the winter and head south.

View from the bats and people on the bridge.

For dinner Laura made halibut with a tomato sauce, green beans with almonds, and clove and orange zest rice. The meal was delicious!

Alamo Drafthouse

Hangar Lounge

Well, we slept in until 10am again today. I guess it doesn't help when we stay out late the night before.

Laura cooked us another delicious egg scramble. After breakfast we took the dogs on a nice long hike. Austin has a huge urban trail system. Many of the trails are right along water. The hike we did today was called The Greenbelt and should have been along water the entire way, but with the excessive heat and draught most of the water was dried up. We did find a huge pool of water for the dogs and it was fun to watch them swim. Ume did such a good job! Laura let him off leash and he did well following the trail, only a couple times he got confused or went off trail. We played fetch with both Ume and Gaia in the water. As long as we threw a large stick and Ume could hear it plop than most of the time he could find it (as long as Gaia didn't take it). For just going blind earlier this year, he's doing really good!

After the hike we went back to the house and quickly got cleaned up so that we could make it to a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Austin. The Alamo is awesome and unlike any movie experience I've ever had. The theatre serves food, beer and liquor. Entering the Drafthouse everything is very rustic. The particular one that we went to only has two theaters. For each showing, people typically get there about 30-45 minutes early. You wait in line and are seated in a large group. The chars are about the same as in any other theatre but in front of the chairs there's a long table and then an aisle way which sits about a foot lower from where you're seated. There are menus located at each seat and to place your order you write it on a slip of paper and place it in a holder on the table anytime before or throughout the movie. There are two sets of previews for each of the movies as well. The first set, which lasts about a half hour, are short scenes from old and obscure movies that somehow relate to the movie you're going to watch. After these previews the feature film starts. A cool thing with the Drafthouse is that in addition to new releases they also play old movies. We were there to see a new release, The Thing, but they were also playing The Shinning as well. These theatres are a very cool concept and if you ever get a chance to visit one check it out. We went to a 5:10pm movie and it was only $7 and the food was very inexpensive! We spent the same amount at this theatre as we would have at a more mainstream place but had a full meal and drinks.

After the awesome movie, which by the way, completely scared Laura and me, we headed to 4th St. to check out another downtown Austin scene. We stopped at a bar called Hangar Lounge and it was awesome. There were three levels with a bar on the first floor, a lounge on the second floor and a rooftop bar. The drinks we're super cheap and the location was perfect for people watching below. Scott mentioned that if Austin had mountains he would want to move there. We also met up with one of Laura's friends, Jesse. After Hangar Lounge we headed over to 6th St. to check out the festivities. What a difference between 4th and 6th streets. Imagine 4th street as professionals and 6th St. as a college frat party. Honestly, I don't know which scene we liked better... LOL. The cool thing with 6th St. is that the whole street is shut down for a couple blocks so that you don't have to worry about traffic.

Another great and fun day in Austin.

Austin, TX

Wow, Scott and I slept in until 10:30am Austin time this morning. I can't believe it! I guess it is two hours earlier here than Phoenix.

We had a fun day today once we actually got moving. Laura made us a delicious egg scrabble breakfast. We then headed out to the lake for a nice walk with the dogs. On the walk we also went to Barton Springs, a popular swimming hole in Austin. The people side was closed but the dogs enjoyed a quick dip.

After the walk Laura took us over to West Austin. West Austin is really nice because it's so hilly. After the trek out west we went for our first BBQ at the Salt Lick.

The Salt Lick is such a cool spot and I can definitely see how on the weekends the place is packed. It's about a twenty minute drive from Austin and is a very rustic restaurant. When you first walk into the restaurant you are greeted by a huge wood fire grill/barbecue pit about 10-12 feet in diameter. You are also greeted by an incredible aroma that just gets your mouth watering! You sit at long or short picnic type benches and tables. The menu is fairly basic with anything from beef brisket to pork ribs. For most of the plates you can choose two sides, let me just tell you that the potato salad is amazing and not mayo based. On the same grounds as the Salt Lick there is also a small winery. We didn't check it out, but it also looked very rustic. In addition to the inside seating you can also sit outside under huge trees (had the weather been cooler we probably would have taken advantage). The grounds are beautiful with trees all around, grassy areas, and the vineyards. Laura mentioned that it's a popular place for weddings and I can believe it.

After the Salt Lick we headed over to the Flagship Whole Foods store in downtown Austin. I love Whole Foods and this one puts all of them to shame! We all had to do some wine tasting while at the store and of course ended up buying a few bottles. It was so good.

Later, Laura and I headed over to her friend's place who is a hair stylist and I finally got a much needed haircut and color. Meg did an awesome job and I'm sure she will be very successful.

