It's been a very cool, rainy May. In fact the weatherman recently stated that the sun only shone 3 days out of the first 25 days of May…and this comes from the state that brags that it has over 300 days of sunshine every year!
Delaney had made plans to come see us over the weekend and as luck would have it, she was here for 4 of those cool, rainy days. We had planned to go hiking, do some sightseeing and some outdoor touristy things so we had to regroup and do some of those things but not others. Naturally, hiking was OUT. The trails were muddy, sloppy and slick. Mark had to work a half-day on Friday so Delaney and I went out and looked at model homes in the area all morning and then we went to her favorite Indian food restaurant for lunch. When Mark got home, we all went to Castle Rock and went to the outlet mall so that Delaney could get some shopping done. It rained and hailed on us the whole afternoon and evening and we were a little afraid that was going to be the weather pattern for the weekend.
Saturday we got up pretty early and checked the weather apps and they showed that the weather was going to give us a break for most of the day so we headed up the mountain to go to Vail. Delaney and Zach didn't go there when they were up here last Spring Break and she had said that she wanted to go this trip. On our way to Vail, we stopped by Georgetown so that she could see it. It's a quaint Victorian era mining town that is a local tourist trap in the summertime. It was raining when we got there so we didn't get out and walk the downtown area but she got to see it none-the-less. On our way out of town, we noticed that there were dozens of men and women dressed in marathon looking attire and leading donkeys through the streets of Georgetown. Curiosity took hold of me and I made Mark pull over so that I could ask what the heck was going on.
Seems we had stumbled upon the annual Pack Burro Race. It was about 30 degrees outside, with sleet and rain falling so we all opted to not stay and wait to see who won the race. Apparently this is a pretty big event with the number of runners and mules that were present.
We hit a pretty heavy snowstorm on our way to Vail but once we were on the Western side of Vail Pass, the clouds cleared and we had glorious sunshine for the rest of the time that we were in Vail. The gondola to the top of the mountain was closed so once again we didn't get a chance to get to the top! We walked around town, which was surprisingly not crowded at all, and ended up eating lunch at the Red Lion. Funny story about the Red Lion Inn: "The doors opened in mid-February 1963. It was called an Inn because the owner originally anticipated renting some of the rooms above the restaurant on a nightly basis. However, he and Marge had seven children and there was literally “no room at the Inn!”
By the time we got off the mountain it was cold and wet again so we decided to go to the movies and ignore the weather.
Sunday we ate a big breakfast and hung around the house most of the morning. There were storms all over the area but the weather apps showed that we had about a 3 hour break in the rain so we took a chance to get out of the house and we went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary. When we first arrived, it was pouring rain but after about 10 minutes the rain stopped! We stayed about 3 hours and enjoyed our afternoon looking at the beautiful, rescued lions, tigers and bears (oh my).
After we were done with the Animal Sanctuary we drove up to Boulder. Fortunately the weather held so we were able to go to Pearl Street and enjoy the shops and the street entertainment. There were lots of people out playing guitars, banging on bongos, eating at the outdoor cafes and restaurants and enjoying a rain free evening.
After diner we headed back to Parker and enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting out by the fire pit wrapped in blankets and enjoying our last few hours together.
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