Durango

Labour Day weekend meant that we had three days, so we decided to use this opportunity to travel down and see the Black's, who are her on exchange from Wollongong. They are based in Bayfield, which is just outside Durango, in the south west of Colorado.   It is a little over six hours drive, so Phil got cover for his last two classes, and we got the boys out of school early, and headed off.

On our first day there, we took it pretty easy.  Warren and Phil went down to the diner for breakfast, as Warren wanted Phil to try a breakfast burrito.  Apparently it was huge, and comes smothered in green chilli sauce - nice way to start the day.  The diner is a bit of an icon though, as it is all decked out in typical American style, and it has Towmata and an old police car sitting out the front, 'Cars' style.  Their house backs onto the Elementary school, and the boys all went over there for a game of cricket.  Quinn was not really up for it, but was happy to be chauffeured around by Astrid, in her cool girlie bike, with a trailer at the back, a perfect size for Quinn!

We went into Durango in the afternoon, and Phil and Warren took the boys to the Science Museum - they have William who is the same age as the boys, and Sue and I and the girls went and had a look around the town.  It is a really quaint little town, but there was a bikie get together for Labour Day weekend, and there were bikes everywhere, which you can see in the picture of the main street here.  We all met up again back in Bayfield, and went to the local Mexican place for dinner, where they serve massive margaritas.  Sue and I both got a mango margarita, which was OK - but it beat me!  Sue is a bit of a margarita queen, but I couldn't even get through this one.

The next day was an early start, as we had to be on the train by 7.30am, for an 8am departure - and it was a half hour drive in to Durango.  We made it and boarded the train for our trip to Durango.  It is the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway, and was built in 1881 to haul silver and gold ore from the San Juan Mountains.   It is a steam train, and the views through the mountains are just amazing, and make it the tourist attraction that it is today.  It has some open carriages, as well as the normal closed carriage which we were in.  The kids all wanted to be in the open carriages, but they stuck their head out the window enough, that they didn't need to, though you were free to move about.  They had so much soot all over them, in their eyes, and in their hair it was pretty disgusting - not that they cared.  They had to buy sunnies on the way up to keep the soot out!  Here are some pictures of the amazing scenery.

 

 

It was a beautiful ride up through the mountains, and the kids were all really good.  It was good that they were altogether, as they kept each other entertained!  It was about 3 hours up, and once we got there, we had about two hours to have a look around the town, and get some lunch.  It is a very touristy town, but pretty.  Apparently, a number of movies have been filmed here.  Our first stop was to get a funnel cake.  We had seen them at fairs, but had never tried one.  There is a café in Silverton called Rocky Mountain Funnel cakes, and the Black's had tried them here, and recommended them!  The boys had S'mores, and Warren and I had half berries and cream cheese.  Sue and Phil were being good - but they missed out, cause they were really yummy!  They are like a cake made out of doughnut dough, and then fried (very good for you) and then you could choose your topping.

 

We had a wander around the town, and then it was time to get back on the train for the journey back.

 

It was a long day, but lots of fun and great scenery.  We were lucky to have an amazing day, with beautiful blue skies, and there were no arguments when it came to bedtime.

A Weekend in the Mountains

The Colorado International Teachers Exchange League (CITEL) had organised a jeep trip for us, in the 'Back Country'.  There were over 25 Aussies, and Americans who are involved with CITEL who signed up to go on the trip - the largest group they had had, ever.  I am sure that us with our 5, and the Black's with their 5 contributed in a big way to the numbers, as the majority of people that exchange seem to be single people, or empty nesters.  So, we all assembled at Keystone, in the mountains, for an early start.  There were a number of drivers, and you had to organise your groups, with drivers who had enough seats.  The boys all decided they wanted to go together, so Phil and Warren were with Luke, Ryan, Quinn and William,

in a pretty flash jeep that had leather seats, and a DVD player (which they weren't allowed to watch, much to their disgust - they had to look at the scenery!)  I went with Sue and her two girls, Arnica and Astrid.  There were two tracks up the mountain - one that was a bit hairy, and an easy one.  We decided that we should take the scary one, or we would never hear the end of it from the boys, but when we met up the top for lunch, we found out that they had taken the easy one!  The track was steep in parts, and very narrow as well.  We drove up and over rocks, through creeks and up inclines - it was lots of fun, and not too scary.  You can see in the photos the way the jeeps manouver over the rocks, and hence why is called rock crawling.  The people who took us were volunteers through a jeep club.  The guy who drove our car was a security guard down at the Airforce Academy, and had not done this trail before.

