Like I enjoyed saying earlier this spring, “I am going abroad for a month.” And now I am. I will eventually blog about it, of course, but for now, you can see Carolyn’s abbreviated version of our trip nearly to date. Her blog is IDreamOvTravel.

Later, folks!

So this may be pretty lengthy. If you have dialup (does anyone even have dialup these days?), go make your self a cup of latte and while you’re at it, make a batch of cookies because it may take a while.

Unless you’re a skim-reader like me, or are not interested in photos from Colorado that are a whopping 7 months old.

There were 6 of us from Ohio and Georgia that flew out to be with our friend Twila who works at New Horizons Ministries. We flew into Colorado Springs, ate lunch and then headed to Focus on the Family for a tour. About the time we got there, it started raining. It rained. And rained. And rained. We putzed around the visitor’s center, taking in all of the interesting films/exhibits before slogging our way across the parking lot with umbrellas that FOTF lent us. We arrived in time for the tour, half-drenched and giggling!

They told us “it never rains like this” but on this day it did.

By the time we arrived in Canon City, it was no longer raining.

Where I live it is flat, flat, flat. So I found the hills with the mountains in the background quite intriguing.

And the desert was not what I was expecting. But beautiful anyway.

We spent several days at a house that had breathtaking, unbelievable views! The staff kept talking about the outhouse and being prepared for roughing it. We saw the twinkle in their eyes. We also new there was a hot tub around. 

The first morning we were there I woke up early (!) and soon was joined by Velma and Lois. We decided to see what wildlife we could find so we hopped in the van and headed out.

Does that not look unreal?!?!? It felt like we could reach out and touch the mountains. But we drove and drove and drove and didn’t seem to be getting any closer. We came around a bend and most of the range lay out in front of us.

This looks stretched and distorted but it is a pano stitched together from around 16 images.

Upon closer observation we saw a big group of bucks (mule deer?) crossing the ridge.

We watched the disappear and we headed back to the lodge to wake everyone else up.

There is just so much beauty surrounding this place!

The aspens were still quite green when we were there. That was a little disappointing because we had hoped we would be able to see lots of yellow.

One morning we headed out to do for the day and stopped at a quaint restaurant out in the middle of nowhere for breakfast.

We had a delicious country breakfast!! And the owners were just delightful! This is a painting that someone had done some years back of the Mr.

He was tall and lanky. Just like the books describe the cowboys. 

After driving around some high, curvy roads with no guardrails (shiver) we eventually made our way to Royal Gorge (double shiver).

If you’re wondering what that ^ is, it is edited to look like a miniature something-or-other.

Believe me, it was larger than life. We crossed over on the cable car. It swung in the breeze much to the discomfort of my stomach and eyes and everything else. When we got to the other side, they shut it down for a while because it was so windy. Thanks alot. Why didn’t they do that before we got on!!

I was amazed at how crossing over the bridge did not feel scary for me. I even had fun leaning over the railing to take pictures. But that night I kept having nightmares of being to close to the edge!

We took the tram down to the river.

It looks different from this perspective!!

Another day we crawled into the cutoff suburban and headed out to Skyline Drive.

After turning a hairpin curve we had the sudden sensation that the steering had gone out. But then we discovered it hadn’t and we all breathed a sigh of relief!

More views near or on the way to the house where we stayed.

We went out several evenings too to look for wildlife. We found some but it was hard getting good pictures without a better zoom.

It was so cool hearing the elk bugle!!

The last full day we were there, we headed several hours north to Estes Park. Wow. If we thought we were full-to-overflowing with breathtaking beauty, we were about to be out of oxygen for real.

Coming from an area that is around 100 feet above sea level, the thin air was something to get used to. This place was around 10,000 ft. give or take a hundred.

We drove around the town for a bit hoping to see more elk but that was the day they had chosen to be AWOL. The few shots I have above are the only ones we saw. And there was nearly a traffic jam where other people were stopping for photos too. 

There was a lovely quiet spot beside a lake that we hung out for a bit before heading back south.

So, there is a week’s worth of living in a very small nut-shell. I didn’t even begin to tell you of all the fabulous food

interesting conversations, games, birthday party for Twila (including some interesting looking ladies who showed up at midnight for the surprise party) and all the good things that come with being with friends! And a brief time spent with the Knepps, catching up with them. They were houseparents at the mission that I worked at in Northern Ontario way back when their kids were 10 and under. Now they’re working at the ministry in Canon City, or over in Thailand, or doing creative things like cutting off the top of the suburban as seen in the above pictures! 

It was a lovely time from beginning to end and it was so awesome to see such beautiful country.

