We flew out Friday morning - it's been awhile since I flew and it actually felt odd to be at the airport. To think, just a few years ago, I was there nearly every week - at least every other week! I miss traveling for work. But I digress. This was a 'fun trip' and I was really looking forward to it.
With the time change, we were in Denver early afternoon. After a little chaos with getting the rental (we had a 'bad' car at first, meaning, running poorly), we were off to meet up with The Phillips' family. It was such a beautiful drive - not sure how I so quickly forget how beautiful Colorado is. It's always a pleasure to come back to!
Our first night was a low key night, just hanging at the house and going out for an early dinner (relatively). Eric even wound down by playing on the Wii with Jackson - it's an amazing feat to get Eric to wind down!
Saturday morning we woke u to a chilly, drizzly day. We debated about what to do and when to do it. We knew we wanted to hike, but did we try to wait out the drizzle, or head out and hope for the best? When should we do lunch? We finally decided to suck it up and head out - it appeared to be ending. But then as we get on the road, more drizzle comes, so we decided to see if lunch will get us through to the blue skies we were promised by the weatherman. But no... lunch didn't do it. So we headed out anyway, geared up with umbrellas, hats, and gloves. Destination - Castlewood Canyon State Park.
It was about a 20 minute drive or so, and the rain seemed to increase rather than end. We started at the main entrance, only to get rained on even more at the first 'scenic viewpoint' nearest to the entrance. So we got back in the car and looked at the map we were given at the ranger checkpoint. We discovered that most of what we wanted to scene was probably easier to get to from the other entrances, and though maybe the drive to get to it, again, would help us get through some of this overcast, drizzly day. So around the perimeter of the park we drove!
It did let up somewhat, and we got out the hike the trails. The big attraction of this park, aside from the scenic canyon (hence the name), was a blown out dam that was built across Cherry Creek in the late 1800's. It blew out in the 1930's and caused one of the worst floods in Denver's history. What civil engineer wouldn't want to see such a thing??By the time we made it to the dam, the kids were starting the wear down, as were the adults, so it worked out well that we didn't plan on going further and just headed back to the car. And wouldn't you know, the rain started to complete let up on the hike back. We even saw blue skies as we drove away. But we still had fun, mud puddles and all.
And even in the drizzly rain, there were some really pretty views to be had.After be worn out by the hike, we decided to do the low key thing again and sent the boys out to pick up some dinner for the night. It was nice to just hang out and catch up. It was nice to just slow down for once! Even if it was caused by wearing ourselves out... at least it was doing something fun and not due to stress or work otherwise.
Sunday rolled in with blue skies and gorgeous weather. It figured. But with a late (relatively) flight out, we had time to enjoy it and decided on another small hike, a little closer to the homestead. And one we could take the overly large puppy on, too. I think Kirby enjoyed getting out of the house. As we all did as we took a gradual hike up a foothill, seeing lots of prairie dogs a lot the way. And once we were at the top, we could even see the snow topped mountains in the distance. Yet, here we stood in short sleeves. It was an ideal hike to end our trip with.And just like that, our trip was done and were heading back to Indy. But what a perfect weekend. Both Eric and I were able to unwind and just relax. It always helps the soul to get away - sometime a weekend out of town is just what the body needs to be rejuvenated.
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