Friday, August 13, 2010

 

Continental Divide

One of many (too many) family photos
For our final day full day in Colorado, we decided to drive, as a family, to the Continental Divide.  To prepare, we slept in, had a breakfast on sticky-buns and coffee, and packed into two cars.  The drive up was stunning.  We entered the Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park and took the 11 miles long, one way uphill, Fall River Road.  The drive was more than beautiful offering wild life (we had to stop as a Marmot waddled past), scenic views (we stopped almost every opportunity to just exhale), and places to stop and hike (we hiked to the top of Marmot Peak at just over 12,000 feet the highest point of the trip so far!). 
Fall River Road reaches the visitor center at 11,796 feet above sea level.  We stopped for a bite as we all felt a bit nauseous from the altitude.

On the Continental Divide
We continued past the visitor center to the Continental Divide a few miles past.  We had talked about what the divide was and how water flowing on one side would empty into the Pacific yet water from the other side would empty into the Atlantic.  To demonstrate, BeBe (Elizabeth) brought water bottles to test. 

Big hit.




Elk grazing at 12,000 feet
On our way back to Estes Park we pulled over to view some Elk.  The elk were just off the road and were fearless unlike me who demanded Anthony and Nate to stop far earlier than they would have liked but the elk were huge!!!

I was thankful to have a rent-a-car because I road the breaks all the way down the mountain. 

Mom and Michael made a delicious meal of Shrimp, bread, and salad.  It amazed me how tired I was with the only thing to blame was the altitude.

Before I dropped off the kids to play putt-putt golf, Dad had a Strawberry ice cream tasting.  Dad explain how smell was important to taste, that each person could have their own opinion, and the importance of describing what was experienced in words.  The boys tried the ice cream and did a nice job explaining why and what they liked best.

After the kids were dropped off, Dad organized a wine tasting for us.  We tried five different Syrahes from Australia to France.  He explained each wine and had different smells to test against (bacon, plum, pepper, and jam).  It was almost unanimous that the French Syrah was the best.  I was the only hold out for the sweeter Australian.

Water to the Atlantic Ocean

Comments:
Pics are awesome. Dad was excited about the wine tasting... That sounded fun.
 
It was amazing to taste the difference between the exact same grape from different terras. It was so fun!
 
Can't wait for August 14th.
 
:)
 
what happened on the 14th?
 
Sarah and my 17th wedding anniversary.
 
Wow!! Congrats!
 
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