back from colorado
the trip was ok, it was nice to see the inlaws again for a bit.
the first 2 days were just the boy and i, in the mountains. we stayed here.
it was small, but cute and vintage-ey. we drove around in STYLE in an enterprise rent-a-van cargo van, because that was the only vehicle they had available, even though we had reserved an economy car.
we dubbed it the rad-mobile van-machine, and it was awesome. nobody else drove through rocky mountain national park in a giant van, because only we are cool enough for that ($10/day + they paid for gas, can't argue with that!).
we stopped at whole foods on our way though boulder, so we had good foods to eat in our little hotel room, and we borrowed cheesy old romantic comedy videos to watch at night. we walked along the river fronting the resort and watched the light changing on the canyon walls.
we went for walks (not hikes, since we wouldn't have been able to breathe, at 2 miles in elevation) in the national park. i have a cute photo of the 2 of us in a little wetland, but the boy would be mad at me for putting it online. ah well.
weather was cloudy but good. we saw lightning, elk, mule deer, and a marmot:
our mountains are more impressive though. see:
(mt. hood and the southern cascades, taken from the plane shortly before landing in portland)
who cares if your mtn is 12k feet in elevation if it starts out at 8000ft? give me an impressive, thickly forested and snow-covered peak that goes from 500-10,000 any day over their ancient piles of sandstone with tiny pines.
on the 3rd day, we checked out and drove the rest of the way through the canyon and on to fort collins to visit the new belgium brewery. it was HOT. but the tour was interesting, it's a fairly sustainable building and they have a lot of cool business practices. we tasted a lot of their beers, and then had gelato for lunch. we then suffered a very slow and boring drive on the interstate back to denver to trade in the rad-mobile for a normal car. sad. the denver part of colorado is FLAT and boring, and man, can they waste space there. EVERYTHING was strip-malls and massive housing developments. ugh. plus, we got stuck in crawling traffic yet again.
we met up with the boy's family at our next hotel, and we all went over to the unc's mom's house for a late-night dinner of pizza. i got to meet all the extended-inlaws, which was cool. once the sun went down, the temperature slowly became bearable, but drinking lemonade & vodka helped.
the next day, the boy and i went to redrocks, which was awesome.
the rocks are much bigger in person than i had thought.
we also checked out the dinosaur fossils and interpretive trail going up the hill, which was neat but not as cool as i had expected.
it was HOT out, like 100. we got some highly disappointing thai takeout for lunch and lounged in the air conditioned splendor of our shared hotel room until we had to get ready for the family photo-shoot and dual surprise party.
the party was both celebrating the unc's mom's 75th birthday, as well as the unc and aunt's 25th wedding anniversary. it was held at a relative's house which looked like it was taken directly out of some magazine. i coveted the kitchen liek woah. and the food was fantastic. i was a bit nervous because it was like 50 people i'd never met before, but it was like any other family reunion, everyone was super-friendly and made you feel at home.
the next day we went to the renaissance faire, which sadly was not as cool as i had anticipated. i should have hung out with the boy's cousin, who was in to it and actually dressed up. instead i ended up wandering around by myself because everyone else was just sitting around, and it was too hot for me to do that. a couple of the shows were entertaining though, particularly the washing wenches and the "vegetable justice" insulter. i contemplated volunteering for their "bucket baptism" because it was so stinking hot, but i didn't want to have to sit around in wet shorts for half an hour. i did get sunburned even with sunscreen on though, which sucked. and i didn't get to try on any fun costumes, or a corset, which i really wanted to do. and everyone whined about how cheesy the jousting was. i guess when you go to dorky things like that you need to make sure you go with people who are at an equal dork-level to yourself. dammit andrew, why did we never meet up in all our solo wanderings? it would have been fun!
when we got back to the hotel, we went swimming and got rid of all the dust and grime, and then went for a big family dinner at red robin.
the next morning we woke up at 3:45 to get to the airport. we did a bunch of errands on the way home, and ended up putting in a 22 hour day, what with the time change and all.
so anyway, it was a good trip, though short, and probably not as good as it could have been, but it was nice to see the family and to go somewhere new.
