Peaks and Caps

Hello all,
Gudrun here this time! I guess Dad and I will be taking turns adding things to blog whilst they are visiting.
So today we hit a dinosaur museum where Maya and Sage purchased the dino's featured in photo! We are all trying to brush up on our dinosaur names as we play a lot of guess the animal in the car and include the extinct kind.....all desperately trying to outsmart the others!


The other big trip today was to summit the top of Pikes Peak ...a mere 14,100 feet! Well ok we didn't hike it but the drive was challenging enough...especially with me at the wheel!


A wee touch of vertigo as I drove up the outside parts of the road...it didn't help that Maya kept saying how scared she was and closing her eyes and that Sage pointed out how we could easily drop off the edge! Anyway we made it to the top and had a very quick photo taken as we were all finding it hard to breathe (half the amount of oxygen as at sea level).

We made our descent in low gear and I got the approval for good mountain driving from the ranger as he tested to see how hot the brakes were!


Here are the matching knitted caps!






Totally stunning scenery and the aspens were in all their glory!
We head off tomorrow for a five day trip around Colorado and also to Grand Canyon...will keep you posted.

Granny and Grandpa

We arrived late on Friday night a little delayed but Gudrun, David, Maya and Sage were there to meet us.

Colorado Springs is a relaxed college town, all leafy, broad streets, coffee shops and small shops in the centre. The campus, which we are on, stretches several blocks with parks and trees. The town is right at the edge of the Great Plains, up against the first of the uplands; Pike’s Peak at 14000 feet dominates the western horizon. We went west of the Peak on our first day to visit a fossil park with petrified tree trunks and had a slow stroll around some of the trails. In the distance were mountains so high I thought at first they were clouds. Naively I assumed that not far over those mountains was the Sierra Nevada, California and the Pacific, David said ‘no’! Looking at the map when we returned I could see that I had misjudged by about 1000 miles! This is a big country.

On Monday morning David invited me to his class where I sat at the back and was reminded of the great distance between 20 years olds and 60 year olds! They discussed the set passage … Andrea Barratt’s Ship Fever (most had never previously heard of her). Several thought it was old hat…. Written as long ago as 1995! Then they discussed a couple of their own efforts. They were great students though, the class was relaxed and David clearly had their respect … no doubt he was in charge … he’s a born teacher of creative writing.


So far it has been warm (70), dry and sunny … just the thing after a Shetland summer! On Tuesday morning I walked the mile or so to the centre of town to one of the two secondhand bookshops where I spent 2 and ½ idyllic hours and $70 on books for the winter when we get home.


This morning Mum and I walked back to the bookshop (via a coffee shop, hot chocolate and chocolate cheesecake) and found a book for Gudrun on the New Mexico artist Georgia O’Keefe that she admires … we can see why.


It’s a great place for the family, great apartment college town America, so close to the mountains and a wonderful climate. Maya continues to draw nonstop and I covet a couple of her pictures. At the moment she is writing (on a spare laptop) and illustrating a book on her favourite subject … cats. We bought a chess set so I am teaching then, although Sage seems to know the rules quite well. The only problem is that in his eagerness to take one of my pieces when I make a mistake he usually end up scattering all the pieces across the floor. You can see that he is enthusiastic, which is no bad thing. It’s great to be here with them all.


This coming weekend we are planning a trip of 5 days or so to the Grand Canyon and Utah! We’ll post some more news then.

Laughton and Patricia

Sand Dunes, Great Ones

Hello. Did a couple of interesting things this weekend, although strangely enough we managed never to have our digital camera with us when we needed it. On Friday we decided on a spur of the moment trip to Great Sand Dunes National Monument. It took about three hour to drive to, but it was well worth it.

We got there as the sun was setting, casting all sort of shadows across shifting sands. The wind was blowing something fierce, but it was fairly amazing to look out at this enormous, rippling mountain of sand, behind which rose even higher mountains of stone. It's very odd. The sand dunes were formed from sand brought down on rivers from the mountains that is somehow kept in a dune formation by winds that howl up from the other direction and then circle around in the bowl created by the mountains.

The wind carried on through the night. It sometimes felt like the tent was about to go airborne, but we had it well-pegged down. Thoughts of bears (an actual hazard in these parts) kept us all sleeping lightly (accept Sage, who we could barely wake even in the light of day). We only had the next morning at the Dunes because we had to get back to the city for a dinner party that evening, but we did what we wanted to. Got a taste of driving off road down windy, sand and rock trails. Then parked and took a hike to the Dunes. We climbed as far as we could, getting pelted by blasts of sand that got into every crack and crevice. It was like a short sampler of life in a chilly Sahara. A good workout to at the altitude, something like 8,000 feet. Anyway, great stuff. We took some photos the old fashioned way, so hopefully we'll eventually be able to get them on to here.