We then headed back to the house to pick up Scott to check out the local scene. Laura took us to Rainey St. It was awesome. Pretty much imagine a residential street where slowly, properties are being zoned commercial and bars are opening in the houses. Definitely a unique and cool scene however I wouldn't want to live on that street!

Overall it's been a great first day in Austin, two more to go!

Are we there yet?

BORED!!

We got to Austin today to visit my sister. We were expecting a 16 hour drive today and thankfully it only took about 14.5 hours. Scott was a good chauffeur.

We left Phoenix at about 6:30 this morning. I slept until we were south of Tucson and then stayed awake for the rest of the trip. Scott stayed awake for the whole trip as well.

The drive was uneventful. After Tucson the largest city that we went through was El Paso and that was West Texas, we still had the whole state to go through...

Hello!

The part of Texas that we went through will definitely not win awards for most scenic. We did drive past many desert mountains but other than that it was land covered in scrub brush. It seems like many of the bushes were brownish/reddish. I'm not sure if that's because it's fall or because the bushes are dying because of the severe draught that Texas is in. There were no trees, it was a pretty desolate drive.

As the sun was setting the scenery started to change as we made our way into the hill country. We could see that there were trees but that's about it. The beginning of the drive back to Phoenix should be very nice.

We got into town at about 11:00pm Austin time and visit with Laura until 1ish. We are all looking forward to the next few days!

Location:Austin, TX

Sunday - Funday

So I think we're pretty much 99% sure we're staying in the valley for the winter.  I'm definitely excited that we're going to enjoy the great weather and living near friends again. 

We've had a low key day today.  We left Shawn and Erin's this morning and started the errand running.

We headed over to the hospital again today to see my Uncle Ernie; unfortunately he was asleep again so we didn't get a chance to say hi.  I guess we'll have to keep on trying, the third time's a charm right?  :-)

After the hospital we headed over to my parent's condo.  It was the first time that I've seen the condo and after all the remodeling it's going to be really nice.  Scott and I are planning on doing lots of the work and I can't wait! 

After checking out the condo we went back down to Brian and Jen's place and watched football.  It was a nice relaxing day.

Hiking in the Superstition Mountains

Hiking! - Scott, Mandy, JD, Jason, Bud

Today was another beautiful Arizona day!!  While we were hiking yesterday I mentioned to Scott that we should plan a day hike with a bunch of our old hiking buddies for today and sure enough, most everyone was available. 

We did a 9 mile hike called the Black Mesa Loop.  The scenery was beautiful out there; I've forgotten just how nice it is to hike in the desert.  We were surrounded by mountains, red rocks, and many types of cacti.  I don't even think it broke 80 degrees while we were out there.  I think after hiking the trails in the Superstitions, the hike has sealed the deal with us staying in Phoenix for the winter!

After the hike we headed over to Shawn and Erin's for a BBQ.  Mike and the girls were there and we also got to see Claire!  What a fun night eating good food and hanging out with the best people!  If only the summer's weren't so hot then it would be easier to move back here full-time.

It's Finally Friday!

The weather has gotten cooler here in Phoenix for the week and we are planning on taking advantage of it. 

Our plans were to hike Camelback since it was in the 60's today but when we got to the mountain there were no parking spots and we didn't want to wait so we headed over to Piestewa Peak.  This is not our favorite hike in the valley but it's the same distance as Camelback.  It was tough, but the weather was beautiful!

After the hike we met up with some friends of ours, Steve and Shawn at Ono Hawaiian BBQ.  The food was delicious, but something happened to Shawn's order and he never received it.  We were not all that thrilled with the way they handled it and only credited him the cost of his lunch...he still had to pay for his bottle of water.  I won't be in a hurry to visit Ono again anytime soon.

We also stopped by the CDI office to say hi to TD.  It was so great to see Terry; I haven't talked to him in a couple years or so.  He cracks me up like there's no tomorrow.  We'll definitely have to catch up with him again before we leave town.

After CDI we met Dave another friend from CDI, out for a couple drinks; it was good to catch up with him as well.  We also had a chance to catch up with Rhonda, Timm, and Shirley.  It's been awhile since both Scott and I have seen everyone so it was great to catch up. 

When we got back to Brian and Jen's house; Brian grilled up some Kobe burgers.  Man it was good.  We then played a couple rounds of Mexican Train.  I know I say this often, but days just don't get much better than this!!

Last day in Prescott

House in Prescott

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day today.  Today was our last day in Prescott at the Hutching's house.  Thanks so much for letting us stay at the house, we loved it!

What a great time we've had enjoying the house, relaxing. and checking out a couple new potential places to live.

We had another lazy morning (this seems to be the theme of our time in Prescott).  We took a walk around the historic neighborhood and then decided to take the kayak's out.  This was both of our first times kayaking and it was so much fun. 

