This time last year, Bruce and I were on a 2-month multi-cruise through Europe. But with COVID restrictions, all international travel has ground to a halt. So we took a driving vacation to Colorado. I rented a condo in a town called Castle Rock, halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. It gets its name from the big rock (sort of a mini-mountain) that sits in the middle of town and looks like the stone battlement on a castle. Our condo was smack dab across the street from the rock, so we had a great view each afternoon as we sat out on the deck enjoying a drink.
Bruce hiked up to the top of Castle Rock almost every single day. It was only 300 feet up, but we were already starting at 6,200 feet (Denver is known as the "mile high" city at 5,200 feet, but Castle Rock is 1,000 feet higher).
When we first got to Colorado, the air was pretty smoky from the Cameron Peak fire in North Central Colorado. But after a week, the air cleared and we had pretty good views of the mountains. I think the mountain in this picture is Pike's Peak, but we never actually drove down there to check it out.
Mostly I used the park trails as a shortcut to get to the downtown area. The town reminded me a lot of Seattle with parallel streets almost 50 feet above each other. You tend to think of the plains as flat, but there are a lot of gulches in this area. I frequently had to walk several blocks to get to a part flat enough to connect the 2 streets.
The weather was hot, but sunny almost the entire time we were there, so I was able to do a little sketching. They had lots of neat old buildings, but not a lot of places to sit in the shade. I don't think Castle Rock has any pollution, so that summer sun could be really intense.
They had a lot of quirky antique stores that I'd love to get back to some time and check out more thoroughly.
One day, I stumbled on a group of people setting up tents for an art fair. Most people were observing social distancing and wearing masks. Back home in St Louis, the Clayton Art Fair decided to go virtual this year. Looking at the paintings online is not quite as exciting as seeing them displayed on a gallery wall.
We spent most of our time in Colorado buying a house. We looked at some in Castle Rock, but the area appears to be in a major construction boom with little thought to roads and services. The same builder had another development in Aurora, Colorado - about as far east as you can get and still be considered in Denver. We found an available lot in a 55+ community and fell in love with the place. The house won't be ready for 9 months (kind of like waiting for a new baby), but at least we won't be moving over the winter.
Building a house is exciting, but daunting. When we first walked into the design center to pick out our finishes, we saw several little vignette rooms showing kitchens or fireplaces. It's real easy to see something totally put together and decide if you like the look or not. But as soon as we turned the corner, we were hit with a multitude of possibilities for each individual item. It took almost 3 hours to decide on a kitchen cabinet, but we finally picked the shaker style in the bottom right in a wood called "cherry smoke." Believe it or not, since most homes have open-plan layouts these days, once you pick out the kitchen cabinets, it's much easier to find countertops, floors, and wall paint to go with them.
And speaking of winter, our last week at the condo we got a major snow storm. It was especially bad for me, because I had only summer clothes to wear. Luckily it melted off after 2 days and also managed to tamp down the forest fires.
Our last day happened to be 9/11. I walked downtown one last time and saw this memorial in front of the fire station. The placard said the steel was taken from the Twin Towers in NYC - very moving.
