July Fourth in America!!

The Fourth of July in Littleton, Denver actually began on Friday the 1st with a firework display at Clement Park.  This was a real family night, with a huge crowd down at the Lake.  There was a band playing, and food stalls.  The kids separated from us, I caught glimpses of them from time to time catching up with friends from both school and church.  The fireworks were impressive as they always are, but what a great night!

With Tom & Sarah both gone by Sunday evening, Rick & I were left to our own devices on the Fourth of July Eve!!  What to do?  We found there was a big event in the city at Civic Park for Independence Eve, so off we went!  Civic Park is in the centre of the city, and during the evening I heard it described as 'a 12 acre oasis' in the middle of the city.  Apparently about 100,000 people were there.  I would believe it! There was an enormous crowd!  We got there in good time, and Rick spoted a small space of grass near the front under a big sprawling oak tree where we squeezed in.  (There are advantages to just being TWO!)  We had a good view of the stage where the symphony orchestra performed for about an hour, also of the stand where the TV channel CBS4 were broadcasting the event, and we were right in front of the County & City Building.  We didn't initially realise how good this was until darkness descended and the building was lit up with lights, especially red, white & blue!!  There certainly was a wonderful feeling of patriotism there!  And of course, the performance from the symphony orchestra was followed by an impressive rendition of 'Star Spangled Banner'  and a display of fireworks!  (I actually know a few of the words now!!)

The military bringing the flag in, preparing for the National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner"

I alway find the singing of the national anthem stirring.  I love 'Advance Australia Fair' (AUS) and 'God of Nations' (NZ), and the American one is just as stirring. 

The building was constantly changing colours in time with the music or theme..

The fireworks were very spectacular despite my poor photography!

Monday was a public holiday (even though the malls are all open still), and we started the day with a long walk.  It turned out to be a hot day!  The hottest so far, 99F and the local pool was jammed packed!  We ended up going to see a movie at the Elvis Theatre in the afternoon, this is the theatre where the popcorn is more than the ticket!  Movies that have already been shown for a while are shown.  We saw 'The Conspirator' a moving story of the mother of one of the conspirators who assasinated Abraham Lincoln. She is accused also, and despite her innocence, is made an example of in a military trial and loses.  A powerful, true story. 

In the evening, we found another venue in Littleton to go and see some more fireworks.  It was in a large park area, lots of space and very dark.  (I can't remember the directions, except we drove through Old Littleton village) The firework display was excellent, and so was the one in the distance to our left and to our right!!  Only ground fireworks are legal here, but there were rockets going off everywhere.  Great to watch on a balmy, summer's night!  So, three firework displays in four days,  nice work Denver!

On Tuesday, Rick & I tidied up the garden, the flower garden in particular.  This is in the back yard right up against the back corner fence, so in good view of all who pass through the walk way.  It was looking very scrappy, but looks lovely now!! I wonder how our yard looks in Magill, but can't really worry about that, (although I know the roses will need pruning if they haven't already been done..)
We spent the afternoon at the Temple then explored a Shopping Centre we hadn't been to yet..

On Wednesday, we started out early and drove to Colorado Springs to explore a bit there.  It's only about an hour away and we made our way to 'The Garden of the Gods'.  Interesting name you think?  What is it?  It's a parkland of amazing sedimentary and granite rock formations that have been folded and eroded into a vertical postion.  We joined a tour which lasted a good hour and enjoyed a leisurely walk around the area.  It truely is very beautiful with the green conifers and scrub oaks contrasting with the rocks.  There were even rock climbers scaling the vertical sides.  Erosion has caused hollows in the rocks where lots of swallows and hawks dive in and out.  I heard one lady say as she passed by "If I were a bird, that's where I'd live!"  I think I would too!  A really worthwhile place to visit, and it was free!

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs

A pretty walk through confifers and spruce oak

This formation is named Hope, Faith & Charity

Rick at The Balancing Rock (Flintstone Country!!)

Next, we went to the Seven Falls.  This is a box canyon, meaning it has three sides, with a water fall that is broken up in seven places.  The climb is steep stairs to the head of the falls, but once up there (now about 7,000ft high) the trail is fairly easy and very, very beautiful as it meanders among the pines and rocks, all the while, you can hear the stream bubbling it's way towards the falls.  We really enjoyed this, despite huffing and puffing our way!  We found another small fall, and had fun observing a little chipmunk!  We had never seen one before, and wow! they sure are quick! Scampering in and out!  I'm sure it was showing off for us!  Incidently, once we were back down to the canteen area, several chipmunks were scampering about trying their luck for a tidbit of food!  I grabbed my camera and took a video, because they seem to be too quick to photograph, and you will have to view this clip below, to see what happens!  After this, I had some crackers handy!!  So very cute, and small!  I'm sure they would fit in a man's hand easily.  This was fun..


Rick beginning the climb.  The high altitude really does affect you here!



One of the falls drops.




This one was called 'Bridal Veil'

 

Once recovered from the climb, this was an immensly pleasant hike..





So very cute!



.. and playful, and hungry it seemed!!

