Leslie and I took advantage of the long Martin Luther King weekend for a getaway to Moab – a place I have yet to see even though I have lived in neighboring Colorado for over 20 years.
Below are some photo highlights, but to get the full story go to my post at https://markpastor.com/moab.
We arrived late afternoon. The house is beautiful. This is the courtyard of the house.
We then ventured out to get some groceries and have dinner at Don Felix.
We wrapped up a great first day with a view from our top balcony.
This morning we were delightfully surprised by the sound of hot air balloons overhead. At first we thought it was just some local noise we weren’t familiar with, but then we realized it sounded just like summer weekend mornings back home.
Today we spent most of our time walking to and around the city center. We also took care of necessities such as food shopping and preparing dinner. It’s a beautiful town even though I feel there is so much more to see and do.
Today was sort of an artsy day. Leslie and I started this morning with exploring our garden and taking close up and other interesting photos.
After breakfast we set out for a walking day. First we walked from the house to Fabrica la Aurora.
Then we walked to Mercado de Artesanias.
We did some shopping and then had lunch at “The Restaurant” – an amazing meal. Then I walked home, taking a new route to see a different part of town.
We had a fantastic tour of the beautiful city of Guanajuato. Our tour guide, Fernando Ibarra (415 145 4316) was incredibly knowledgeable and speaks English extremely well. He walked us around the city giving us the background of many of the key places and in doing so he conjured up vivid imagery of historical moments, people and places. The city is amazing in its beauty but also it history and infrastructure. There are tunnels below the entire city for vehicle traffic, but the tunnel network, complete with intersections and winding turns has no relationship to the roads above it.
(To be verified) These mummies were buried during an outbreak of Cholera during the early 1800s, and subsequently disinterred between 1870 and 1958 because burial taxes were not paid.
Well, there was labor in the form of backpacking, and there was Labor Day. And there was my birthday.
This post is about the fantastic trip Matthew, Leslie and I took in early September. We drove to Sawtooth Mountains (Redfish Lake Lodge) via Dubois, Wyoming where we were able to visit with Leslie’s mom and stay for a couple nights there on the way to Wyoming.
The story is told here: https://markpastor.com/september-vacation-2021
My outing choice for Father’s Day was to hike Bear Peak in Boulder. I wanted to do something that would help get me in shape, and I know this hike to be good for that.
Matthew, Leslie and I took off from the Erie at around 6:30am, and we were on the trail from NCAR parking lot at about 7:20am. As expected it was a grueling hike, but fun and I was in better shape than I thought I would be after a year of COVID isolation and a not-too-active summer last year because of all the fires in this part of the country. We took a break on the peak to take in all the scenery, and then we found a shady spot just below the peak to stop and eat the delicious sandwiches Leslie prepared for lunch. With all that said, the 8 mile hike took us about six and a half hours total. We were certainly ready to pound down the large lemonades from Wendy’s on our way home.
Last weekend I joined friends and family to celebrate my sister Lauren’s birthday. Read more…
And here is more info on the trip to South Dakota.
Leslie and I conquered one of her bucket list adventures… Mount Sneffels. It was a tough hike with a long very steep scree field followed by an even steeper boulder field, followed by a slightly technical passage with enough exposure to make it interesting. The hike took us a lot longer than I thought it would – about 9 hours, because you just can’t rush progress, up or down, on that scree field. Now I know why most of the hikers I saw were wearing helmets. Well… we did it! And lived to tell our tale. The vistas were spectacular.
