I always wanted to try stand-up paddleboarding. Well, this weekend Janet and Courtney came to town, so we went out to the gravel pond at Chatfield State Park and rented 3 boards for an hour. I'll have to admit that it took me almost the entire hour to get my knees to stop shaking enough to actually stand up, but I did finally make it. The board is much bigger than I expected - more like the size of a surfboard than those little boogie-boards you get at Walmart.
Courtney stood up instantly and paddled around the entire lake. Janet stayed sitting and floated around taking pictures. It was fun to try it once, but it won't replace paddling around in my kayak with its cushiony seat and backrest you can lean against.
Courtney and Janet stayed for 3 days and we managed to jam-pack every minute. We went to see the musical Footloose. The songs were a bit strange (not the original lyrics that Kenny Loggins wrote), but the dancing was amazing. I think the lead actor, Ren, had knees made out of rubber.
This was my first time going to the Parker Arts Center to see a musical. We sat on the next-to-the-last row in the balcony, since I didn't get tickets until the day before, but I thought our view was really good. Since this theater is right in our neighborhood, I'll have to try going to some other productions.
After the musical, we met Bruce for dinner at the Lost Cajun. I love their shrimp po'boy and etouffee combo. Courtney had the fried catfish. It was pretty good - not as river-y tasting as some catfish can be.
The last time I rode my bike on the Platte River Trail, I found a breakfast restaurant called, Toast. The name is short for French Toast (their specialty). I ordered the bourbon-pecan French toast. It was a good thing we went paddleboarding afterwards, because that was a lot of calories I needed to burn off.
While Janet was here, we managed to check a few hikes off our hike log. This is us doing the gravel trail - not my favorite surface to hike on, but better to walk on it than ride a bike.
We also played a few games of Splendor in our "down" time. Like usual, Courtney and Janet won all the games.
It was a good weekend until the end. As Janet was driving back to Kansas City, she ran over a hunk of abandoned retread truck tire and wrecked up the underside of her car. Luckily Jamie had the day off, so he was able to bring his flatbed trailer and pick her up, but she had to sit in Burlington, Colorado for 6 hours - not the most glamorous place to be stranded, but at least they had a McDonalds. Courtney flew home, and thank goodness, the Southwest pilots opted to show up to work this week.