Got home in time for dinner and then on Saturday... Well, I was suppose to go kayaking, but that didn't work out this time around. So instead we went out to Red Rocks Canyon, which is park that's essentially in town. Took our bikes and rode the paths. Lots of different mountain bike trails, most winding through red sandstone formations. Quite a few climbers in evidence. All together quite pleasant. Sorry not to have photographic evidence. We left the camera in the car!

Canyons, rivers and rock formations

So we have also taken some drives into the mountains and been wowed over and over…these Rockies just go on and on and offer incredibly diverse scenery. We did get out for a wee hike our second day here but at 10,000 feet our bodies weren’t quite ready for it……the city is at 6000 feet so even that took some getting used to!
We did do some off road with the car though which was kind of fun…not exactly off road but dirt road…we did meet plenty of other vehicles doing proper off road stuff through rivers and up steep rocky things!! Not my cup of tea!

Some of our pics are of a climbing area right here in town called Garden of the Gods (the pics of all the weird shaped sandstone rocks).


We also went to this gorge with apparently the world’s highest suspension bridge…we just looked from the side of the canyon cause of course they want money from you to go across!






We also found the river…...the Arkansas…..miles and miles and miles of all sorts of levels of whitewater ……David was of course salivating…so we hit the Kayak store and he talked boats with a young dude who laughed at how outdated our boats are now! We even found this cool little mountain town with a whitewater park in town……

That should bring you up to date for just now I think! Visitors welcome!

Kayaking and climbing

David is planning his first kayak trip on Sunday…hooking up with the outdoor group here at the college….he’s also taking the kids to the climbing wall this evening so they can try out their new harness….
Maya has already been practicing by climbing the walls in the apartment…not kidding! I shall be singing while this is all going on as I’m joining the college choir…..also hoping to set up some private voice lessons with the music department.
So “it’s all good” as my friend Jenn likes to say! Something for everyone! David is even enjoying the teaching side of things and fairly impressed with the competency of his students. The kids and I got to meet them as they all came for dinner last night…a nice bunch……Sage got a few light saber duels out of them and some games of Rat a Tat Cat our favorite card game these days. (For you brits out there..yes I know ‘favourite’ should have a u in it but seeing as I’m using an American laptop it underlines it in red when I spell it that way!)

Sage displaying his new Colorado College hockey t-shirt

Storms and Sunsets

On our approach to our final destination, actually about an hour before we got here, we headed into a huge storm and after sitting in the car at the side of the road being whipped by the wind and surrounded by gigantic lightening strikes we retreated to a motel 10 mins back down the road!



Not the best pictures to truly represent the enormity of this storm...doesn't help that the dashboard got reflected with the flash!





The next day we made it to the Springs but still didn’t see the mountains till the following day........which is kind of amazing as they are right here and pretty dominating as we saw when we woke up the next morning. They do provide an ever changing backdrop with the sun sparkling on them in the morning, sometimes a storm later in the day and then the sun setting behind them in the evening.

The view from our back windows

Let's see it's been about 10 days since we arrived and I think we're doing a pretty good job of feeling settled into college life. We are living in an apartment in an old building right in the heart of the campus. We have a huge space to ourselves...we can't even hear the kids when they are in their room and we're in the kitchen! I also didn't notice when someone appeared in our hallway thinking this was their apartment....not used to the notion of locking doors yet after years of rural living!.....
Apart from having to think of security we're finding it a lot of fun to be living in the city again. We can walk into downtown or bike and we can access lots of things right here on campus too. We all got college id's...even the kids....so we can use the pool, ice rink, climbing wall, tennis courts, catch a quick bike ride on the trail that runs for miles right outside the apartment…...hey just call us sporty Durhams! Speaking of which the sports fields are located out the back of our apartment so when we feel like it we can catch a soccer game! However it seems it’s the ice hockey team we have to support as they are number two in the country…..Sage already has his supporters t-shirt and can’t wait to go to a game…sorry Jamie…not quite a football supporter yet…you’ll have to persuade him on that one.

On The Way!

I know it's been ages....I'm finally getting around to updating the old blog after a few friendly reminders from siblings!



So we got all packed up…..to the brim…..well actually over the brim so we had to stop and unload another box worth of stuff to be shipped on our way out!




After four days in the car and crap fast food we were glad to get to Colorado. Kids and cats were fantastic the whole time….thanks to the ipod the kids got through a few books (obviously the ipod didn’t help the cats much) …….and I got to knit and read …..first time in ages I’ve read a 443 page book in a couple of days (T.C. Boyle’s Drop City)….



The cats slept through the day and wondered where the hell they were in the motels each night!