 

I’m finally finding a little time to work some more on my Colorado photos from September! Lots of good memories revisited! Hopefully I will get a chance to blog about the trip soon.

Today was an odd day. I woke up with a roaring, pounding headache before my alarm was supposed to go off. I seldom get roaring, pounding headaches but if I do, I get them before I wake up, and am usually able to sleep them off. This am I txt my boss to tell him I would be late and ended up going in about 1.5 later than normal. But the funny thing was, I couldn’t remember if I had taken ibuprofen or not. I remember in the hazy first awakening to the pounding thinking that the pills were in my night stand and I could just reach over and grab them. That must’ve been my last coherent thought because I was definitely dreaming that I had poured them out into my hand and thought, goodness, I don’t need 5, just 2. And then I dreamt that I had them in my mouth and accidentally started chewing them. And then quickly swallowed them.

So when I woke up a while later the headache was pretty much gone but I couldn’t figure out if I had actually taken them or not. I finally concluded not, because the bottle was underneath a paper in my drawer and I couldn’t have found them without getting out of bed.

Whew!

What a beginning to day! But then I met Sharon and Sandra (with Lois coming later) for lunch at Sybils for some fine southern food, especially because Sandra is here from faraway Indiana and loves the chance to have some southern comfort food while she’s here.

And then tonight just before I left the office my sister called and said they heard on the police scanner that their was a “woods fire” on the street behind our house. I couldn’t get ahold of Lois and figured she was sleeping to get ready for night shift. Turns out that a strong gust of wind that came in with the thunderstorm (yay, we got a little more rain!!!!!) knocked over a dead pine tree in the neighbor’s yard and took down an electric line, which was laying in the parched grass, which started burning. Thankfully they were able to put it out, but we were out of power for an hour or so until the electric company got it taken care of.

Really, that has nothing to do with wildflowers and hill country in Texas but today seemed like an unusual day so if my post seems odd, you’ll know why.

So to get on with Texas travels ….. the Saturday we were out there some friends from Lott and Bastrop came down and we did a loop up to Fredricksburg and down a scenic route through the hillcountry.

We knew before we went out that this was not a good year for bluebonnets but didn’t realize just how bad a year it was until we saw the very, very dry part of the state. We can sorta feel their pain as our late spring/early summer has also been very dry.

We only saw a few patches of wildflowers beside the road and most of them were primroses. In Fredericksburg we went to the Wildseed Farms, as recommended by Christy.

A farm visible from the Wildseed Farms:

There we saw a few small patches of bluebonnets, that were a bit past their prime. But were so glad we went, as these were really the only BB we saw!

Red bluebonnets or are they called Redbonnets? 

And lots of other very pretty flowers.

I had hoped to see poppy fields somewhere but the only ones the had blooming was in a fenced area by their entrance.

So just pretend there was a big field of them.

 

The hill country is beautiful in a rugged way. From what I understand, this is not typically a lush green place even on a normal spring. Don’t you have to admit, a scene like this

is beautiful?

Near the end of the loop we stopped by a river and some waded for a bit. You could tell the water level was down by a foot or two. Lois shot a few for me and I did a force HDR with one of them.

We ended the day by eating delicious Thai food at a restaurant at the edge of SA.

So sorry if you were hoping to see people pictures. Out of respect to those who don’t like to appear on the www it’s only scenery shots.

So two months ago we headed to Texas for a long weekend. The original idea was to see bluebonnets and since San Antonio has been on the wish list for a while, so we decided this spring was a good time to go. More on bluebonnets later.

On this post I’ll tell you about San Antonio. After we had made our travel plans we discovered that our trip fell right over the Fiesta, a 10-day celebration of the Mexican-American city. On hindsight, we would not choose to go over that celebration, mostly because of the many crowds it brought. On the other hand, it was quite interesting seeing all the glitz and glitter and color of the hispanic world. We (my sister Lois and I) met our friend Ruby at the airport in SA and grabbed a little rental car to begin our adventure.

We wanted to make sure to get authentic Mexican food while we were there and the first stop we made was at a restaurant that had been a What-A-Burger. Lots of trucks in the parking lot, surely a good sign. We step into the small restaurant and every table is either occupied or had the lunch remnants of a previous customer. Eighty percent of the occupants hispanic, working men. Sure sign of authentic food! And it was delicious. Sadly I didn’t think to take any pictures.

We took a chance and “Pricelined” a motel for the 4-night stay, and were quite tickled with our deal. We were at a fairly new Staybridge Suites just 5 blocks from the Alamo and the Riverwalk. We were beside the train station, but rarely heard trains come through. There was a very lot of noise coming from The Pavilion that was also by the train station. Late-night, loud celebrations could’ve kept us awake, but thankfully we had a efficiency suite that had a vent fan over the oven, and between that and the A/C, it created enough noise to block out the thumping music.

