Family Vacation 2014

This years family vacation was the first joint-family vacation that we have taken, and it started purely by coincidence.  One of my cousins started in May as a park ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Colorado has been on the list of possible family vacations for many years so it was our chance to go.  It just so happened that my aunt, uncle, and another cousin were planning on going out there the same week.  Long story short, we got a vacation house for the week and ended up with 9 people in the house most of the week, including my grandma who turned 84 a few days after we got back.

View from the porch of the vacation house

My immediate family drove out to Colorado, stopping in Iowa the first night to see family friends and stay the night in a hotel.  We have had lots of practice with long car rides but this was the first one in 12 years we traveled in a sedan.  At 5'8", I'm tied with mom for the shortest person in the family so the Fusion got a bit cramped at times.  Mom got The DaVinci Code on audiobook so we listened to that on the way out and I spent a lot of time knitting both there and back.

We spent most of the time there in the park.  Monday we drove to Alpine Visitor Center and did some short walking trips and turnouts from there.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  The altitude and I weren't getting along very well, especially the first day.  My ankles swell at high altitudes which is unpleasant when you want to spend most of the day on your feet.  Luckily that went away after the first day.

On top of the world!

That night we all went back into the park and walked around Bear Lake.  We went late enough that the sun was just starting to set and there were very few people there.  

Bear Lake

Tuesday we did some hiking to a few of the various lakes in the park.  With 2 families worth of people we were able to split up and do longer route for those interested.  I went on the longer route and the only reason I was the slowest person was because I'm uncoordinated and there were lots of rocks and tree roots I needed to not trip over.  We ended up hiking about 7 miles (with the last half mile being all uphill).

We hiked to Alberta Falls

On Wednesday we went to visit some of my mom and aunt's cousins in Boulder.  This was especially exciting for them since we didn't tell them until the night before that my Grandma (their aunt) was also going to be there.  While they caught up, the rest of us walked around University of Colorado-Boulder's campus.  It was gorgeous; nicer than MSU (and that's a tall order!).

Different Ivy covered halls

Thursday we drove to the other side of the park to Grand Lake. While we were there we witnessed the weather change faster than in Michigan.  It went from rain to hail and back to sun in the matter of an hour.  Once things dried out a bit, we went to a waterfall.  Even Nana made it up to see it.  We also saw more wild-life on this side of the park which was nice, especially for Nana who hadn't been out west much/at all before.

Just Stunning

My family headed out Friday morning so we could stop a few places along the way and make it back on Sunday.  We went to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and saw some pretty cool rock formations before heading back through Kansas.  Kansas has a whole lotta nothing for a really long time.  I couldn't decided if Kansas, Nebraska, or South Dakota were more boring to drive across.  I was at least able to get some reading done in the car, something I normally can't do.  In Kansas we stopped at Flint Hills Discovery Center and learned about the tall grass prairie.  I got my museum fix in and we didn't stay long enough to make Pat verbally complain so it was good for everyone.

Check out that root system

 Saturday night, we stopped in St. Louis, Missouri to go up in the Gateway Arch and have dinner.  I am always aware how fortunate I am to have so many experiences to travel but was reminded when I realized I was the only member of my family to have been to the Arch before.  While we were waiting in line at the Arch, we heard the family in front of us say they also were coming from Colorado.  This family of 6 had spent 20 days together and were still talking to each other, a feat I don't think my family is capable of.  Further discussion revealed that they were from the same area of Pennsylvania my parents lived for a while, most the kids were born at the same hospital I was, and the dad worked at the company my dad used to work for and knew many of the same  people.  It really is a small world.

  

Night view from the Arch

As a whole, the trip was great!  We got to spend time with lots of family and see some amazing sites.  I had never been to Colorado or Kansas before so that checked two more states off my list (and put me at a 70% completion status).  As we were leaving that first morning, my family came up with a hastag to use for our vacation.  If you want an insight into the day to day occurrences during vacation, check out #frahmlyvacation14 on twitter.

Everybody