Great visit in Boulder

[Mike]

Suzie and her family (hubby Mark, Milo, Bean and Newtie (dachsie wannabe) opened their home to me and a friend of mine last week for a very enjoyable evening of dinner and visiting.  They have a very nice home (garden picture to follow).  Milo was an easy sell on attention and shy Bean came around and wanted to be held by the end of the evening.  (Newtie pretty much stayed in the background.) 

It was a cool evening, but we sat outside as dinner cooked and talked and talked and talked.  Of course dachsunds were a major topic as well as people we knew from the board (only good things, honest!!).  The garden setting greatly encouraged relaxation (oh yeah, I'm supposed to relax on vacation).  Suzie & Mark said they will be renovating their house, but heck, I'd take it just the way it is now. 

All in all, it was a wonderful start to my mountain visit and many thanks to Suzie for inviting 2 strangers (kind of ) into her home.

My Estes Park sojourn was good.  We drove to the top of Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park (12,003 ft = 2.3 miles above sea level!!) and also did some hiking at a wee bit lower altitude.  Then, lots of piping and kilts and the Tattoo on Saturday evening was outstanding.  There were 2 championship pipe bands from Canada as well as the Las Palmas Marine Corp Band and a couple of historical fife and drum groups.  They all performed great and made me proud to be of Scots descent as well as be an American (I know not entirely popular around the world). 

I'll just say the return was an adventure in itself and we got to see Las Vegas briefly (1 hour), which was not planned.  There a scorpion was discovered on the jet as we were about to leave the gate and the resulting hunt delayed us almost an hour from a midnight departure.  We also found out the rule #240 which covers airline responsibilities due to mechanical filght cancellations only helps those passing throught an airport, not those commencing their journey at said airport.  More investigation on that by myself will follow.... hence the side trip to LV to avoid sleeping on airport carpeting.  So instead of getting home Sunday night, I walked in my door at 9:00 Monday morning and promptly fell into bed for some sleep after being up for over 24 hours (you try to sleep on a jet that just had a scorpion removed...).  Luckily my boss is very understanding and recently had a business trip where his flight was delayed into the wee hours of the morning as well.

Pictures of the Boulder visit will follow soon as well as a couple from the Estes leg of the trip.

[PattyInAK]

Sounds like a wonderful trip, except for the scorpian on the plane.  YIKES!   :crazyeyes:  That would be bad.
How neat that you were able to meet Suzie and her family.

[Barb]

Scorpian on the plane ?!?!?!  Sounds like a movie in the making to me - LOL !!!!  Glad you finally arrived at home safely.  Bet Clifford was glad to see his dad last night !!!!

Look forward to the pictures of your visit - sounds very kewl !!!!

[Mike]

Ok, here are the pictures.

First is Suzie & Mark koi pond looking toward the deck.
Next is Boone who asked to be picked up after dinner.
3rd is Milo making sure that there were no crumbs in my beard.
Last is our group shot with Suzie holding Boone, and Milo in my arms.

[Mike]

And for the disbelievers here is why I went to Colorado in the first place.