Day 5 - The day that is reported the next day. =D
This was written yesterday. I couldn't post it until today. So the context is a bit off. I will post again later tonight.
Today we left Aspen. Instead of heading back the way we came, we decided to drive through Independence Pass. The continental divide is there as well, so I got to stand on it. Whee. It was cold up there! There was still snow every where. My dad and I took a short loop trail to the outlook and because we decided to walk the full loop we got to see something that people rarely see. A pair of Ptarmigans. A male and female! They’re a ground dwelling bird who lives on the tundra areas. The male is pure white in the winter and molts to brown in the summer. The female is a variety of browns and blends in with the grass. Apparently you could live in Colorado all your life and never see one. It was awesome!
We drove on and went through a town called Twin Lakes. We stopped there to use the restrooms and a lady waiting for the restroom told me we were being watched and directed my attention to a Prairie Dog poking out of the grass staring at us. It was really cool. I finally got a good picture of a hummingbird, too. =D
We saw some deer and marmots while we drove. Our next stop was Leadville, which is an old mining town. Cute little town! People were so friendly. We ate at a place called the Golden Burro. Best French Dip sandwich I’ve ever had. It even beats C.J. Muggs. =D Absolutely delicious. We browsed around town for a bit and I bought some Christmas presents as well as some fudge. In the same store where I got some presents for people, I bought a small dinosaur figurine (I felt nostalgic XD ) and one of those optic sphere things. It’s a man made stone. I got a green color because it reminded me of Materia. --;; I’m such a geek. It’s a bit big, but I can just say it’s a master materia or sommat. There were a few that were the right size, but the only color available was blue and those aren’t useful without another materia. XD The red wasn’t the right shade, so I went with green. =D
We continued our drive and stopped in Georgetown for a bathroom break again. Their visitor center had a really neat way to show off their stores. Each store had a small box display in the large hallway that lead to the bathrooms. That way you could see what the store had. I want to go to the Stonehenge store because they have some really neat items. One of the displayed items was a glass columbine flower.
Our travels eventually reached Denver and we got to our hotel. Pete and Mary met us in the lobby later on and we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a Fruitapalooza drink. It was good. We retired to the hotel to relax and I was going to work on my quizzes, but the internet won’t work. For the rooms we have an ethernet hook up (yeah, there is a charge, but the lobby is nuts and I don’t want to go down there) and all you have to do is hook it up, turn on your computer, open a browser, and then accept the service agreement. Uh.... No. >>;; That didn’t work. We called the IT people and we tried everything, but it still doesn’t work. Now I’m waiting for someone to come up and try to fix things. That was almost 20 minutes ago. I doubt they’re going to try to fix it tonight.
Meh. Not like I’d use it for long. 10 bucks for 24 hours. Um... I’ll wait till tomorrow when I’m going to use it for more than 2 hours.
Some highlights of the day that I haven’t mentioned yet:
1 - I saw a red fox crossing the highway at one of the stop lights (he made it safely). It was really neat! He was so pretty! I could’ve gotten a picture if I had my camera out.
2 - It snowed on us. XD We were between Independence Pass and Leadville and it snowed on us. Really cool.
3 - The hotel we’re staying at in Denver is across the street from a Barnes and Noble. =D Explorer Bookstore beats them though.
The fox was the most awesome part. =D
Oh! I did something really stupid. I accidentally reformatted the memory card on my camera and lost all my photos... Luckily I had just transferred ALL of them to my computer. I was deleting a bunch of them anyway and that would mess with the quality of the other pictures or something, so it was a blessing in disguise. Plus I’m already halfway through a 4GB memory card and I know I’m going to take a lot of pictures tomorrow. Good thing I cleared it out. Though I really would prefer to keep them on a card. *shrug* oh well.
Tomorrow we head to the zoo and do some other fun things, but the zoo is what I’m looking forward to.
I’m going to write a bit and then go to bed. I’m really tired.
