Blue sky, green grass, and white caps

Posted: August 10, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Adventures in Life, Earth, home, NaBloPoMo, nature, Photography, Summer, Walking, water, weather | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

This is one of those “done ahead of time” posts, scheduled to post on its own in case I’m unable to post while away.  I took these photos on Friday morning (the day before we left).  It had rained the night before and I went out to see what had popped up.

Q:  Why did the lichen hang out with the mushroom?

A:  Because he’s a fungi (fun guy)!

Go ahead and groan.  It’s almost as bad as my favorite elephant joke.

I saw on the news the other day that those of us in the U.S. are not car pooling like we used to.  The car pooling rate has dropped around 30 percent.  I think what makes it worse is that many Americans are driving around by themselves in those gas-hogging SUV’s and mini-vans.  The Daily Green lists one easy thing you can do to go green.  On Friday, August 6, the tip was to jump into the pool, the car pool.

Saddle sore in Boulder

Posted: August 10, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Adventures in Life, family, Healthful Living Plan, NaBloPoMo, nature, Photography, Summer, travel, Walking, wandering, weather | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

Weed control

Did you know the city of Boulder uses goats to control noxious weeds instead of herbicides?  They do.  The goats come in, eat the invasive plants, and the herders come in and move the goats before they start munching on the native grasses and plants.

How cool is that?  I love Boulder.  It’s one of the greenest cities I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit.

Boulder Creek

We spent yesterday riding around and exploring Boulder on the bike paths.  The bike I rented has a “comfort” seat.  My bottom does not agree with that description.  Sitting is not something I’ll want to do again for a few days.  But I will have to get back on the bike one last time this morning to return it.  Hopefully it won’t be too painful.

The end of the paved trail

We followed the Boulder Creek bike path uphill until we were out of the city limits.  I’m not sure who is responsible for the path from that point on.  All that uphill was pretty exhausting but worth the work.  We eventually reached a point where it was time to lock up the bikes and walk for a little while.  I enjoyed having my feet back on the ground again.

We fit our bike ride in between storms.  We had some mild rain storms move through in the morning and then some stronger storms in the afternoon.  We were on our way to lunch when we noticed the dark, almost black, clouds making their way across the mountains in the distance.  Then the lightning show started, streaks of it zig-zagging from mountain to mountain and cloud to cloud.  It was interesting to watch while it was far away.

By the time we finished our lunch (around 2:30pm) the dark clouds had rolled in with some strong and cooling winds.  We pedaled back to our hotel in record time (about 30 minutes), trying to beat the storm.  And beat it we did, I am happy to report.

Orchids and granite

We need all of the exercise we’ve been getting.  By the time we get around to eating, we’re all scarfing it down like we haven’t eaten in days.  The lack of oxygen must make the body work harder (or think it’s working harder).

As I mentioned earlier, we’ll be returning our bikes today.  Then we’ll pick up a rental car, do a little grocery shopping, and head into the mountains for a few days.  We are taking the scenic route to Grand Lake, driving along Trail Ridge Road rather than the interstate highway.  It will probably take us about 5-6 hours with all the stops we will no doubt make to admire the views and fit in a few short hikes.

I’d better get moving and finish packing up.  I’ll see you again from somewhere in the Rocky Mountains if we have internet access.