We went out to Watson Lake.  There were huge boulders in and around the lake with mountains in the background.  It was very scenic and fun!  Kayaks will definitely be something that we invest in.

After the kayaking we headed back to the Valley and met Brian and Jen out at a sushi restaurant.

It's a chilly day in the high country!

Brrr, it sure is chilly up here in Prescott. Today we woke up to chilly temperatures and lots of wind. We had another lazy morning and then decided to go for a mountain bike ride and check out more of Prescott.

We ended up doing about a 10 mile ride on the 396 Trail. It was great single track. The trail went through pine forests, high desert, boulders and passed two lakes. It was awesome. The trail was just an out and back and on the way out it felt like we climbed the entire way. That made for an awesome downhill the entire way back. The ride was incredible!

After the ride we headed back to the house but took a nice detour through a couple neighborhoods to check out more of the area. Prescott is definitely turning out to be much nicer than what Scott and I remember.

We had a nice relaxing night at the house and we're looking forward to one more day in the pines.

Flagstaff

We got some bad news this morning (family related) which has definitely put life in perspective to both of us.  We ended up having a slow morning and then opted to head to Flagstaff to add a positive note to the day.

We decided to take 89A up through Jerome, Sedona and then on to Flag.  I can't remember if we've ever taken this route from Prescott to Flagstaff so it was good to try something new.  The drive between Prescott and Sedona was nice.  We drove through some interesting rock formations and then through high desert with amazing mountains in the background.  For the entire drive rain was threatening but it managed to hold off.  The drive from Sedona to Flag was beautiful.  We went through Oak Creek Canyon, a drive we've both done many times, and enjoyed the scenery. 

Driving into Flag was just what we had remembered.  Upon diving into town Scott said "We need to rent a house here".  Sounds like his mind is made up....  Flagstaff is definitely an important/special place to us.  For the eight years that I lived in Phoenix we went camping in Flagstaff at least three weekends a month every summer between May and September.  Most every weekend that we camped, there were at least 2-3 other couples/friends and dogs that came along.  We have tons of memories of hiking, biking, lounging in our hammocks and just loving life!  We've always said that we would live in Flag in a heartbeat!

We wanted to do a nice hike into the aspen trees (one of our favorites from the years of coming up here) so we headed up Mount Elden.  The first and biggest change on our drive up the mountain road were the no fire signs posted and the second change that we noticed was how unmaintained the road had become.  When we got up to the Shultz Creek Water Tank we noticed a huge new bulletin board with information regarding fire and I started to notice charred trees.  Within about 30 seconds we could start to see the fire damage.  Let me just say that this was pretty awful for us.  We decided to continue along the road to see if our campsite was still around and we couldn't find it.  The fire had wiped out everything! 

We turned around and headed back to the Weatherford Trailhead and decided to read about the fire.  Sure enough, this fire had taken place last June from a campfire and scorched 26 miles of our beloved Mount Elden. 

We headed up the trail and could see that the trees along the trail had been scorched, but everything was green and alive.  We saw a deer run accross the trail about 50 yards in front of us.  It was fast.  Unfortunately, the further we hiked the reality started to sink in that one of our favorite hiking trails has forever changed.  The trail eventually forks to the right where there are tons of aspen trees and the trail is extremely scenic.  Unfortunately, this is also the side of the trail where there was the most fire damage.  When we reached the fork, the direction we had wanted to go was closed due to fire damage and probably rehabilitation efforts.  Nothing like trying to raise our sprirts by coming to a place that we both love and finding the destruction that the fire has caused.

When we got back down to Shultz Tank near the trail head we took a little walk around the water.  We decided that it was probably time to head back down to town and it was getting cold out (in the 50's). 

We decided to have Beaver Street for dinner and Oregano's for dessert, it was good.  When we left the restaurant it was raining.  We drove in rain for the next hour on our way back to Prescott. 

What a day, we both left Flag with a definite sadness that one of our favorite places we have ever been will take years to regrow.

The Road Trip Continues - Prescott

We left for Prescott this morning.  Both Scott and I are excited because we are staying at a friends house that is very close to the historic downtown square and Wisky Row.  I was very excited to see it.

We opted to drive through Wickenburg instead of taking the interstate.  We've both done this drive in the past, but it was years ago.  The drive ended up being very scenic and went much faster than we had anticipated.  Wickenburg is a neat town and the surrounding mountains and desert are beautiful.  About 30 minutes outside of Wickenburg is when we started heading up and over the moutain to get into Prescott.  The drive was amazing.

The house that we're staying at is so charming it's unbelievable.  It is a shingled bungalow that is on the national histoic register in Prescott.  From the outside the house looks tiny, but inside it is perfect.  There's crown molding, built in cabinets and even a little "milk man delivery cubby" (I'm not sure what it's actually called).  The house is great, hopefully the next house Scott and I buy will have similar charm. 

