Our Trip to Colorado

...began at 3:30 on a chilly September morning in Wisconsin.  Our flight was to leave at 6 am.  We were heading to the Denver airport for an adventure, and also to see Greg's cousin, Carey, get married.  This was the second time that Devin had been on a trip by airplane. He was very excited!

When we got to the Denver airport, we picked up our luggage and the rental car, then headed for Fort Collins.  After a quick stop at the visitor's center and a bite to eat, we took our first hike, along the Horsetooth Falls Loop.  The falls were just a trickle this time of year, but the hike was fun!

This is the Horsetooth Reservoir.  You can see how low it is this year!

Cows on the hill, curious...

This place is pretty beautiful!

Despite warnings of rattlesnakes and a rabid skunk, we head out down the trail

Awesome D!

Apparently the Horseshoe Falls are best viewed in late Spring.
There was barely a trickle coming down on this day.

Beware! Rabid Skunk!!!!....Devin! Was that you.....?

Attack of the Sharp Grass - Cactus? Cactus Grass??  But no rattlesnakes OR rabid skunks!

Then we met up with Nana & Papa P in Fort Collins for some lunch, and beer at New Belgium Brewery and Odell Brewery. There sure are a lot of dogs everywhere in this area!

That night we went to Oskar Blues Brew Pub in Boulder. Best Jambalaya I've had yet! Next morning, we got up and mosied around Boulder for the morning, then headed to Chautauqua Park to hike up to the Royal Arch. Greg had read that this trail was a "moderate" 3+ mile trail. That review was seriously off, because it turned out to be a pretty butt-busting stair-climber-like workout! Not as strenuous as "The Chief" in Squamish, BC.  It was awesome though, and everyone made it! Devin had a ton of energy from our very large, delicious late breakfast. This was an awesome hike with some great views! We later did a little more searching and found that most reviewers rated this trail "moderate-strenuous"...whew!

What to do in case of a lion or bear attack?!? Uh oh...fortunately all we saw were "Mini Bears", aka your friendly rascaly Chipmunk.

Ready to go!

He found his Herculean strength in these mountains!

The most ferocious creature we saw in these woods...

Royal Arch - spectacular! It's a LOT bigger than it looks :-)

First time seeing the world from this high up! Looks like he's dangling his feet off the edge huh? 

Devin's eye view. Downtown Boulder

Still up high. Let's just hang onto something or someone up here!

Lots of other people were perched out and eating snacks too

Mom made D take this picture...

This hike took us a lot longer than anticipated, so after a quick stop for some refreshments: delicious locally made ice cream, beer & appetizers at a rooftop bar in Boulder, we headed out toward Avon/Beaver Creek. To avoid rush-hour traffic, we took the scenic route along 119, which we are SO glad we did! It was amazingly beautiful. It makes you feel SO small and definitely exemplifies how great of a Creation we have been given, this Earth! Lots of mountains, beautiful yellowing aspen trees, houses perched precariously in random places, small run-down towns miles from anywhere, and even the bustling tourist trap of a town, Black Hawk, nestled in the middle of the mountains and full of tour buses, casinos, and a good mix of well-to-do tourists, and rough-looking locals.  The sun was SO bright as we were on this drive that we didn't get any pictures. They wouldn't have turned out very well anyway. Driving through the mountains is definitely a different experience.  You see signs like "Chain law in force, $1000 fine", "Chain Station Ahead", "8 Percent Grade ahead", "Truckers, you have a ways to go", and runaway truck ramps at regular intervals that seem to run straight from the highway uphill into the mountains!  When we got to Avon, it was dark and we were pretty pooped, so we ordered pizza delivery and crashed early. Compared to our cramped noisy stay in the previous night's hotel, this was luxury.  The bridal party had secured some rooms at a resort, which turned out that we were actually staying at a condo that someone owned, not a hotel room: Two separate bedrooms, two full baths, full kitchen, etc.

