New Belgium Brewing

We drove out to Ft Collins today and visited the brewery. For those of you on the east coast who don't know they brew Fat Tire, 1554, & Mothership Wit among other yummy beers. Sadly the tickets for the tour were gone by the time we got here.

The highlight of the tasting for me was the Dandelion Ale. For Simon it was simply a nap.

Salt Lake City to Carbondale, CO

We spent the night in Salt Lake City (we scored the Salt Lake Hilton on Hotwire for $84!)In the morning we hit the Blue Plate Diner for breakfast. Phil and I discovered it several years ago on a ski trip but since than it has been on 'Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives' it's a great local place and very yummy. Joanie had corn cakes and I had a Pork Chile Verde breakfast burrito.



I love the view of the Wastachs from the city.


Leaving SLC we drove towards Provo before hoping on a local highway over the mountains to connect to I-70. There were awesome windmills at the entrance to the canyon. It was an interesting drive across the desert but Simon slept most of the way so we didn't stop.


Once in Carbondale we met up with our friend Rachel. Mt Sopris (12,965 ft) dominates the view in town. This picture came from Rachel's parents front yard.

Boise to Salt Lake City

We are breaking the drive from Boise to Denver into several more manageable chunks for Simon. After the truck left we walked through one more time and left for Salt Lake. On I-84 a few hours outside of Boise is the Malad Gorge. We have driven over a dozen times and never stopped but Simon needed to eat so we made a detour. The gorge is 2.5 miles long and 250 feet deep. It had a pretty impressive flow.


There was also a waterfall leading into the gorge further down the canyon.


Walking back from the vantage point I came across the cutest little cottontail. I couldn't get him to turn his tail to me but I still liked him.



These are the little things that I am going to miss about the West. There are amazing natural phenomenon around every corner.

Bye Boise!

It's amazing to me that what started with two suitcases and an air mattress, ended up being three people, four suitcases, two backpacks, one stroller and one pack & play.

For those of you who don't know we are in the process of moving back to our old house in Columbia, Maryland. It's a temporary setback in our master plan but one we felt was the best option for our family right now. We hope to get back to the West before Simon starts kindergarten.

Here is truck all loaded up. It will offload us on June 15th.


Here are Simon and I as we say goodbye to the only home Simon knows.


We are driving to Denver over the next few days and flying to Maryland from there. We will post pictures of our adventures along the way.

Last Trip to the Flying Pie

One of my favorite pizza places in town. We had the chicken garlic for lunch. Fridays are VW Bus day so there were a bunch in the parking lot. This is my favorite but you can't see the cloth roof.

Moving truck is here

The moving truck has arrived. The guys are tagging boxes and wrapping furniture. They hope to finish by mid afternoon.

Packing Day

We are being packed up today for the move tomorrow. Here is the living room, office and hallway. They have four guys working to get it all done in one day. Tomorrow morning the driver comes to load it on the truck.