Back in Joy in the Front Range and off to New Heights

Aloha all,

the farewells in Germany were fairly easy this time, since we will be back there later this year. Even though we won’t be back in Hawai’i for even longer, we were treated to FIVE days with our Maui friends here in Colorado. During the last two weeks, we also reached FOUR record heights, had our THIRD overnight guest in Joy, we busted TWO criminals and we spent time at Colorado’s fanciest resorts and ONE night at a senior living facility. As always, life is full on the road, with ZERO boredom:

Sunset Drinks at Bunt & Ann!

Bern, Jill and Ute all timed their travels perfectly so that we had a mini Maui reunion in Colorado, including sunset drinks at Bunt’s and a Tuesday Game Night at Kelly’s. Life does go on after the fire, it can’t burn down friendships. We love our long trips, but we do miss our Maui ohana. 

Games Galore Guaranteed with this crew

And Kelly timed her birthday perfectly so we had an excuse to play a round of golf at a beautiful golf course up in the Rocky Mountains. Probably the highest golf course we ever played (1st height record!) and we had the lowest score ever; four under par!!!!. It probably helped that Kelly gave us her two athletic sons to complete our fun five person scramble team. Cody was the most consistent, Trevor put a 300+ yard drive on the green on a par 4; but they were both polite enough to occasionally shank one into the mountains to make Ute, Sandra and me feel useful. 

Birthday golf outing in the mountains

Of course there were plenty of other games: Multiple rounds of disc golf, vicious ping pong battles, newly imported games from Germany and several board games out of the impressively full game closet at the Black’s home. 

We knew our hard working friend Ute needed a little joy, or better: Time in Joy! It was the third time Joy had an overnight guest, even though it was only a two day mini road trip. It’s scary how many toys and other things we have accumulated over the last 6 years. Luckily, we were able to store some of them in Evergreen while it was three of us in Joy.

JOYful threesome

We picked the Rocky Mountain National Park to go to with Ute because it’s close to Evergreen and because we loved it on our first big road trip in 2008. We did not realize that for Ute it was the first National Park outside of Hawai’i. We always appreciate National Parks, but having an enthusiastic mainland park virgin with us made it even more special. It also more than doubled the number of pictures taken.

Dream Lake at Rocky Mountain National Park

Our first day at Rocky Mountain National Park was a perfectly sunny blue bird day and we did a little hike to three different lakes. My favorite moment was when we spotted the most bizarre critter in the lake. It looked like a fish, but also had tentacles like an octopus and feet like a frog. At first I thought I was hallucinating due to the high elevation, but apparently it was a “Tiger Salamander” and is not all that unusual. How have I not seen and not heard of such a critter in my 54 years on this planet?

It's a fish! It's an octopus! It's a frog! 
Or maybe a Tiger Salamander?

On the second day at the park, we took Joy on the Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved road in America. We had been there with MaRVy in 2008, but it was the highest Joy has ever been (2nd height record). At almost 12,000 feet in elevation, it’s way above the tree line. In fact, the tundra up there is very fragile because the growing season is only a few weeks every year. The National Park Service does an excellent job explaining that the damage from a footstep on the tundra can take years to recover. 

The posted signs were pretty obvious to stay on established trails, but they did not stop two ignorant ladies from driving their Jeep several hundred feet over the tundra to take pictures of themselves doing yoga poses. We are not sure whether they were blissfully oblivious idiots or self-absorbed assholes, probably both. Either way, we reported them to the next ranger and we were very glad to hear that they got caught. We got to give our statements to the law enforcement rangers and we hope it helps prosecuting them or banning them from national parks. The access to this park is limited by permits and there are plenty of other people who appreciate the beauty of places like this.

Busting Criminals with the NP Rangers!

After Ute departed, we went back to Bunt and Ann. We actually spent a night at his apartment at the Ridge since he had heart surgery and the doctors required that somebody stay with him for the first night to make sure everything is ok. It seemed like an opportunity to repay the many favors the Burkhalters have done for us. But it turned out to be just a fun night with good food, games and a captive audience to show our pictures from Europe, with no medical emergencies. He was actually in really good shape right after the surgery. In the meantime, we have learned that apparently it's two steps forward, one step back. The only real favor was taking Ann shoe shopping the next day. I’ll leave it at that, because we love Ann!

Bunt beating us at pool on the day of his surgery 

There has never been a president from Colorado, so there are no presidential libraries or birthplaces for us to visit. The closest we got to getting our presidential history fix was a cute hike to the so-called Summer White House at Mount Falcon in the Front Range. It's a beautiful area, but the planned presidential summer retreat was never built and no president ever went there. So now we have even been to a presidential site that no president has ever been to...

The non-presidential presidential site

After one more delicious dinner with engaging conversation with Kelly and two work friends, we were back on the road with Joy. Our first stop was in Colorado Springs. Technically, our first two stops, because instead of visiting our friends Jeff & Angel, we are now visiting our friend Jeff and then our friend Angel. Despite the circumstances, it was good to catch up with both of them. We watched their son win a tennis match, had our first real Korean BBQ experience, visited the very modern Olympic Museum and went to a really fun concert from a Rush cover band. 

"Rush Archives" at the Stargazers Theater

Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs

The highest highlight was our trip with the cog railway up to Pikes Peak. This is the mountain that inspired "America the Beautifu". As far as we remember 14,115 feet above sea level is the highest we have ever been (3rd height record). Sandra did surprisingly well with the altitude. It probably helps coming from over a mile high in the Front Range, rather than from sea level. 

With Jeff looking over The Springs to Pikes Peak

With Angel at Pikes Peak at 14,115 feet,
our new elevation record!

We were happy to stay in Joy in our friend’s driveways, but we enjoyed exploring two spectacular hotels: The Broadmoor and the Glenn Eyrie Castle are two of Colorado’s most prestigious resorts. We walked around the spectacular grounds at the Broadmoor and had lunch at the lobby bar. That’s about all we can afford there anyway. We also took a very fun tour at the Glenn Eyrie Castle, which also functions as a hotel. If we ever spend that kind of money on a hotel room, we’d rather stay there. It seems like a peaceful oasis rather than like a posh resort.

The fancy, beautiful, expensive Broadmoor Hotel

The peaceful, historic Glenn Eyrie Castle

Yesterday, we spent most of the day at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. This bridge is almost 100 years old and at 955 feet above the Arkansas River it was the highest bridge in the world for the first 72 years, now it’s only the highest in America. It’s still the highest bridge we have ever been on (4th height record). To get our money’s worth, we walked the bridge twice and took the gondola four times. We never had to wait in line and for a short while we were actually the only ones on the bridge, which is surprising since the bridge gets 350,000 visitors a year. Oh, the joy of traveling off season! To cap the day off, we did a short hike just upriver from the bridge with a great view of the gorgeous gorge. 

Taken from the Royal Gorge Bridge,
America's highest bridge!
955 feet above the river
with the gondola in the background

We are now heading towards Aspen and don’t yet know where we go from there and we like it that way, the options seem endless that way. Right now, we are currently staying at Cottonwood Hot Springs, soaking in the pools and counting our blessings. We might be here a while.

Aloha from Lake Colorado, where all friendships are strong, all mountains are good looking and all the heights are above average,

Chris & Sandra