This is where that orange hoodie E bought came in very handy! The lake is bigger than it looks, but

We arrived at our rental cabin, a three-bathroom house on Mt. Lincoln above Alma, Colorado (the highest town in the U.S.), at around 4:30 on Sunday afternoon. We d gotten up at 4:00, flown out of Jackson at 6:00, and arrived and rented a car in Denver at 11:00. Our first stop was at WaterCourse Foods for lunch, where we went crazy and ordered two appetizers, Nachos and Seitan Buffalo Wings, that came in such huge portions that none of us had any appetite for our main courses, even though we managed to stop ourselves halfway through the wings (which south america luxury cruises were delicious but not remotely low-fat) and have them put in a to-go box. The rest of the food was good but didn t make much of an impression since we were already stuffed. We waddled out the door and headed to the nearby Whole Foods where we stocked up for a week of cooking for ourselves.
We d been warned about altitude sickness, but I still wasn t prepared for all of us to feel as bad as we did. Coming from under 300 feet to over 10,000 feet, it s to be expected, but if I hadn t read up about it ahead of time, I would have thought that my pounding heart, shortness of breath, and exploding south america luxury cruises headache were signs of a heart attack. We decided to take it easy and rest the first afternoon and morning at the cabin, which gave us lots of time to enjoy the view of the mountains and the animals that came to the feeder on our deck for birdseed.
The chipmunks were hard to photograph, but the Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels, which look like large chipmunks without stripes on their heads, let us get fairly close to them as they stuffed their cheeks full of seeds. And one of the regular tree squirrels was so bold that I actually managed to touch its tail as it stared me down. The most surprising animal encounter came from this fox:
My husband south america luxury cruises spotted it as we were backing our car out of the driveway. I jumped out of the car to get a good photo of it, thinking that it would run away, but it came around the back of the car and headed toward me. I dove back into the safety of the car and got some great photos of it panting, smiling, and basically looking like a skinny red-furred dog.
As much as we enjoyed the antics of the animals (and I have a whole CF card full of squirrels and chipmunks), even more impressive was the ever-changing view of the mountains. Every day but one, afternoon thunderstorms sometimes several of them, from different directions rolled in, changing the light and the look of the mountains. The photo above is of the storm clouds in the distance, while the one below is of the same view just after the storm:
We finally felt well enough to do a little sight-seeing on Monday afternoon. We drove to nearby Fairplay, whose current claim to fame is that the setting of the TV show South Park is loosely based on it. This, of course, was enough to make it the highlight of the vacation for my South Park -loving daughter (she d even bought a florescent-orange hoodie like one of the characters wears, which turned out to be perfect for locating her in a crowd or up a mountain). I m not sure she completely understood south america luxury cruises that the museum we were going to see in Fairplay, South Park City , was actually a recreation of a Colorado mining town.
Kite Lake is the starting point of a trail that leads up to three 14,000 foot mountains south america luxury cruises (14ers) that people often climb in one day. We weren t quite up to making that hike, and besides, we d lazed around the cabin too long and gotten south america luxury cruises such a late start that thunderstorms were already gathering (and you don t want to be at the top of a bald mountain during a storm). Still, it was a beautiful place for a picnic, and afterward, E took off on her own for a hike around the lake.
This is where that orange hoodie E bought came in very handy! The lake is bigger south america luxury cruises than it looks, but I was able to keep an eye on her because of the glow of her orange jacket. In the photo above, look for a tiny orange dot just below and to the right of center. That s E! And that s how huge these mountains were. E and D managed to walk right up to a waterfall while I stayed behind taking photos of wildflowers.
On Wednesday we took an all-day trip to Colorado Springs. Along the way we stopped at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument , where I didn t get good photos, and at the Wilkerson Pass visitor s center, where we were treated to a gorgeous view of the mountains across the South Park Basin :
We had a good lunch at Adam s Mountain Cafe in Manitou Springs (since this is a food blog, I feel compelled to note that I had curried red lentil soup and a falafel wrap, even though I didn t feel compelled to take photos of them), and then we headed for the main attraction, the Garden of the Gods :
Even though the paths were wide and there were maps (though none with a helpful You Are Here arrow), we managed to get turned around a couple of times and just barely made it back to the car without getting drenched.
