Colorado Done, Utah Begun

Again behind on the blogging. We sped through the rest of CO in 4 days - stopping at Maroon Bells near Aspen, driving over Independence Pass to Buena Vista, staying at a campsite in Gunnison, before spending a full day at Black Canyon - both north rim and south rim. We got caught in a fun rain storm while in the south rim, that cut our sightseeing short. We then continued to Ouray, stopping for the night again at a KOA. We enjoyed a chat with the pancake cook - who has spent most of his life traveling, including 11 years around South America once he bought a sailboat. He was quite supportive of our travels.


We then went to Mesa Verde, seeing lots of deer throughout the park and even a gray fox. We drove late into the night during a lightning storm that was fun to watch from a safe distance, to make it into UT in the dark.

We woke up this morning seeing it for the first time and it was clearly a different landscape. We drove 10 more miles to get to Moab, where we stopped at the Visitor Center to get info on our next couple days. We went into Arches - and it was amazing! We did a 5 hour hike through Devil's Garden and are now resting after finishing a couple smoothies in a cafe in town. We're hoping to check in to the Lazy Lizard hostel (highly recommended to us) and doing another hike through Arches.

Colorado continued

I'm quite a bit behind on the blogging. Christina and I spent a few more days with my cousin Larry in Fort Collins, playing foos ball, going bowling, and having interesting discussions about marriage and internet privacy. Christina and I also hiked Horsetooth Rock and to Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and enjoyed some disc tossing in the school grounds near Larry's.



We left Jul 21 heading off to Breckenridge. We went to our trip leader's house to start prepping for our week long service trip into Eagles Nest Wilderness. We spent a week in the backcountry, camping at night and working in the day clearing trees from the Gore Range Trail (and also finishing up work on the Salmon Lake and Willow Lake trails).


Group Photo


Limbing


We got caught in a hailstorm on our day off


We got back last Saturday and enjoyed nice long hot showers before heading off to Lyons, CO (just north of Boulder) to meet Christina's brother-in-law's brother. He graciously hosted us for a couple nights, showing us around his hometown and worktown. As Boulder County Commissioner, he had a lot of interesting local tidbits to share. We also played with his neighbors, Heidi and Soren, and helped the 2 1/2 year old figure out how to use the slip-n-slide properly.

We picked up our Avis rental in Boulder this morning, ran some errands, and then drove southwest to Glenwood Springs. On the way, we stopped for a quick hike to Hanging Lake, which is gorgeous. We are in the GS Hostel for the night, which has free wifi access.

More details on the Wilderness Volunteers trip, FC and Lyons will come later. For now, check out some of the pictures online.

Fort Collins catch up

My last few days in CT were good - getting in some good family time and some more blueberry time.

My dad and I drove to Flushing to pick up some chinese groceries and then he dropped me off at La Guardia. It always strikes me how old that airport is. I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth, which is very modern. Got meself a samich and then was on my way to Denver, where I met Christina (flying in from CA) and my cousin Larry. He drove us to his place in Fort Collins, about an hour north.

We spent this morning rafting on the Poudre River - not really recommended as a July activity - rapids are way better in June. But we wanted a lazy day to ease into the higher elevation.

We're off to get some shopping done to pick up some gear for our upcoming trip.

CO and UT travel planning

Christina and I are planning our upcoming trip to CO and UT, and perhaps even Grand Canyon. If you have suggestions, do let us know - either leave a comment (with your name!) or email us.

Our current plans and suggestions are on a Google map here.

We are still working on the dates, but something like Jul 29-Aug 12 - which isn't much time to cram in everything there is to see.

Hometown, CT

I am back at my parents' house in CT, where I grew up from the age of 1. I found some photos of my class from nursery school (Mother Goose, classes 82-84) and can still recognize some of the kids, though many faces look unfamiliar and some names escape me. I was thinking about scanning them in and putting them on facebook, my new procrastination method. I didn't think I'd join til the end of the year, but got sucked in while I was in Seattle. Christina has uploaded some of our travel pictures there instead of Picasa, including an Eating Album. I had too many to fit on Facebook (plus, I still like Picasa better for photo sharing), and responded to her album with my own: My Eating Album. I'm not sure what the criteria is - is it only photos with mid-eating action shots? I ended up choosing photos that were within 3 seconds of eating, with a couple exceptions.

Speaking of eating, my time in CT has been mostly about eating. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant with some friends of my parents and enjoyed some Peking Duck and other goodies. This is the best place to go within an hour's drive for Beijing kao-ya: Beijing Garden Restaurant in Farmington. I've also had some fan-tuans, zong-zi's, watermelon and loads of blueberries. I'm getting my fill both at the farm and at home. We pick and eat as many as we can at Dzen's, the old farm around the corner on Barber Hill Rd. Apparently, there is some strife among the Dzen extended family and another member of the family has opened a competing blueberry farm on the same road. Don't be fooled! His bushes are still young - best to go to the established farm. The blueberries are plentiful - big, sweet and delicious. Note to Theresa - this is how blueberry picking is meant to be - the rows are well spaced, the blueberries so big they're weighing down the branches, and so numerous you can stand in one spot for 20 minutes and fill up a whole tray! Oh, and a note to Christina - this is how cheap it's supposed to be - $1.50 a pound, and that's not counting the breakfast buffet of blueberries you can eat while picking. Chewy - you're really missing out, but don't worry, I'm eating extra for you : )

My nieces and nephew are all a little bigger and a little older. Hugh's legs are noticeably longer and I don't think it will be long before he is taller than Charlotte, who is 2 years older than him. Charlotte speaks more and is better behaved - she is often sharing things with me, which is a nice change from the constant hitting she used to do. Maddie is slowly being indoctrinated with my American accent and getting rid of her British one that she picked up from her friends. I talked to her on the phone last week and didn't even recognize her voice the accent was so thick. Pretty soon, she'll be saying mountain like 'mow-in" and button like "buh-in". Gone with her T's!