Day 6, still in Grand Lake

Since our hike yesterday went so well, we decided on another hike.  We wanted to see Cascade Falls.  This was another hike around 7 miles long.

Near the beginning, we saw a deer with two fawns.

For this hike, we didn't have a loop, it just went in and back.  We saw a guy and his kid fishing in this trout stream.

Cascade Falls was a very long rocky area.  We had lunch there before heading out, and talked to some people who gave us suggestions for hikes on the other side of the park.

                        

On our way out, we spotted a moose that other hikers had told us about.  We could see some big antlers back in the brush, but the other moose wouldn't come out for a picture.

Nearing the end of the hike, we saw these clouds.

We almost made it back to the car before the rain hit.

 Later in the day, we went to look at a city park, which had this sign:

I don't know if you can read it, but it says in part "A moose that sees you and walks slowly towards you is not trying to be friendly"

Grand Lake is over there

Our first day in Grand Lake

We had already gone to the visitor center and gotten our parks pass, so we were ready to go on a hike.  We wanted to start pretty early so that we would be done before it rained.  It seemed to rain every afternoon!

We decided on a hike to the Big Meadows area.  It went through some pretty scenery, such as some open pastures, rock formations, lodgepole pines and next to a trout stream.  We saw a moose on the way in but I didn't get a great picture of it. We also saw marmots and many wildflowers. The fence picture at the top is from this hike.

 Eventually, we ended up in Big Meadow.  It was so beautiful!

Some guys were fly-fishing in the stream in the meadow.

This was a pretty long hike for us, around 7.5 miles. On the way home, we saw another moose, right near the road.

You are not supposed to do this with a moose.

Day 4: Aurora to Grand Lake

We got up and left Aurora pretty early.  There was a little traffic in Denver, but before too long, we were heading north.  We stopped in Winter Park for coffee and some lunch.  Our best find was in Granby:

DRIVE BY PIE!

This place was in an alley behind the bank, and she had fabulous pie.  We had a sample of apple, but bought a Wild Berry instead.

In Grand Lake, we found our cabin and got settled.  We were in cabin 2, and here is a picture of the courtyard behind the cabins. You can check out more at http://www.getawayretreatgl.com/            It was a nice cabin and a really nice place to stay.

We also went on a short walk near the cabin to Adams Falls.

Day 3 - July 15 Manhattan, KS to Aurora, CO

Our plan today was to visit Mushroom Rocks State Park for our field trip of the day.  (http://ksoutdoors.com/State-Parks/Locations/Mushroom-Rock)

We started toward there and turned onto a "dirt" road that was actually about 4 inches of what felt like quicksand.  We turned around at the first farm and decided to go to Lucas KS instead.  We've been there before and I love this town.  Check out http://www.grassrootsart.net/

This is part of the women's restaurant wall in the bowl plaza:

This is right next door to the restroom:

We also toured the grassroots art center, and I really liked these two carvings:

Day 2: July 14 Effingham to Manhattan

On the second day of our drive, we made it to Manhattan, KS

On the way, we had 2 field trips.  First a short stop at Graham Cave State Park, where we had ALSO been before.  Then a longer stop at Powell Gardens outside of Kansas City.  It was amazing!  And SOOO hot.  We walked around for a couple of hours though and got some good food in their cafe.

A large part of the botanical garden was dedicated to food gardening.  You could go up in this silo to view the gardens. A large part was laid out like quilt patterns, mostly with vegetables and herbs.

We liked this old bed that was being used in a veggie garden. 

And I liked this gourd hen house too!

There was also a gorgeous water garden section with rock wall plantings and lots of lily pads.

 The garden also had an exhibit of lego art, so here are some of our favorites!

 The bird feeder was full of legos!

In the water garden

Finally, I loved this statue of the rabbits.  The one on the left looks so annoyed. Like "OMG. Get off me, it's like 95 degrees."

Vacation 2015 - Rocky Mountain NP

I thought some people might like to see more pictures than I'll put on Facebook, so here they are!

Day 1 - July 13 - We traveled to Effingham IL

 Field trip of the day was to Cascade Falls State Park.  The falls were really roaring! We realized when we pulled in the parking lot that we had been here before.

 We headed back to the highway when these scary clouds showed up.  The river was already really high.

Dinner the first night was at the Firefly Grill.  This was my delicious drink :)

Our last day in London!

Roses at St. Paul's

View of Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's

We wanted a little shorter day today so we could get things packed up at the flat.  Our only visit was St. Paul's Cathedral. It was great, very beautiful.  Princess Diana was married there.  We walked the steps up to the Stone Gallery so we could see out over the city.

Garden near St Paul's

Wemock near St. Paul's

View from St. Paul's

On the way back to the Underground, we stopped by Bea's of Bloomsbury for a treat.  We also saw Jamie Oliver's restaurant and butcher shop.

Treats at Bea's of Bloomsbury

After we did some packing, we headed out to a great local pub, the Duke's Head, for our last dinner in the UK.  We had great pub food - fish & chips, beef & onion pie and a burger.

Beef & onion pie.

Marjorie's pie included veg of the day - according to the bartender, a mix of cauliflower, swede and cabbage.  We asked him what swede was, but he didn't know - he said he's not British.  Then the other bartender also didn't know.  So we asked some locals, and they decided it's kind of like a turnip. (Wikipedia says it's a rutabaga) We enjoyed chatting with them for a bit about our trip, and they said we've fit in quite a bit!  I totally agree.  It's been a great trip!