Colorado Part 2

 

Picking up on where I left off…

The above photo is of Clear Creak. You can see where it got its name. Coors Brewing Co. sits just downstream and takes advantage of the crystalline mountain stream to make its popular brews. Side note…we visited the Coors facility ten years ago on a family trip to CO. Luke was 17 (and a few weeks shy of heading off to college) and Michaela 15. We have nice memories of that trip, particularly visiting Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, and Manitou Springs. On that trip, we stayed in a house rental way out in the middle of of seemingly nowhere, surrounded by incredible mountain vistas.

Back to this trip. We had planned for Sunday afternoon to be a down time. Yet, we found ourselves wanting to visit a nearby meadery. One of Bill’s many hobbies is making mead with his home spun honey. Many people aren’t fans of mead, as it can have a very strong flavor. Bill makes session meads, which are much lower alcohol content (most around 6%, regular meads closer to 13%)  and he “flavors” his meads with a wide variety of native plants. They tend to be on the dry side and are quite refreshing. Most commercial meads are on the sweet side (back sweetened with honey). We were hopeful that this meadery would have some dryer sessions meads. No such luck. However, they were really quite delicious and there were many with unique flavors, such as Peach Mojito, Prickly Pear Rose Hibiscus, Boysenberry, and Grapefruit Sage. 

Sunday evening found us back at our wonderful B&B having a cookout with Luke and Mary. Mary had made delicious blueberry scones which served as a birthday dessert—Bill insisting on finding something to light, used a stick in lieu of candles. ;-)

Monday, July 4th, was a fairly uneventful day, though I’d say the highlight was hiking up the small mountain that abuts Luke’s place. 

Our last full day we hiked up Chief Mountain—a moderate hike through mountain forest, emerging into peaks of snow covered mountains with a 360 degree view at the top. 

That evening, it was a true joy to spend one last evening with Luke and Mary. Luke prepared a delicious meal of tuna and salmon, salad, and homemade fries. We sat out on the peaceful patio. I can’t believe I failed to take a pic of their cozy and charming backyard, but you can get a glimpse of it in this photo as well as the awesome table Luke made.

And that’s a wrap. Isn’t it something how you can look forward to certain events for so long and suddenly they’re here and gone. I have many happy memories to cherish and much to be grateful for!!