mountains – From My Corner of the Universe

Steamboat Springs Weekend Trip

November 18, 2021

Last weekend, our oldest daughter was celebrating her two-year anniversary with her boyfriend in Steamboat Springs and we needed to get some Christmas photos for the year so we decided to join them up there. They had gone up before we did and stayed in a B&B. We stayed at a La Quinta about five minutes from them.

The drive to Steamboat was about four hours. There was a bit of snow as we approached the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Down the other side of the tunnel is steep and curvy. I’ve been down this road many times but each time, I’m always so nervous.

When we got closer to Steamboat, it snowed.

A few minutes before reaching Steamboat, the snow stopped and disappeared.

Where we stayed.

The view from the back window of our hotel room.

We didn’t have time to do too many things. Our one full day there, we had breakfast with our daughter and her boyfriend, and took photos. Then, they went their way, and we went ours. Husband, our youngest daughter, and I went to a hot springs which husband and I loved, but daughter didn’t so much. The sulfur was too strong for her. The sulfur started to burn my eyes eventually so we left. We had lunch and then went to watch Eternals at a really small theater (it’s really small compared to the AMC near our home, but not nearly as small as the one in Craig when I went with our daughters some years ago). Daughter and I liked Eternals. Husband thought it was too long.

It was a nice little getaway to a small ski town. Everyone was friendly and the view was beautiful and peaceful.

Digital Layout: Evergreen

October 21, 2020

Last week daughter was on fall break from school and husband took some time off work so we decided to take a little car ride up to Evergreen to walk around the lake. We’ve been to the lake a few times (our family Christmas photo was taken there last year) but never walked around it. This was our first time. It was really nice. I had no idea it was a man-made lake with a dam. Always thought it was natural.

Loveland and Valentine’s Day

February 18, 2020

The day before Valentine’s Day, husband and I went to Loveland. This was our second time going since the new year. Husband didn’t snowboard as much this time. The visibility had gotten pretty bad by the time he started going down the hills. I was able to get some editing done and wanted to stay longer to finish up editing all of the novella but we decided to head home in time to pick up our 12-year-old instead of having our 17-year-old pick her up.

Husband decided to use Apple Maps instead of Google Maps, which was a big mistake (he switched to the darkside and wanted to test out Apple Maps). Apple Maps likes to take us through the scenic route. It had us exit the highway and instead of getting back on the highway, it was trying to take us on a road we were not familiar with. Then, as we got closer to Loveland, Apple Maps tried to add 40 minutes more to our drive by having us go around Loveland and then coming back down to Loveland. Husband didn’t follow the instructions. He exited where we normally exit and it only took us 5 minutes to the Loveland parking area.

I love the green chili in the cafeteria. Normally when we go there during breakfast I always get the chili on top of my hash brown and scrambled eggs, but this time we arrived after breakfast so I got the green chili with fries and cheese.

On Valentine’s day, husband got me a yellow orchid. He knows how much I love them. We went to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and donuts. For lunch, we went to The Cheesecake Factory. We haven’t gone there for awhile and husband wanted to go there so we made it a date. Our waiter was the coolest. He was good with the menu, timely, and friendly.

It was nice to have some downtime with husband because the weekend was pretty busy.

Ouray, Colorado

June 12, 2019

Last week, the family took a road trip to Ouray, Colorado. It was a six hour drive through winding roads and beautiful mountain views so it didn’t feel very long at all. The photo below shows us at just shy of three hours from our destination.

Here are some views on our way there.

We stayed at an RV and cabin campsite where we rented a tiny home cabin. It was homey and well cared for.

We stayed in the middle cabin. They called these deluxe cabins because there’s enough room to sleep seven people. There were four of us total so we wouldn’t fit in the smaller cabins, which were a few yards down from ours.

Inside our cabin. The kids slept in the loft. Down past the kitchen is the main bedroom.

This is the living room. We watched a couple of movies on our stay. It wasn’t really mountain living, as you can see.

The backside walks out toward the river which was pretty swollen from the snowfall last month. The black cover thingy with the rock on top is a gas grill. We didn’t get a chance to use it but hope to next time. I enjoyed waking up early and sitting on a chair listening to the rush of the river and birds chirping. It was relaxing and peaceful.

When we first arrived, we ate dinner at a restaurant and then went for a walk along the river. Our oldest was too tired so she stayed in the cabin. The rain sprinkled a bit but didn’t last. That’s my husband and youngest in her rain poncho.

We only went for two nights and three days so we didn’t get to do too much. We spent our day mainly at the hot springs pool. The same evening, there was a music festival in the park next to the pool so we hung out there for a couple of hours. Before the pool and the festival, we had breakfast at the Cafe next to the cabins and RVs. We learned that the owner of the cafe, when he was a kid in the 80’s, got to sit with John Wayne for breakfast every morning while they were filming the original True Grit (yes! it was filmed in Ouray). His mother opened the cafe and ran it until she wasn’t able to and he took over. I had ordered a huervos rancheros and had just started eating when he came by and told us this story. He said the huervos rancheros was John Wayne’s favorite. He was a lucky kid. I’m glad he shared this piece of his life with us.

Winter Park, Colorado

January 24, 2019

Happy New Year!

