Greetings from Colorado!!!

For those of you that may not have heard, I have officially moved to Colorado! I transferred to the Amgen plant in Longmont, CO about two weeks ago and I am settling in with my temporary housing. I thought this was the best and easiest way to keep in touch and share my adventure; however, there is one condition: Emily, Alex and Stephanie need to occasionally reply and let me know how they are doing and what pictures or places they like best!! (the rest of you can reply too).

Sorry this first entry is a bit long but I have some catching up to do…

Saturday, May 12th: I drove from Simi Valley, California to Flagstaff, Arizona on Saturday and stayed the night at Woody Mountain Campground. I was hoping to get to Mesa Verde, but I got a bit of a late start in morning and I was tired by Flagstaff. Lacy did so good on the drive!


Sunday, May 13th: I drove from Flagstaff to Mesa Verde, CO and got a campsite in the park. Coming into Colorado and into Mesa Verde is really pretty! I spent the afternoon driving through the park:









Monday, May 14th: I went all the way out to the mesas and took a tour of the Cliff Palace.

The round structures are called kivas, which is the Hopi word for ceremonial room. These were gathering rooms (kinda like churches) with cool tunnels that connected to other underground chambers.

This is the Spruce Tree House. The Anasazi (ancient Puebloan indians) used to grow crops and hunted on the mesa tops and built these cool cave dwellings underneath. Amazing that they are about 1,400 years old and still standing!

I left Mesa Verde Monday afternoon and drove through Durango and the San Juan Mountains. This was the prettiest drive yet!! Very beautiful through southern Colorado but I did hit a bit of weather coming over some of the passes.







I camped at Lathrop State Park which had an awesome campground! I made it into my campsite right before a HUGE thunder and lightening storm. It poured buckets!! In about 30 minutes it passed and clear blue skies (and rainbows!):







Tuesday, May 15th: I lingered around the campground in the morning because it was so beautiful and I walked down by the lake (there were two in the park):

The drive up to Longmont was uneventful and cloudy, so not much to look at except the pavement. I arrived Tuesday night and started my new job on Wednesday.



May 19th-20th: My first weekend in Longmont was uneventful. Me and Lacy rested!!



May 26th (Saturday) – 28th (Monday): Memorial Day weekend. Since I didn’t have a reservation, I did not go camping (I searched a bit and many local places were booked for the long weekend.

Saturday I drove into Estes Park which is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park (only 30 miles away!). I did walk around a small lake but many of the trails were still covered in snow so I didn't spend too much time hiking. Although this is an older picture, this is what Estes Park looks like Mom when it is not snowing!!




On Sunday, I went hiking in Boulder at Chautauqua Park (wildflowers are starting to bloom!!):

On Monday, I went to Lake McIntosh which is only about 5 miles from my house. I have been going to the lake a few times a week to walk/run around it but on Monday I put the kayak in the water. It was a beautiful weekend ~ about 70-85 degrees:






Well, that’s all for now. Tune in next week to find out where my next adventure will be!!