The building our condo is in is behind Devin

Our view

Saturday morning was a crisp beautiful morning. We walked around The Charter for a bit, explored the resort (cool luxury car show going on at the time!), got spiffed up for the wedding, then headed about 15 minutes away to Vail Mountain.  This is a pretty cool ski village with plenty to do at all times of the year. At the time we were there the place was teeming with mountain bikers. There are many many mountain trails that look really difficult.  Also, when driving, we would see road bikers riding up mountain roads - crazy people! 
The wedding was to take place at the Wedding Deck on top of Vail Mountain.  While waiting for the gondola (above) to take us up, here came the bride, Carey, looking as beautiful as ever, rushing to the gondola.

Up WE go!

Some of the mountain biking trails.

Isn't this exciting Devin? We're so high up!

Two handsome guys!!!

Up on the wedding deck. Sure is windy up here!

Beautiful windy wedding

Is it just me or does this picture look unreal, from a magazine or something? 
Nice foreheads Mom & Dad!

At the reception, playing around

A Keeper. Look how handsome!

Long day, long night, lots of food, fun & dancing. Time to go back and go to bed!

Sunday morning we got up early, packed up and headed out.  We had a lot of things to do still before getting back into Denver that evening!  One of the most fun-sounding things we had planned was stopping and touring a gold mine & panning for gold. So we stopped at the Phoenix Gold Mine in Idaho Springs.  It was really neat to see, and educational!  Panning for gold is way more of a knack than you'd think.  Devin ended up finding a rock in the stream worth about $20. We brought home that rock, and a sandwich baggie with lots of sand, and a little gold dust in it.  Not sure how this is going to find itself separated. We were hoping that we would be one of the lucky ones, like a young girl a few years ago, who found a rock with a huge nugget stuck to the top that sold on Ebay for $40,000! Their policy is "finders keepers", as long as it's outside the mine...so they had to stick to it and let her keep it!

Entrance to the mine

Blast away!!!

Do you see the gold vein???

"The Widow Maker".  This was a drill used in mining. Back in "the old days", they used this drill to break apart the rock for gold.  It would make so much dust, and the miners only covered their faces with hankies. The dust would give the miners an ailment called Silicosis, which would basically cut up their lungs from the inside, and they would drown in their own blood in short order. Not good. They still use a similar drill, but have added water to the process, to keep the dust down and out of their faces, which are covered with better masks now.

Look by his thumb! You can see it!

Layers of gold, silver, copper, among other elements.

Panning in the stream.

After leaving the mine, we continued our journey back to Denver, stopping at Dinosaur Ridge.  This was Mom's favorite part of the trip. At first glance, it doesn't appear to be much, but the "ridge" itself is a treasure trove of geological proportions - literally! This area is a National Natural Landmark and is so cool! The old saying goes "Pictures don't do it justice!"

Colorado was once under the sea.
This ripple effect was left behind in the sand and preserved!

Sandstone layering

More seabed rippling...preserved, and now hard as rock!

SOME DINOSAURS WERE HERE!!!!...millions of years ago...and left these tracks!

...which you can see up close and personal!

Dinosaurs have big piggies!

Migratory trails. Which way would you go?

The sun goes behind the hill on another beautiful day in Colorado.  Once Dinosaur Ridge closed, we headed to Denver to have dinner with Rachael's cousin Ingrid, and her fiance Nolan at Hops & Pie.  We had yet ANOTHER delicious gluten-free pizza, and some more great beer. It was great to see Ingrid, and to meet Nolan!

The next morning was an Early Riser! We had reservations for 8:00 a.m. at the U.S. Mint.  There are very very strict regulations as to what could be brought into the building. Sweatshirts off, shoes off, through a metal detector, no purses, no cameras (so no pictures), cell phones powered down.  A very cool tour though! There is a lot to see here along with the money production, lots of cool money history and artifacts.  

After that, on our way to the airport, we stopped at Hammond's Candies, a sweet (haha) end to our trip. This day they were making candy cane trees and chocolate fudge filled peppermint candy canes. At the end of the tour there are free samples!!!  They also end at the gift shop. So of course we had to buy something...er, lots of things!

Happy Vacation!!!!! When can we go back?

P.S...While we were gone, Devin diligently did all of his make-up homework! Yeah D!