We didn't even get a chance to unload all of our stuff and the rain, hail, thunder and lightning started.  The storm felt like it was right on top of us.  I stood on the covered front porch and just watched it come down.  It's been a long time since I've seen a storm like this come through.  Needless to say, Scott and I had to stay indoors until the storm blew over.  Neither one of us complained, we had a nice relaxing afternoon just hanging out, watching some tv and enjoying the cute house that we have for the next few days.

We decided that we would walk to the square to get a drink, check out some of the stores and watch some Monday Night Football.  Prescott is such a charming western town.  There were tons of people out and about with their families and dogs.  The walk was nice. 

On our walk home at about half-time I saw something in front of us on the street kind of waddling along.  On better inspection it was a skunk!  Thankfully I noticed it when I did so we definietly slowed our walk down. 

We enjoyed our first day in Prescott, hopefully the weather cooperates for the rest of our time here and we can get a few good rides, hikes and use of the kayaks we borrowed from Brian and Jen.

Phoenix

 It's been a fun and relaxing week.

We headed back over to Mike's Tuesday evening so that I could finish the girls purses with them. We had a fun night of decorating the purses and visiting with Mike and Jen.

Scott and I decided to go on a hike Wednesday morning on South Mountain again. This time we opted for a couple trails that we are both very familiar with. We went hiking at about 9:30 and it was already hot outside. We had a good hike. After the hike we just relaxed around Brian and Jen's pool again.

Scott left for his annual fishing trip up to New Mexico on Thursday. I also found some motivation Thursday morning to go for a 3.5 mile run. It was beautiful and felt great; however I wish I would have started about an hour earlier. I relaxed around the pool for the afternoon and met Mike for my first hot yoga class and then we went out for dinner. The yoga class was great however it was hot. I've never sweat so much in my life.  The room was at 100 degrees for the entire class.   As I looked around the room I could see sweat dripping off of everyone.   Dinner was also great.  Mike took me to a restaurant called True Food Kitchen. The food was delicious! Overall, today was an awesome day.

Brian and Jen left town Friday afternoon for the weekend and I stayed back and dog sat and enjoyed some time alone. Friday and Saturday flew by and the only thing I had to do each day was to make sure the dogs were fed! I spent the next two days relaxing by the pool, watching tv, reading and playing with and taking the dogs for walks.

Scott, Brian, and Jen all came back Sunday afternoon. It was great having everyone back in town! Tomorrow we leave for Prescott, I can't wait!

Valley of the Sun

Savana at dinner Friday night

We have been having such a great time in Phoenix so far!!! I have missed everyone and it's been so great to catch up.

We woke up bright and early today to hike Camelback. What a great way to spend the morning. We then went over to La Grande Orange for their homemade english muffins and a piece of red velvet cake. We spend the afternoon hanging out by the pool, I guess it's good that Phoenix is expecting above average temperatures. We spent Friday night with Mike and the girls. I can't believe how they are both like little ladies now and not little girls. We had such a fun time with them. We also got to visit Uncle Ernie in the rehab center. Hopefully the physical therapy will help to heal his back quickly and he can be up and moving soon.

Brian and Jen's Dog - Pedals

Brian and Jen's dog - Velo

We did another hike Saturday morning on South Mountain. We met Jerry and his dog Macie. It was a great time catching up with him and hiking a new trail. We spent Saturday afternoon with Mike and the girls again hanging out at the pool at Mike's condo. Shawn, Erin, Jen, and Jason all came over. We had a fun afternoon. After hanging out at the pool Jen, the girls and I all went to see The Lion King in 3D and then to Jo-Ann Fabric to buy craft things to make purses. It was so much fun and the girls were very excited as they picked out fabric and obliques for their purses. Unfortunately, we got home too late to actually start putting them together so we have a project to look forward to tomorrow. The guys and Erin all went to watch the UFC fight.

Sunday morning we headed over to Mike's again so that the girls and I could start the purses and paint nails. Kailey had swim practice so Scott and I headed back to Ahwatukee to watch the Bears game at a local bar. Mike and Kelly also met us. It was so much fun!! We then went back to Brian and Jen's for their incredible crab legs and to watch the Sunday night game. What a great Sunday.

Miles and Pedals - Lazy day

We had a lazy day on Monday and just hung out at Brian and Jen's all day. Scott and I made a good dinner of grilled steaks and couscous. It was delicious!

Phoenix

We drove nine hours today.

