great sand dunes national park

great sand dunes national park

When Paul told me that he'd booked a weekend at Great Sand Dunes National Park, I wasn't as enthusiastic as I generally am about family camping trips. Firstly, I hate sand. I hate the way it feels, the way it tastes, the way it smells, the way that it invades every space no matter how tightly sealed or snuggly packed; I just hate it. The only sand I've ever liked is the sand on any Hawaiian beach. It's just different somehow. If you've been to one, you know what I mean. Other than Hawaii, I like rocky beaches, like Croatia. The other reason that I wasn't overjoyed was that he'd booked it for August. Going to the Great Sand Dunes in August brought to mind images of Death Valley: hot and dry. This turned out to be a misconception. Great Sand Dunes National Park is at 8200 feet, so it was cooler than here at home.

The first issue, sand, was not as bad as it could have been. Our campsite was sand free, nestled in a grove of low growing conifers surprisingly close to the Dunes.


our campsite

Also, my time in the sand was limited as Paul happily climbed the highest dune (700 feet above the river bed) in the morning while I watched Tim play with the other kids in the camp sites around us.


paul's morning walk


the boys


happy campers

When he returned, we stayed in the camp where the boys were happy to play and visited the visitors center until the afternoon heat dissipated. Then we walked about a half a mile to the river bed. I only had to walk in the sand for about 100 yards. I hated every step and complained incessantly. Tim loved it and Luke was oblivious. Paul pitched a shelter for Luke and I to hide from the sun while he took Tim to the lowest of the Dunes.

the river is still running, under the sand, which is slightly damp. in the spring, it's a proper river.


tim enjoying the sand


impressive

I could hear Tim's squeals of delight as he run full bore down the dunes. He didn't want to leave and still asks to go back. The sand was what some people would call gorgeous: clean of debris, soft as silk, and ankle deep. Yuck.

Our view of the night sky was spectacular and we enjoyed some star gazing after the boys went to sleep. We both saw the same shooting star, the longest and most brilliant I've ever seen. Maybe it was a meteor, part of the Perseid. I don't care if I never walk on the Great Sand Dunes again, but I'm very happy that I got to do it and very appreciative of my ever-enduring husband.




an afternoon snooze

in the blink of an eye

the family

My in-laws have returned to Cape Town after a four-week visit. It feels they were only here for a few days. It took me a while to cope with the shock of having to deal with the kids and the cooking. Tim and Luke miss the love and attention that they lavished on them. I'm counting down the days until they come back. I went through photos from Paul, Neville, and Jenny for this post, and they were on two different computers. They had to be down-sized and some of them cropped. It was a big job getting through them. Trying to keep them in chronological order was too much, so I've posted them by event, which is how Paul organized them.

arthur's rock
Fort Collins has a reservoir just west of the city in the first row of foothills. There are many hiking and biking trails that Neville explored. He and Paul took a walk one evening up Arthur's Rock. They had a nice walk and enjoyed beautiful views of hills and lake. They unknowingly woke a sleeping rattlesnake, who startled them with his rattle. They believe that both of them stepped over him.

neville walking uphill

rattlesnake

views of horsetooth reservoir

maroon bells
These peaks are the most photographed spot in Colorado, and I've heard that they are the most photographed outdoor spot in North America. I've wanted to see them all my adult life and they didn't disappoint.


maroon bells and maroon lake

We camped about three miles downstream of the lake in a pretty area where a doe visited us a couple of times and golden mantel squirrels were regular visitors.

doe a deer, a female deer


our home away from home

The Bells are only about twelve miles from Aspen, so we went there for lunch and a walk around the pretty mountain town. It's full of shops with things I can't afford and people whose lives I can hardly comprehend, but it's a pleasant place to visit.

the ski slopes in summer

aspen's charming streets

a water feature that's great for kids

We took the long way home from Maroon Bells and stayed one night in Steamboat Springs. A school friend of mine, Amy, lives there, and she joined us for dinner. After dinner, she and I went out for a drink and everyone else walked back to the hotel. One their way home, a bear cub ran across the street, down the hill, and across the bike/walking path in front of them. They decided to leave the path and walk on the road just in case momma bear was around. A couple from New York picked them up and took them to the hotel. Tim was so excited that he kept telling the couple that he'd seen a bear. Amy gave me a ride home. Our hotel was called the Iron Horse. Iron Horse is a nickname for a locomotive. At 01:00, it became clear why the hotel chose the name. Just past the parking lot is the river and on the other side of the river is the railroad track. It's less than 100 yards from the room to the tracks. I don't think it was necessary for the engineer to blow the whistle.

fourth of july parade

We had a late breakfast amidst the Fourth of July parade and finished just in time to see the four F14's fly over. Then we drove just out of town to see a pretty waterfall and home via Walden and the beautiful Poudre Canyon.

waterfall near steamboat springs

vedauwoo, wyoming and the cabin
When Jenny and Neville were here last year, we drove up to Vedauwoo. This year, we made the trip from the cabin, via Laramie where we saw another parade that was part of their week long Fourth of July celebrations. Wyoming is mostly high plains, so Vedauwoo, with it's rock formations, streams and ponds, is a nice change of scenery.


tim doesn't like to pose for photos any more

one view

We spent the weekend at the cabin, each of us enjoying it in our way. Paul did as much fishing as he could and Neville walked up the hill behind the cabin several times. Jenny and I did things with the boys. It's always nice to be there, and it's the place I miss the most when I'm away from the US.

on a game drive

the braai
We spent a good deal of our time in the backyard grilling and eating meat. Jenny's friend in Colorado Springs has a butcher that makes boerewors (a South African specialty sausage), and she bought enough to keep us satisfied during their visit, after their visit, and for Melissa's visit in September. Thanks Jenny! We have both a gas grill and a charcoal grill, so we cooked South African style and American style. It was all yum, yum good.

