A Full-time Life

Category: Colorado

  • HOME AGAIN — with memories!

     

    Traveling from the Florida Canal Cottage to Oregon was a bit different this year.  It was an amazing 'detour.'  We're home now and  still sorting out our memories … and our pictures from the trip.     To get started while I finish that project, here are just a few favorites.  There will be more later.  

     

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    Budapest

    We were on a Viking River Cruise for 15 days — boarding the boat in Budapest.  The boat docked in a different port almost every day — we visited twelve cities in four different countries, traveling along three rivers to Amsterdam where we disembarked.     

     

    IMG_4284Bill in Ghent 

     

    After that, we stayed (all on our own) for two weeks — spending more time in the Netherlands and adding the countries of Belgium and Luxembourg.  We had a wonderful time — the whole trip was a triumph for the travel planner (who is pictured above, in Belgium).  

     

    2 Vienna Austria

    With Jacob and Maya at Schonbrunn Palace and also enjoying Sacher Torte in old-town Vienna

    Hopping backwards to our time  on the Viking  — we enjoyed and learned from every one of those twelve stops … sometimes we went on the   tours the ship offered and sometimes we went out on our own.   The very best guided tour of all though was our own private one during our two-day stop in Vienna.  Here we were met by Jacob and Maya, our European grandson and granddaughter (in-law), who flew to meet us.  It was  wonderful to see them and without doubt we had the best possible tour guides in the world, as Vienna is a familiar city to them. 

     

    11 Rhine Castles Wertheim to Koblenz1Castles and colorful villages on the Rhine

    One of the best parts of a river cruise is that there are wonderful sights to see almost every minute of daylight.  These rivers aren't wide and the views from our balcony or on the top deck were  amazing.   The pictures in the above collage were taken from the boat on one day's travel –  between Wertheim and Koblenz Germany.

     

    IMG_0307Wachau Valley 

     

    Every morning of the whole trip, I woke up amazed … the  boat, the cities, the food, the scenery all really were the stuff of dreams.    But I think even more than anything the  charming views out the window of our room enhanced the dreamlike quality.

    This post barely touches the seventeen cities in six countries that we visited, not to mention the scenic points between!   Needless to say, there will be more!   …   it was a wonderful trip and it is also wonderful to be home!  

     

    IMG_4345Back in the USA – Colorado

    To get here, we flew from Amsterdam to Colorado where we spent a week with our son and daughter-in-law –mostly decompressing, for which we are enormously grateful.  Then home to Oregon, where our daughter and son-in-law kindly retrieved us from the airport.     Because I always include a picture of the first mountain sighting when we return from low-land Florida — and since we our trip was about the low  countries of Europe — Colorado once again has the honors!   The picture is from a walk on the greenbelt near where our family lives.  

     

    LINKING this time to:   ALL SEASONS;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ; TUESDAY  TREASURES ; SAY CHEESE;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS   

     

    Thank you to all of the hosts.

     

     

     

     

     

  • TREE(S) and MOUNTAINS and FLOWERS, OH MY

     

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    We have been home (in Oregon) for almost two weeks and this is the only picture I've taken in all that time.   It's part of a bouquet  from a flower stall at the Eugene Saturday Market where we walked only four days after we got home.  Our empty suitcases were still in the middle of the room, we'd barely stocked up on groceries, and we definitely hadn't caught up on sleep.  But we had flowers …. happy days!  

     

    The rest of this week's pictures are from other happy days — during our stay in beautiful Colorado earlier in June.  

     

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    Above are views from when our Colorado 'kids' took us up into the mountains west of Crested Butte.  Beautiful certainly — but there isn't enough  snow for this time of year in the Mountains.  (Most of these pictures were taken when we were at 10,500 feet … in June there should be definitely still be snow up even higher than that.)   

