A Day Trip around Colorado

This weekend we packed the kids and the puppies into the car and headed north.  Our destination was unknown, but we knew we wanted to have dinner at one of our favorite burrito joints--Big City Burrito in Ft. Collins.  We ventured through Denver up towards Longmont, where we had lunch at Noodles because the kids wanted to see if it had the fancy soda machine that allows you to create basically any flavor of soda you want.  It did!

 

Then we headed west through Lyons, CO.  We'd never been there before.  While we didn't stop to explore this very cute little town because Craig wanted to keep going towards a hike near Estes Park, we definitely will be coming back to explore this place!  Considering there was some kind of festival going on I am glad we didn't stop.  I prefer to explore new places when it isn't packed wall to wall with other people. Call me anti-social if you so desire, but I really do enjoy solitude much more than I enjoy crowds!

We wanted to try a hike called the Ouzel Falls Trail but upon our arrival we learned that it was in a state park.  In Colorado, dogs are not allowed in state parks.  Ughhh...

Fortunately the gentleman collecting the fees at the entrance gate was super friendly.  He told us about another place we could try that was pet friendly and free! And ironically is was on Lily Mountain.  I guess Lilly and Quinn would get the humor, but we sure enjoyed it!

 Lily Lake...way to crowed with people and the hike around the lake was for people only...no pets.  Took a picture for posterity, but ventured further up the road a bit

  

The hike was great!  So many friendly people along the way.  Perhaps it was because of these two that attract so many oohs and awes!

We didn't quite make it to the top.  Storms were threatening in the distance and Quinn was a bit sensitive to them.  He started whining quite a bit after the thunder started so being the protective parents we are we headed back down to the car.  I think we had less than a half a mile to the top but the safety of our brood is much more important!

We managed to wrap our way through Estes Park and tried a back road down the mountain towards Loveland. 

So glad we did this.  The drive was breathtaking and would highly recommend it!

Made it to our ultimate destination!

Yummy!

As we started home, Craig remembered he wanted to stop at a truck stop called Johnson's Corner.  Apparently they make these awesome cinnamon rolls which are sold in many of the convenience stores he orders, so he thought it might be fun to go to the source and try them there.  While it was a bit disappointing that the display was just a shelf or two located in a remote part of the store (apparently he thought they'd have a whole Krispy Kreme kind of experience or something!) they did taste pretty good.  We wouldn't drive 100+ miles to get them again but they were tasty.

The  highlight of this stop was the peaches.  Palisade Peaches being sold from some random farmer who has a huge passion for what he does!  Love that.  We unknowingly completed two classes while listening to the gentleman sell us these delicious and juicy peaches.  Peaches 101 was how to each a peach--bend over and take a bite so the juices don't run down your chin!  And Peaches 102--how to freeze and thaw peaches so they taste like a fresh peach picked right from the tree.

The day was a nice reprieve from doing projects around the home!  It's always fun to see new things and we look forward to the next adventure!