From Farmington we headed for Alpine, Arizona. We have property for sale there and about six months ago Arizona had the largest wildfire on record less than a mile from our property so we thought that we should head up there to check out the property and to see what the surrounding mountains looked like. We were very happy when we arrived in town to see that there were still plenty of forests and that the whole area did not burn. We also stopped in to talk with our real estate agent to find out what the market has been like and if there's anything we can do to have our property sell sooner. It was a good and productive visit.

We then headed to Phoenix. I was a little worried because it was looking like we would get there right during rush hour, but thankfully we were able to take advantage of the carpool lanes!

We're staying with Brian and Jen for the next week and it should be a good one. I can't wait to see my nieces tomorrow night and then spend the weekend with them; we're going to have a good time.

I won't be blogging everyday that we're here; most likely it will be every few days. Coming back to Phoenix is like home to me and it's going to be fun seeing a bunch of friends and places that I haven't seen in a few years. We're planning on hiking Camelback mountain in the morning and then going poolside for the afternoon.

Autumn is in the Air

I was up at the crack of dawn today (6am that is). That's impressive for me for those of you who don't know me well. I was ready to get moving and start exploring new places...unfortunately Scott was still tired and wanted more sleep. That doesn't happen too often where I'm ready to start the day and he wants to sleep; although he says it was just too cold to get out of his sleeping bag. I finally got him moving at about 8am. The tent was covered in frost, apparently it was cold last night, I was nice and toasty with my many layers of clothes, blankets, and sleeping bag.

Fall Colors

We left for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park through the Rocky Mountains and wow, was the entire drive today beautiful. All of the aspen trees and oak bushes are in the process of changing colors. The drive was beautiful and I can only imagine how much nicer it will be a week from now. Even today we saw yellows and reds! I LOVE the fall.

Huge Canyon

Rapids

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was beautiful. Essentially, it was a huge canyon approximately 140 miles long and over 2000 feet deep. We only saw the south end but we are told the north end is even more spectacular. We didn't do a hike today but even on the rim, 2000 feet above the rushing water, we could hear the rapids. The views were spectacular and Scott is already planning our next trip back to this canyon for a few days of backpacking.

After Gunnison we headed for Durango. This portion of the drive may be Scott's and my favorite of the trip. We passed through two very charming mountain towns, Ouray and Silverton. The entire drive felt like we were going through an amazing gorge/canyon the entire 60 miles. Some portions of the ride were very stressful because there was not a railing and about one foot from the road was a steep drop off. I was thankful we were behind a semi truck that way Scott had to go the speed limit. Other portions of the drive were on green and yellow plateaus and then before we knew it we were headed either up or down another mountain. We also passed through mining towns along the way. It was an incredible drive with all of the trees and plant life changing colors, the crystal clear streams/rivers and some streams that looked yellow, the huge pine trees, and the bare granite peaks with snow. The scenery and drive were breathtaking!

After Durango we headed to Farmington, NM for the night. Tonight we are just doing a quick stop over and then we're hitting the road hopefully bright and early in the morning. When we arrived in Farmington tonight the temperature was 83, I think this is the warmest weather we've seen for over a week. It's only supposed to get down to the 50's tonight!

In Loving Memory of Grandma Ruth

My grandmother passed away this morning peacefully with her family by her side. She was 90 years old. She was loved and will be missed by many. Now she is able to see her son and be with her siblings in heaven. Thankfully I was able to talk with her one last time last night. Love you grandma and see you again someday. 

Colorado Springs Day 2

Crags Trail Hike

Today started off as an exciting day of exploring a new town. We decided to first drive around to the different parts of town and then head to the mountains for a hike.

We spent two hours driving around town and never really got a good feeling. We enjoyed the downtown area yesterday but in general Colorado Springs feels old, not young and vibrant. We did find a really cool mountain park named Palmer in the middle of town that we drove through and walked around. This park had a ton of hiking, biking, and horse trails. Definitely a cool feature, but everything around the park felt old. One kind of funny thing that we saw in a neighborhood were three deer in the front yard eating newly planted trees and shrubs. I guess this was funny to us, not so much to the homeowner.

Garden of the Gods - National Natural Landmark

We also drove through the Garden of the Gods Park (a registered national natural landmark). This park consists of hiking, biking, and horse trails and can be seen from most areas of the city. The park has red rock formations throughout. It was a neat drive.

We then headed back up into the Rockies. We had wanted to drive up Pikes Peak, a 14,000+ foot granite peak, but the National Forest Service charged $12 per person and we decided not to. We did however drive over to Woodland Park, a city in the mountains. It was a very cool town of approximately 7600 people, surrounded by pine trees, with views of Pikes Peak. This is definitely a place where I could live because it's only a 20 minute drive to downtown Colorado Springs.