       

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     Kebler Pass is home to the largest Aspen grove in the State.  Because a stand of Quaking Aspen is  actually only one very large organism rather than individual trees, this stand is actually the largest living thing in Colorado and according  to some scientists a good candidate for one of the largest single living entities in the world.     Info Source:  Denver Magazine  

     

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     An aspen grove is a clonal colony –  every one of what looks like individual trees  grew from a single root derived from a single seedling.  The seedling reproduces and spreads by root sucker.  With sunlight, suckers sprout up from the roots until a whole stand of what looks like individual trees forms.  This clonal colony covers hundreds of acres and would weigh thousands of tons.  Info Source:  Wiki 

         

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    Can you imagine how beautiful *this colony* looks in the Autumn, when all those green leaves are a beautiful golden yellow?  I am definitely counting on certain people to visit the stand again in October or November and text pictures to their parents!!! 

    **(it was really hard not to write 'these trees' here but I forced myself not to, since I'm trying to cement these interesting facts about aspens into my brain.)

       

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    The Wildflower Festival in Crested Butte is scheduled for mid-July, but it looked a bit like the season was going to beat that date.  Again, so beautiful but a much warmer spring than normal.

    I am grateful that we had the chance to visit this beautiful mountain area thanks to our Colorado family!    And am always grateful for the opportunity to learn something new .  

     

    LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   

     ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  THROUGH MY LENS;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ; FLORAL BLISS;  Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

     

     Thank you to the hosts who do so much to  make blogging fun!

     

  • ROYAL GORGE, COLORADO

    Please scroll down for SIGNS SIGNS entry. 

    Happy to be home in Oregon in real life,  but  in blogland remembering and sharing highlights from our recent roadtrip   …

    still in Colorado for this post.

    The incredible Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge hangs 965 feet above the wild Arkansas River.    Built in 1929, for over 70 years, it was the highest suspension bridge in the world.   The picture below was taken near the Royal Gorge Park Visitor Center.  Rather incredible in itself, this is a City Park belonging to the small community of Cañon City Colorado, where we spent one night on our trip. 

     

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    The bridge cost $350,000 to build —   today that cost would exceed $20 million dollars.  From the Visitor Center there are 360-degree views of the Gorge and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

     

     The night before we reached Cañon City, we purchased tickets to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad through the canyon.  

     

       

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    We boarded the train at the historic Santa Fe Depot.   Cars are air-conditioned and comfortable; food and beverages are available.  

     

     

    Royal Gorge Colordo

     

    We had a large picture window at our seat in the dome car, but the most spectacular views and photo ops were from the open observation car.   I spent most of the ride out there — but it was nice to have the air-conditioned space available inside.    

     

     

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    Sometimes, as in the pictures in the collage, the train traveled through canyons so narrow that we could have touched the granite cliffs.  At other times, we looked up to the top of the 1,000 foot cliffs that towered above the track.   Above  is a zoomed-in view of the suspension bridge from way down below it.

     

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    Most of the time, we could see the wild and winding Arkansas River on one side of the track and steep cliffs on the other.

     

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    Here's the end of the train coming around a curve in the tracks — and a few other photographers capturing the moment as they leaned out over the railing.

    The next three pictures, like the top one in this post, were taken the  day after our train ride, when we drove up to the (city) Park.   There's a good-sized Visitor Center perched  on the side of the Gorge, 1,230 feet above the River.  Historical photos and information about the area and lots of family activities are available.

     

     

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    A wildfire destroyed 90 percent of the park in 2013 and the Visitor Center was completely rebuilt.  The Bridge itself was minimally damaged.   I like to walk across bridges and we had heard that you could walk across this one, but we learned at the Visitor Center that it is only open for pedestrians twice a day.  We missed the morning time and didn't plan to hang around for the evening hour.   (Also we learned that you have to pay an admission fee even to walk the bridge.)

     

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    We might  have walked the bridge, but here's one of the adventures Cañon City offers that did not tempt me at all.    We've taken trams up and down snowy mountains in at least a couple of places, but thinking about swinging above all those sharp granite rocks was more than a little shivery.

     

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    We were glad we were able to visit this spectacular natural wonder.    Here is one more view of the bridge from down below (on the train ride) ….  I like  this one because it shows off Colorado's beautiful blue sky, the  subtle colors of the incredible granite cliffs, and the amazing man-made wonder of the bridge all in one quick shot from the open train car. 