The motel had complimentary breakfast, including a few hot foods, which we enjoyed outside on the back patio. They had several gas grills available for guest use. Our room was nice sized, even with 2 double beds, and a sofabed opened up there was walking-around room.

One of the bus stops was right beside the motel, and we bought tickets for $4 a day, unlimited on/off. The 90-95 degree weather, though dry heat, was plenty warm. Nights & mornings were usually breezy and warm, but quite comfortable.

[Sunset Station area. Our motel is off-camera, to the right.]

As we were waiting to deplane, we asked a flight attendant about good restaurants, and both she and the passenger sitting behind us recommended Mi Tierra, which is located near Market Square, which contains hispanic shops. 

The bakery is a visual feast for the eyes. I’m sure it’s a feast for the stomach as well, although we didn’t actually purchase anything.

The food was delicious! Ruby ordered a delicious pina colada, which she graciously let us taste!

I ordered milanesa, a chicken-fried steak, and it was delicious!!!!! 

Lois had something smothered in Mole sauce (pronounced moe-lay) (as in holy mole).  Can’t say I exactly like the flavor of mole, though. Thankfully she liked it!

 

Several groups of serenading senors made their rounds through the restaurant. They were quite good! Quite the full experience of culture. 

Meanwhile, outside there were many food booths going up for the weekend festivities. 

 We headed back to the Alamo area for the ceremonies which marked the official beginning of Fiesta 2011.

 

I don’t have a good photo of this Alamo bulding surrounded by hotels and other multi-story buildings, but my first thought was how small it looked.

Surrounding buildings:

The Emily Morgan hotel. Slightly out of our price range, I’m sure. 

Costumes, tiaras and crowns to make any prince or princess weep.

 

Pomp and circumstance, is what I thought. It seemed to be going on and on so we meandered our way back to the motel.

The next day we went to watch the IMAX film on the Alamo. And then went to tour the Alamo museum and buildings. There was a constant stream of tourists. I never did get any photos sans people.

We took boat tour of the Riverwalk area. A number of years ago the river was nearly diverted but someone thought it would be good for tourism so they preserved it and it isn’t deep at all, but provides a wonderful attraction.

 

The turnaround area for the boats. On the steps to the right is where a Andean group plays live music nearly every day.

More serenading senors at a restaurant on the Riverwalk.  

 

We then proceeded back to the beginning of the Riverwalk. We had decided to splurge at a churrascaria, which is a Brazilian steakhouse and typically quite expensive (in the states). Ladies, if your husband/boyfriend LOVES meat and you have a bit of extra cash, and you want to treat him to a feast, find one of these restaurants in a nearby large city. We ate for lunch which was quite a bit less than dinner, but still a splurge. They serve the same food for lunch or dinner. We went to Fogo de Chao. In Brazil you can eat at churrascaria restaurants for as little as $5, with access to 10+ cuts of meat, and up to 20 side dishes.

Here they had an elaborate salad bar, including fresh mozzarella cheese balls, sundried tomatoes, asparagus, etc. They had some delicious cheese buns, that I want to try to make sometime, providing I get ahold of some cassava or tapioca flour.

So sorry I don’t have a better photo but the “gauchos” or Brazilian “cowboys” came around with skewers of meat. If the little disk by your plate was green, they stopped by to offer meat. If you flipped it to red, that meant you had enough for now. You can flip it as often as you wanted.

There were chicken legs, pork loin, many cuts of beef, and it was all delicious! 

We then walked to a cathedral that we had passed earlier. But guess what was going on?!

More festivities and the blessing on the Fiesta, which meant we couldn’t go in. Arghh!!!

More pomp and circumstance.

And colorful costumes.

So we found a place to sit in the shade, to drink terere and enjoy the show for a bit.

We then went back to Market Square but tonight things were beyond lively. Very loud music and alcohol in every other hand. We grabbed some food from the stands and got out of there.

By the time the bus arrived it was nearly dark. So we walked along the Riverwalk for a while.

A couple of thousand other people had the same idea, unfortunately.

We found the restaurant that had advertised a fabulous looking dessert called volcano something or other.

 Mama mia, it was huge. That plate is a dinner plate, and those chocolate looking things were brownies.

And that syrupy looking stuff is fudge topping and caramel topping. No we didn’t eat it all. But we put a dent into it.

Other scenes from San Antonio: 

Tower of the Americas, which we were gonna go up but didn’t.

 Texas wildflowers (or lack thereof) coming up in the next post.