Longtime friends, Rob and Gay Kohl invited us to come up and stay with them at their timeshare in Steamboat Springs and we are sure glad we took them up on their offer! We packed a lot in between our arrival on Friday at noon and our departure the next day around 4 PM.
After lunch on Friday, we walked from the condo to the Botanic Gardens. The walk took us past the Yampa River. Wildflowers of all colors decorated the green hillsides.
The guys plopped themselves under a nearby tree right after we entered the botanic park while Gay and I meandered around. Gay is an artist so she was thinking about all the flowers she could paint and I was busy snapping pictures. This garden is a real gem and there is no charge for admission (a bonus for us seniors who are retired!).
We passed lots of tubers on the river on our journey back to the condos. I want to come back here next year, rent one of those tubes and do the same thing. Everyone seemed to be having tons of fun.
Since we had neither tubes nor swimsuits at that point, our only option was to take off our shoes and cool off our feet. The cold water sure felt good on our "tootsies". The hard part was walking on all those small, slippery wet rocks and pebbles in our bare feet.
After a large breakfast on Saturday morning, we hit the farmers market in downtown Steamboat Springs. We skipped the beetle kill wood and wound up with a nice loaf of pumpernickel bread and some smoked salmon which we ate for lunch. Maybe the combination sounds a bit odd for you, but it worked out well for us.
Next on the agenda was the ride up the mountain on the gondola. Don and Gay sat across from Rob and me. I don't necessarily like riding in gondolas because I'm afraid of heights, but there is NO way in this world that I would be hiking up that steep mountainside!
Here is a view as we go up. Do you recognize that cute guy sitting on the porch and smiling at everyone?
Yep, it is Ronald McDonald! His cheeks must get awfully tired since he was smiling on our way up the mountain, and had the same smile on our way down. I bet he is just one happy fella after eating all those Happy Meals!
I found a great spot for us to have our picture taken at the top. Gay graciously took my camera and took some shots of us. At least the scenery in the background is nice to look at.....takes the focus off our faces!
About half an hour later, I got a a chance to get a picture of Rob and Gay with their great smiles.
Had a chance to get a photo of the beautiful old barn before we left. Just wonder how long it has been sitting there. If its walls could talk, I wonder what stories they would tell?
"I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing."
