Steamboat Springs

So we all had an absolute blast in Steamboat. It was a fairly short trip considering the distance, but it was well worth it. It is now right up there with Durango as my favorite mountain towns in Colorado. I have pictures of just about everything except the Strawberry Hot Springs. We went there on Saturday night and it was amazing to be in the springs at night just watching the stars. Speaking of the stars, we got to see the Milky Way and quite a few shooting stars. It was amazing! I wish I could have taken pictures of the night sky. My favorite memory is probably when we tuned into one of the local radio stations and all started singing to Toni Braxton's song, Unbreak My Heart. Nothing like having six very tired people packed into a Subaru Outback singing very badly. Because of that I guess we are going to have a karaoke night here in the near future? ;-)

This was in Silverthorne. Thought this guy was funny so I had Jen take the picture while I was driving. Your guess is as good as mine as to who this guy is.

Cooking Brats over a fire. Yum!

This was also funny. A cow in a latte cup in Kremmling. This was at the Big Shooter Coffeehouse. Not a bad name for a coffee shop in the Wild West. Post processed because as you can see I was shooting almost directly into the sun.

Don't see too many of these anymore. Thought it was a cool nostalgic photo.

Farmer's Market in Steamboat. Not sure what they (Kiersten and Sarah) are talking about, but they seem excited.

Esther (on the left) exploring the Farmer's Market. By the way, I got two of the most amazing tasting peaches on the face of the planet here before we left. Along with an amazing $6 breakfast burrito.

We happened to luck out and find two separate free campsites. It took us hours to find both places. The first night we got into camp around 11pm and it happened to be a day use only area. A local woke us up by shouting, "Good Morning!", about a million times. Matt yelled, "I don't want to get up for school." She responded by saying, "You have to!". He responded by saying, "I do what I want!" It was hilarious. I figured it was a park ranger so I kept my mouth shut and let the girls do the talking. Turned out she was like an off duty park ranger and she just let us know we needed to get out of there before the compliance officer came through.
Anyhow, the above picture was taken a couple steps from our second campsite. Gorgeous only begins to describe it...

Here is our lovely campsite. Our little tent that Matt and I shared is right behind the massive one the girls had. Matt kept saying, "They can stand up in their tent!" I didn't have a response then, but now I do. And my response is, "Go buy your own tent, Matt!"

Matt is still getting this camping thing down. Yes, he took a beer on our little hike. He was quite fascinated with this plant. I caught him looking at it strangely and asked him to reenact it so I could take this shot.

I love macro shots and bugs apparently. This little guy just loved my water bottle for some reason.

Another cool bug someone found.

Macro of this dandelion like thing. Anyone know the name of this?

More macros.

The local swimming hole. It was pretty fun. Downstream is where the hot springs flow into the river. It was really crowded with kids. Hard to beat the free hot water though.

So I had the grand idea to swim upstream to Matt. Believe or not, I actually made it. I think I also injured my hip floating downstream without a tube. Good times, good times...

Two examples of the amazing wildflower fields we saw on our hike.

Lots of reds, yellows, and blues...

The sunset view from our campsite. No post processing. My camera is not the greatest at taking these shots, and after taking maybe 15 shots the first one is still the best one.

With the light fading so fast I had to post process this one a fair deal. In the original the bottom half of the picture is fairly black. I wanted to show the outlines of the mountains for the full effect. I think it still came out pretty good. I'm hoping Sarah got some even better pictures than I did.

Last and probably least of all is this picture of a rainbow over a gas station. Does it portend lower gas prices? hmmmm....

So there is our trip. There are quite a few other little memories we created along the way, but I have trouble remembering them all right now. I do love these little trips though. They are so worth it, and I hope to always have the opportunity to fit these little trips in as I get older. Till next time...