the first 2 days were just the boy and i, in the mountains. we stayed here.
it was small, but cute and vintage-ey. we drove around in STYLE in an enterprise rent-a-van cargo van, because that was the only vehicle they had available, even though we had reserved an economy car.
we dubbed it the rad-mobile van-machine, and it was awesome. nobody else drove through rocky mountain national park in a giant van, because only we are cool enough for that ($10/day + they paid for gas, can't argue with that!).
we stopped at whole foods on our way though boulder, so we had good foods to eat in our little hotel room, and we borrowed cheesy old romantic comedy videos to watch at night. we walked along the river fronting the resort and watched the light changing on the canyon walls.
we went for walks (not hikes, since we wouldn't have been able to breathe, at 2 miles in elevation) in the national park. i have a cute photo of the 2 of us in a little wetland, but the boy would be mad at me for putting it online. ah well.
weather was cloudy but good. we saw lightning, elk, mule deer, and a marmot:
our mountains are more impressive though. see:
(mt. hood and the southern cascades, taken from the plane shortly before landing in portland)
who cares if your mtn is 12k feet in elevation if it starts out at 8000ft? give me an impressive, thickly forested and snow-covered peak that goes from 500-10,000 any day over their ancient piles of sandstone with tiny pines.
on the 3rd day, we checked out and drove the rest of the way through the canyon and on to fort collins to visit the new belgium brewery. it was HOT. but the tour was interesting, it's a fairly sustainable building and they have a lot of cool business practices. we tasted a lot of their beers, and then had gelato for lunch. we then suffered a very slow and boring drive on the interstate back to denver to trade in the rad-mobile for a normal car. sad. the denver part of colorado is FLAT and boring, and man, can they waste space there. EVERYTHING was strip-malls and massive housing developments. ugh. plus, we got stuck in crawling traffic yet again.
we met up with the boy's family at our next hotel, and we all went over to the unc's mom's house for a late-night dinner of pizza. i got to meet all the extended-inlaws, which was cool. once the sun went down, the temperature slowly became bearable, but drinking lemonade & vodka helped.
the next day, the boy and i went to redrocks, which was awesome.
the rocks are much bigger in person than i had thought.
we also checked out the dinosaur fossils and interpretive trail going up the hill, which was neat but not as cool as i had expected.
it was HOT out, like 100. we got some highly disappointing thai takeout for lunch and lounged in the air conditioned splendor of our shared hotel room until we had to get ready for the family photo-shoot and dual surprise party.
the party was both celebrating the unc's mom's 75th birthday, as well as the unc and aunt's 25th wedding anniversary. it was held at a relative's house which looked like it was taken directly out of some magazine. i coveted the kitchen liek woah. and the food was fantastic. i was a bit nervous because it was like 50 people i'd never met before, but it was like any other family reunion, everyone was super-friendly and made you feel at home.
the next day we went to the renaissance faire, which sadly was not as cool as i had anticipated. i should have hung out with the boy's cousin, who was in to it and actually dressed up. instead i ended up wandering around by myself because everyone else was just sitting around, and it was too hot for me to do that. a couple of the shows were entertaining though, particularly the washing wenches and the "vegetable justice" insulter. i contemplated volunteering for their "bucket baptism" because it was so stinking hot, but i didn't want to have to sit around in wet shorts for half an hour. i did get sunburned even with sunscreen on though, which sucked. and i didn't get to try on any fun costumes, or a corset, which i really wanted to do. and everyone whined about how cheesy the jousting was. i guess when you go to dorky things like that you need to make sure you go with people who are at an equal dork-level to yourself. dammit andrew, why did we never meet up in all our solo wanderings? it would have been fun!
when we got back to the hotel, we went swimming and got rid of all the dust and grime, and then went for a big family dinner at red robin.
the next morning we woke up at 3:45 to get to the airport. we did a bunch of errands on the way home, and ended up putting in a 22 hour day, what with the time change and all.
so anyway, it was a good trip, though short, and probably not as good as it could have been, but it was nice to see the family and to go somewhere new.