7/14 Anniversary celebration trip
Elisha met me in Carbondale and we drove to Glenwood Springs where we biked a really fun trail on Red Mountain. We then went to dinner at a yummy local burger joint. We had plans to go to the hot springs, but they charged what we thought was an excessive amount, especially for the 2 hours left of opening. Instead we grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry's at City Market and then the kids running the cashier at the hot springs let us shower for free. We camped the night in Günther in Glenwood Canyon, alongside the Colorado River.
7/15
We sent in our money to pay the downpayment for the condo we're buying. We did this at the West Vail City Market. We then went to Vail Village and biked up on the mountain all the way to the back bowls. The flowers were great and the trails super fun! Back in Vail we got margaritas and the giant nachos at the Red Lion. This was enough to satisfy us for dinner, so we drove to Avon to visit the rec center. It was only $10 to use the rec center which included a lazy river (nice and warm like a hot tub), pool, jacuzzi, steam shower, and sauna.
After relaxing at the pool for a couple of hours we drove Günther up to the Piney Lake area to camp the night.
7/16
We took a hike from Piney Lake up to a waterfall. Piney Lake sits at the foot of the Gore Range, so the views are splendid and the flowers were very nice.
We then drove back to Vail and had a nice outside lunch at an Italian place. I then biked another trail on Vail Mountain while Elisha explored Vail and Lionshead. Vail is super beautiful in the summer due to all of their incredible flower baskets.
After our time in Vail, we headed to Eagle. Our plan was to bike another trail there; however, it was raining pretty hard, so we just went shopping at Costco. When we came out, there was a vivid double rainbow. It was still too wet to bike, so we drove back home via Kebler Pass, stopping at an authentic (need to use Spanish to order properly) Mexican restaurant in Glenwood.
7/17
Drove to Gothic to see the beautiful flowers and to have some Chai tea at the Coffee Lab. While there we met with Benn, our future winter-caretaker boss and chatted about the job.
On our way home we stopped at our new condo and grabbed the keys hidden under the mat. Our realtor, Alex, had left us a nice card and a bottle of fancy champagne.
7/18-19
Helping the lead ecologist Jennie with an experiment she's working on to deduce whether weeds can be controlled and natives given advantage by different nutrient treatments. She has 21 plots, with 7 blocks of 3 treatments: control, nitrogen added, carbon added. So I helped her REU student Catherine determine counts and percent cover of species in the plots.
7/21 I had to pick up a vehicle (Range Rover) at the Maroon Bells trailhead (instead of the normal Aspen Highlands parking lot, so I got to spend some time at Maroon Lake admiring the views of the Bells. And I did an incredibly beautiful flower ride up by Cement Creek.
7/22
Elisha and I did a very flowerful bike ride on Meander before doing some work on the condo. Elisha is working hard (and doing a great job) getting the condo in shape.
7/23
We got up really early and did part of the West Maroon Pass hike. The flowers were, of course, spectacular. We then biked the 401 for more beautiful flowers