     

    ** My one new thing to learn this week was how to make the tilde mark above the 'n'…. but I had to use Bill's Mac to do it.  (He's Mac, I'm PC)….and so now you know that Cañon City is pronounced in the Spanish way more like Canyon than canon — which makes sense and makes me much happier.

     

    Sharing this week with the blogging communities at:  OUR WORLD; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; SIGNS SIGNS;  THROUGH MY LENS; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY.    

    Thank you to all of the hosts.

     

  • RE-‘OREGON’IZING

        

    We are home again in Eugene and whipping our summer home back into shape (stocking empty cupboards and refrigerator, working through the big bag of laundry from the last of the roadtrip … and, not least, trying to remember where everything belongs here in the apartment.)    There's a bunch of unsorted  road trip photos, but until there is time for that task, here are a few from our stay in Colorado  (approximately the middle of the trip).   

     

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    This picture and those in  the mosaic below were taken during evening walks on the greenway behind Geoff's and Lisa's home.  It was easy to put this post together because every picture I took of this lovely area was usable 'as is'  …. you can't go too far wrong with scenery like this. 

     

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    I don't know what's wrong with me that I managed to snap a picture of Cody (their dog) and none of the handsome and charming person on the other end of the leash.  I am so bad at taking pictures of people  – too busy enjoying the good company!  

     

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    On our way to enjoy the delights of downtown Boulder one day,  Geoff and Lisa detoured through Loveland so that we could check out Benson Sculpture Park.   I fell in love with this collection of outdoor art years ago when we used to stay at an RV Park near here.   That was when we pulled our home behind us (the 40-foot Fifth-Wheel RV)…. back then, since we lived in the RV full-time, it was easier to stay in it when we visited than it would have been to pack stuff up and stay in the kids' guest room.      

    Above are some old favorites  – most were here the first time we visited the park.    Geoff had the camera and his pictures show what a good job the Park does of placing the statues.  They're not just plunked down in a row, but rather situated so that you can almost believe … those lions are moving stealthily through the savannah … the kids are riding double down the sidewalk … the sweet gardener is thinking about what she'll plant next …  

     

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    Benson Park holds a juried selection process annually.    These are some of the newer installations.   We loved the ones on the left and in the middle, disliked the one on the top right and were unsure of the one on the bottom.   But it is a good thing that the judges choose art that appeals to different tastes.     

     

    SHARING our Colorado family's "backyard" with SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY ; THROUGH MY LENS; and OUR WORLD on TUESDAY.

     

     Thank you to all of the hosts.
     

     

     

  • HALFWAY DOWN THE ROAD

       
     
    We've been in Colorado for a week… about halfway to our summertime destination in Oregon.    We enjoyed the journey (most of it anyway) and it's good to be here at what feels like our home away from home (or our halfway house, maybe).    Beautiful scenery here in this gorgeous state, lovely weather, and best of all our very own Colorado family.  
     
     
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     There's more sky than mountains in this 'through the car window' shot, but it's a tradition to snap a picture of the first mountain range we see after living in flatland Florida for half the year.   This shot is getting close to our Colorado destination and I will probably be blogging about Colorado until well after we're home in Oregon.   
     
     

     

    The rest of today's post however  is about the journey to get this far.   Our first two stops along the Florida Coast were in small cities that Google Map apparently doesn't think deserve more than a dot on the map (and Google is probably right).  

    The third night we stayed in beautiful Gulf Shores State Park in Alabama.   After that, we stayed in Vidalia Louisiana (directly across the Mississippi River from Natches.)    Those were both wonderful stops and Google really should have given them credit.  After that,  over-night stops in Mt. Pleasant and Vernon both in East Texas, Raton in New Mexico, and Canon City on the Colorado border.  And then we were 'home' (at the kids).  

    It was not  the most efficient route nor the fastest, but we like to avoid freeways when we can …it is a better way to see what the country really looks like.  It is slower, but more interesting — and we're fortunate to have lots of time.   And because we do, as is obvious, we also drive short days.

     

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    However we  didn't see much beautiful scenery for the first three days of the trip.  It  was pouring when we left our Florida home and that hard rain continued as we made our way along the coast.  

    It would have been churlish to complain, because Florida has been in a drought for some time and the rain was much needed.  (But I must confess to wishing it would stop for a few minutes every so often.) 

