Friday, October 4, 2013

Golden Gate Canyon State Park



I'm sorry that some of these posts are out of order.  Over the summer, we stayed at some different state parks.  Golden Gate Canyon is close to Black Hawk and Central City.  We were there for about a week.  The first time was about the middle of May, right before Comic Con, and it snowed.  So I only stayed for a couple of days.  But the next time we visited in the middle of July, which is much better.  For being that high, I think I did very well with altitude sickness.

Power only and uneven pad, but look at the view!



We tried a recipe from a camping cook book. 
Split hotdogs down the middle, add half a piece of string cheese and wrap in bacon.  Cook...
Bill came home right as they started cooking.





Yum!


Liam is trying to cook as many mini marshmallows as possible...
 The kids preferred regular hotdogs and then made campfire cones using waffle cones, melted marshmallows and chocolate chips.
Kyla rarely sits still for a picture.  She is savoring this yummy treat!


We worked on the Junior ranger handbook and hiked along a couple of trails.  Gorgeous vistas and beautiful flowers.
















While we were up there, I decided to re pot some of our seedlings.  As an excellent science experiment, we purchased a tiny tray and planted seeds, just to see if they would grow.  Amazingly, what never worked outside in a garden, thrived in our tiny house.  The girls spent several minutes decorating the pots with paint, including Jessica's marigolds.  We left them out to dry and put them next to the RV as outside decoration. 

The next morning, we discovered some severely mangled plants.  The golden-mantled ground squirrels (we learned about them in the junior ranger hand book and laughed when they ate the mini marshmallows and chocolate chips that dropped to the ground --how cute) had helped themselves to our plants.  They ate the marigold flowers and buds, utterly destroying that plant, and the parsley.  They also sampled the oregano (as the scattered oregano leaves testified), but didn't like it and left our catnip completely alone.  Now, our plants stay inside...

Morning after squirrel devastation.  Sigh...






Taking a break during our hike!
All in all, a great place to stay if you are visiting Black Hawk and Central City and want to experience the real outdoors...   

Visiting downtown Denver and the Denver Mint






Denver, Colorado, has been our home for over ten years.  But we didn't take advantage of all the wonderful attractions available, instead just took them for granted.  So this summer, I decided that we would act like tourists and go to as many different places as possible.

An obvious choice is downtown Denver.  With all the museums and shops, how can we go wrong?

Brown Palace. Beautiful.







One of the places we visited was the Museum of Contemporary Art.  The kids enjoyed some of the art pieces and we tried to really look at it and understand what the artist was trying to say.   Everyone agreed that it was interesting, but nobody really liked it.


http://www.mcadenver.org/





 A South American artist put this multimedia sculpture together, with wires strung up in one room going through the wall, then attached to the the televisions and such on the other side.  We thought it might have represented the overabundance of technology in our life...
 This plastic silicone stuff looked like drips of paint mixed with trash.  Maybe making a statement on the environment and trash?  Anyway, it was the coolest thing there.



The bubble garden was supposed to be a fun place for the kids to play, but that lasted about five minutes...

We rode the 16th Street mall ride.  A convenient way to travel and you meet very different kinds of people, but we don't like being crammed in with strangers on a smelly bus..




Bill made reservations for the Denver Mint in June and the soonest we could get a tour was September 5th.  Which happened to be Jessica's 13th birthday...  She wasn't too thrilled about being there, but took it like a good sport.

If you get the chance to visit the Mint, it is a marvelous experience.  So much history and security.  We couldn't bring any bags in, except for a pocket-sized wallet, and had to shut our phones off.  Then walked through a metal detector.  Through the tour, we had at least two escorts, plus the tour guide.  Everything is behind glass and you can see the coins being made on the ground floor.   There were some great pieces of old machinery and some funny stories.   




Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Bristol, Indiana

All the cousins together for the very first time...
Fall has arrived in glorious multi-hued colors.  The poison ivy sticks out like a red sore thumb.  As we wind through the back country roads in Bristol, Indiana, you can see thick clumps of it crawling up the side of oaks and maple.  The corn stocks behind my sister’s house have turned that rustic harvest decoration color.    All day, the kids run back and forth between the house, the fort and the trampoline.  Outside the dining room window, I can see the big blue tarp they threw across the top to act as a roof. 

This morning, I walked quietly down to the ponds and sat on the half rotted dock watching steam curl up from the swimming pond half covered in lily pads.  The sunlight filtered through the feathered Cyprus and maple, creating a mock halo around the algae infested fishing pond.  Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spot movement.  A mother whitetail deer and her two half grown fawns stepping daintily out of the brush, nibbling on leaves and grass; though she saw me and flicked her tail uncertainly. 

What is it that I admire about this place?  The peaceful serenity and the extreme privacy.  I think it is that and the lush, green trees that arch overhead, creating a cool oasis. 

Crazy cousins
My mom kept her fifth wheel parked here over the summer, flitting back and forth between business in California and visiting her grandkids in Indiana.  The lure of all her children and grandchildren in one place was too much to resist.  Thankfully, she is coming in the middle of October with Bill. She’s leaving the Mojave Desert and picking him up in Denver.  Then, they’ll come out together –he is catching a ride and she is gaining a driving partner. 

This time of rest is good for me.  A chance to breath and rejuvenate.

We are in Bristol, Indiana, visiting my sister on her ten-acre farm.  So peaceful and tranquil.  My kids love it and don’t want to leave.  My niece, Zoe, is three months younger than my son, Liam (almost 11), and my nephew, Judah, is a week younger than Kyla, 9.  My brother lives about a half hour away and occasionally brings his two young boys over to play.  Sometimes, my dad, who also lives about 30 minutes away, comes over after work.  It is nice to have most of my family close by during our visit.  




Birthday girl (13th birthday) with Papa Scott

Zoe driving the golf cart

Jessica driving golf cart

Back to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for awhile...



       We went back to the fairgrounds for a couple weeks while preparing for our trip to Indiana.  We like the proximity to Bill's work, great shopping, friends close by, and our familiarity with the area.  Plus, we can always count on getting a spot in a pinch.  
Parked at the fairgrounds in Oct. 2011 with our first trailer.



Our short stay this summer at the Fairgrounds.

Cherry Creek Reservoir



A boat in the middle of Cherry Creek


After our trip to Gunnison, we stayed for two weeks at the Cherry Creek Reservoir.  They have nice, wide sites with decent amenities, like laundry facilities.  It rained most of the time, but we did spend a day on the sandy beach.

My son's favorite part was the shooting range.  Bill, my husband, took him shooting several weeks later for a special father/son bonding time.  Reasonable rates and all day shooting make for lots of fun.
digging a hole and having fun!

No place like a cold lake on a hot day!