Aspen and Blue Spruce

Granite Peak

We also did a five mile hike (Crags Trail) today and it was beautiful! The hike started at 10,000 feet so I was a little nervous but it ended up being perfect. We hiked alongside a creek for the beginning of the hike, then through aspen tree groves, blue spruces, and huge boulder fields and granite peaks. The aspen trees were beautiful because they were already turning yellow. The creek was crystal clear and all that I could think about was how Mati and Jackson would have loved to run through the water and stop for drinks. The pine trees that we saw were awesome. I've never seen so many blue spruce trees together. At the end of the trail we had an incredible view of three lakes in the valley below. The hike was incredible.

As we were finishing up dinner at the campsite tonight a red fox thought he would check us out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving and sure enough, it was a fox. He ran right through our site and then walked across to another one...apparently the hotdogs and sausages that Scott grilled tonight were appetizing to the fox also.

Overall, today has been kind of a bummer day for Scott. He was very excited, (as excited as he ever gets), when we pulled into town yesterday and today Colorado Springs did not live up to his expectations. The hike was awesome though so thankfully we did that today.

I'm not sure where we're headed tomorrow; I guess we'll see once we stop!

Colorado Springs

Thank you again Mike and Jaimee for letting us crash with you guys.

We woke up today knowing that we would be leaving Denver but didn't really have a plan. We left the house around 10am and headed to breakfast, Starbucks (to post the previous four days and update pictures on the blog) and the grocery store. While we were at Starbucks we received an email that we had to sign all of the closing documents on our house. Well that entailed printing them, finding a notary, and then next day shipping. Thankfully, we hadn't left Denver yet so we called Mike to see if we could go back to the house to print the documents. We then went to Wells Fargo for the notary and then went next door to UPS. It was now 3pm and we were finally on our way!

A little north of Colorado Springs things started looking up. The mountains seemed a lot closer and there were pines trees all around us. We were happy and wishing that Denver had been similar. We decided that it wouldn't hurt to take a quick drive through town to see what we thought. I think if it were up to Scott we would be staying. Colorado Springs seems to be Scott's number one place so far...let the compromising begin! We spent the afternoon driving around town and into the mountains southwest of the city. We were both very impressed with what we saw. We're going to plan on spending a couple nights here.

So we thought we would do the usual KOA and when we drove up to it we were not impressed. It looked like we would be camping on gravel, not fun. So, we spent the next hour driving around to different campgrounds...unfortunately most of them were mainly for RVs. Thankfully, my phone has a cool app and we found a nice little campground in the mountains in a cool town called Cascade. Now, I could see us living here! Tree covered mountains surrounding us and a quick 20 minutes drive into town. It is beautiful here. We also saw a red fox, he was so cool and really close.

Tomorrow we plan on doing a nice little hike and checking out Colorado Springs and the surrounding towns more.

It's supposed to get down into the mid-40's tonight. Hopefully staying the last week at Mike and Jaimee's hasn't made me soft so that I freeze all night. It will be sweats, long sleeves, and wool socks for me.

I think we've found another potential place to live! Yay!

Washington Park

Mandy and Aralyn

We missed the first weekend of football so we decided to stay an extra day in Denver to hang out with Mike and Jaimee and to watch at least one game.  Yay!

Jaimee and Aralyn were up early today for a 5k and tot trot and Scott and I were lazy and slept in.  Once we were up we headed back to Denver to the Washington Park area.  I love Wash Park, it's awesome and by far a place where I could see Scott and me living.  The Washington Park area is just Southeast of downtown Denver but still close enough to walk/bike to town.  For the most part the homes are older bungalow styles with a few new homes scattered throughout.  The area was very charming!  Also, in Washington Park there is a huge park so Mike, Scott and I all hung out in the park playing frisbee, catch, and paddle ball.  After the race Jaimee and Aralyn met us at the park.  Scott and I also set-up our slack line and had some fun on that while Aralyn played in the kiddie area. 

One awesome thing about Denver and the surrounding areas is that everything is connected by urban trails.  These trails go all throughout the city, into the surrounding suburbs, and into the mountains.  Definitely a cool factor!

When we got home from the park we watched the Bears game, it was fun but unfortunately, the Bears lost...bummer.

Mike and Jaimee had another BBQ and Tom and Karine (their neighbors) came back over.  We ate good food and played a few rounds of corn hole.  It was a fun evening. 

We've had a great time hanging out with Mike, Jaimee, and Aralyn!  Thanks for letting us crash, it's been great fun!

Red Rocks and Downtown Denver

Mike, Jaimee, Aralyn, Scott and I all spent the day together.

We headed to Red Rocks which is a hiking area and outdoor concert amphitheater built into massive red rock boulders. It is a very cool venue that is open to the public when events are not booked. It's a great people watching place because many of the people are running steps or the rows of the theatre. It was fun!

