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Published: November 7th 2009
Pumpkins
Possibly a little late, but these our the Missouri pumpkin master pieces...Mark won best in show. Can you pick out which is whichLiz blogging:
I have done the monotonous drive across Kansas countless times- from listening to Hangin’ Tough on a walkman to driving it with friends for impromptu winter break ski trips. Mark and I started our trip across by nearly Jim-Icenogle “O’dark Thirty” standards. Even though the drive is ten hours of practically nothing but wheat fields, churches and cattle transportation trucks, we both enjoyed the drive more than the other long haul segments we have done so far. There wasn’t a lot to think about- just point and go. For those who have done the drive, you can probably relate to the building anticipation of the first glimpse of the mountains after passing through Kanorado, CO. I kept promising Mark a great view which starts first from the south and then the outlines of the purple mountains majesty begin to appear directly in front. Nothing. Twently minutes later, nothing. Thirty more minutes, nothing. Just minutes from Denver, nothing. Turns out the thick, low grey clouds that we were driving below extended all the way to the Front Range and we were unable to see anything as we pulled up to our family friend Suzi’s house. Humph. That was
Tourist shot
After the tea tour disappointing. However, we did see a number of antelope. Mark thought they were cattle at first- I said, “well have you ever seen cattle that skinny?” All in all it was a nice easy drive into the mountain time zone.
About the mountain time zone- Mark has never been (except, he’ll tell you, for a layover in Salt Lake City). Growing up vacationing in the mountain west I felt a serious obligation to show Mark the best of the best, well as much of it as we could afford. After arriving at Suzi’s in Denver, a new resident to Denver herself, we went for a nice dinner at a local Mexican place for dollar tacos! We also had the great opportunity to meet and spend time with some of her friends in the area- we are both so glad she has such great people surrounding her. Also, they know how to cook really, really well, so we didn’t complain too much. Has anyone else ever had something called Mexican pot roast with chipotle, chocolate, lots of veggies, cinnamon, and bay leaves? OH. MY. GOD.
On Tuesday morning we lazied around for a couple hours doing some personal chores
Elk in Estes
The herd sprawls on two fairways and job searching. THEN- we were off for a drive to Boulder (approximately an hour away) to go through the
FREE Celestial Seasoning factory tour. Yes, the company offers a tour and it was fascinating. Not only were we given the opportunity to sample every single tea of the 91 they offered, we also learned some pretty cool facts about tea. Like did you know that: all tea comes from the same plant, green, black and white alike. The difference is created when and how the leaves are picked and processed. Caffeine can never be completely removed from a tea (and there are only a few places in Germany that do this) and so a package will read “de-caffeinated.” A tea that contains only herbs (no actual tea leaves)- herbal teas- will ALWAYS read caffeine-free. A tea that contains actual tea leaves will always have caffeine or say “de-caffeinated.” And now you know.
The entire time we were in CO the weather was beautiful. Secretly I hoped for cold weather so that Jackson wouldn’t be as shocking. However, I will take 65-70 degree blue skies any day. I drove Mark into downtown Denver so that we could check that off of the list.
More elk
The tee shot landed just feet from this sitting bull elk. Look closely for the golf ball. Denver has a really neat downtown that includes its gold-topped state capitol, the old and famous Brown Derby Hotel, Union Station, DAM (Denver Art Museum), the revitalized Lo-Do area of bars and restaurants and the 16-street pedestrian mall. The city has a good energy to it, and has obviously made great strides to ensure that the downtown area doesn’t fall from grace, as many mid-western and western cities have done. We made time to sit down for a happy hour drink at Jax Seafood restaurant and were on our way.
Wednesday we had two really great experiences. We started the day by heading to an extremely popular breakfast place in Denver-
Snooze . Suggested by Suzi’s daughter, we thought we could avoid the normal wait of an hour to two (very popular as I told you), but we were wrong. Forty-five minutes later, we were introduced to our show song singing waiter who helped us through the process of choosing what to order. Snooze prides itself on using local, seasonal ingredients and for offering unusual menu choices. In the end, the three of us shared: a sweet potato pancake, a pineapple upside down pancake, a fall spices pancake, pumpkin cream
Elk in Estes
The golfer approaches the Elk after a lousy tee shot cheese stuffed French toast, breakfast tacos, and eggs benedict. Yes, you read that right; we ate ALL of that. And I don’t regret it in any way. It was totally worth the wait.
