Joe comes to visit!

I was so happy to see Joe when he came up to visit us before his annual work convention. Unfortunately, Jen had left the Denver airport about 15 minutes before Joe arrived. I had to work all day, so Joe made use of the free time and went over to Deer Creek Canyon and ran about 16 miles! He said he didn't expect to see snow on the ground, and actually had some battle wounds from when he slipped into the snow (knee deep!).

When he got to the house, we went out walking the neighborhood trails... maybe a mile and a half. Our neighborhood has a great view of the foothills and state park, and I wanted to make sure he got to see the views (even though he had ran enough!).

I cooked up some asparagus, potatoes, and crab-stuffed sole for dinner, and then Joe and I enjoyed a beer and a cigar on the patio. Its kind of been a tradition with us to smoke a cigar whenever we get together.

The next morning, Joe and I took the scenic route (only stopping for directions twice) up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Once there, we went to a shoe store to get Joe some decent shoes, then to a sporting shop to rent some show shoes. After a quick lunch, we headed up to the Estes Park entrance to the Rockies and began snow shoeing. It was so much fun. We did a short hike to Beak Lake, then backtracked and hiked 1.5 miles to Nymph and Dream lake. We enjoyed the views at Dream Lake for a while, then headed back down... and didn't take the path we originally took. Its hard to stay on the trails when the trails are covered in snow! We ended up hiking down some really nice snow hills towards Bear Lake. Once back, we drove around the park and hiked another mile or two on dry land.

On the way back home, we ate dinner at the Hungry Toad in Boulder.

Once back home, we called it an early night and went to bed. Joe woke up early to attend Mass and then head on to the conference. It was great to see him. Wish Jen had been here for the visit! Unfortunately, she was at a work conference of her own!