We then headed to downtown Denver. The first stop was the flagship REI store. It was huge and awesome. I'm stoked because I finally got a new pair of hiking boots!

We then headed to the 16th St Mall. One of the first things Scott mentioned about downtown was that it seemed very clean. The mall is a huge area that is pedestrian friendly with shopping, restaurants and bars. The only vehicles in the mall area are the buses that are free. They are electric busses and run from one end of the mall to the other. It's a popular place during the week for people who work downtown to get a bite to eat and popular all of the time with tourists. It was definitely a cool area.

We had a lazy evening last night with Scott and me hitting the sack early. 

Estes Park

The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park

Today we headed up to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Estes Park is an awesome mountain town. It's very touristy with the main street lined with shops and restaurants with the backdrop as snow covered mountains! The town is beautiful! We had a good time walking around and ate at a good deli for lunch. The Stanley hotel is also in Estes Park. The hotel in the movie The Shinning was replicated after The Stanley.

After Estes Park we had also planned on heading to Rocky Mountain National Park, however we forgot our National Parks pass in the truck at the house so we decided not to go because we didn't want to pay the entrance fee.

Later that night Mike and Jaimee had friends over for a BBQ and then we all had planned to head downtown. The BBQ was a blast and their neighbors are hysterical! Instead of heading downtown we ended up relaxing on the back deck for the night.

Boulder, Golden, and the Kerrs

It's cloudy again with a chance of rain today. Thankfully we don't have much planned.

We headed up to Boulder and Golden this morning. Scott and I had high expectations for both places.

Boulder was definitely a cool place but not one where I see Scott or me settling. It's very expensive. Downtown Boulder is very pedestrian friendly and has many blocks designated for pedestrians only for walking past the shops and restaurants. One thing that we noticed was there are no dogs allowed in these pedestrian areas. That's a huge turn off for us since we like to take our dogs everywhere.

The views were beautiful in Boulder though. Boulder is right up against the Rockies.

Golden was a very nice town as well. Golden is located in the foothills of the Rockies, so definitely more of what we're looking for. Housing is expensive in Golden as well because the town is landlocked and cannot expand anymore.

After our tour in Boulder and Golden we headed to Arvada to meet up with cousins of mine that I haven't seen in years. Scott and I had such a great time catching up with Ellen and Ed. They we're telling us about a bunch of places to check out while we're here in Colorado. Ed also showed us his incredible garden. The pumpkins were the best ones I've seen! The four of us then met Caroline and Sean out to dinner at a delicious local Italian restaurant. We got a pizza and it was so good. We had a fun night catching up with Sean and Caroline also. After dinner we headed back to Ellen and Ed's house for homemade peach pie. The pie was so good! Ellen also sent us home with a loaf of zucchini bread; I guess I know what's for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully we all see each other again and don't wait another 15 years.

Gray clouds and a chance of rain



Scott and Mike at Deer Creek Canyon

Everything we always hear about Colorado is that they get more sunny days than Miami and that it doesn't rain much. We woke up to complete cloud covered skies and an 80% chance of rain today. It actually turned out nice because we got to relax a bit.

Mike took us to do a great hike in Deer Creek Canyon about 15 minutes from where he lives. The hike ended up taking about 3 hours. We hiked along the side of a mountain and then to the top. We started in high desert, brushy landscape and before too long we were in the pines. The views of the foothills and mountain homes were great and on a clear day we could have seen all of Denver. Thankfully it didn't rain and the weather ended up being perfect for a hike. While we were hiking we saw an australian shepherd and a border collie, definitely makes me miss my dogs.

Scott's been craving a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks so we headed to
Starbucks for drinks and to get our recent pics downloaded and update the blog. As we were sitting there it started to pour down rain. I guess this means that we are not going to grill out dinner like we had wanted to. On to plan B.

Scott and I ended up making dinner tonight. We made a dill, orange, salmon filet, spicy mac and cheese, and roasted zucchini. It turned out delish. We ended up having another relaxing evening with everyone.

Fort Collins, Colorado

We slept in way too late today, but it felt great. We got up, had a couple pieces of toast and started our day. On our agenda was to check out Fort Collins and also stop by to see a friend of ours that we haven't seen in years.

Today we finally returned that tent we bought at the beginning of our trip in Illinois. When the tent broke there were no stores until Denver, so it felt good to make a little space in the truck.

Fort Collins was an okay town. It's home to Colorado State. There are a few cool streets with restaurants, bars and little local shops. Mike happened to be working up in the area so we got to meet him for lunch and hang out with him the remainder of the day.

Mike took us over to Poudre Canyon to check out the views and this cool little outdoor concert bar type of place. Unfortunately, the Bar was closed but it was a very scenic view through the canyon. We stopped at a camp ground on the Poudre river and headed down to the shore for a while. Being there sure gave Scott the fly fishing bug.

