Rode the MAX!

Finally rode the MAX downtown with the kids.  We biked from the house to the South Transit Center and locked up our bikes there.  The kids were disappointed that our first bus wasn't the extra long green one. My daughter kept telling me that we weren't on the 'MAX' yet so I was glad that we were able to catch the official green one on the way back.

You are able to have 4 bikes inside on the long, green buses and three on the outside of the other buses. Personally, I don't think that's enough since they were filled on our trip during the summer with CSU out of session.

After getting off at the Mountain Street Station we walked over to the Oak Street water feature, then headed towards the Clothes Pony/Dandelion Toys.  Stopped in at the Perennial Garden and found a water feature I must have then we checked out all the ice cream stores downtown.  The kids decided to go for Ben & Jerry's.

 It was yummy...but my Green Chili Beer at Coopersmith's was even better!

 We loaded back on the bus at the Mountain Street station and the kids had fun pretending to buy tickets.

 We did stop at the Spring Creek station to go over the couple of million dollar bike/pedestrian overpass.  The views were nice from the top.

 The views were nice from the top.

For our family this convenience will probably only be a novelty since it's 3 miles to get to the bus and only about 5-6 miles to get downtown.  It's far faster to just bike downtown for us even though it was a fun day outing for the kids.  

The Daily Grind: Eden, South Dakota Style

Everyone was in town to celebrate Eden's 100th anniversary.  Besides getting ready for the centennial

we had lots to keep us busy.  The kids were running the streets

or biking

or playing at the park

with an occasional visit to Dan's Grocery for goodies!

The adults took a road trip to the International Vinegar Museum.  We had fun cruising around with the top down...

some more than others!

Lots of games were played.

2014 was a benchmark year for a couple of people.

A shot (birthday cake vodka) to 50 and 75 years!

General maintenance was done...supervision is always a good idea.

General maintenance was done to my little girl as well.  She got a fantastic cut from this new shop in downtown Eden.

 She was quite pleased with that braid!

Had to throw in a shot of the patriotic nails as well!

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

We went downtown this weekend to see the end of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.  The hubby biked up to the reservoir to see some of the race and then met us down there.  It was a pretty exciting atmosphere.  All the support cars, advertisers, and police sped by us before the bikes passed.  

Coming down from Horsetooth Reservoir

Nearing the finish in old town

 After the race we had a tour on the trains that were parked in the middle of downtown.  We've never known the city to shut down the train tracks for any event!  It was pretty cool seeing the inside.

We promised the kids if they made the bike ride and were patient with us they could have their first ever Slurpee.  

Bike: Old Town

Trails Used: Power Line to Spring Creek to Remington to Old Town, to CSU, to Mason Trail, to Boardwalk and home 

Distance: 14.42 miles

Difficulty: Easy (for the adults, not so bad for the kids-this was their longest bike ride ever)
Overall average: 5.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hr, 41 min
Total Ascent: 111 ft.

Rainy day hiking Reservoir Ridge

 It was a rainy, dreary day that aborted our originally planned hike by Rocky Mountain National Park.   We chose instead to do something closer to home in case the rain really started coming down.  It was a nice but overall unexciting hike that goes by Claymore Lake (above).  It's a rare day when it's this cloudy/foggy and just plain blah but once you live in Colorado you really start to appreciate these days (in Michigan...not so much!)

I couldn't let the latest and greatest outfit go by without a picture to remember it by.  And yes, these are still the same leggings with a hole in them!

Leave it to my daughter to spot this creature.  She is known for seeing/noticing insects that none of us would have ever seen.  Perhaps it's because she's the closest to the ground.  She was munching away on some pretzels perched on a rock and picked this out.  It was pretty freaky looking.

 Hike: Reservoir Ridge

Trails Used:  Reservoir Ridge (North Fort Collins)

Distance: 5.01 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 2.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 5 min
Total Ascent: 579 ft.

Biking 56 Miles through Rist Canyon and Masonville

Started at 6 this morning and had a beautiful but tough bike ride up Rist Canyon, around to Masonville and back home.  I saw 2 deer and quite a few other riders (lots of waving and encouragement from them).  Some lady even told me that she was impressed I'd made it so far with my bike (it's not an official road bike, but not a cruiser either).

I didn't really know if I could go that far going up so many hills so I enlisted the family to be my Sag Wagon just in case. They were suppose to leave at 8:30 and go the way I went so if I was too tired I could just stop whenever I wanted.  I had done 50 miles before but it was with an elevation change of 100 feet (no joke) and not this year.  I actually passed someone on a steep part!  I was feeling good once I knew I had made it over most of the hard part (Rist Canyon.) I had no doubt about my finishing at that point.  Lucky for me since I didn't see my sag wagon until the 50 mile mark! They had taken a nice leisurely morning and jeep ride.  I talked to them and a stop light and finished the bike ride.

I'm now ready for bed (it's only 2:50 pm) and quite sore.  Hopefully, a nice sleep tonight will reinvigorate me for tomorrow!

Bike: Rist Canyon

Trails Used:  Harmony to Overland to Bingham Hill to Rist Canyon to Masonville, to Harmony

Distance: 54.84 miles

Difficulty: Difficult
Overall average: 11.7 mph
Overall Time: 4 hrs, 42 min
Total Ascent: 3644 ft.

Arches, Camping, Biking, and Hiking for Spring Break

 

The family headed out to Arches National Park in Utah for Spring Break this year.   There had been constant chatter leading up to this vacation.  Maps had been scrutinized many times over.  The excitement was palpable.

After spending a night in Breck to pick up our other passengers we headed out into quite a snowstorm.  The first two pictures depict this.  We were really wondering about 'camping' at this point.  The last pic is on our way back home.  We did end up having great weather while we were in Utah.

This is a mandatory stop for the kids:

 Join us on the following pages for our latest great adventure!

Winter Park fun!

We went to Winter Park for Father's Day weekend.  The boy's went mountain biking and the rest of us hiked,

 Golden Banner

 

Oxeye Daisy

 Columbine

 

  

(someone decorated the teepee with mistletoe and a dream catcher)
biked, drank mojito's, went to the base and jumped around (fun but expensive),

 

 

 

and swam at the Rec Center pool (highly recommend, the pool has a cool water slide, lazy river, hot tub, toddler/preschool play area, and a diving board.)

We came home to a hot, scorching (97 degrees), and smoky day.

 

Ugh!  I hate when we have to run the AC all night and can't put on the whole house fan!  I can't wait for this fire to get under control.  It will be awhile since it's 99 degrees and windy today.