Barry and the Boys Vacation to Colorado

My brother and my nephews came to visit for their vacation to Colorado. I had fun coming up with things to do for boys. First stop was the Georgetown Railroad loop.

Here were great photo ops with all the trains!

Next we headed over to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some tent camping.

It was fun to gather up all my camping gear that hadnt been used since my kids were little. It was fun to cook on the propane stove again.

The sleeping situation left something to be desired. Ben wanted to sleep with his dad in his sleeping bag. So the second night we stayed until the campfire was finished, packed up and headed home.

The boys all helped gather wood for the campfire.

When we were driving to the Jellystone Campground, the rain began and we had to put up the tent pronto. Luckily we had some nice neighbors that gave us a hand. I hadnt really remembered even how to put it up after 15 years!;)

Some activities at the camping are were a hike around Bear Lake. The boys enjoyed reading the nature signs along the way. It was a beautiful day!

The one mile distance was just right for the sea level hikers.

The campground had a pool and miniature golf. Lots to do!

Here we are playing candy bar bingo. You bring a candy bar to play and the winner gets all the candy!! My kids played this when we went years ago. This place still rocks!

Back home we went to the Douglas County Rodeo. Here they were teaching you how to rope a calf.

My brother gives it a try!

Was he successful?

Last stop was a tour of the Garden of the Gods. The boys really enjoyed the museum inside as well. I had never checked it out.

It was a fun and busy week. We had lots to do. Great to see everyone and get to see the mountains.

California Visit

Albuquerque Balloon Festival

Driving to Escalante Utah

Utah- Three National Park/ Monuments in One Day!

We took at five day trip to Utah with a bunch of Adventurous Women.  We left Friday morning at 5 am to make it to Moab for dinner with the rest of the group.  These buttes were names Monitor and Merrimac for the submarines in the civil war.

We drove past Moab to get to Dead Horse Point state park.This is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs.  It is connected by a narrow strip of land called the neck. According to legend, the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top.  Cowboys rounded up these horses which created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides. One time the horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst.

This was a beautiful landscape formation.

Next we drove further south to Canyonlands National Park. This had different views with many different overlooks. There are two separate entrances to the Park. We visited the north called "Islands of the Sky".  We only had time to see one called the Green River Overlook.

Here are some of the gorgeous views.

This reminds me of the grand canyon.

Our final National Park was Arches. We stayed just outside the park in Moab. Tomorrow would start our adventure.....

Spring Weekend in Brooklyn, NYC

My daughter and myself took a long weekend to NYC. Instead of staying in the throngs of tourists in Manhattan, we decided to stay in the Brooklyn borough in the popular neighborhood called ParkSlope.  I found an Air BnB that was an adorable old home that has been kept up to the traditional style. We had a whole floor to ourselves with use of the kitchen for breakfast .

We mostly saw other areas of NYC and mainly focused on things to do in Brooklyn. Our first stop was a beautiful cemetery Green-Wood. It was founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark. 

We found an app on our phone that led us on a walking tour around the cemetery pointing out interesting people buried and stories about them.  Unfortunately we were about a week too early for the flowering trees that were abundant here.

There were sculptures of all shapes and sizes.

This was the sight of the Battle of Brooklyn on the highest point of the cemetery.

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There was a great view from the hill.

There was a beautiful iron gate with a lamb and weeping willow tree. This was a popular motif weeping willow associated with mourning and the resting sheep peaceful death.

Baked in Brooklyn was an awesome bakery we stopped at.

We were able to go everywhere from our little apartment.  there was a subway station about 4 blocks away. We took this to every destination.  This was one of the subway stations below the museum of Natural History 81st station;

We went to the Smorgasbord in Brooklyn. It was a hug gathering with tons of tents with many different food offerings from many cultures. It was packed with people!

It was quite a hike to walk down to it. Here is a view from the street.

We walked the Highline Trail. It was an old railroad that was above the ground they have transformed into a well manicured park. Lots of art along the way. We were sad there were not many flowers as the season was too early.

We also stopped at the Donut Plant- a gourmet donut shoppe. Check out the fancy names.

On Monday we headed to the lower east side to visit the Tenement museum. We got there early and the front desk had a walking tour of the neighborhood. Here are some architecture we saw.