Getting the Heck out of (Fort) Dodge

Well, temporarily at least. For now. Being the Summer of Becca and all (and being married to a teacher) I had made the executive decision to go to Colorado at some point.  I had hoped for weeks full of frolicking in the mountain air, but since T (I'll refrain from using his full name since he has no control over the content) is a worrier about the amount of work he should be doing...on his vacation, we were there five days. Anyway.  (Oh, and I didn't take very many pictures...so I'll fill in with pictures of similar activities from earlier trips. It's like two for the price of one!)

The drive was uneventful, except for the little hut in the middle of Eastern Colorado I manage to catch every time. Seriously, I took this picture when we moved Justin and Cassy out there three years ago, and every trip since I spot it. We were meant to be.

Also, it involved me driving through Denver (T's car has no air, and mine is a stick, which he had just learned how to drive). This was a feat, considering I had a) grown up in a town with no stoplights b) hadn't driven on anything more than two-lane highway until I went to college, and c) until last summer, I had never driven in a city the size of Des Moines. I'm sheltered, whatever. Luckily, we arrived unscathed.

Our first day we saw Dinosaurs!

 Or their remains

And visited Red Rocks!

 

T joined all the other exercisers...

The next day we bummed around near T's aunt and uncle's house, then took off for Boulder. The drive was...hillier than I expected and my poor motorcycled-engine of a car struggled...but we made it! To pool swimming, delicious self-serve frozen yogurt with a million toppings and of course, my adorable dog-phew, Titus.

Seriously adorable. I cannot resist this animal.

The next day we went for a hike. In DEATH CANYON. Okay, not really. But it was a canyon. But not at all Death-y. And then took a dip in Boulder Creek. The water was running higher than normal since the snowpack is still melting (seriously, there were ski lifts open on the Fourth of July), so poor Titus had to swim against the current the whole time since he was too short to touch the ground. Also, some drunk ragamuffins asked us if we were Jewish. Because apparently we all looked the same. Huh. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating, and of course...more ice cream. Then the next morning, an early wake up call, and it was back to Fort Dodge and real life.

-B