It's Elk Mating Time!

A view of Long's Peak (Ty and Mere have hiked to the top a couple of times!)


Horseshoe Park Bull Elk and his harem.


A bugling bull elk.

Tyler and Miranda (we ran into them at Moraine Meadow)

A view from the top of Trail Ridge Road in RMNP - the highest road in the US (goes 11 mi.)

I've always wanted to head to Rocky Mt. Nat. Park during the elk rutting season (call me weird) but so do lots of other people. Arn and I started off this past Sun. morn by heading to Winter Park, going thru Fraiser, to Grandby, Grand Lake and over Trail Ridge Rd to see the elk. We stopped for lunch in Grand Lake. Elk viewing is best from 5-7 pm. so I wouldn't let Arn stop and do any hikes on the way. We arrived at the best viewing area (so did a lot of other people) and got our spot. Just after 5 pm a bull elk with his harem showed up and they all played in the lake. Wanting to see two bulls reaction to each other we moved to another area (Moraine Meadow). There were several bulls with harems but no sparring. Ty and Miranda saw two bulls bowing. All of them were bugling. A reminder for for next time (take binoculars)! Arn's reaction to everything - 'you see one elk, you've seen them all' and 'how long can you watch a bunch of elk'.

Fall Color Weekend in CB

Paonia, Co. vineyard

Colors while driving over Kebler Pass

More colors Kebler Pass

Driving over Cottonwood Pass to CB

We took a spur of the moment trip to see the fall aspens this past weekend. Arn and I left Sat. AM and drove to Buena Vista, over Cottonwood Pass, past Taylor Res, along the Taylor River to Crested Butte. The aspens were in full color. We stopped in Cottonwood Pass to hike a little and ended up going for 3 hrs. on a segment of the Colorado Tr. It was kind of hot and mostly uphill so it probably won't be a repeat hike. On the way home when we stopped at Kay's Dairy Barn we met an older couple who are CT caretakers. They clued us in to the south leg of that segment that isn't uphill so we'll try that next time. On Sunday we drove from CB to Paonia thru Kebler Pass. It's beautiful but a several hr. trip. Not many of the stores were open. I've always wanted to drive to Paonia, Arn wasn't thrilled, so it's a Been there, Done that item. We got a few things done around the condo. The pics aren't mine....I forgot to return the memory card to the camera.

OBX fun!

We finally made it to the beach again...Corolla, NC....Whalehead Beach....OBX. It could be our last time at our beach house 'Happy as a Clam' We had 21 relatives, friends, and sig. others for the week and it was wonderful. Hurricaine Earl passed thru the area a day or so before we got there and left us with great weather and great water. Crabbing was great and the crabbing crew brought home about a doz. keepers for dinner. We saw dolphins, a whale, jelly fish, and more. Tyler, Eric, and Kevin rented surf boards one day to catch some hogs!
Ages ranged from 10 mo. to the 60's and it was so nice to reconnect with everybody and have such a good time.

Bal catching a wave!

'Happy as a Clam'

Frank and Sass

Kevin

Kenna

Mini Matt

Tyler and Miranda



Eric and Joe

Chris and Maren

Joe and Ben (celebrated his 3rd birthday at the beach)

Sass and Arlene

Mel and Mere (celebrated Mel's Birthday at the beach too)

Crabbing at the Whalehead Club (lighthouse in background)

The 2010 group minus Matt and Tiffany (below)

31 Years!

Arn and I recently had our 31st anniversary!! We didn't plan a bunch since we were busy getting ready for vacation. This pic is from 08 when we were in Panama.