     

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    We were in Alabama before we saw the sun….and here it is setting at Gulf Shores State Park after we stopped for the night.  This beautiful park is near Foley Alabama.  We spent a winter near here back when we were full-time RVers and it was fun to see familiar places (and have an early dinner in a favorite restaurant, which was just as good as we remembered from way back then). 

     

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    Evening walks with beautiful sunsets and birds are amenities that freeway motels don't usually offer.    But they are common benefits when camping across the country.  The Purple Martin houses were at Vidalia and the other birds along one of the trails at Gulf Shores.

     

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    At Vidalia, this cute little guy (and a few more of his family members) visited our front yard.  The first black squirrels we've ever seen.

     

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    This picture is taken from in back of our camper van  at Riverview RV Park in Vidalia.   We were settled in to our spot just yards away from the mighty Mississippi River.   The tugboat is pushing a row of barges that must have been a quarter mile long.  It had to go under that bridge and around a curve in the river.  We admired the pilot's skill as we walked along the  lovely walking path between the river and the park.

     

     

    LINKING these recent travel memories to:  OUR WORLD on Tuesday; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B' BIRDING.    Thank you to all of the hosts.

     

     

     

  • TRANSITION

    Happy Fourth of July!

     

    We are still in transition mode, getting "Oregonized' here in Eugene.   The collection below is a transition too – birds seen toward the end of our stay in Florida and on our trip across our beautiful country.

     

      LEFTOVERS

     

     Top:  Warbler Western Kingbird seen at a rest stop just into Colorado; and Mother and baby coot in the reeds on the Malheur (Eastern Oregon)

    Bottom row:  Great blue heron on my last walk around our resort in Florida; Magpie in Eastern Oregon; Redheaded woodpecker in Florida on one of the last days.

                         (Thank you to  commenters David G and Sondra for identifying my Western Kingbird — a first for me and one I hope to recognize if I'm lucky enough to see it again.)

        Below are a couple of fun signs seen in Breckenridge when we spent a weekend there with our Colorado kids.   

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    On the left a chalkboard for people to write their thoughts about being up high in the mountains; maybe home was too hot for them!  On the right — Only in Colorado?  Lots of altitude there –I can see why people from Oklahoma (or Florida) might need a hit of Oxygen (although we managed fine without any extra), but IV-hydration???

     

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    Mountain streams in Rocky Mountain National Park.  That is Bill and Geoff taking in the view near the fence on the top right. 

     

    LINKING this post to: Our World on Tuesday; Wild Bird Wednesday; Wednesday Waters; Signs Signs; and Good Fences.

    Thank you to all the wonderful hosts.

     

     

     

  • ROCKY MOUNTAINS and BIGHORN SHEEP

     

     

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    Geoff was every bit  good as his father is in his willingness to stop at every possible overlook on our daytrip to Rocky Mountain National Park.   It was nice for Bill too since he could look at everything instead of having to negotiate the mountain roads (and the frequent requests to stop for pictures).  It was a beautiful day, the company was great, and — scenery junkie that I am – I couldn't have been happier.

     

     

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    But then …   something made the day even more wonderful.     We spotted our first Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep!     We have looked for years  in places where we knew they might be, but they had remained elusive.    Geoff and Lisa live very near the National Park, but they had never seen them either.  We were so lucky!

     

     

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    I thought there were more than three that we were watching, but the most I got in one picture was three.  I'm happy with that.  It was so exciting to finally see them that I almost forgot to take pictures at all.  

        

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    The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is Colorado's official State animal.  Their horns keep growing for all their lives — they  don't shed them. The Ram's curved horns can weigh around 30 pounds.    Ewes have horns too, but they are smaller.

     

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    This day was definitely a Rocky Mountain High! 

     

    LINKING to SCENIC WEEKENDS (thanks to Gemma); to SATURDAY CRITTERS (thank you Eileen); to SEASONS (thank you Jesh); and to NATURE NOTES (thanks to Michelle)

  • MORE FROM THE ROAD

     

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    Our 3,548 mile cross-country road trip is over and it is great to be home again in Oregon.   We drove through 12 states – a lot of miles of road, sky, and sagebrush.   On quite a few days, the highlights were our lunch stops.  We tried to find local places to eat because it's a lot more fun than fast-food freeway stops.  Some stops were more successful than others, but all added to the interest of a long long trip.  