 We all travelled in convoy up the mountain, and you could see trails of other vehicles across the mountains, so it is obviously a pretty popular activity.  There were a few guys on motorbikes, and quadbikes who came up and overtook us, but everyone was pretty well behaved on the tracks.  You can see in some of the photos, there is still snow on  some of the mountains - mainly in areas that don't get enough sun to let it melt.  Everyone had to take their lunch to have on the top of the mountain, as we planned to be gone all day, and they had warned us that it could be really cold at the top, when we stopped for lunch.  We were lucky, and it was quite nice, and good to stop and see how everyone had fared on the way up!  

The scenery was just beautiful up in the mountains, and just after we had packed up our lunch, a herd of mountain goats came up over the ridge, so we had to stop and take photos.  They were a pretty mangy looking bunch, and had lost only parts of their winter coats, which you can see in the photos below.

 

 

 

 It is an old goldmining area, and we stopped at an old mine on the way down, as well as the remains of some old shacks, that the miners must have lived in.  Here the boys are in a photo with Adelaide, the daughter of an American couple who exchanged to Australia a few years ago, and who organised the Jeep day.



The village at Keystone

At the end of the day, most people went and had dinner at a brewery in Lake Dillon, which was really nice to be able to catch up on everyone's summer break, and plans for the rest of the year.  We had planned to stay the night in Silverton, as we had wanted to take a look around the ski villages in summer, and the Black's were also staying, as they had a long trip back to Durango on Sunday. We had a reservation at a hotel, which had been messed up, so ended up at another place, where one room had two queens, and another had a King and two queens up in a loft.  We were in that room, and William came and joined us for the night, after they had all been for a swim in the pool.

The next morning, we went back down to Keystone, and had a look around.  It is a lovely little ski village, and the Black's have booked a week skiing there for Christmas, so wanted to check it out.  They are mad skiers, with Warren having spent 6 or so years as a ski instructor in Europe, when he was younger.  The kids had a great time just looking around the village, and like most of the ski resorts, they offer summer activities.  You can get the chairlift up, and just take a look around, or a lot of places offer mountain biking down the hill.     Phil was pretty interested in this, and plans to come back another time to have a go! 

The Black's left around lunch time, and we continue up the mountain, driving past Lake Dillon, which is really pretty -it is the picture below, and a place for lots of summer activities.  We kept driving, and ended up stopping in Breckenridge for lunch, which is another 'ski village' town.  We had a bit of a wander around, and were just going to go and get on the Gondola to ride to the top of the mountain, when they closed it, as a storm was coming in, and there had been lightening.  As there was no way of knowing how long it was going to be closed, we headed off, down the mountain on our way back to Castle Rock.  

View of Lake Dillon

One of the things that are on the 'must do' list when you come to Colorado, is climb one of the 14ers.  Colorado has 55 peaks, that are over 14,000 feet high, and apparently is a hikers paradise.  Mount Evans was on our way down the mountain, and we decided to go and do our '14er', on the way home.  It is also the highest paved road in America, at 14,240 feet, so thought it a good one for us to do!  A lot of the peaks you need to hike up, but this one you can drive almost all the way.  It is a really pretty drive, through the mountains, and past Echo Lake.  Then, once you head into the National Park, and you climb this road, the landscape changes.

You pass through 3 life zones, as you go by ancient trees, lakes and forests, to the land above the tree line.  The road is narrow and windy, with no guard rails to be seen!  It was a bit hair raising, especially when it started to drizzle, but Phil did a great job, getting us to the top of the mountain!  As it is at such a high elevation, the weather is often a lot cooler up there, than in Denver.   We were prepared with our coats, gloves and hats, as we thought we might have needed them yesterday for our jeep trip, but there were some women up there in summer dresses, and they must have been freezing!

This is the view when you get to the top - it is like you are on the top of the world, and we had a clear day, so could see for miles!

It was a short walk once we got to the car park, to walk up a trail to the top - not that Quinn was very interested!  I had to stay back and encourage Quinn to get to the top, while Phil had to go off ahead with Luke and Ryan, so that they didn't fall off the edge.  They were more that happy to climb to the top, but getting them to stay on the track proved a little more difficult - of course, they wanted to go up and over the rocks!  We did make it to the top, and it started to snow very lightly on our way back to the car.  The University of Denver also has an observatory up there.  I have just read that the top 5 miles of the road to Mount Evans was closed on the 3rd of September, for the 2013 season, so we were lucky to get there before it closed!

It doesn't take long for the weather to warm up as you come back down the mountain.  You can see in the photos below, we stopped to take some more pictures, not even half way down, and the boys didn't even have their coats on (although, this is not always a good indication of the weather, just their lack of sense some days!), but it was certainly not as cold as at the top.  This was a trip well worth doing, and hopefully you get a little sense of how beautiful and amazing the Rocky Mountains are!  It is difficult to capture it through photos, but I am doing my best through sheer quantity, in the hope that at least one will show it.

