Sean had a forum in Denver mid-August, so we dropped Josephine off with my parents, and then I accompanied him to Colorado. We spent a few nights in Denver, and once his work was done, headed out to Boulder for a couple nights.
Denver's pretty. Typically, it seems large cities invest in fancy skyscrapers, while everything under ten stories is pretty plain. But Denver seemed directly opposite. Driving up to the city, I felt rather underwhelmed by all the ordinary rectangles, but once we started walking around, I was quickly sold.
For instance, this is the public library and art museum:
And here's the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, where Pope John Paul II said mass in 1993.... the stained glass windows were enormous!
Downtown from a distance:
We walked a LOT, and I thoroughly enjoyed it (...well, in an altitude-sick kind of way. I was enormously fatigued the whole time). Part of the enjoyment included remembering what a climate with rainfall can do for vegetation. Like this house-eating, basketball-size sunflower:
We also went out to the Red Rock Amphitheater (about 15 miles west of Denver) at the recommendation of some friends. So pretty!
From a little hike around the Red Rock park:
In case God checks my blog, I'm including the picture below to remind him what rain looks like. Sure was delightful to experience!!!
During this trip I also discovered ONE (and only one) benefit to my recent tendency to wake up waaaay too early and not be able to fall back asleep... check out the sunrise from our hotel window:
One of the first things I noticed driving into town were roller coasters. (I have a radar for these sorts of things). Turns out Elitch Gardens was only a mile from our hotel! My poor, adrenaline-deprived soul is married to a guy who hates heights and all sorts of bone-jarring, brain-rattling excitement, so while he was working, I indulged. I LOOOOOVED it. Got lucky with lines; my longest was about 15 minutes. So in essence, I rode roller coasters for 6 hours straight! WooHOOOO!!
And I did it with excellent views of the city I was supposed to be touring!
Below is my favorite from the park-- rode it several times. The Half Pipe. Depth is lost in the photograph-- it went really high up, and you spun and ALWAYS experienced a face-forward drop straight towards the earth from great heights at least a couple times during the ride-- in addition to the even scarier sensation when you were aimed upwards and it looked like you were RIGHT about to fly off the end of the track as you reached the top.I probably sound too excited here. Maybe you just had to be there. But it was AWESOME. I miss it dearly.
The park closed at 6:00 that day, so I then walked a short mile over to Coors Field for a Rockies game with a view of a lovely sunset. The Rockies did an excellent job beating the Marlins-- it was a fabulous way to end a perfect vacation day.
The row of seats that are truly a mile high were purple, so naturally I moved to sit in those. Not a thing wrong with being a tourist, thank you very much. :-)
After Sean's forum ended on Thursday, we headed out to Boulder, stopping at Eldorado Springs for a brief hike.
By the way, if I were to live some place higher in altitude, I'd need to buy bigger shoes. Sean says airplanes are pressurized at 8,000 feet, and you know how riding on planes can cause your feet to swell? Well, going from life at near sea level to one mile up had the same effect, which meant that all my shoes were suddenly too small. (This was exacerbated by how much walking I did, I'm sure-- but it was definitely caused by something other than the walking, too-- it was too extreme.) My poor feet hated me all week. And the feeling was mutual.
I mention that because I remember as I look at these pictures, how much I enjoyed pulling off my sneakers after our little climb and plunging my feet into the ICE cold water of this river.
And when the ice cold part started to hurt, it wasn't tough to take my mind off the pain. The scenery was so beautiful!
On Friday we set out to conquer the world.
(Or maybe just one little mountain that didn't even top 10,000 feet.)
Which, by the way, there's nothing like climbing a mountain with storms in sight and zero idea
what's coming at you from the other side.
"...so do we keep going? Those Europeans coming down with their super-special hiking poles said we only have 20 more minutes and skies were clear over there. Or what if they're lying because they hate Americans? But we're soooo close..." (no, we weren't) "...and our spirits would totally die if we turned around at this point. Let's just climb faster." (That way we die of oxygen deprivation.) "Yeah, we can do this. I think God likes us okay-- I don't think he'll hit us with lightening today. Have you seen any mountain lions? You haven't? I don't think you've really been watching, though. Anyway, that's what I'm really worried about, so just don't hike too far ahead, because if we're closer to each other, I think we'll look bigger to a mountain lion. Tell me if you need to tie your shoe again; I'll come stand by you so you still look big and not prey-like. Gosh, did that thunder sound closer? I wonder if mountain lions hide during a storm, or if they try harder to secure a good meal so they can ride it out. Are you even watching for them? Surely it's been 20 minutes since we saw the Europeans. Why aren't we at the top? We've gotta be getting really close." (no. no, we were not.)
And this sort of thing is, literally, not a good sign:
We did succeed though. And it was insanely pretty. We'd have loved to have sat up there for hours, but the threat of imminent electrocution chased us back down pretty quick-like.
This is how we look when we can't breathe and are trying to hide that critical fact
("don't mind me... just dying... hey could you take my picture?!?")
And here's a photo that puts it all in proportion-- notice how small the human Sean looks next to large things like trees and boulders. Only thing not big about that hike was the oxygen level.
Below is a post-hike picture of our drive into Estes Park. Yeah, it's pretty, despite the fact my camera totally failed at capturing the really dramatic lighting. So imagine dramatic lighting and an oxygen-deprived, physically depleted brain as you look at this picture,
and then you'll get a faint sense of what we were seeing...
gosh, I love pretty skies. I know I've said it a thousand times. It's just so true.
Colorado was nice, y'all.
We ate great food, got to meet up with some old friends, and relished our break from our darling two year old and her schedule.
And that's that; not much else to add.
In other news, we're taking Josephine to Spain on Thursday for a couple weeks, so she can see the billboards-of-bulls country where her parents met nearly 10 years ago. So expect another long delay (... and then ANOTHER long delay while I recover) before I ever post anything again. Sorry. It doesn't mean I don't love you. ;-)