     

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    Fortunately, the long miles were punctuated with two beautiful stops.  We spent some wonderful time with our Colorado family.  I posted a few pictures from that stop last week .  Following  are a few more.

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    We had such a good time in Colorado and it was hard to leave.  But at the same time, we were looking forward to getting back to our relatively new Oregon home (we moved into our apartment there last fall) and of course to having time to visit with the rest of our family in the Pacific Northwest.       

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    To break up the rest of our trip home, we decided to spend a couple of nights at French Glen in Eastern Oregon (we live in Eugene in the western part of the state).   This is  just a teaser photo from the Steens Mountains — I still have more to post from Colorado as well as from this stop as we get back into our Oregon routine.

     

     

    LINKING TO OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  to MOSAIC MONDAY; and SEASONS.   Thank you to all of the hosts.

     

     

     

     

  • POSTCARDS FROM COLORADO

     

    We are alive and well and having a wonderful time with our Colorado family.

     

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    We've downloaded approximately a million pictures,  but have had no time to cull the rejects.  I will probably delete half a million.

    Here are some that will obviously make the cut.

     

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    The Continental Divide — halfway home on our inter-coastal journey! 

    And a lot of altitude for flat-land Floridians.

    Our son and daughter-in-law don't live quite this high up — but close enough.   We had a while  to acclimate at their home — and on day trips –before they treated us to a lovely weekend away which included a stop at this beautiful mountain pass.    There is nothing like having guides who know the great places to visit — and who are great company!

     

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    Rocky Mountain high – on a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park earlier last week.

     

    We'll be on the road again soon heading to the Pacific half of the Continent.   But I'll certainly be blogging about the Central part of our country for a while even after we get home to very different —  but equally beautiful — Oregon.  

     

     

    LINKING TO OUR WORLD on Tuesday; and SIGNS SIGNS.  Thank you to the hosts.  (And you know the drill — I'll catch up with visits as soon as we get settled back into our summer routine at home.)

  • IRONFIRE

     

    Our plans on one day of  our Colorado visit (in early December) were to visit our all-time favorite outdoor sculpture garden — Benson Park, in Loveland.    But we changed our minds when we realized over our morning coffee exactly how cold the day was.   (Benson Park is huge and there is no place to get out of the weather.)

    Since we weren't at all sure  how long we'd be able walk outside in the less than 20 degree weather, Geoff and Lisa suggested a visit to the  Leanin' Tree Art Museum in Longmont. 

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    They'd never been there before either, so none of us knew what to expect.  We were brave enough to walk around the small outdoor sculpture garden when we first arrived —  and that's where we saw this intriguing found-object horse in his own fenced pasture.  

     

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     Leanin' Tree is a well-known maker of western-style greeting cards.  The art museum includes many of the original paintings and sculptures from which the cards are taken.  As best as we understand, the Museum buys the artist's original works with some kind of agreement to reprint them as cards.  

     We enjoyed the visit  –  both outside and indoors (where we spent much more time.)

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     It was OK to take pictures anywhere and I don't know why I hardly took any inside the Art Gallery (maybe because my fingers were still warming up).  And I'm sorry I didn't get the name of this artist.   

    Below is something a little something different for a macro picture.  I just aimed the camera at a portion of Ironfire's torso and shot — my fingers were too cold to take much time.  

       

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      P1040502-001All four of us enjoyed our visit.  And a couple of days later we were able to visit the Loveland Sculpture Garden after all because the temperature had risen by about 40 degrees.   (Which is pretty typical of Colorado weather in our experience.)  This is Ravens' Gate, one of the sculptures there.  Those bronze ravens are so real looking that you expect to hear caws …   and you think maybe you should cover you head. 

     

    Linking to I HEART MACRO; MACRO MONDAY; RUBBISH TUESDAY; and GOOD FENCES.

    Thank you to Laura, Gemma, Roan and Theresa respectively for hosting these fun sharing opportunities.