Both South Africa and American have strong grilling traditions. (Let me interject that I have only grilled with people of my own socio-economic backgrounds; hence these observations.)

The biggest difference that I can see focuses around the meat. South Africans always have three or four meats to chose from. Boerewors is essential. Lamb chops are a big favorite. Pork chops often make an appearance. Ostrich is common. Chicken is almost always there, but I don't understand why. It takes forever to cook, is often dry and chewy, and no matter what you do to it, it's still just chicken. I've seen steak a few times. Never hamburgers. American grilling tends to be one kind of meat. Steak is the most popular. Brats are getting a strong following. Hamburgers and hot dogs are popular amongst people with families. Pork chops are grilled as is chicken, but beef is king in the US. We took lamb chops (my favorite) to a BBQ party the other day. It caused quite a stir.

The second biggest difference and maybe the most significant is the apparatus used for grilling. South Africans use wood and charcoal. It's a half-day event. They prepare the grill, prepare the wood, prepare the charcoal, light the grill, tend the fire, stoke the embers, and on and on. All the men who will be eating take part in this ritual. However there is the man-of-the-grill(house) who is in charge. To take over the grilling from the man-of-the-grill is taboo; however advice and criticism are expected. Americans use gas. Ten minutes before we want to cook, we turn on the grill, run a brush over the grate, and start cooking. Because of this, we tend to grill several times a week all year long. Having a meal on the BBQ or braai is not an event. When we have a party, we generally make it a 'bring your own meat' kind of thing. In those cases, people usually bring brats, burgers or dogs as they are the easiest to eat on paper plates. The men still talk about the grilling, but usually each man tends his own meat. Since only the cooker tastes the product, there can't really be any judgement. In both traditions, the women prepare the salads and sides. The South African women tend to talk about the meat a lot. The American women talk about whether there will be enough food.

The last significant difference is the treatment of the meat. South Africans take great pride in marinading. The man-of-the-grill makes the marinade. From what I've seen, it's supposed to be done without any apparent thought, naturally I suppose, and the ingredients come from whatever is in the pantry (the only time he'll be seen in the kitchen during the whole day). Because it takes so long to prepare the fire, the meat has plenty of time to marinate. Americans have been spoiled by choice cuts of meat. We don't marinade unless the meat is cheap or wild like bear.

When it comes to a social event, I prefer the South African way of grilling. When I want to eat tasty meat, I prefer my meat naked and quick.


see all the different kinds of meat?


paul cooking South African style

because they cook with charcoal and wood, they can make yummy things like baked onions. put a whole onion in foil and stick it in the coals. divine

neighborhood night out

One of the reasons that Fort Collins is such a great place to live (click on the title at the top 'neighborhood night out' for Money Magazines top 10 places in the US for 2010) is that it nurtures a sense of community. If you don't understand my directions for the link or if it doesn't work copy and paste http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2010/snapshots/PL0827425.html


I need to give you some background before I continue. The city is arranged by subdivisions. These are small housing groups that are linked by some kind of theme. Ours is very small and the theme is simply the square configuration of the road. There is only one block of homes; only one entrance/exit, and only about 50 homes. My neighborhood growing up was a wood theme. All the street names ended in wood: Teakwood, Buttonwood, Tanglewood, Parkwood. It also had a Chinese theme because one of the first homes built there was built by Chinese immigrants with a lot of money. Their home was of distinct Chinese architecture. I lived next door and everyone in the city new how to get to my home. All I had to say was do you know where the Chinese house in Parkwood is? The front entrance to the neighborhood had a small pagoda with Parkwood written in stylized letters to look Chinese and all the street signs had a pagoda roof on top of the name. Some of the nicer neighborhoods are gated and have accompanying neighborhood accessories such as The Ponds neighborhood which has several small ponds dotted around the 150 or so homes. These neighborhodds have a Home Owners Association (HOA). Each home owner pays dues to the association for maintenance on whatever common areas the neighborhood has. Many have a clubhouse and pool. Ours has a small green area that is a water retention area for times of flooding. Our dues are $35/year. Some homes that we looked at before we bought had dues around $700. These neighborhoods are common in America, but many of my foreign readers may not be familiar with this concept. These are not suburbs; they are subdivisions. In American, a suburb is a smaller city that is virtually connected to a large city. Denver has many such as Cherry Creek, Lakewood, and Centennial. In London, Wimbledon would be considered a suburb.

Back to Fort Collins and its sense of community. The city of Fort Collins gave every neighborhood HOA a voucher to a grocery store, Safeway (we have four or five of them in town) to purchase ice cream, cups, spoons, and napkins. Last night, we hosted the Neighborhood Night Out and served said ice cream to our neighbors. I put flyers on their doors on Friday evening to let everyone know where it was being held this year. We probably had just under 20 families stop by between 18:30 and 20:30. Timothy loved having a half dozen kids running around his back yard and we loved meeting our neighbors. We knew about half that came. It was a great way to host a party because we didn't have to do anything with the inside of the house, no cleaning before and cleaning up after, we didn't have to pay for any of the food, and we didn't have to feel like people didn't like us if they didn't come because it wasn't really our party.

We have basically two generations of owners here. One generation bought their homes in the late '80's early 90's and raised their kids here. These kids are now in high school or at university. The other generation has little kids, like us. We have a few retired couples and a few couples without kids, but most everyone falls into the first two categories. It's funny because even though we have little kids, I'm the same age as most of the people with children in high school/college.

yes, the lady in red and them man in grey have birds on their shoulders