Art and Allison's party

We're couple of days behind in blogging. The following happened on friday:

We started the day at Cherry Creek Arts Fesival (Cherry creek is an
upscale shopping district in Denver). The area was filled with arts
exhibitions, music performances, food stalls and stuff. We ended up
spending most of the day there. Rest of the day was spent either
ogling iPhone at Apple center, or hunting for a new camera (my camera
broke down, mirror reflex). Ended up buying a new Canon 30D to replace
the old one (and old it was, 5 yrs already!).

In the evening we found our way to Allison's and Gary's home where
they hosted a party on their beautiful rooftop deck with amazing view
of Denver downtown. It was fun to see all the people, and with good
food, beverages and great company we stayed up to wee hours.

Miles: 20 around Denver

Big city life

Yesterday was our first city day. We spent the morning of it in Red Rocks and nearby dinosaur ridge, there were dinoraus tracks and all other interesting things.

After that we drove to the downtown area and went to the Nature&Science museum. There was Titanic exhibition (artifacts they have brought from the wreck). Great exhibition, really well put together, and amazing how well they had preserved some atrifacts (like papers which were readable after spending over 90 years in the bottom of the ocean). They gave everyone a Boarding pass when we came in, telling your story (real passengers of the Titanic) and after the exhibition you could see did you survive or not. Leyla did (35 yr old woman in 3rd class cabin losing two boys), I did not (60 year old male). We continued the Titanic experience in the IMAX theather with the movie about James Cameroon's another expedition to Titanic after filming the movie.


The evening we spent with Julia and Susan, they took us to Cherry Creek and there to Asian restaurant Little Ollie's. Great food and fun! The art festival had already some artists on display so we walked slowly through the area.

Miles today: 58mi

Fireworks of 4th of July

We started preparing for the party in the early morning. We had decided to make Finnsh specialties, mushroom salad and rhubarb-strawberry pie with vanilla sauce. The only thing was that the ingredients were not quite the same, the oven temperature was in Fahrenheit, the measures different so we ended up doing it just based on the feeling. Especially the pie (we made it gluten-free to add to difficulty level), we didn't have any recipes at hand. But, luckily enough everything tasted like it should!

The party was in Cindi's place (she didn't make it there herself until late) but we had a great time relaxing by the pool, barbecuing and enjoying ourselves. I got a swimming lesson from the kids they were so exited they could do it better than some adult! We got to meet Cindy's parents and other great people, it was really fun!

On our way home we stopped to see the fireworks, it rained few drops and when we got home it was raining. The fireworks were beautiful and we got great seats to watch them!


Miles today: none

Saddle sore

We amazed our hosts at the Elkhorn Lodge by not enjoying their free beer and wine too much, since we woke up at 6.30am to go for a 4 hour ride in the National Park. This stable was more touristy than the Rusty Spurr Ranch and the rules of the use in National Park didn't allow more than walking with the horses. But four hours walk is still quite enough, especially when we are not used to the Western saddles. The views were amazing, we climbed up hills so steep and rocky I would never take my own horse to such, and saw deer and other smaller animals on our way.

After the ride and a shower (really needed at that point), we headed towards Denver. We stopped for a lunch in Boulder, in the Tajikistan tearoom we had visited also last time I was here. I remembered the place to be unique and food was great, and so it was even today. At the counter there we met the first Finnish-origin American for this trip, a young girl who after seeing our name asked whether we were from Finland and then spoke perfect Finnish. Her mom was Finnish and obviously been talking Finnish to her, she had only slight accent in her speaking.

Then we arrived to Cindy's and were welcomed by excellent meal and a trip to Costco (wholesale supermarket the American way, I was so amazed) where they had e.g. one gallon mustard bottles for sale (honestly who needs one gallon of mustard??? 3,8 litres!!!).

Miles today: 77mi
On horseback: 15mi

Over the continental divide

We had breakfast at Kremmling's Moose restaurant, we have almost
become regulars! Then we jumped to PT Cruiser and headed towards Estes
Park through Rocky Mountains National Park. The drive itself was not
too long, but we were glad we had planned a full day for it.

In RMNP as it is known locally we got to break some altitude records:
driving an hiking (well, at this point it really can't be called
hiking, rather than just walking really slow) at the height of 3700 m
/ 12000 ft above sea level.

Accomodation we found in Estes Park in Elkhorn Lodge, a very
old-fahsioned and charming hotel that is quite worn down looking but
incredebly homely and quiant. It is almost empty as the owners are
planning to sell it. The big, empty hallways and banquet rooms make
for stephen king -esque feel at the hotel (even though there in
another hotel in Estes Park that was used in filming the Shining).
Additional bonus is the free beer and wine (they are emptying their
stock) as self service.

Miles today: 116 (not much but took most of the time still)

Kremmling - center of the universe

We spent the whole day in good care of Katrina's and Mark's. We saw
the new chamber of commerce building, went horseback riding on the
hills, and saw lots of fossilised sea life laying on the ground.

the ride was beatiful scenery and great western horses, fast in their
turns and really sensitive.

In the evening we went to see Cindy's cabin and got run afer by their
neighbourhood watchman who mistook us for burglars.

At Katrina's and Mark's home we did hummingbird, deer and beaver
sighting with good results, after which we continued previous nights
discussion until late.
Had a great time!

Going to Colorado

Yesterday was also a travel day, we concentrated on getting to Kremmling from Moab, mostly driving on I-70.

We did have a stop at one of our preplanned locations, Fruita, the home of Mike the Headless Chicken. I must say Fruita was a surprisingly cheerful and lively town, clearly a change from the small towns of US50. We saw the statue of Mike (which incidentally was made by the same person who had made art at Hole N" the Rock), but unluckily for us, the shop selling Mike merchandise was closed! So sorry guys, no Mike the headless chicken souveniers for you. We also checked out the Dinosaur Museum in Fruita, which was kinda cool.

When crossing the broder of Colorado, it felt that somehow we had reached the goal of our journey, and we are exited of this next week. More people with whom we can reflect what we have seen.

We spent the night at Katrina's (who was one of the girls visiting us in Finland last year on GSE trip) in Kremmling where we were served with great barbecue dinner. we had fun night full of discussions and we managed to stay up past midnight (seems were done with the time difference!)

Total number of miles: 315