It’s been 11 years since I first started blogging with WordPress. I can’t believe it’s been over a decade. I remember when I first found WordPress and wasn’t sure if this would be a good platform to move my blog to. Initially, I was paying another hosting site for a website and blog but I didn’t need the website anymore. I just wanted to blog. I’ve been happy with WordPress all these years.

Last Saturday, the family took the train to a town in the mountains called Winter Park. The train we took only goes to Winter Park in January, February, and March. Winter Park is known for their skiing and snowboarding. We didn’t ski or snowboard because the only person who really knows how to ski and snowboard is my husband. I’ve tried skiing and snowboarding when I was younger but just never got into it. We didn’t want to do any strenous activities because our oldest daughter has national competitions next week and can’t do anything that could cause an injury. We thought we’d walk around, check out some shops, try a couple of restaurants, and then return home.

Things changed when our oldest daughter saw the tubing slides when we took the lift to the side where the tubing was. The lift went over the slides and we could see people coming down. It looked really fun. I was nervous for her because I was afraid she’d injure herself and then we’d be in big trouble for nationals. But, all went well. The slides were monitored very well. There were four lanes and they went from fastest to slowest. We spent an hour tubing, then went to have lunch in the town of Winter Park (the skiing/snowboard, tubing, ice skating, etc. were in the Resort). We wanted to go to Fraser which is the town just north but mistakenly got off early. It was all good though. We had a good lunch. It started to snow and looked beautiful.

Here are some photos from the trip.

We got up at 4:30am to give us enough time to get everything together. The train station is downtown in the heart of the city so we wanted to make sure we got a parking space and also we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the train, which left the station at exactly 7am.

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The girls fell asleep most the way and missed the sunrise (above). The train was a two hour ride and went through about 30 mountains. I tried to count the tunnels but lost track. The final mountain took 10 minutes to get through.

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Here’s a view of the cars behind us. We sat on the second level of car number three. There were seven cars total, not including the engine.

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Arriving in Winter Park Resort. It was very cold.

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We ate breakfast and watched people go down the hills. There were lots of people skiing and snowboarding.

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We took the lift to the other side where the tubing was. We wanted to see if there were other activites to do besides tubing on the tubing side.

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On the right, you could see two of the tubing lanes and someone coming down the first lane.

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Skiiers and snowboarders from the parking area making their way to the lift to take them to the side we came from. But, check out that mountainside with the low hanging clouds.

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Me with our two girls waiting in line to go down the fastest lane.

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Our youngest pulling the tube up the conveyor belt. That tube is heavy! We eventually switched to single ones when she felt confident enough to go without me. She was scared at first so we went on the second slowest lane, then made our way to the fastest lane.

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Here she is getting ready to go alone and in the fastest lane too!

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It was so much fun tubing. We enjoyed our short day in Winter Park and hope to do it again next year.

Hiking

July 5, 2017

This was my first hike this year. This was a really easy hike. The landscape was mainly flat so I did’t get much workout in, which is fine for now since it’s been awhile. The views were beautiful and very green.

We laid down a couple of rocks for Kat, the girl who passed away in May from suicide, who was the dance friend of my daughter. We also scattered some wild flowers that was given at her memorial at the top of the hill we climbed to. Maybe we’ll visit this place again in a couple of years and see if the flowers survived.

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Vail

August 10, 2015

Over the weekend the family went to the International Evening of Dance up in Vail with the girls’ dance school. The families went separately and met up there. The event was a couple of weeks long and covered all kinds of dancing including hip hop, modern, and ballet. We only went for one day and I believe it was the second to the last day that we were there. Vail is about 3 hours from Denver and is known for it’s skiing during the winter season but I’ve learned that it is practically busy throughout all the seasons. It’s a very beautiful place but quite expensive.

We went to Vendetta’s for pizza then headed to the theater for the show. We all sat on the lawn because that’s what we could all afford as a big group but it turned out great because for such an amazing show (most of it was ballet) it was unbelievably cheap. One thing I personally loved was seeing all the twinkling stars in the night sky. At first, when the sun went down and the stars began to show, I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, that’s what a night sky looks like with stars of different sizes twinkling here and there. But then when it got completely dark and ALL the stars came out, it was complete grandeur. I’ve never seen a sky with so many twinkling stars. It was as if the sky was all glitter. You can say, I found myself more fascinated by the sky than the dances.

Random Photos from May 2008

May 29, 2015

I believe this was the last time we visited the Royal Gorge. A couple of years we tried to go but it was late and they were closed. Plus, there had been a fire and burned down the carousel.

Mt. Antero

October 11, 2014

Husband hiked a 14er, Mt. Princeton, a couple of weeks ago. He finally showed me the photos and I was in awe. When he summited Mt. Princeton he took this amazing photo of Mt. Antero.

Drove Up to Mt. Evans

June 18, 2014

Husband took these gorgeous photos:

Daughter and I hiking up the last bit of Mt. Evans. The lack of oxygen really did a number on me. That’s me in the black coat with the hood on, initially hanging on to courage, but failed and never made it to the top. It was cold and extremely windy. Husband and the girls made it though.

At the summit, a varmint sits on a hanging rock overlooking the view.

We saw these mountain goats near the restrooms (center left). They blend in with the environment so well that we didn’t even notice them. I believe a few people were taking photos of them and that’s how we saw them too.

On our drive up to the summit, there was a small section near the road with these amazing bristlecone pine trees. We decided to stop on our way back from the summit to stand among them and to snap some shots.