We then headed to Horsetooth Reservoir. Very cool scenery!

After the reservoir we headed to Loveland to see Ryan, a guy we met through a good friend of ours in Phoenix. We met him at his gym and it was great to see him and catch up.

We finally got back to Mike and Jaimee's a little after 8. Jaimee and I did some talking while the guys watched tv. We had a good relaxing night!

Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake

We're headed to Denver today, with two nice new shiny tires!

The drive between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs was uneventful, mostly drove through high dessert following the Colorado river. Once we got near Glenwood Springs the drive changed from dessert landscapes to mountains with pine trees.

Hanging Lake

Our friend Mike Reed who lives in Denver recommended that we do a hike about seven miles west of Glenwood Springs called Hanging Lake. It was a relatively short hike, about two miles round trip, but it was beautiful and difficult. The trail went up a canyon and crisscrossed a stream several times and went over huge boulders and rocks. It was beautiful! Once we got to the top of hanging lake it was breathtaking. There were two waterfalls into the very small lake and the water was crystal clear. The colors of the lake, the vegetation, and the canyon walls were beautiful. The hike was fantastic.

Crystal Clear

We had originally planned on heading to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, but the Hanging Lake hike was so highly recommended that we bi-passed the park. We may check it out when we leave CO.

The remainder of the drive to Denver was great. We went through the ski town of Vail and it was beautiful. We also drove over a 10,000+ foot pass. For the most part we were in the pines for the majority of the drive. Right before reaching Denver we came out of the mountains and through the foothills for a while. The views here are awesome!

For the next week we're staying with the Reeds just south of Denver. We're looking forward to some great hiking and checking out as much of the area as possible. We had a great night catching up with Mike and Jaimee and meeting their daughter Aralyn. It's been way to long since we've seen them! They gave us all kinds of information about the area and things that we need to check out while we're here. Sounds like it's going to be a busy week!

Flat Tire Colorado

Landscape Arch

What another beautiful day in the desert. We had sunshine today as we packed our campsite and headed into town for breakfast. Today we opted for bagel sandwiches. There is no shortage of food in Moab.

Arches National Park

We then headed back to Arches National Park to check out a couple more arches and a quick hike. One of the arches we saw today was huge! Back on sept 1, 1991 a huge 60 foot chunk fell from the bottom of the arch and amazingly, the arch still stands today. The largest arch that we saw today was called Landscape Arch and it was as big as a football field.

"Park Street", Arches National Park

After Arches we headed for Colorado. We had planned to do an awesome, but very strenuous hike today but we'll be saving that for tomorrow. We got a flat tire about 13 miles outside of Grand Junction, CO (where we had planned to stop to get two new tires...). A nice highway patrol man stopped and parked behind us, so that gave us some comfort while Scott changed the tire on the side of highway 70. Poor Scott, of course we got the flat under a huge gray cloud and it spit rain the entire time he changed the tire.

Flat Tire

We decided to stay the night in Grand Junction, so we did it up right and got a hotel room and ate dinner at Outback. When we got back to the hotel we headed straight for the hot tub, yay!

Tomorrow we will be heading to Discount Tire first thing.

2 for 1



View from our campsite, LaSal Mountain range

After a very nice night of sleep on our new air mattress we headed out to breakfast and then for a mountain bike ride. One thing that Scott has been looking forward to doing on this whole trip is to ride Moab's slick rock. For those of you who mountain bike probably already know this, but the slick rock that Moab has to offer is a definite must do if you ride.

Scott's Happy, Slickrock Baby!

Thanks to Poison Spider Bicycles for recommending perfect trails for us. We had an awesome ride today and I'm still alive to talk about it! The slick rock was phenomenal as well as the other trails that we rode (Bar M/Lazy EZ/Rockin' A trails).

Delicate Arch

Petroglyths from the Ute/Paiute Cultures

After our ride we decided to check out Arches National Park. The great thing with Staying in Moab is that you are within 30 miles of Canyonlands, Arches, mountain biking as well as a plethora of other outdoor activities. Arches National Park has over 2000 documented arches. We saw a few today and hiked to Delicate Arch; the most popular and probably the most familiar as it is pictured on the Utah license plate. The hike was about three miles long and the majority was on slick rock. The park is filled with tons of beautiful red sandstone. We also saw many huge formations and crazy rocks balancing on what seems like nothing. After our hike though, we were done and decided to head back to the campground. On our way out of town tomorrow we are going to check out a few more things in the park.

Strawberry shortcake anyone?

The weather was beautiful here tonight, thankfully not like last night. We ate an awesome grilled steak dinner with veggies and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I will post pictures in the next couple days.