visitors: part 1

At the end of May and beginning of June we were blessed with an abundance of visitors. We were really excited with anticipation and very thankful that we now occupy a space that allows us to host visitors.

Our first set was my parents and brother. Mom and dad arrived on a Friday. We spent Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road had opened the day before, so we took that drive. However, between the time it opened and then, there had been quite a bit of snow melt that had eroded away the road in some parts, so the road was closed at about 11,000 feet. We drove as far up as we could and got out to take in the view.


The rangers at this point on the road thought reconstruction would be finished and the rest of the road would open in about 20 minutes but that it would be one-way traffic and you would have to take the entire road. This is not something we were interested in anyway, so we retraced our path and headed on to Bear Lake. There is a nice trail around the lake that I enjoy walking. We had done this trail in October when Brian's parents visited: the lake was frozen and the trail was snow packed. Not much had changed by the end of May.

Bear Lake with Long's Peak in the background

There was evidence of some melting of the lake and some muddy areas of the trail, but a lot of it was still snow packed. In places we could tell that the trail still had five feet of snow on it. We were able to get right down to the lake at one area an could see that the ice was really thick -- couldn't see the end of the ice.

On our drive back, we encountered heavy rain and some hail, at one point taking refuge in a parking garage. Supper was made and eaten, the rain cleared and we took a walk up on campus, and later that evening Mark arrived!


On Sunday we did the classic visit to Celestial Seasonings and got our fill of the Mint Room (my favorite part of the tour). Many teas were tasted, and we cashed in our coupons for a free box of tea. Mom & dad took us out to celebrate May birthdays, and we all ate way too much at Islands.

We again took a nice walk up on campus, this time with a stop at the entomology part of the museum collections (the collections that are not on public display). Surprisingly, I had not even been there yet, so I was really glad to get to go. They have some amazing stuff.

We took everyone out to Beau Jo's for some tasty pizza, and then mom made us brownies and homemade fudge sauce for ice cream for dessert. Yes, we ate quite well over the weekend.

We are really grateful that everyone took the time and resources to come visit us!