In the Mountains

Two weekends ago, Charlotte and I took a little jaunt up into the Rockies to explore a bit.  We began in Breckenridge, which offers skiing during winter, and no skiing during summer.  However, they offer other events (like the beer festival we attended) that provide great excuses to visit.  Breckenridge is beautiful, and with abundant beer, everyone we encountered was in a great mood!

The main reason we attended, however, was because one of our favorite bands from New England, the "David Wax Museum," was headlining the festival.  We were very happy, because we got a great spot to watch them from!

After lots of good music and exploring, we needed some sustenance.  We found a little creperie (not that it was much of a secret-there were at least a dozen people in line before us).  There, we got a bite to eat, and then managed to catch a beautiful sunset while listening to live classical music along a river.  Not too shabby!

Afterwards, we needed a place to stay, so we camped in the nearby White River National Forest.  All the reserve-able sites were full, so we ended up stuck in a "first-come, first-serve" campground.  However, as you can see, we didn't exactly suffer! 

Anyway, after exploring Breckenridge, we returned to Laramie by way of another mountain ski town: Steamboat Springs.  While not exactly a "cowboy ski town" as it had been described to us, it definitely had a bit more Western feel to it than Breckenridge.  It's pretty darn nice in Steamboat, too!

Anyway, we had a great time exploring some new spots in our current "backyard."  However, what we really enjoy out here is the hiking, so in our next post, we'll be bringing you back to the Snowies, where we recently took our first hike to a summit above 12,000'.  It might take a few days for us to post, though-we're still catching our breath!  

Jubilee Days!

Summer is here, and with it come a lot of festivals and outdoor activities while the mountain weather cooperates!  One of the first that we enjoyed was Laramie's "Jubilee Days" festival, which began shortly after the 4th of July holiday.  

Jubilee Days brought good rides, good cheer, and cowboy hats to the downtown, but there's not much to say besides that, so we'll end this update here!  In our next installment, we'll bring you with us to some mountain towns for cooler weather!

Grateful for Family

Here in the West, we don't see much of our beloved families.

More often than not, there's quite a bit of distance between us and them!  We've been thinking of our families a lot lately, though, for many reasons. We recently sent wishes for happiness and health to Charlotte's Morfar on his 85th birthday...

...and bid farewell to Foster Kreiser, who always shared his generosity, kindness, and positive attitude with us.

With family so fresh in our minds, you can imagine how happy we were to learn that Charlotte's mom, Kirsten, would visit us over the 4th of July holiday.  We explored, celebrated Charlotte's birthday, and had a great time! 

 On the 4th of July, we learned a bit about the Lincoln Highway, the country's first transcontinental highway.  The highest point on its journey was just outside Laramie.

We next visited the Ames Monument, which is also not far from Laramie, and commemorates some rich guys who helped build some railroad that brought people through Laramie (I think it was called the "Transcontinental Railroad," or something like that).

After our little tour through history, it was time to do some exploring!  Among other highlights, we took a hike at Vedauwoo to see the wildflowers...

 ...and then attended Laramie's quaint 4th of July celebration, "Freedom Has a Birthday."

Quick note: stilt-walking didn't come so naturally to everyone, unfortunately.  I learned that I stilt-walk like a feeble pterodactyl (the kind that natural selection would've taken care of long before any asteroid).

At least I can walk on the ground, right?  That served us well the next day, when we took an amazing hike in the Snowies.  The air was thin, the wildflowers were phenomenal, and the view was awesome!

 

All in all, we had a great time enjoying family and scenery.  While we're back to reality out here after the nice holiday, we're doing our best to savor the summer weather, so stay tuned for more pictures!  Until then, our thoughts are with the Kreisers, Angstadts, and everyone else in our blog family.

Hail!

For a place that's sunny more than 300 days a year, it's pretty darn amazing to think about all the weather extremes we've experienced over the past 13 months.  After yesterday's storms, we can now add an awesome hailstorm to the list!  Check this out!

Our hailstorm was so intense that: (a) it knocked open the mailboxes you see, and (b) the green you see on the ground is actually not grass, but rather tree leaves that the hail knocked off.  See?

Amazingly, just seconds after the hail ended, the sun reappeared and everything began melting rapidly.  

What's also amazing is that this isn't even the first strong hailstorm I've experienced out here.  Here's the scene in Fort Collins that followed a spring thunderstorm.  

All in all, I'd say the Front Range is a great place to be a weather buff, and a bad place to be a plant.