"sisters, sisters"
"Sisters, sisters …
All kinds of weather, we stick together
The same in the rain or sun
Two different faces, but in tight places we think and act as one, uh huh."
Parker, CO: mountains, amazing rock formations, wildlife and family ❤️
Did you know Colorado has both the highest low elevation and the highest high elevation of all the states? This girl, who hadn't seen mountains in months, was finally seeing them again. A welcome relief and they were spectacular. (It was still hot though, temps in the 90s during the day.)
My sister, Denise, and her husband, Russell, were the perfect hosts and it was certainly nice to hang out in a "full size" house with all it's "full sized" accouterments (especially the shower ❤️!!!) even if I did keep losing people and just had to stand in the middle of the house and yell "Where are you?" 😂
My sister arranged for the most glorious sunset, (as seen from her deck) to welcome us. 🤗
The next morning, after ogling at the view from the same deck …
we went to neighboring Castle Rock for a little hike up it's namesake, Castle Rock.
One of the formations looked like a turtle!
and a few other views from the top.
My sister, Denise, and her husband, Russell.
One day we got up early, drove up to the Vail pass and rode our bikes down to Frisco where we had lunch and then rode on to Dillon.
It was spectacular. Thanks to Conrad, my sister's son (🤔that makes him my nephew, btw 🧐) for suggesting this and joining us with one of his son's, Lucas. (Another btw moment, Conrad and his wife Maya have three boys too, and we share the same anniversary! I know what you're thinking, what ??? Same day, not the same year. 😆)
The trail goes right down between the mountains, by Copper Mt ski area, following a babbling steam that
ended in a reservoir (or at least we ended there, the stream probably kept going!)
The biking crew: (l-r) Lucas, Russell, Denise, me, Martin and Conrad
Another day we drove up Pikes Peak. It is the second most visited mountain in the world (number one is Mt Fuji). At 14,115' … it was not in the 90s up there. High in the 40s with wind and even some rain. Yikes! 🥶 I'm such a whiner … I thought that was too cold. 😂. We had donuts that were made up there. These are unique donuts because they are baked at the highest altitude in the US. For you bakers or chemists or just folks interested in quirky facts … you have to do different things because the chemistry of baking doesn't work the same way at 14,000' as it does at sea level.🍩
"all kinds of weather we stick together, the same in the rain …
(Tee-hee, I thought Russell looked impossibly British walking about with his umbrella. His family has been in the US for generations 😂)
Extremely practical though. He wasn't wet at all!
Some views, notice that you can see where it is raining around the mountain.
but now that we are down a few thousand feet .. blue skies 🤷
and then, in amongst the red rocks, we have this blob of very dark stone sticking out. (I thought it resembled a wart)😂
A view of part of the road, and yes it did make me rather 🤢 They have an annual road race up to the top. Now that would definitely make me …
The contrast of the red rocks against the brilliant blue sky was stunning.
Before we had turtle rock, now we have the "kissing camels".
sister's "... and sun"
Lots of climbers were active in the park. I couldn't resist taking pics of this one. I sent the pics to him.
Some of the rocks reminded me of the "fins" in some of the NPs in Utah.
The park ranger was on a horse!
The Manitou cliff dwellings completed the day. These cliff dwellings, which were originally in the four corners area, were carefully deconstructed, moved and rebuilt here to try and conserve what was left of the structures in the early 1900s. Apparently, at that time there were no laws protecting antiquities or items of indegenous peoples. While I certainly don't support moving communities, I appreciate that this was done at a time when it seemed that this was the only option for saving this history. Ancient Puebloans built and lived in these dwellings in approximately the same time period as the mounds of Cohokia were being built and occupied near St. Louis. (And you thought you wouldn't ever hear about them again 😆)
Besides the ancient dwellings there was also a museum in a more modern pueblo style house that until fairly recently had been home to several native Americans.
We also stopped at a brew pub, we hadn't been to one in a while (or at least I hadn't shared pics 🤔) but, I liked the decor here. The arch is made entirely of books and …
they had the ultimate in the coolest of microbrew names ...Space Force Orbital Warfare ! 😂 (Colorado Springs is not only home to the Air Force Academy, but to the new "Space Force" as well) Imagine sidling up to a bar and saying "I'll take a Space Force Orbital Warfare, please. Thanks"
Anyway the name struck my funny bone. 🦴 Tee hee.
Downtown Parker.
The view of Denver and mountains from Denise and Russell's deck.
The sunsets were always glorious
Then … there was this fabulous homemade ice cream shop which, it just so happened, was right next to a little prairie dog town. Does it get better than that? I love prairie dogs. I think they are the cutest . So there we stood eating our ice cream waffle cones (trying to catch the drips of ice cream, which was melting way faster than we were eating … ) and watching the antics of these little guys.
We (well, ok, I, 🙄) made quite a mess, but it was delicious and fun!
Note: all anthropomorphism of the following animals has been created by the author.
the lookout
"Don't worry everybody, I've got the watch"
"Which way did he go?" "I thought you were watching him," " No I thought you were watching him," " Wait, what?" "Then who's watching him?"
"No, it's ok guys. I'm watching."
"Uh oh. I'm just going to get a little closer to home in case something scary happens."
Prong horns grazing in a field near the road
"Excuse me. Are you looking at me? "
The trio, clearing of throats, " Just give us a G please"
A deer at Garden of the Gods. Her shy pose, "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup."
My sister has several bird feeders in her back yard. This little guy has helped itself to a seed. I believe it is a female House Finch.
Here we have a Eurasian Collared Dove.
And our mom's fav, hummingbirds. I believe this is female Broad-tail Hummingbird.
In our explorations we came across this sweetie having a snack.
"This is yummy."
"No wait, I think this is even yummier!"
It is easy to see the beauty of our country, our world in all its different permutations.
For this, the ability to experience it and so much more I continually give thanks. 🙏
Next stop: Minatare Lake, Nebraska (with some diverting side trips and stops, of course).
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