142/365 Our new dog

Meet Chloe, the latest addition to our family. She's been very well-behaved and has adapted quickly to life at our house.Mom and I saw her in an art gallery in Boulder, Colorado, and we knew we had to take her home with us. She actually holds a small flower pot, but we haven't found the perfect one for her yet.

After we bought her, we called Dad that evening and said, "Guess what? We bought a dog!"

He's grown accustomed to our jokes and buying habits after this many years, so he wasn't even remotely alarmed. "Okay... so what is it really?"

"A dog! And we've named her Chloe."

"Alright... sounds like you guys are having fun, then."

[Sigh.]

Where's the fun in that?

Camera: Canon 40D 1/125s, f/4.5 at ISO 320 in natural light at about 6:30 p.m.

128/365 Dawdling in Denver

When we booked our flights in June for this trip to Colorado, we chose a departing flight from Denver at 6:30 p.m. in order to squeeze as much vacation out of our five days as we could.

But when Sunday rolled around, we were tired, satisfied with the trip, and ready to be home -- yet we still had half a day to kill before heading to the airport.

So, we ventured into Denver and visited the Downtown Aquarium, which we had passed on our first day.

The Aquarium was small but nice, and didn't take nearly as much time to get through as expected.This flower was one interesting feature of an exhibit. It's Rafflesia, the largest single flower on Earth.
Now, if you've followed this blog at all, you know I love photographing flowers. But I have to say, this flower was actually... ugly.

It grows in the Malaysia area. The petals look entirely fake -- like thick rubber -- and apparently it emits a smell like strong, rotting meat. I didn't get close enough to see for myself. I half expected it to reach out and scream, "Feed me, Seymour!" like the evil plant in Little Shop of Horrors. Eek.

The Aquarium had a nice variety of jellies and seahorses. These are moon jellies.
Some were the size of a golf ball, others closer to a softball. They look so serene and pleasant in their monochromatic world, but I wouldn't want to come across them without having the glass separating us.

The final exhibit was a stingray petting/feeding pool. Visitors held a small fish between their index and middle finger, then the stingrays would come up out of the water to pluck it out of their hand, flapping water everywhere.
After we left the Aquarium, we still had a few hours to kill, so we pulled out our downtown Denver map and picked a museum -- the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Though the Aquarium was nice, the Museum was great. I wish we had gone to the Museum from the start. We only made it through three exhibits in two hours because they were so extensive and fascinating; we barely scratched the surface of three floors' worth of exhibits. I would absolutely put it on my list of activities for my next time in Denver.

Camera: Canon 40D indoors between noon and 1 p.m.
Bird: 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 1000
Flower: 1/60s, f/11 at ISO 1000
Jellies: 1/60s, f/4 at ISO 1600
Stingray: 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 1000

127/365 Rocky Mountain National Park

I've visited the western U.S. before -- Yellowstone, Montana, Wyoming -- but never Colorado. My mom's brothers and their families constantly rave about how Colorado is The Place To Be, so my curiosity was thoroughly piqued before the trip.

And to be honest, the mountain scenery idea I had in my head, jagged, rocky peaks capped with snow... wasn't there. Until we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park on our way to Boulder.

Granted, the mountains didn't exactly have jagged peaks, but they rose above the tree line and still retained white snow in mid-July.

Acres and acres of lodgepole pines greeted us, but unfortunately much of it has shared the same demise of pines across the rest of the Routt National Forest: infestation of the Mountain pine beetle.

See this beautiful scene near the west entrance to the Park? Notice all the brown trees? It's not an early fall -- they've all become victims of the beetle.

As you drive across this section of Colorado, west of Denver, entire mountainsides of pines have been devastated by these beetles. At the ranch where Chase is working, and in many other areas, they are logging the dead trees, not as a way to combat it, but to remove the trees near the buildings because of the fire hazard they pose.

And what is ironic is that fire is one of the only ways the beetle can be stopped. They can weather water, winter, you name it. What many people don't realize is that fires are beneficial for landscapes like this, because they wipe out beetles, allow sunlight to reach the undergrowth, and let new life flourish. But with increasing populations of people who want a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, far from their neighbors, fires can't be allowed to happen. And yet that's what they need.

I couldn't believe how widespread the damage has become throughout the state.

Nevertheless, I was still captivated by the natural beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park.
The only wildlife we stumbled across were herds of elk -- large and small. These bulls -- velvet still on their antlers -- rested only about 40 feet from the road.
All other wildlife had wisely retreated away from curious eyes and sweltering temperatures.

Only one more day left of vacation, and I was not ready to go back to work!

Camera: Canon 40D, all around 2:00 p.m. under clear skies.
1st photo: 1/125s, f/8 at ISO 100
2nd and 3rd photos: 1/125s, f/11 at ISO 100

126/365 Seeing Steamboat

Friday was my favorite day of our trip to Colorado, if only because we spent the whole day with Chase.

Our original plan was to start the day at the restaurant my parents have raved about for 25 years... but somewhere between 1983 and 2008, the Tugboat Saloon has stopped serving breakfast. Instead we ate at Chase's favorite breakfast restaurant, Freshies, where the granola is homemade and the cinnamon rolls are as big as your head. He's quite proud that he's the only one of his friends who can finish a roll in one sitting.

We rode the gondola to the top of the main mountain while our stomachs settled, then Chase took us out on the winding back roads, through acres of open range, to the ranch where he's working.

