Shopping and Taste of Colorado

Over Labor Day weekend, we spent most of the time at home. Since Jake has holidays off, Monday we decided to go shopping at Castle Rock Outlets. Kids stores have great sales over labor day and Ellie needs clothes for winter. I think we did pretty good. After spending some time there, we drove home for a break and then headed downtown for Taste of Colorado.
Last year, Ellie and I went by ourselves. This year Jake was able to come with us. I think he was a little shocked to see how big this event is.  We ran into some friends there. We could only walk with them a short time as the crowds were too big to try and walk with 2 strollers.

We did sample so foods too. Jake tried a taste of buffalo brat. We all ate chicken fingers and fries. I think the best was dessert. We sampled some key lime pie and beignets (like what Tiana makes on The Princess and the Frog). They were both great. The beignets are a scone like dessert served with powdered sugar and frosting.

One thing Jake and I noticed while walking around the venues was that we are becoming more a "peculiar people". Almost everyone there was drinking alcohol, had many tattoos, were dressed immodestly, had multiple piercings, or some other thing about them that screamed "LOOK AT ME!!! I AM UNIQUE!!!" It made me wonder what things will be like in the future. How different will things be and will we stand out even more as time goes on?

Labor Day Weekend (Taste of Colorado)

Monday, Labor Day, Jake needed to finish up some homework after taking time off on Friday afternoon for shopping and Saturday for Mount Evans. So while he was working, Ellie and I went to a little fair that Denver holds called the Taste of Colorado. I think they have this to compensate for the fact that the Colorado State Fair is held in Pueblo, Colorado (about 2 hours south of Denver). We had plans to go to the state fair until we found out it was that far away.

I love the Utah State Fair. My family has gone for years. When I was little my mom, her sisters, and her parents (my grandparents) worked in the information booths so my sister Annie and I spent quite a bit of time wandering the park. Now as we are older, we love to go for the Dairy Farmers of Utah event; an All you can eat Ice Cream tent.

Anyway, Ellie and I drove to downtown Denver to see what this Taste of Colorado was all about. Basically it was a mini state fair in my mind. They blocked off all the streets in front of the Capital Building and the Civic Park to set up the fair. There was a section for all the fair rides and the rest of the area was for vendors and 4 stages. The idea is an area where people can go an taste a wide variety of foods from around Colorado, costing anywhere from around $2 to $10 for the food. The restaurants present are both local and national places, offering food choices from donuts to ice cream to wines and beer to ribs and turkey legs.

Of course, I loved to because it allowed me to see the kind of people that wander the streets of Denver. Here are a few of my notes -

• There are quite a large number of older middle aged people who dress like how any teenage kids imagines their parents dress when on vacation or when trying to embarrass them; weird length shorts, socks, sandals, and bright colored shirts.
• People with colored skin out number white skinned people slightly.
• Almost everyone there had at least one tattoo that was visible to the public.
• I felt a large number of people were large people.
• About 3 guys (mid twenties) had their hair sticking straight up. Not spiked but like they had grown it out 4-5 inches and turned their heads upside down and sprayed with 2 cans of Aqua Net hairspray straight up.
• At least 10 girls (early teens to early twenties) had peacock fans for hair. Imagine the 80's 4 inch bangs flipped to the back of their head spread out in a fan.

The two most important things I learned; first, Ellie is too cute for her own good. People stopped to say how cute she was then smile and wave at her. Over course she would cheese it up, smile and wave back. Second, there was NOT a single person, I repeat that, NOT a single person that I saw wearing those ugly, low rider skinny jeans with EMO sweep haircuts in their face. I was shocked because I felt half the teenagers in Utah do that "trying to be original" or "trying to express themselves".
Overall, I really enjoyed a nice walk around the crowds while people watching.

Labor Day Weekend (Mount Evans)

We didn't have any plans for Labor Day weekend which I thought was a little odd since we didn't have to worry about school or work, although there was some homework. Friday we had to do a little shopping because as part of our agreement to lease we needed to show we were taking precautions to block Ellie from the stairs. We drove to the Babies R Us to buy some safety gates and then decided to stop at the Park Meadows Mall. This mall looks fairly new and is very up to date. The inside is designed to fit a mountain/cabin type feel and most of the stores are high end shopping; Armani Exchange, Crate & Barrel, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, etc. But Ellie's favorite store, Pedigree Pet shop. It was full of dogs and she loved every minute of it. Her favorite part, when the sales person let Jake hold the Saint Bernard puppy and Ellie got to pet it.

Saturday we decided to take a trip to Mount Evans (warning, this part was posted by my nerdy side and contains nerdy facts). Unfortunately I didn't pay that much attention while doing my research so we left the house after Ellie ate lunch and we were dressed for valley temps, about 90 degrees.

Mount Evans is one of Colorado's Fourteeners (mount peaks that are higher than 14,000 feet above sea level) at 14, 264 above sea level. The real drive behind this adventure was the drive. Mount Evans has a paved road that goes to 14,130 feet above sea level, almost to the top. The road was started as a Peak to Peak Highway (from Longs Peak to Pikes Peak) that was never finished and after driving the road, its easy to see why. The Mount Evans road was opened in 1931.

As you drive up this road, you eventually drive above the tree line and enter what is considered Alpine Tundra.

Only specially adapted animals, like the Mountain Goats, live up in these areas.

At the top, to the West is the Continental Divide (as seen vaguely behind Ellie and I to the left).







To the East are a few small mountains, Denver, and then the plains. I couldn't find any information on how far across the plains you could see. This is seen behind us in the picture.

As you can probably see from the pictures, it was quite windy and when the sun wasn't peaking through the clouds, very cold.

The car registered around 50 degrees. Some information I have says the average temp is about 42 degrees up top and it can snow on any day during the summer.

Although I didn't snap a picture, there is an observatory used by the University of Denver, but even more interesting there are old ruins of the Crest House restaurant and souvenir shop. The building burnt down in 1979. The observatory is the highest in North America. From the parking lot, there is a short hike to the very tip top of the mountain.

Here is Jake and Ellie on the very top of Mount Evans looking down on Summit Lake. The environment around and above the lake is extremely harsh and although located in the alpine, it mirrors the arctic. The ground is permafrost and there are rare plants here that are normally found only above the Arctic Circle.

The tree Jake and I are standing next to is a Bristlecone tree, which grows twisted to have a stronger foundation in extreme environments. This tree is generally the last tree growing before you travel above the tree line.

I found this plant very interesting. I don't know what it is called

but it looks similar to Thistle but has more thin hairy spines in addition to the thicker thistle spines. As you were driving, they actually look like hairy, spiny eye balls.

Hopefully I can take my nerdy side back up to this area and spend more time enjoying it, but we took the trip when we did because the top 5 miles of the road close after Labor day (hence the rush and lack of preparedness for the weather conditions). Luckily we had the blanket in the car and I did pack a jacket for Ellie.

I may not be able to care for myself or my husband, but I will always make sure my child is cared for.

If you ever make it to Denver during the summer, I highly recommend this as a sight seeing location, even if you don't have a nerdy side to indulge.