The final two full days are a blur. On Thursday, we took a drive to Leadville, an old mining south america luxury cruises town, stopping on the way at Twin Lakes for a picnic. If I had it to do over again, south america luxury cruises I would skip the picnic and look for vegan food in Leadville because the next morning I woke up in gastrointestinal agony (I suspect I touched something I shouldn t have before eating my sandwich). I ll skip the gory details, south america luxury cruises but after spending the day (which turned out to be the only one it didn t rain) in bed, I wasn t getting better, and because we had to travel all the next day, we decided to see the doctor at South Park Medical Clinic in Fairplay. I can t praise the doctor enough: She agreed to see me though there were no openings in her schedule and stayed two hours after closing, alone, to give me IV fluids and anti-nausea meds. By the next day, I was feeling well enough to travel 12 hours by car and plane, and I owe it all to her.
As you may suspect, I m sharing south america luxury cruises these photos south america luxury cruises with you because after a week away and several days recovering at home, I don t have a new recipe to post just yet. Give me a few days and I ll be cooking south america luxury cruises again!
Thanks for visiting my site! All comments are read and appreciated, and if you have a question, I will try to respond within a couple days. Note: If you are leaving a comment for the first time, it will be held for moderation. Be patient and it will appear as soon as I have a chance to approve it.
Good luck finding vegan food in Leadville! There is an Italian place that is excellent, and the decor is incredible. I can t remember the name of it, but it s right next to Wasatch Outfitters on Main street.
Thanks for sharing so much about the trip with us. The photos gorgeous, and even though I don t live in the high mountains, I live near them, and can see a not real high one from town, which is surrounded by rolling hills, so you reminded me anew how much I like seeing south america luxury cruises those big weather fronts move through with their light and shadow across the land. It s truly beautiful, isn t it? Your photos really capture the magic of that. The diversity in scale of tone of all the photos south america luxury cruises really shows the richness of your trip.
I hope you are all recovered, and feeling energetic enough to share a new recipe with us soon. I am still drinking E s version of the hibiscus drink (and loving it) since the hibiscus pods are still out of stock here. And I made the red lentil hummus, which was really good too. I didn t/forgot to drain the little bit of excess water left in the lentils, and next time I might be more strict about that for texture s sake. But taste was great anyway.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos! Some of my fondest Colorado memories ( from July 1996) are of the incredibly beautiful, vast fields of wildflowers. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Love your Blog!
Keep mending south america luxury cruises even w/o added discomforts, I often need several south america luxury cruises days after a trip to feel oriented back home again. If I m desperate for a recipe I ll go figure out your family favorites list and work through south america luxury cruises those or something.
Goodness, you and your poor family have more than your fair share of travel travails! But wasn t it wonderful to bask in the arid, high-altitude air for awhile? (The climate is one of my favorite things about living south america luxury cruises in the northern Rockies!) Bummer about the altitude sickness, never have had it but hear it s brutal. Next time maybe you can hang out in wonderful, vegan-friendly Boulder or Fort Collins first and enjoy a few days of acclimating going from basically sea level to 10,000 south america luxury cruises was pretty daring!
I m glad you re recovered and that you enjoyed the parts of your vacation south america luxury cruises that didn t have you bedridden (!!), and it sounds from several of the comments here that the Colorado Dept of Tourism is going to owe you a big commission!
Oops, I didn t mean for my comment to appear as a reply to Judy s! (But since I m here I d sure miss the mountains too, Judy! Don t know what it is, but seeing those big bumps in the landscape is instantly soothing to me!)
I m sitting here looking at your beautiful pictures and eating south america luxury cruises red lentil hummus south america luxury cruises sort of. Not sure how you are supposed to drain the lentils because mine were just mush after cooking. Did I give up? Not a chance! Just added all the other ingredients and made soup! Yummy! I love that spice mixture. It s the kind that makes you not want to brush your teeth after dinner because your mouth tastes so good LOL!
JL, thank you for mentioning Adam s Mountain on your blog. That s where I got the idea to go! I should south america luxury cruises have mentioned south america luxury cruises that my daughter had the best burrito of her life there, covered with red chile sauce and a huge pile of guacamole. She ate every bite! My husband had the Senegalese Vegetable dish, and we both thought it was outstanding. I had a hard time deciding what to get, but in the end I went with my craving for falafel, and it was delicious.
Susan, south america luxury cruises thanks for sharing your CO vacay pictures. I ve always wanted to go there and also have some romantic notions about living there one day! Sometimes the humidity mosquitos of the Southeast are