Catch ya’ on the flipside, mates!
~Marty / Shin~
Today we left Aspen. Instead of heading back the way we came, we decided to drive through Independence Pass. The continental divide is there as well, so I got to stand on it. Whee. It was cold up there! There was still snow every where. My dad and I took a short loop trail to the outlook and because we decided to walk the full loop we got to see something that people rarely see. A pair of Ptarmigans. A male and female! They’re a ground dwelling bird who lives on the tundra areas. The male is pure white in the winter and molts to brown in the summer. The female is a variety of browns and blends in with the grass. Apparently you could live in Colorado all your life and never see one. It was awesome!
We drove on and went through a town called Twin Lakes. We stopped there to use the restrooms and a lady waiting for the restroom told me we were being watched and directed my attention to a Prairie Dog poking out of the grass staring at us. It was really cool. I finally got a good picture of a hummingbird, too. =D
We saw some deer and marmots while we drove. Our next stop was Leadville, which is an old mining town. Cute little town! People were so friendly. We ate at a place called the Golden Burro. Best French Dip sandwich I’ve ever had. It even beats C.J. Muggs. =D Absolutely delicious. We browsed around town for a bit and I bought some Christmas presents as well as some fudge. In the same store where I got some presents for people, I bought a small dinosaur figurine (I felt nostalgic XD ) and one of those optic sphere things. It’s a man made stone. I got a green color because it reminded me of Materia. --;; I’m such a geek. It’s a bit big, but I can just say it’s a master materia or sommat. There were a few that were the right size, but the only color available was blue and those aren’t useful without another materia. XD The red wasn’t the right shade, so I went with green. =D
We continued our drive and stopped in Georgetown for a bathroom break again. Their visitor center had a really neat way to show off their stores. Each store had a small box display in the large hallway that lead to the bathrooms. That way you could see what the store had. I want to go to the Stonehenge store because they have some really neat items. One of the displayed items was a glass columbine flower.
Our travels eventually reached Denver and we got to our hotel. Pete and Mary met us in the lobby later on and we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a Fruitapalooza drink. It was good. We retired to the hotel to relax and I was going to work on my quizzes, but the internet won’t work. For the rooms we have an ethernet hook up (yeah, there is a charge, but the lobby is nuts and I don’t want to go down there) and all you have to do is hook it up, turn on your computer, open a browser, and then accept the service agreement. Uh.... No. >>;; That didn’t work. We called the IT people and we tried everything, but it still doesn’t work. Now I’m waiting for someone to come up and try to fix things. That was almost 20 minutes ago. I doubt they’re going to try to fix it tonight.
Meh. Not like I’d use it for long. 10 bucks for 24 hours. Um... I’ll wait till tomorrow when I’m going to use it for more than 2 hours.
Some highlights of the day that I haven’t mentioned yet:
1 - I saw a red fox crossing the highway at one of the stop lights (he made it safely). It was really neat! He was so pretty! I could’ve gotten a picture if I had my camera out.
2 - It snowed on us. XD We were between Independence Pass and Leadville and it snowed on us. Really cool.
3 - The hotel we’re staying at in Denver is across the street from a Barnes and Noble. =D Explorer Bookstore beats them though.
The fox was the most awesome part. =D
Oh! I did something really stupid. I accidentally reformatted the memory card on my camera and lost all my photos... Luckily I had just transferred ALL of them to my computer. I was deleting a bunch of them anyway and that would mess with the quality of the other pictures or something, so it was a blessing in disguise. Plus I’m already halfway through a 4GB memory card and I know I’m going to take a lot of pictures tomorrow. Good thing I cleared it out. Though I really would prefer to keep them on a card. *shrug* oh well.
Tomorrow we head to the zoo and do some other fun things, but the zoo is what I’m looking forward to.
I’m going to write a bit and then go to bed. I’m really tired.
Catch ya’ on the flipside, mates!
~Marty / Shin~