The Last Hurrah

 Our last weekend in Colorado included a quick trip to the small town of Castle Rock.  The old part of town has lovely old buildings and restaurants that individually owned.  Ken and Lisa first took us to Wild Blue Yonder, which had outside seating in the front, side and back yards.

They had beer (of course) and you can barely see Lisa's head behind the two dark beer glasses.

The best part for me was the fried cheese curds.  Bad for the diet, but wonderful for the taste buds!

We walked off some of the calories and headed towards Yolanda's Tacos for dinner, located near Festival Park. It turned out to be our last cool evening walk for many months.  I savored every moment.

I thought this was such a unique way to paint the crosswalk, I had to stop and take a picture.

No Horsing around at Horsetooth

 Last Thursday was a very busy day!  We had gone biking with Ron and Patty in the morning, and by 1:30 PM we were headed out to Horsetooth Reservoir, located outside the city of Ft. Collins.  Bret and Kim had planned an afternoon on the water with us on his boat.  With blue skies and the sunshine beating down on us, it was perfect for an outing.  Bret took his truck back to the parking lot while Tatum steered the boat towards the dock to pick us up.

However, the clouds started to build up as we headed toward a cove to wait out the incoming storm.  As you can see, Don is talking with his hands again, but I sure can't remember what he was trying to tell Bret. Was it important?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Here we are, heading into the side cove with the dark cumulus clouds gathering above us.

Tatum decided to grab a snack as we wait out the storm...... not a hard thing to do because Bret and Kim always make sure there is plenty to eat and drink while they are on the lake.  The last thing you want is crabby kids because they are hungry!  

Other boats had done the same thing, and the local duck clan was out in force, hoping for some human food to be tossed their way.

Bret jumped in to cool off and I can almost hear him thinking, "What's going on up there?" as he pulled himself up behind the boat.

Ella and Tatum were feeding the ducks, and noticed one had fishing line wrapped around it's beak.  They tried enticing that one particular duck to get closer by throwing chips into the water so they could catch it.  However, the other ducks were bullies and kept chasing it away.  So now we know that even ducks can be nasty and bully the less fortunate.😢  You could say all was not "ducky" that afternoon and a "fowl" mood was present among the female waterfowl.

Tatum even jumped into the water and tried to catch the unfortunate waterfowl.  Nope.  No such luck. It continued to duck out of the way.   Well, at least it helped us pass the time!  We did get bouts of rain which made us huddle under the canopy and don our sweatshirts, but the storm passed fairly quickly.

Soon Kim, Tatum and Ella were catching rays of sun while Nate occupied himself by being on his phone.  

The storm was finished, so we headed out of the cove, with Tatum and Ella trailing behind on the tube.

Nate must have been really tired.  He had no trouble sleeping as Bret whipped the boat back and forth to make waves for the tubers!  Even the beach towel flying in front didn't phase him.  Oh, to be young again!

Do you think Tatum and Ella have had enough?  My body ached just watching them being bounced around in the water, holding on tightly to the handles.

Kim reeled them in and I know they were glad to be done for the day.

This was the view from Don's and my perspective as we headed back south to the dock.  Can you tell which feet are Don's and which are mine?  I'll give you a clue, Don only wears clear nail polish even though his favorite color is blue! 😜😁

I wonder what Bret is pondering as exited the marina after fueling up.  Maybe it was stuff related to his job, since he even answered a business call while out on Horsetooth.  Ah, the joys of life in the 21st century.  Makes me glad I grew up in the 50's and 60's. 

Friendly Places with Friends

 There are friends, and then there are close friends that hold a special place in your heart.  Ron and Patty are just that.  We started camp hosting together at Boyd Lake State Park in 2014, with sites right next to each other for 6 years in a row.  Each night included sitting together in their site, sometimes with a nice campfire, other times just enjoying the amazing sunsets like this one in 2017.

We both were looking forward to seeing them again.  In fact, our first time to eat inside a restaurant since COVID hit was meeting them at Wapiti's in Loveland.

The view from the porch and the good food was well worth the wait. 

We met them the next week to ride the Spring Creek Trail, one of our favorites in Ft. Collins.  With the temperature in the low 70's and the sun shining, it was a great day for a bike ride.  Here they are, at Edora Park, ready, willing and able!

We love the Spring Creek Trail since it takes us through wooded areas, past parks and open spaces, alongside horse corrals, the water in the creek and ends up at Spring Creek Park.  

We reached the turn around point, where Patty got some good pictures of the four of us. 