 



Douglas County Fair

The boys had just finished their first week back at school, and we had also had Thursday night in Denver, at a members night for the Science & Nature Museum, so they were pretty tired.  They would have been happy to laze around all Saturday, and when we told them that we were going down to see the parade in Castle Rock at 9am, we were told, 'parades are boring', 'that's not fair', and 'I don't want to go'.  Luckily, when we got there, one of the first people we saw was Turner and his mum and dad, Anne and Brian, who bought Luke and Mindy's old house, when they moved to Chicago.  So it was a bit better, now that they had a friend.   

The Fair had began earlier, but this was the official parade.  The streets were blocked off, and it went for well over an hour.  There were floats from the local schools with marching bands, cheerleaders and football teams: 

 

Local businesses

 

Farm machinery and animals

Community groups, churches and local associations

And there are obviously local elections shortly, as there were lots of people vying for the position of sheriff.

There was even a snow plough!

We had a great morning, watching the parade go by.  Everyone had something to hand out from water, to drink bottles, lots of candy, and the local tax business 'Liberty Tax', gave out their own version of a visor (see below!)

There were also business along the way giving out free water and icy poles (or popsicles), as it was a really hot day.  There was a huge crowd, and streets were closed for the morning, so it was quite an event in downtown Castle Rock!  We walked back to where we had parked the car, the boys had bags full of loot (that is, candy!) and declared it the 'best parade ever!'

Sunday was the last day of the fair, and we decided to go along and have a look. We checked out the animals to start with - there was a bull, a Shetland pony and a goat at this little shelter.

And there was much excitement, as we had made it in time for the pie eating competition!  The boys were really keen to enter, and wanted to know what flavour the pie was going to be.  It was a chocolate pie, and they didn't get to eat the whole pie (much to their disappointment!) but it was the person who could eat a slice of pie, the quickest, without using their hands.  Apparently the pies were still frozen when we got there, so there was a bit of waiting around, while the pies defrosted in the sun.  Phil was talked into going into the adult competition.  Luke, Ryan and Quinn all had a great, messy time eating their pie, and Luke came second. 

Then it was time for the adult competition.  They all got their garbage bags to wear, so they wouldn't mess up their clothes.  Phil had some pretty fierce competition, but got a third place ribbon. 

 We always knew we had a good family of eaters, but not sure if I should be proud, or not?!  They were pretty pleased to have won ribbons from the fair, anyway, and at entering their first pie eating competition.  It reminded us of when we were travelling at summer break, and we saw a really big guy at the 9/11 Memorial.  On the back of his coat, he had listed all the 'eating' competitions that he had won.  I don't know that we will aspire to anything like that!

Next we went over to the pavilion where they had working horses and buggies, and were simulating 'farm' scenes, where they had to manouvere the horse and buggy through a course.  They had to back into an area, like a shed, go over what was meant to be a bridge, and through gates.  It was fun to watch for a while, and then we walked out the back and saw the horse floats.  Like everything in America, it seems, they are bigger and better.  Took these photos for Rod and Sharyn, to show them a really big float, and the truck they use to pull it! 

Walking through the stables, and looking at the horses, we met the Showgirl Princess, and she was happy to pose for a photo for us.  She was only about 14, and decked out in chaps, cowgirl hat and boots - all the gear.  Bit different to home, I think. There was also a Showgirl Queen, and these girls could ride! 

 At the start of the rodeo they all came out holding the American and Colorado flags, and rode really fast around the arena.

 Then the 'Tough Enough to wear Pink' rodeo started, and we all really enjoyed it.  The stadium was packed, and the boys really surprised me by being quite into it, and they were fascinated with all the different events.  We saw bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, muttin bustin' (which was little kids riding sheep) and bull riding.  As the bull riding was last, we waited all day - but it was a bit disappointing, as they don't ride for very long.  We decided we liked the bucking horses best.

 We missed the Barrel Races, as we had to take a break and try one of the rides.  The boys had been watching this ride from the arena, as it starts low, then takes you up to the top (which is pretty high), and then just drops.  I wasn't sure, but it was what they really wanted to do.

They were so please with themselves at the end of it.  Ryan told me that he was thinking of getting off before it took off, but when they had finished, they both thought that it was 'awesome', and they are just getting ready for when we go to Disneyland!  Quinn went on a little ride with Phil, and everyone was happy.

There were some people we had walked by earlier, and they were part of a 'Dutch Oven Cookoff'.  It is basically camp cooking, but they had to do a starter, a main, dessert and a bread.  They cooked all day on Sunday, were judged, and then everyone was encouraged to come by, and sample their food.  There were some amazing dishes - a lot different to the food we eat when we go camping!  They had roasts, chicken pot pie, chocolate cake, crumbles, it was all really good.  So we left tired, dusty and with full tummies.  It was a fun day at the fair!