Before we toured the ranch, we detoured down a dirt road to his favorite location -- Box Canyon. It's an unmarked curve in a rushing river where you can climb out onto boulders and sit in the midst of the whitewater.I agree with Chase, it was definitely one of my favorite spots!

I loved seeing all of the aspen trees. Don't get me wrong, the forests of lodgepole pines are wonderful, too, but I love the gray-white bark of the aspens and their fluttering round leaves.

It struck me how quiet it was away from town -- and my home in the Indiana countryside is by no means noisy. When you're surrounded by narrow, rigid lodgepole pines, it takes a rather strong wind to make sound as it sweeps through those forests. But come upon a grove of aspen trees, and you suddenly have the more familiar rustle of soft leaves.
When we arrived at the ranch, Chase gave us a tour of the grounds, including the tack room and barn, where they keep equipment for their 87 horses. Each saddle and bridle was numbered (you'd have to, to keep that many straight).
Above the barn is a room where they hold barn dances and teen social activities. I loved this big, open window.
We spent the afternoon doing more touristy things, like racing down the alpine slide in town (he beat me, of course) and visiting galleries. That evening, Chase took us to the weekly Carr Pro Rodeo. They had every event you'd expect and some you wouldn't -- like peewee barrel racing. Three little girls competed in barrel racing, and the peewee who won, pictured below, was five years old. She was fantastic!
It was incredibly hard to leave Chase at the end of the night and send him back to work, but the day was absolutely worth it. And we get him back in a month!

Camera: Canon 40D
Box Canyon: 1/125s, f/8 at ISO 100 under overcast skies at about noon
Aspens: 1/60s, f/8 at ISO 100 under overcast skies at about noon
Bridles: 1/60s, f/5.6 at ISO 200 in natural light at about 1:00 p.m.
Window: 1/60s, f/11 at ISO 200 in natural light at about 1:00 p.m.
Rodeo: 1/60s, f/5.6 at ISO 1250 under halogen lights at about 9:30 p.m.

125/365 Tea time and the venture to Steamboat

What do you do when you have some time to kill on the west side of Denver?

Take a free tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea factory!


Chase didn't get off work until dinner time Thursday night, and since it only takes 4-5 hours to drive to Steamboat Springs from Denver, we had some time to kill before we could snatch him. We considered going to Boulder early and getting some time in there, and as we were perusing a downtown map, we found the listing for free tours of this factory.

Sign us up!

It reminded me of being inside a Mister Rogers episode when Mr. McFeely would bring a "how they make that" video. I loved that part of the show as a kid, so I was really interested to take this tour.

And it was just as cool and interesting as I would have hoped! At the time we were there, they were working on processing hibiscus flowers, which is a main ingredient in a lot of their teas, including all of their zingers. They can't clean the leaves with water (because then they'd have tea), so they have to use a different sifting process using air.

We saw the room where they store the white, green, and black tea leaves, which is apart from the rest of the factory to keep it from acquiring different smells and flavors. What I didn't know is that white, green, and black tea leaves all come from the same plant. The white tea leaves are harvested first, while they're still "baby" leaves, then the green tea leaves are harvested after the leaves have further matured, and the black tea leaves are harvested after the leaves have oxidized even more. It's that process of oxidation that weakens the antioxidant properties from the white and green levels, but it makes the black tea good for your heart.

My favorite part was the Mint Room. They have to store peppermint and spearmint separate from everything else in a sealed room because the fragrance is so strong. Our tour guide, who I bet got her training walking backward doing college campus tours, introduced this room by saying, "Now, feel free to stay in this room as long as you like, or leave as soon as you like. Since you're the first tour of the day, it's liable to be especially strong."

She opened the sealed garage door, we stepped in, and the scent of fresh mint completely engulfed us. Our nasal passages were instantly cleared (I need to get one of these rooms!) and the menthol in the mint made our eyes water.

We bought some flavors of tea that we hadn't seen before here in stores (they make 101 flavors) and then headed on to Steamboat.

On our way, right outside of Boulder and just inside the mountains on highway 119, we stopped at a lookout on the side of the road and saw some rock climbers.

See the little white dots in the top left third of the photo?
(Note: If you click on any picture, you can view it larger. When you're done, you'll need to go back in your browser to return to this page.)

Another climber was about 100 feet ahead of them up the side of the mountain.

We finally collected Chase in Steamboat, had dinner at a local pizza joint, and watched a beautiful sunset right across from our hotel.
And after a day like that, we crashed, only to have an even busier day on Friday.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 (1st photo) and Canon 40D (2nd and 3rd).
2nd photo: 1/125s, f/11 at ISO 400 under overcast skies at about 1:00 p.m.
3rd photo: 1/125s, f/5.6 at ISO 640 at about 9:00 p.m.

124/365 Denver arrival

SightSalad is back online after a fantastic trip to Colorado. I am sorting through 520 photos and will post the best as quickly as I can, and in chronological order.

We flew into Denver last Wednesday, 7/16. I assumed my role as Official GPS Unit (a.k.a. full-time map-wielding navigator) as we first tackled Denver traffic at rush hour.

I only took a few photos that night, and this was one of them. It's the Broncos' stadium, Invesco Field at Mile High. It's very eye-catching architecturally because of the smooth, sweeping lines and glinting steel in the sunlight. It looks about as different from our own new Lucas Oil Stadium as it could possibly be.

By the time we found our hotel, checked in, and got some dinner, it was 10:00 p.m. Indiana time and we were so tired we hardly talked at all while we ate. But we were excited to be there!

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/250, f/8 at ISO 100 in direct sun at 7:00 p.m.