September 10th, 2012
we did it! we got away on the best road trip last week, it was just for the day but we saw a ton. we went from denver to leadville, through twin lakes, and ended in aspen. and then turned around and did the same route home because it was the prettiest drive we’ve driven in all of colorado so far. i’ll be sharing aspen later and showing off the unbelievable landscape. but…. these two towns, that we knew nothing about, we instantly fell in love with. leadville is an old mining town that is so quaint and historic, but up to date all at the same time. we just missed boom days, the town’s big annual festival with a parade, motorcycle rodeo, and mining skill competitions (of course!), we’re putting it on the calendar for next year. (more info if you want to go)
and just a little further down the road is the teensy town of twin lakes, if you look left for 30 seconds you’ll miss the whole town. even though there was hardly a town it was packed with cabins for rent, even a teepee, and chairs were rounded up in a huge circle in front of the general store (2ft from the main road). there was no one around, even the general store was empty when we went in. sooo quiet..and was the absolute perfect spot for our picnic. this is definitely a trip we’ll take each year, it’s the perfect mix of beautiful scenery, quiet backroads and mountain towns.
and in other news.. we finished a big project for tinkernation, started another diy project that i’ll be able to show you later this week, watched some football (some of which was very disappointing), enjoyed lots of early fall weather, had a great night hanging out with fellow travel lovers laura & kevin of riveted (big thank you to laura for homemade gazpacho & smoked tofu salad.. wonderful!) and met new (and local) friends lisa & mat of shiny camper. it was a perfect, full weekend with a little bit of downtime too.. what did you do?
Filed Under: life in the fast lane,travel
Tagged: aspen co, boom days, camp1899, denver co, denver co blog, leadville co, life in the fast lane, riveted blog, shiny camper blog, tinkernation, twin lakes co
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September 5th, 2012
…. we don’t get out & about quite as much as we would under normal circumstances, does that happen to you? life gets busy and everything falls into a routine? we find that especially true with renovating, we should almost always wins over we want. we took advantage of labor day weekend and broke out a little extra, the photos above are from one little corner of downtown that we walked. we’re trying to slowly but surely learn more neighborhoods of denver (and couldn’t have been more surprised when we came down the street and saw those cows, the large one must be 15 ft tall and is massive). plus we went to the botanical gardens (pictures later), and even planned a real road trip for later this week (fingers crossed nothing gets in the way of that one).
→ if anyone reading has any must-see denver recommendations we’d love to hear about them!
Filed Under: everyday // bits & pieces
Tagged: denver co blog, denver colorado, downtown denver
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June 5th, 2012
when mama mia was in town she suggested a hike at devil’s head lookout in pikes national forest. and let’s just say it was an adventure. it’s about an hour south of denver and then another hour (not exactly an hour but if feels like three times that) on the last stretch of dirt road that goes on for over 10 miles. i’ll put it this way, mom & i (as passengers) were both silently thinking we must be almost to the end of the road when he said, well we’re 1/4 of the way. whaaatt???
that dirt road is almost enough to make you want to turn around. now i grew up in arkansas and a dirt road is no big deal, but this one was so rough it about made us crazy. but we made it, finally. in the top set of pictures mom is laughing and bending over to take a little break because people, it is steep right away.
at the halfway point we were all like seriously?? we’re only half way? we were all silently (confirmed when we finally reached the top and conferred with each other) wondering if this whole thing was worth it or not. long drive, looooong dirt road, and then switchback, after switchback, after switchback and all straight up. and we weren’t entirely sure that we were on the correct hike to begin with because when mom read about it, it said the trail was located in parker, colorado, and the hike we were on was not. but we didn’t talk about that. we all just wondered to ourselves and how the he*&^ we decided to do this in the first place. (and mom additionally worried since she was the one who did in fact get us on this little adventure)
as it turns out, we were in fact in the right place and we were as happy about that as we were to be at the top of the mountain. which was the only flat spot of the whole day, and beautiful. the stairs up to the top are a breeze except…. the last section of stairway is suspended in air over.. nothing. and i never think of myself as afraid of heights, nor do sean and mom but.. way up there, with a warning sign at the bottom saying no more than five people, well it gets you thinking, and stopping, and wondering if it’s worth it to go that last little bit. but i knew (and still know) that this was the one and only trip i was making to do this hike and so it was now or never. i forged on. apparently they were calling after me and when i didn’t respond figured it must be worth it. (you can’t hear a thing once you round that final staircase.. they me or me them). see above me capturing the two having just braved the final leg…
and it is pretty darn cool up there. the firehouse on top of a boulder on top of a mountain with 100 mile views. and warning signs not to climb over the fence. really? this sign should be completely unnecessary. there is no way we were going close enough to the fence to even think about climbing over it. we weren’t all that sure about walking around the entire perimeter of the tower house. but we did it all, we got photos to prove it and we are super glad we went. but we did all three agree that once is enough. and the road back out, it didn’t seem any shorter going than it did coming.
p.s.
at the bottom of the stairs is this rock and doesn’t it look like a razorback?
on the left, that’s me calling the hogs (you arkansas razorbacks know what i’m doing)
April 9th, 2012
→ how was your weekend? do anything fun? we reveled in more sunny & warm weather, got our bikes out for the season… i love bike riding, particularly toodling around the neighborhood, it’s one of my favorite things to do. we watched a few episodes of american pickers, have you seen this? we’re kind of addicted, and now want to bundle everywhere we go. we went to an estate sale and got a few goodies, read in the sun, hung out with neighbors & introduced everyone to firefly (the perfect southern cocktail). and we busted out our bowling gear and learned that the four of us, while not bad, aren’t setting any landspeed records either. we had the best time and it’s going to be at least a monthly event. do you bowl?
December 29th, 2011
♣ how cute would one of these be hanging in your airstream? ♣
one & two
Filed Under: airstreams & campers
Tagged: airstream art, airstream blog, airstream embroidery, denver co blog, etsy, travel blog
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