Colorado Adventures with Morgan & Parker

Morgan was in Colorado for the week prior to Parker coming.  We went down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, the alligator farm, climbed the incline, and attempted the 14er Mt. Lindsey.  The key word being “attempted,” since we only made it to 13,100 feet before there was a mega storm.  All that after staying the night in Walsenburg and then braving the dirt road for 2 hours one way!  Ugh.   

Just 900 vertical feet from the summit

Columbine-Colorado's state flower

 

The Incline!  One mile with 2,000+ vertical feet

The Great Sand Dunes National Park

 

10-year old alligator

 

 So when Morgan flew out of DIA, I picked up Parker.  Thankfully, their layovers overlapped by like 10 hours, so we all go to spend the day together in Denver.  Parker got coffee and worked at Panera for a few hours while Morgan and I shopped and she even convinced me to go to the pet store with her since she still misses our C-A-T. Parker got the three of us in for free on his annual pass to the Museum of Nature and Science.  It was a fun date and we took Morgan’s picture (the future pirate) by all the pirate exhibit models.   

Morgan's special welcome sign for Parker at the airport

Exploring at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

The future Whitworth Pirate

The Denver skyline from the top floor of the museum

Parker then took us to dinner at Shells ‘n Sauce, a cute Italian place in Amy and Jonathan’s old neighborhood.   

We actually walked to their apartment after dinner and before we had ice cream at The Scoop.  It brought back so many good memories of those 3 years adventuring with the Hooks.  Just 2 days after my failed 14er attempt, Parker and I summited Mt. Elbert, the second highest peak in the lower 48 states!  It was 9 miles and took us just over 9 hours with a gain of 4,400 feet.  Parker fell in love with the views and even did pretty well with the altitude.  We hope to have many more good adventures together.  

The beginning of the 9-hour adventure...we're still smiling

Mt. Elbert:  14,440 ft.

 

 We celebrated our summit with a yummy dinner at on of my favorite mountain restaurants Beau Jo's Pizza.  

As usual during Parker's Colorado visits, we had dinner and games with our friends.  Since Jenna’s parents were here to babysit, we went out to BJs Brewery.  Since Monday was Canada’s “family day,” Parker got to stay until Tuesday on this rotation, which was sweet, except that I started my new job at the district office on Monday, August 1^st.  

Parker was so sweet in taking me to work and picking me up.  He even worked all day on a list of “honey dos,” and did some things not on the list like wash my car.  He’s the best!  Parker picked me up from work and met my new boss.  We had a couple of more errands to run.  We talked about looking at shiny things (aka engagement rings), but I was slightly cranky since I hadn’t eaten yet, so he took me to Chipotle and then we went to Jarred.  It was under construction, and Parker was secretly eying the Swiss watches, but overall he did really well!  He was definitely nervous at first, but was a trooper for whole 2 hours!  I still can't make up my mind about what I want exactly, but it was fun to look.  Parker took a shuttle up to the airport Tuesday morning.  It was lonely to come home from work and not have him here. 

Tumbler Ridge, (aka North Pole) Canada

I’m officially the first person to visit Parker up in Canada during his two projects up there.  It really meant a lot to Parker that I’d come all this way.  I flew from Denver to Seattle, to Edmonton, to Grand Prairie, where we still had to drive 3 hours to get to Tumbler Ridge (which includes the "short cut" on a one-lane logging road for over an hour)!  It was cold and rainy the whole time, except for the one day that the sun came out and I could see my shadow.  I felt like the poor groundhog in February.  

We went out to eat while we were in town and also got groceries together.  Things are definitely more expensive up there.  For instance, a bag of shredded cheese is $8.00!  Also, the shopping carts cost $0.25 and are locked together.  Canada is weird.   

On the drive from Grand Prairie to Tumbler Ridge, we went through Dawson, which is where mile marker zero for the Alaskan Highway is.  We took our picture there in the rain.  

 

On the drive to Parker's we also passed a random building with a very familiar name.

I stayed up there a week, so we did our adventuring while Parker had a few days off.  On the first day, he took me to Kinuseo Falls in Big Red Megacab…his Mortenson work truck.  Though I was scared of seeing a grizzly the whole time, I knew that Megacab could take anything on.  Unfortunately, I only saw a beaver and some squirrels the whole time I was up there.  Kinuseo Falls is like a mini Niagara Falls.  It has the most volume of water flowing out of the 30 falls in BC.  We hiked near the bottom in the rain. Though Parker had a knife and bear spray, I was still paranoid the whole time.  Who wants to be close enough to use either of those?   

 

The next day, his roommate was also off, so the three of us hiked 4.5 miles to Bergeron Falls.  It rained the whole day, though again, the view was worth it!  It is the highest falls in BC.   

Parker was such a trooper as he gave me dozens of piggyback rides through the calf-deep puddles.  (I only had my tennis shoes to hike in.)   

The trail...or rather the "river" trail

We also had to cross a large creek/river by sliding across a log on our bottoms.  It was definitely adventurous!  

I cooked dinner with Parker every evening.  One night we had the “frat” boys over for Montana burgers.  I also made scones and banana muffins…all without normal cooking utensils like measuring cups or a baking pan.  I felt like I was in Australia again, where everything is almost the same, but not quite.  On the one sunny day, Parker took me around Tumbler Ridge.  We walked to the visitor’s center, train museum, dinosaur museum, dollar store, movie/ice cream store, and home.  It’s a coal mining town built in the 1980s by the government.   

Everyone has a megacab truck with a big orange flag 10 feet off the top for the open pit mines.   Parker fit right in with his Big Red rig.

Parker did take me to some of the job sites one day.  None of the windmills were up yet; they were just digging out some of the bases.

While Parker worked, I scrapbooked online, read, did 8 loads of laundry and cleaned and organized his bedroom for him.  He was so appreciative when I surprised him after work…that is after he fixed the toilet that I had plugged. Ugh!