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Denver-March, 2019Denver-March, 2019
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Visiting Nachel in Denver and getting the lay of the land Read more
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  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 1

    day 1-thursday, march 21

    March 21, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ ⛅ 39 °C

    1. After my flight from Lansing to O’Hare, I had about a 2 hour layover. Last summer I got a United credit card with 60,000 miles free, 2 guest passes to the lounges and free the 1st year. Following years it is $96 but since Denver and Chicago are both hubs, I’ll probably keep it. I also get priority boarding after all the other priorities (group 2) and I get 1 free checked bag. Anyway, the passes expire this coming August and I wasn’t sure I’d have the opportunity again, so I went to the lounge and had a very nice lunch: shrimp bisque, salad bar, mini brownies, crackers, cheese, bananas.
    2. Flew in on United from ORD (due at 3:57, got in early) and R picked me up around 4 pm. She had waited at school til I called (she gets out at 3:30 pm). DIA (airport) is very large and no matter what you fly in on, you have to take the train to baggage and checkin/security. I had no checked bags so Rach got there probably within 10 minutes of my call. We drove home in her rush hour traffic on the expressways with some major slow downs but I think it took about 45 minutes.
    3. Nick was home and R gave me a tour of the apartment. I’ll post the pictures on FindPenguin. It is much bigger than the last apt. and is quite nice. They had decided we’d go out for dinner and walked to a family owned small restaurant they hadn’t tried: Monterey House. It was a hole in the wall Mexican place with very good burritos. They really liked the food and will go back.
    4. We returned home and I think BB was on to watch. Don’t remember much else.    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 2

    Day 2a- March 22

    March 22, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C

    1. While I had thought spring break started on this Friday, it really hadn’t but they both took the day off. Rach and I had oatmeal and bananas (from United lounge) for breakfast. Rach and I did a 45 minute work out at her “gym” (1 treadmill, 1 elliptical and 1 ??, bench and some free weights but I did watch tv).
    2. After Nick got ready, we headed out to Red Rocks Amphitheater, maybe 40 minutes away. This is where they have awesome shows. In our lifetime, of the 10 most famous concerts you have: U2, John Denver, Jethro Tull (1 of my faves but there were incidents at the concert with rocks thrown at security and rock bands were banned for 5 years), Grateful Dead, Beatles, Motorhead. https://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/03/10-most-m…. There are a lot of trails to do but we opted to just drive to the main parking lot and take a short hike up to the venue (pictures coming some day). The kids looked at the schedule and want to do some concerts in the next few months. Jan, maybe check it out and see if there’s something you’d like to see.
    pix: 1-2 guest room 3-6 Red rocks    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 2

    Day 2b-march 22

    March 22, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C

    3. Then we took a very short drive to Dinosaur Ridge (Morrison, CO) where lots of dinosaur artifacts have been found. We did the guided tour trail/road by foot, opting not to spend the $X for the museum or the shuttle tour. It was a nice walk and at times we had to take off our winter garments because of the sun. I have no idea how far it was but once we reached the end, we had to go back the same way. (Update: it’s 1.1 miles one way so total was 2.2 miles)
    4. On the way home we stopped at a Sam’s to graze and check it out. I thought we’d like to get a membership at some point in time and get cheaper gas. There was a Costco “across” the street I wanted to check out but it was soooooo packed, we would have had to walk 3 blocks. We also stopped at Dollar Tree to get me a $1 pair of slippers to keep there.
    5. We came home and Rachel made a pork loin for dinner with mashed potatoes, which was excellent.
    pix: 1-Red Rocks 2-6 Dinosaur Ridge    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 3

    Day 3a-Sat, mar 23

    March 23, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    1. Rach and I got up and went off to feed Dana (Rachel’s high school friend and bridesmaid) and Henry’s 4 chickens and see their home. Rach fed the cat and retrieved 3 eggs from the coop. When we got back to the apt, Nick made a brunch of bacon and omelets and toast. We were a little behind schedule at this point because we were supposed to meet Miriam downtown Denver at 2 but we let her know and it all worked out.
    2. We set off for downtown and traffic was very congested for, in my mind, a Saturday afternoon trip into the city. We weren’t really sure where the place was that we were to meet Miriam so we had to call her. We finally met on a corner near the Cambodian art exhibit she wanted to see. [Miriam was in town for the Association of Asian Studies conference of Asian; she presented at the conference. She also had seen the kids on Wed. night, probably in town since she didn’t have wheels.] The art exhibit was quite interesting and sorta like a collage. There were only about 10-12 items and they were like a story board, depicting many things, much having to do with the Khmer Rouge genocide.
    3. After that we drove a few blocks away to just outside Coors baseball stadium on Blake Street. We then (all 4 of us) walked over to the 16th Street 1 mile pedestrian mall (i.e., the street is blocked off to traffic, except for free shuttle bus up and down the street). While it had potential to have a lot of interesting, touristy shops, it seemed like it was mostly chain type stores. At the end, we stopped at a Starbucks to rest our feet and try to get warmish. Our meter was running out (only 2 hours allowed) and we wanted to get to the Blake Street Tavern to meet up with the MSU alumni club to watch the game.
    4. Luckily, we were able to find free parking right in front of the Tavern. While it isn’t the office MSU bar, the alumni club comes here often (I am a lifetime member of MSU Alumni Assoc.). (Blake Street Tavern, about 1 long block from Coors Stadium, hosts alumni events for MSU, ASU, IU, Creighton, NW, Notre Dame, UCF, UD, USC, Wichita State. Also: Redskins, Patriots, and Seahawks.)We were too late to get into the large room where they were unless we’d be willing to stand but got put into the MSU overflow room and quickly got a great table.
    5. The kids got drinks and we 1st ordered a large pretzel appetizer. Then R and I split a reuben with some kind of chili verde fries and Nick got his own Reuben. We hooted and groaned with everybody and left as soon as game was over.
    Pix: 1-4 Blake Street Tavern    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 4