It was time to head back.  An added plus is that it's basically downhill all the way back!

It took half the time to get back to the parking lot, and I think Ron and Patty were happy campers at that point.😀

It was so much fun we did a ride the following week, and rode both the Spring Creek and the Poudre Trail up to Ft. Collins. The trail took us past parks, buildings,meadows and the Cache de Poudre River.

It even took us past a flock of turkeys!  Definitely a first for us while biking.  There must have been 15-20 of those gobblers.😅

Our turn around point was the New Belgium Brewery, one of the most recognized places in Ft. Collins, especially for beer lovers. And no, we didn't stop for a "cold one" since it was way, way too early in the day. We are so thankful to have these two as friends!

Lake Isabelle

 When you are in Colorado, a hike in the Rockies is a must do!  Kim had the day off from her teaching preparation courses, so we drove an hour and a half to do the hike to Lake Isabelle.  We parked near Brainard Lake, hiked by Long Lake, and ascended up the path to Lake Isabelle.  We started out at 10,300 feet and hiked to 10,850 feet, which left me winded numerous times.  Below is the sign at the trailhead.

This is in Boulder County, so masks were required at the trailheads and when you passed someone on the trail.  Even though it was a workday, there were lots of dogs and people hiking.  Don forgot his mask in the truck, so he had to pull his shirt over his mouth.  More COVID rules.😡  Ugh!  With the hat, sunglasses and mask I don't think anyone would have recognized me.

Kim and Ella stopped and posed by the sign.

This was taken by Long Lake, where Don waited for us.  His knee was still feeling good since the shot he had gotten last year, and he didn't want to take the chance of ruining it.  He was content while the 3 of us ambled up the path.

We passed by a beautiful field of purple lupine along the way, and of course we had to stop so I could take a picture.

Parts of the trail were smooth and level, while others were rocky.  I think Ella is part mountain goat since she jumped from rock to rock quite easily.  Having a large camera along made it more cumbersome, but Kim made sure I didn't slip.

We encountered a large field of wildflowers among the rocks and waterfall.  If you look closely, you can see Ella hiking up the path on the left side of the photo right below.  God's creations are surely breath taking!

Finally we reached our destination!  Lake Isabelle! Time to rest my sore feet and weary legs plus get in a bit of nourishment.

I got a nice pic of Kim and Ella nestled in the wildflowers as they ate part of their lunch before we headed back.

On our return, Kim noticed the patch of Columbine flowers.  This was the only group

of Columbines we saw during our hike.  I love their delicate petals.  We made it back to Long Lake by 12:45, and Don was quite hungry.  Kim had his sandwich in her backpack!  He did have a granola bar and water, so he did make it out alive. LOL

 It was drizzling as we reached the end of our hike at Brainard Lake.  Perfect timing for a perfect day!

Biking and more biking

So many trails, so little time.

After spending the weekend with Ken and Lisa, we headed north to Windsor, where Bret and his family live.  We have the "downstairs suite" in the basement, which is nice and cool even during the day time. Thanks to COVID😡 Ella can no longer take the bus to school, even though it is more than 2 miles by car.  We followed her on the bike path she'll take to school, which transitions from neighborhoods to open fields and farms.

Below is the path that is right behind their home.

It will be about a 15 minute bike ride to her school.  Riding on the gravel was a lot harder than being on the cement, but I enjoyed the wide open spaces and very few other people which slow us down.

This is where the path transitions from cement to gravel.

The next day, we repeated the route to school so Ella could try out her new bike lock.  We also added on some mileage by biking past the house and over to Windsor Lake.

This time we rode back and forth over the roller coaster section near the school.  Variety is the spice of life!

On another day we headed west towards the Rockies and had a prairie dog village on one side and the canal on the other.  A few years ago, this was all open fields.  Sadly, now housing developments are taking over.  Our turn around point one day was the brewery, but it was way too early to have a cold one (for me a cold one would be water with ice).    

The longhorn paid no attention to us as we went past.  I guess he didn't want to "steer" us in the wrong direction. 😂

 

A view of the Cache de Poudre River from the trail by Eastman Park, where there is a trailhead and a starting point for many of our rides when we're in Windsor.Below were the views we had the one day as we headed westward.

The bridge over the Cache de Poudre River on the way to Timnath.

With my 3 speed automatic shift bike, I had to pick up speed as much as possible so I could make it to the top since it's steeper at the end.. My sister-in-law, Doris and I have the same exact bike, so she can relate.  😏 Our bikes with the comfy seats are not made for steep inclines!