We landed in Denver at 7:40 am on a Friday and had a long day in store. Chris had his son Riley with him who I was very much looking forward to meeting. He looks just like Chris and has his personality as well. We all strolled through one of Denver's parks during the afternoon until Riley's mom picked him up. I made steak and chicken fajitas with one of Chris' friends Zach for dinner before we all went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game that evening. By "we all", I am referring to the four people we grew up with from Holland who happen to live in Denver now. It was strange to suddenly see so many people that we used to know all in one place. The view from the stadium was amazing. We were in the second row from the top and could see the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains. Baseball being one the most thrilling sports ever to watch, it was difficult not to pay attention to the sunset.
Saturday started with perfect Denver summer weather. It was long forgotten by Leah and I. We walked onto Chris' balcony and it was 65 deg, sunny and dry with a light breeze. Just like Michigan. Mr. Lane appeared at the front door a couple of hours later and we were off. Up into the mountains we went. The first stop was Golden Gate Canyon State Park for an acclimatization hike.
The weather wasn't ideal, with rain and thunder, but the scenery was great. Mr. Lane took us all to a "famous" pizza place named Beau Joe's for dinner. I wish that I had a picture to share of the road that got us there. True to his reputation, Mr. Lane did some exploring on the way there and drove down an old mining road with perilous drop-offs and no guard-rails. It was excellent. After paying a premium for groceries in a small mountain town, we were finally there, and it felt good.
Sunday was mostly spent exploring the town of Breckenridge. There was an art fair going on but we certainly couldn't afford the expectantly inflated resort prices, so were relegated to browsing only. The weather was beautiful until about 2pm. Apparently during the summer in the Rockies, storms roll in during the early afternoon and persist on and off until the evening. That proved to be the rule for most of our stay.
Monday was a great day! We rented a tandem from the sports shop and rode up Boreas Pass Rd. The road itself was originally a narrow gauge railroad route into town. It went up and up and up. We switch-backed out of town and continued onto one-lane gravel road. We got quite a few looks and some thumbs-up for riding all the way up there on a tandem. Leah was a trooper as "stoker" (rear person on a tandem). The views and descent were both spectacular. We were going downhill at the speed limit of 35 mph. I was a bit nervous steering that monster down the twisty mountain road but all's well that ends well.
Tuesday was an equally great day. We had planned on going horseback riding but the place was booked. So I got to go on another bike ride. This one was up French Pass. The day before when Leah and I picked up our tandem, the rental guy tried to steer us away from going up Boreas Pass Rd. This day a different rental guy again tried to steer me away from going up French Pass. The greatness of the previous days ride convinced me to ride where I wanted to, so off I went. It was great. A long twisty gravel road climbing through pine forests and open meadows. The weather was great until I got to the very top. I would guess that with the wind chill factored in it was probably around 30 deg. The road climbed past the tree-line, which I was very excited about.
We finally got our chance to go horseback riding on Wednesday. We took the bus to Copper Mountain and walked to the stables. So far so good. The weather was nice, a few clouds but nothing too tall or too dark. We took off up the hill, Leah on 'Dusty' and myself on 'Oke'. Shortly thereafter the sun disappeared for good and a light rain began to fall. The light rain became freezing drizzle which turned into large pellets of slush. Soon we were soaked and cold to our cores with thunder booming and no respite in sight. Our wonderful guide Connor cut our trip short and got us back just in time for the sun to come back out.
We flew down to town and ate large hot sandwiches and Leah bought a sweatshirt for the ride back to Breck. As soon as we got back we jumped into the hot tub and stayed for a long time.
Later that day we walked down to the Riverwalk Center, an auditorium in Breckenridge. Leah had gotten us tickets to the National Repertory Orchestra concert, part of the town's summer music festival. The first half consisted of a Serenade for Winds and Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration), both by Strauss. The conductor was a man named Gerhardt Zimmerman, who appeared to be a bit full of himself. The second half was Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), by Stravinsky. The conductor was Carl Topilow, and he was not full of himself. He was awesome. The music was amazing and brought the entire audience up to full attention. We were both very thankful for the second half.
Thursday was the exception to the rule of Rocky Mountain summer weather. It was hailing when I woke up, it was raining when Leah woke up and it rained on and off for most of the day. Being huge breakfast fans we went to a popular place called Daylight Donuts. Unfortunately our food was cold and wasn't anything special. Thus we decided to go to a different place to get our donuts, for which a newfound love had grown during our trip. Kava Donuts proved to be our morning's savior. Delicious, fresh-made mini-donuts upon ordering. Perfect.
Little did we know that our time in the mountains would end with some of the best pizza that we'd had in a long time. We were more or less broke by our last day but pizza and ice cream seemed like the right decision. Giampietro's Pizzeria was where we went and it was superb. Afterwards we actually got an honest confession from a store employee upon the asking of, "Which ice cream is better, yours or Boulder's?" Boulder's it was and she was right on. Smooth and decadent Dutch Chocolate. Some of the best that I've ever tasted. Leah went with her usual Cookie Dough, and it was good but not great. The vanilla was right on but the cookie dough:ice cream ratio was too low, the most common problem with cookie dough ice cream.
Friday morning my trusty old friend Chris showed up around 9 am and we took off for Denver. We took the long way up and over Loveland Pass for a quick hike and some great views. And we got a few minutes to play in the snow.
Chris dropped us off at the airport and we're now back in the heat and humidity of central TX. Bittersweet I suppose. This is the first time that we've returned to TX as "home". It was a strange feeling but we were both happy when we arrived.
As always we appreciate any information, be it text or photos or sounds that we can get from Michigan, New York, California, Arizona, Minnesota or Ohio.
Love Jay and Leah
Certainly good to see pictures with you and Chris and Mr. Lane all together!
ReplyDelete