Halfway through February....

I have been here for just over two weeks now and am still adjusting to things.  We went up to a place called Dillon a couple of weekends ago, so Joshuah and Stuart could snowboard at Loveland.  We left on Friday after school, but not before we had to find an after hours medical centre to get someone to look at Joshuah's eye.  He had a stye which had become infected.  We found a place and $165 later were on our way after getting some antibiotics for Joshuah.  (The eye is now fully recovered).  It took about 2 hrs to get up the mountains with traffic at a crawl most of the way and snow falling which was pretty scary.  Stuart did a great job driving up and down mountains, sticking behind trucks to give us better visibility of their hazard lights.

Joshuah and Stuart went snowboarding the next morning and I stayed at Dillon where our hotel overlooked mountains and a frozen lake.

I was kept entertained by kite "surfers" on the frozen lake, which was a little different to the kite surfers in the estuary. My favourite sight was the dogs running on the lake after their owners who were racing away on either their snowboard or skis!  They looked like they were having so much fun!

Joshuah and Stuart had a great day snowboarding together........

before Stu and I headed off for a drive to see some of the other smaller ski towns........

The next morning we took a leisurely drive back to the house, stopping at Georgetown to look at people ice fishing and taking driving lessons on the ice!!  It was bitterly cold with a strong wind blowing, but beautiful sunshine and blue skies.

Stuart desperately wanted to go out and see what they were doing, but the ice looked so thin that we thought it best left to the experts! One did have to question the reasoning behind it, although I suppose Kristoffer goes out fishing in 48C temperatures, catching bait in saltwater crocodile country, just to get a barra...this was the other extreme!

Glad to see that they had the right part of the frozen lake for driving on and for fishing!!

We then drove up a mountain originally to see buffalo and instead ended up at Buffalo Bill's gravesite.  I guess I should know more about Buffalo Bill, but I don't...but it was nice to see his gravesite atop a mountain with his wife Louisa buried next to him.  OK I have succumbed to pressure...here is a bit about Buffalo Bill......William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman. He received the Medal of Honour in 1872 for service to the US Army as a scout. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill became famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes. Annie Oakley was one of his star performers!!  That's enough!

Denver

Last weekend Stu went snowboarding at Keystone with Joshuah and met up with Morgan who had come across on a bus from Greeley with some other Uni students.

On Sunday Stuart and I went for a drive up to the mountains.  It was snowing most of the time and "oh so cold" but again so picturesque.  We came across a small hill where families with mainly little kids were toboganning down the hill.  It is amazing to see little kids with all the gear!!  Flasher than ours!  I would love to have seen the boys toboganning down the hill, but I likened it to them swimming at Koombana Bay, when they could risk life and limb by swimming at Salmon Beach!!  Why would you go there when you could go up huge mountains!

Someone's driveway.....

After lunch we headed down the hill and decided to stop at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  It is a rock structure near Morrison, Colorado, where concerts are given in the open-air amphitheatre.  It really is a stunning place.  We parked at the bottom  and proceeded to climb a huge set of stairs before we finally reached the stage and looked up to see the seating above us.  Either side of the seating and stage are huge rocks, which reminded us a bit of the Pilbara!  The view from the top was stunning, with Denver in the distance and snow capped mountains behind you.  We went into the Museum which was fascinating and saw the vast number of people/bands who have performed there.  It only seats just under 10 000 people, but most entertainers say it is their favourite place to perform.  I am keeping an eye on the line up for this year and will hopefully get tickets to a concert there. (For those of you thinking of going to Red Rock...there is actually parking at the top of the bloody Amphitheatre, so no need to climb all those bloody stairs!!! You live and learn!)

A close up of Denver from Red Rocks

 

We left Red Rocks and headed to Downtown Denver before picking Jakeb up from the airport, who was coming in from New York.  We didn't have much time, but it gave us a taste of what the city was like and we will go back there another time.

I mentioned earlier that Jakeb had returned from New York. He was there during the huge blizzard that hit NY and of course I was terribly worried about him.  No need!  When I heard the news that the Mayor of New York had ordered everyone off the streets I rang him and suggested he get back to his accommodation. He was enjoying wandering through Central Park.  I finally relaxed when he rang me to say he had made it to his accommodation.  He loved New York and managed to see so much and his dream of being a paleontologist when he was 4 was  revisited when he showed us all his dinosaur photos from the numerous museums he visited!

Jakeb ice skating

Central Park

New York

And some local scenes....

A small ice rink near home..

Apparently they are a basketball team

Stu warming up after the movies....

Speaking of the movies....we went and saw Les Mis again last night and the lady serving us asked where we would like to sit.  I said she could choose as we didn't know the cinema.  She suggested a seat with a bar in front of us and then she said we could put our feet on it.  I said thanks, but we wouldn't be drinking!!  Stu looked at me in total disbelief and she ignored me....probably thought "stupid Aussie!!".  Anyway we went into the cinema and lo and behold there was a bar...actually a metal frame...where we could put our feet and not a drink in sight!!!  I really am an idiot!  Oh and Liz....Stu enjoyed the movie and didn't fall asleep!!!