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!