This is our first trip to Wyoming. We left Philadelphia and passed through Denver on our way here. Spent 3 hours in the Denver Airport unexpectedly waiting for our plane to arrive. When we got to Jackson Hole we spent some time walking around town seeing a few parks in town, some cool artwork, and of course shops. Had some barbeque at Bubbas to top off the day and we ended our day back at the Rustic Inn where we have a "cabin" room with a porch on a quiet creek. And of course the boys ended the day with a swim at the pool.... read more

We started the day off by riding bikes around the neighborhood and then headed off to downtown Denver. We walked the 16th Street Mall area touring the shops (sports ones especially) and stopped in to see the State Capitol building. It looks a lot like the PA Capitol in Harrisburg both outside and inside with the use of gold, paintings, murals, and sculptures. The view from the Capitol building includes the City of Denver main building which is also a grand building. We topped off the night with a trip to our friend's community pool where Sean and Drew splashed with boogie boards and Sean made his first "dive" into a pool.... read more

Today we did a self guided tour of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Smaller campus with a focus on engineering. The chemical engineering building had a 3 story stained glass window called "flow." In the open green area Drew stood in front of a sculpture called "Of the Earth and Man" which represents the past, present, and future. After the tour we were ready for a visit to Coors Brewery (sodas for the boys of course) to see the cool kettles and new products coming out. We walked downtown Golden and then headed over to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Was only open for an hour but we got to see a lot of the equipment and the display inside the museum. Ended the day with a dinner with old friends.... read more

We headed to Fort Collins today from Estes Park to visit Colorado State University. This is Drew's first college visit. A little early but we are in Colorado and he really thinks that he wants to go to school in Colorado. Great tour of the campus buildings and the grounds (over 1 mile square). Lots of green space, beautiful view of the mountains, and more bicycles than we've ever seen in one place. Most common modes of transportation were bikes, scooters, and skate boards. It was the first day of classes so it was a really busy day on campus. One other visitor was also from PA (Pittsburgh area). We ended the day with a good meal at a local brewery - Coopersmith's in Old Town.... read more

Beautiful sunny day in Rocky Mountain National Park today with temperatures in the low 70s in Estes Park and in the low 50s at 12,000 feet in RMNP. Did some short climbs up trails to sit on top of rocks and watched a lot of wildlife and amazing scenic mountain views. We saw more Elk on this journey than we have in the past. At night we went to the Senior Rodeo at the Estes Fairgrounds. Watched bronco and steer riding, all kinds of ropping, mutton busting (kids holding on for dear life aboard a sheep), and barrel racing. The horses and riders were amazing.... read more