We enjoyed a delicious bowl of chili and crackers each and left pretty tired.  We found a Maccas finally after driving around Colorado Springs city.  It really is a pretty town!  We were looking to see what else we could do, but a thunder storm had rolled in with fat drops and lightening so we just headed back home.  However, this stop could not happen without sampling afternoon tea!  How about two apple pies for $1.00 and a Minute Maid Lemonade with refills for $1.00  (all sizes are the same price!)  Crazy, but yum!!

This storm that came in actually caused some intense flash flooding across the city and caused quite a bit of comment on the news!!  About 2 inches fell in one hour.  Apparently there is a monsoonal band that is slowly going over causing afternoon thunder storms.  We have had one every day since and this is expected to continue until the end of next week!  The temperature still remains lovely and warm with an average of 90F /30C. 

 It really is quiet without the kids at home, but Rick & I have an easy routine going.  He makes lunch one day, I make it the next!!  Ha! ha!  It is very nice to do as we please, and both feel very chilled!  We got ourselves a movie on Wednesday night, that's the life!

Thursday after the gym, I met Bette down at the Family History Centre.  She is really keen to find out more about her dad who died when she was only two.  She was raised by a great step-dad but did not know much about her dad except he was a truck driver and lived in Kentucky.  Well, after a couple of hours, she knew who her great-grandparents were and is one very excited lady.  This was a wonderful experience to share with her.  I also had some success, as this was when I was able to cement the missing links from the Bennallack line, connecting them back to before 1731.  It is very exciting indeed to solve these mysteries!

On Friday, we went for a drive up to Boulder.  Rick hadn't been there yet, and we spent a lovely time ambling through the Pearl Street Mall watching a crazy busker and then lunched at Boulder's Central Park.  This area is very pretty, with Boulder Creek flowing through it, or should I say, rushing through it.  The meltwaters and extra rain, have it swollen and rushing fast!  After experiencing drought for so long, it's very weird to see so much water, constantly flowing.  White water rafting is popular now, so we'll have to investigate that!  The Public Library is built over both sides of the creek/stream so we visited the restrooms there and bought some second hand novels for 'a quarter' each!  You can't be on holidays, and not have something to read!! 

Children playing in the pop-up fountains in Pearl Street Mall

The Statue Mirror Man

The Pearl St Mall has real atmosphere to it.  It reminded us greatly of Rundle Mall in Adelaide.

The Boulder Creek in Civic Park.  Swollen with meltwater that is very cold!

But very pretty!

In the evening, the ward had an activity at 'Pirates Cove' which is a swimming complex with all sorts of novelty pools.  I bought some bathers and enjoyed 'floating' on the 'river' in a tube. No photo evidence however, but very relaxing and refreshing I have to say!  Meanwhile, Rick with some of the other men were smashing the water slides.  Very Fun! (As they would say here!)  That is, if you don't mind the rain sprinkling a little and the lightening going on in the distance.  After a time, everyone had to get out, as the lightening and thunder were getting a bit close and dangerous! 

Saturday saw us hiking again.  We went closer to home this time, in the Evergreens.  We found a trail up and around the 'Three Sisters'.  This was so picturesque, even with us huffing and puffing up through the pines.  The smell of the pines is amazing.  The scenery of the woodland floor and towering Ponderosa's is very peaceful and lovely. I even spotted an elk staring at us, but by the time I got my camera going, it was moving away, apparently not impressed by the look of us both!  Our trail meandered up and up, then leveled and started down, then wound around and then up we went again, this time over boulder and rocks until we reached a summit of sorts and sat and rested with water and mandarines.  Did I mention, this is the life?  Amazingly, this trail is also used by bikers!  Several people on bikes passed us, crazy!!  It was strenuous enough walking!!  We kept going until we came to the 'Brothers Lookout'  which was really worth the effort giving a panoramic view all around.  The cooling breeze was delicious!  The whole hike probably only took about 2 hours, but it was so good to get off the road and explore the beautiful mountainside.  We are very fortunate we have the time to do this.

Too slow for this elk!  He's just passing a big brown stump, but he really did look magnificent!

The smell of pines is wonderful..

At a summit for a rest!! This last part was quite a strenuous climb!



But the view is excellent.  There is still some snow on distant mountains..




 

What a team! Perhaps not quite ready for 'Amazing Race' though!

The kids arrived home Saturday night, very tired but excited with the past week..  There were four sessions of  EFY (Especially For Youth), each with 500 kids.  Ours were in the 'blue', but there were combined activites such as the dances that included everyone.  So many!!  But they won with their accents, and both Chani and Tom performed in the Talent Night.  It sounds like Tom won some hearts, and probably broke them too.  They also managed to get across to visit Temple Square so Chani could see it.  I'm so glad, it's very impressive and not to be missed.  What a great experience for them.

Tonight, there is a fireside at the chapel to recap the Nauvoo trip from a couple of weeks ago.  There is a video, slideshow presentation of the trip, so I am excited to see that.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a busy time, with Deegan arriving the afternoon.  The kids have a day at Waterworld planned, some snow sledding and white water rafting (can you believe there is still some snow in the mountains in the middle of summer??)   It will be a fun few days, in between which, we need to prepare and pack for our roadtrip.  We plan on leaving very EARLY on Friday morning. (Advance notice to any sleepyheads!!)