Later in the day we headed to
Estes Park , a ninety-minute drive to the head of
Rocky Mountain National Park . Getting up through to mountains in our first, narrow canyon went fine. While we got there a little late in the day, we were able to walk around the town. We made time to visit the historic Stanley Hotel, featured in the Shinning. My dad spent a summer working there before entering the Navy so it was neat to poke round the grounds. We also came across a pretty incredible site- an approximately 100-head heard of elk just hanging out on the town’s golf course. Not only were we able to watch them up close, we also saw a golfer playing on the two holes they had spread themselves across. We consulted Mark’s brother, Dan, the Professional golf management grad, how he would expect to handle this particular hazard. Dan called the herd an “immoveable obstruction.” Another friend told us he would approach the situation with a “shot-gun” start. The
Elk in Estes
The young, male Elks (with spikes) scatter as the golfer proceeds with his business golfer just continued with his game and when his tee shot landed less than five feet from a group of young bulls, he simply walked up and took his shot. We can’t say for certain, but the proximity of the animals may have contributed to his shanking the shot directly into the group who immediately scattered away. They weren’t aggressive, but just seemed annoyed having to leave their shady seats. Mark and I both decided we would have considered the ball lost and put down a new one. We expect to see a number of elk this winter as the Jackson Hole valley hosts the largest heard in the US. We will be living very close to one of the elks favorite low ground areas to spend the winter.
Phew. Is anyone else as tired as we are? That afternoon we drove an hour into Boulder, saw a little of the university and meet my cousin, the CU student for dinner at a local grill, Salt. It was really great to catch up with him. We finished the day with another hour drive to Ft. Collins where we stayed with my aunt Kathy.
Thursday rolled around and
Elk in Estes
Golfer approaching his shot, again we decided to head up to Estes Park again, take advantage of the great weather and go for a hike. Getting into the park and to our trailhead at Bear Lake took a little over an hour and a half. On our way to the trail we saw three (a pack?!?) of large coyotes who appeared to be doing some hunting. The food supply in the park must be good they were huge. Our hike took us up 600 vertical feet, by three lakes and was snow packed the entire time. We ended at the foot of a glacier at about 10,000 ft. It was great to get out and use my legs, but man was I huffing and puffing the entire way. We had lunch at the end of the trail and headed down. Lacking proper hiking boots, I slid down a lot of the trail in my tennis shoes and held onto Mark when I needed a little extra support. It is how I would imagine Ellen Griswald would go down a mountain.
How better to punctuate a great hike than with a beer or two? After finishing in Estes, we drove back to Ft. Collins and
Estes lake
Great shot as the Sun was beginning to set. took the FREE tour of the
New Belgium Brewery . This company started as a homebrew in a basement in1991, built its first large distribution center in 1995 and has grown to the third largest craft brewery in the US behind Sam Adams (who else) and Sierra Nevada. Their facilities are run by 15%!r(MISSING)ecycled heat energy from their cooking barrels and the rest from wind energy. Running at full capacity, the brewery can produce half a million bottles in a day. Mark and I both enjoyed the tour, especially the samples. My favorite was their very limited Framboise raspberry beer. If you ever come across it in a beer cooler or at a bar, I highly recommend you get a pint.
We finished the day with a great dinner with Aunt Kathy (THANK YOU, Kathy!). Throughout the last week we have been so fortunate to have the support of some great family and friends.
For my next entry, I have some more random comments and less recounting to do. We should arrive in Jackson by tonight and are currently approaching Rawlings, WY.
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Wendy
non-member comment
WOW
Hi Mark and Liz, you certainly make use of every waking minute!!! Beautiful pictures and I love the commentary too! The adventures were explained so vividly that I could see myself on the hike and looking at the elk, coyote, etc. What a wonderful trip............ I hope Jackson is everything you hope for and more!!! Careful out there. love and hugs, Wendy