    Day 4a-Sun, Mar 24

    March 24, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    1. Rach and I had our usual breakfast of oatmeal. Our plan was to get out fairly early to hike at Lookout Mtn so that we could be home in time to host Dana and Henry for dinner.
    2. We set out and first stopped at the visitor center which wasn’t open for about 15 more minutes. It was colder than we anticipated up here. We walked over to the adjacent Boettchler mansion (closed on weekends) and walked around it. Then to the visitor center and found out the trails were snow/ice covered and recommending crampons or yak trax for the shoes and definitely hiking shoes (which I didn’t bring this trip due to a suitcase full of GS cookies – lol).
    3. Anyway, then we had to figure out what to do. We decided we’d do Table Mountain which had been one of our choices to begin with. But on the way down from Lookout we stopped to see the Buffalo Bill exhibit and gravesite. It was pretty cool and he certainly seemed like a cool guy. (He’s the one with the wild west shows and Annie Oakley; I know Dan knows all this.)
    pix 1-5 Boettchler mansion, Lookout mtn, Buffalo Bill site; 6-table mtn    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 4

    Day 4b-Sun mar 24 - lookout mtn pix

    March 24, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    4. Off to Table Mountain where we hiked the North trail. It was pretty crowded there with respect to parking so we had to park probably ¼ mile down the highway from the trails. It is a 3.5 mile loop (or is it 1.5 miles?) with the gradual side being 3 (or 1 miles??) miles long and the steep side 0.5 miles long. Of the 3 ratings for hikes, the steep side is rated “advanced”. Since time was limited, we did the steep side and got to the top in a whopping 20 minutes, even with a very long 5 minute rest for me within 50 feet of the top. It seemed like forever to go back down (especially if it was just 1 mile) but we did make it. Along the way Rachel (and the rest of us) passed Peyton and his wife, but we didn’t know it; just her.
    5. By the end of the hike, I had done 19,500 steps and Rachel had done over 20,000 steps. Were our feet tired??? Yes, they were!!!
    6. On the way back we stopped at a King Sooper (part of Kroger chain) but not the one within walking distance of her home). It seemed to me like a Whole Foods sorta in that they had a soup bar, classy cheeses and a swanky produce section.
    7. While Nick prepared dinner, R and I went to the Arvada “old town” area, where Rachel, Nick, and Dana had previously rode their bikes to for a chocolate fundraiser; I definitely want to come next year for this event. We stopped at the most popular shop on that fundraiser and bought breakfast for our Monday hikes: Rheinlander Bakery. I got a Danish, R got an almond “Danish”, and we bought Nick something that looked like a giant butter cream filled cannoli.
    8. Nick made his famous lasagna but we didn’t have time to actually make a sauce so that was bought. We picked up some day old bakery brownies and Dana brought a healthy salad.
    9. After dinner, the four of them played euchre and I sat next to Rachel doing a little advising because she is trying to master the game. That night she won both sessions with Henry as her partner; she had never won before.
    Pix 1-3 Lookout mtn views    Read more

  • Linda KohlDenver-March, 2019
    Day 5

    Day 5a-March 25

    March 25, 2019 in DR Congo ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    1. Dana had given us some ideas of where to hike since we seemed out of steam for any advanced, uphill hikes. So the plan was to do Flatirons (level hike on the plains) and Flagstaff Mountain (drive to the top and walk around there); both in Boulder where we were meeting Katie Loeb (??) for dinner. So that’s what we did.
    2. We first did the Flatiron Loop Trail which is about 2.5 miles long. It was flat traveling and afforded a few shots of snow-covered mountains in the distance. (NB: most mountains were not snow covered at all but on the north sides there were a few smatterings of snow.)
    Pix 1-6 apartment: living room, dining, kitchen    Read more

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