Colorado Vacation Pictures for you to Peruse

Rocky Mountain National Park

Our intentions were good. We were going to watch the sunrise in the park, which meant we were going to leave at 4:00 or so. But our horseback ride the day before killed all of us off. (Ron was walking like he was in pain all day. Lauren was black and blue all over) Anyway, we didn’t arrive until 7:30 and the sun was already well up. But the advantage to being early was that the animals were all still out and doing their thing. My wish list included Elk. Bear. Moose. Mountain Lion (from a distance) Reality: Elk. Moose. Coyote. Birds. Ground squirrels. Oh well, can’t see all that in Iowa. We drove a big loop at the park getting up to 12,100 ft with 38 degrees and 40 mph winds. Winter on top! Once around the corner of some mountain it started to warm up and we left the winds behind. We went to Bear Lake for our ‘Christmas picture’ photo op. We hiked 1.1 miles after that and up about 400 ft. Well, Lynn and I did anyway. But ask me if it was worth the effort?! Was it ever! Dream Lake lived up to its name. Words fail me here, because it was beautiful beyond my words! Good thing I have pictures. That’s what Ron told me too. Picnic, and the tourist thing at Estes Park, Big Thompson Canyon, a roadside stand,…I’m exhausted just remembering it all. Good night from Colorado!

On the necessities of Life

Back to work today. And here I am blogging again. I'm sure to have plenty of new materials for the next few days!!
In some ways it's good to be back into the routine. But I have to tell you about our week in the wilderness. Who would have believed northern Minnesota would be so HOT! It was blazing, and we were in the woods! There were tons of mosquitoes this year so I came back with lots of war wounds. (Did you know Gold Bond is great for mosquito and deer fly bites?) We didn't really get much canoeing, or hiking in, though we did do some swimming and that's a leech story. I have a picture to go with that, but I'll save that bloody story for later. Caught one measly fish. (I don't eat fish personally, but it was an insult to everyone else!) It was too hot for them too. At any rate, I had a chance to sit around and eat. Think. Read. Sweat. Play games. Write. Eat some more. Sleep. We had a down filled sleeping bag, but believe me, we didn't even need the sleeping bag it was that warm. Oh well, It was truly worth it. I could, and did, forget about everything that wasn't important. Funny how you really can survive without the air conditioning, light switches, running water and other such lovely things. Believe me I really appreciate them much more. Now that I'm back I'll have to forgo the mid morning, mid afternoon and mid evening snacks and naps. Hope that works out ok! So Of course here are somepictures: