Events
The Colorado trip continues with watching a production of Kiss Me Kate at the Central City Opera House. This was one of the productions that Delaney worked on as a costumer. I bought the tickets online before we left, and I messed up paying way too much on them because I was on the wrong website.
Well, even though I spent too much on them, there was a mistake in the tickets and we got moved to the third row, so it sort of worked out. Sort of. The performance was fantastic!
Rocky Mountains
After the performance we went to look at the Rocky Mountains. This was an experience due to us needing to be there early so we could get in to the national park. To make sure we were there early, we slept in the car in Estes Park. This was not fun, but we survived. After a little clean up at McDonalds and some breakfast we were off to the Rocky Mountains!
It’s was a very cool drive, which included a visit to the Alpine Visitor Centre, the highest facility of its kind in the National Park Service.
Afterwards we visits Estes Park, which had a ton of people walking around. So many people that each crosswalk had a police officer directing the walkers. Of course I wasn’t paying attention, so I got yelled out for crossing out of turn.
We ate lunch at The Sandwich Mafia, a little out of the way shop.
Central City Supper
That night we went back to Central City to eat supper with Delaney, Aunt Elia, and Tara’s cousin Rick. The pizza was good at Dostal Alley Brew Pub.
Railroad
On the third we rode the Georgetown Loop Railroad, which was a pretty cool ride. We finished that up with a meal at Cooper’s On The Creek, a fancy restaurant in Georgetown.
4th of July
We spent the morning of the 4th of July going to downtown Georgetown’s parade. I rained a little bit, which didn’t really damper the parade.
Later on we went to Kashif and Karen’s house to visit with the family. Grace got to meet her (2nd?) cousins and we all got to catch up on things.
Time to fly home
Alas, all good things must come to an end. We had some time to kill, so we visited the Park Meadows Mall before dropping off the rental car.
Wedding in the Smoky Mountains
The traveling for 2023 continued with a drive to the Smoky Mountains for Kolt’s wedding. The venue was the fantastic Foxwood Manor, and Kolt was married with the Smoky Mountains in the background. After the ceremony, the reception moved inside with some great food and good dancing. The festivities continued a week later with the Hardin County reception out at the community building.
The next morning I ventured out to get some steps in, and downtown Gatlinburg was an interesting place. Tons of places already opening on an early Sunday morning. There are a multitude of activities and food places to take advantage of, a little something for everyone.
On the way home we stopped at a Buc-ee’s in Richmond Kentucky. Our first visit was a little overwhelming! There were a million gas pumps and a million people inside, with some great bathrooms. The service was so quick, I don’t know how they did it.
Other July activities
New tires on the Fit on the 10th and then a meal at Salsa’s on the 11th.
Unfortunately, we had a funeral visitation on the 13th with Jenny’s dad passing away. But, we also had Jerry’s 80th birthday party, along with a whole family visit at Caesar Creek State Campground. The rain didn’t slow us down.
I ended the month with another great year at 4-H Camp, and the 4-H festivities didn’t end because Grace had her last state 4-H judging at the Ohio State Fair.
On the 27th I got to go see Rochelle’s sketch comedy at the Cafe Kerouac.
Movies
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Solid movie, it just seemed like it was lacking a little charm. I liked it better than the Crystal Skull though.
- Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising: Underrated movie.
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: One of the best movies I’ve seen this year!
- Barbie: Mattel really went all out with this one, spotlighting failure after failure of the Barbie line. I was quite surprised at how honest they were. The movie is really, really good, you should watch it.
- White Chicks: I never watched this when it was first released, and it was surprisingly good.
A very good month for movies!
TV
TV I watched (number of episodes in parenthesis):
- Caroline in the City (2) – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were in one of the episodes. They are the geniuses behind Clone High, The Lego Movie, and more.
- Cheers (9)
- Freaks and Geeks (1)
- King of Queens (1)
- Parks and Recreation (2)
- Rules of Engagement (1)
- Star Trek (1)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1)
- The Neighborhood (2)
- The Office (2)
- The Office Superfan (5)
- Wings (2)
Health
- Average Steps/day: 14,906
- Most steps in a day: 20,832
- Min steps in a day: 12,077
- Resting Heart Rate: 53
- Average Time Asleep: 7hr 25m
- Miles walked: 114.9
- Miles ran: 113.3
Potpourri
I don’t think we’ve ever traveled as much as we did in July, 2,251 miles by car and 1,152 miles by air.