Colorado Camping Trip (August '08)

Leah and I spent a week long vacation in Colorado. We left the Texas hot weather on a Sunday morning and had a wedding anniversary lunch in Amarillo at the Big Texan. We spent our anniversary evening watching the Olympics and enjoying "Four Corners Pizza" and local beer from the Trinidad Brewing Company located in an awesome old train depot in Trinidad, CO. We felt it was just our speed and loved every minute of it!

The next morning, we headed for the mountains where we stopped for lunch in Downtown Salida and then drove to Elbert Creek Campground (elevation 10, 500 ft. above sea level) near Leadville. We enjoyed the next four nights camping and marveling at the cool weather. We also spent one morning rafting down the Arkansas River - our river guide lives in Terlingua, TX of all places where he guides trips on the Rio Grande! We plan to meet up with him on our annual Big Bend camping trip next March. We spent another day reading and watching the rainbow trout jump out of the clear water at Emerald Lake - nothing could have been more relaxing!

On Friday, after driving through Independence Pass and spending one night in Aspen at the Hotel Aspen and having a fantastic dinner (no hot dogs!!) at the Wild Fig thanks to our friend Beaver's recommendation, Leah and I drove north and then east in route to visit and stay with Dave, Kate and Siena in Thorton (near Denver). On the way, we stopped at one of Teddy Roosevelt's old stomping grounds in Glennwood Springs before having lunch in Vail at Garfinkels at the bottom of a beautiful ski slope. Leah and I concluded our trip by hiking through the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. We arrived back in Rockwall at around 2:00 AM Monday morning. What a week!

Kemah - Galveston Bay (July '08)

Florida (May '08)

Below our photos from our visit to Florida where we played golf in Winter Springs and spent a weekend in Captiva/Sanibel.

Big Bend Spring Break '08

Below are images from our annual Big Bend Spring Break Camping Trip. We always say this, but this was one of our best trips. Ben and Beverly met us in Alpine on Friday and we stayed at the Holland Hotel. We drove to Fort Davis for a wonderful dinner at the Limpia Hotel. On Saturday, we surveyed and identified corners to our property, made a final trip to the grocery store and then we all headed south to the park and cooked hamburgers, drank wine, and watched the sunset at the Window.

The second night on our trip we saw Dr. Jim Hardy, a fomer colleague of ours now at UTA, while he was walking his dog Lucky. He was as surprised to see us as we were to run into him. We met up with his family, wife Bonnie and children Doug and Allison, the next evening and visited at their campsite for a few hours.

Our hikes included Cat Tail Falls, Burro Mesa Pouroff and Grapevine Trails (the famous Balanced Rock). Our final hike of the trip consisted of the 15.5 mile South Rim Loop in the snow! We know it was 15.5 miles thanks to Dad's pedometer marking EVERY step we took. (My knees are still a little sore!) And we can't swear to it, but on the final leg of the hike, we are pretty sure we heard a mountain lion (or at least a cub) meowing in the grass. I didn't think I could move that fast after being on my feet all day and climbing, but Wade grabbed my hand and we found a little more gas in our engines!

As usual, we stayed at the Gage Hotel with a fabulous meal outdoors and again, as usual, I cried about having to leave my favorite place on earth. I took pictures of the Sotol Catus ceilings that I want in our future kitchen/dining area and the Mexican tile floor and walls that will be throughout our future house.

One final note - we met a woman from Maine and asked about Acadia National Park - a park right off the coast of Maine and one that Wade found on the way to Big Bend, so meeting her was serendipity as she lives right next to the park! Next May, we're planning a camping trip to the park (flying with our gear to Portland) and will take the ferry to Nova Scotia to camp there too!