wedding and camping

I went to a family wedding in Monterey County, CA.  The wedding was a lovely wedding.  I actually really like Salinas where I stayed with my parents.  I did not realize how much agriculture was done there.  Lots of lettuce and cabbage families.  I had never seen an artichoke plant before.  I thought they were beautiful.  I have to admit that I wish I could grow many of the flowers I saw in yards there.

After the wedding, I headed up to Los Padres National Forest to go camping with my family.  The campground we stayed at was lovely and I feel like I need to go back.  There was just not enough time to go anywhere.  But there was a river running through and Koda Bear loved it!

He turned blue from playing in this water!  There were shivers happening.

Then, it was off to the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The view from our camp site was lovely.  We were sitting in a valley that was ringed with mountains.  We got there a day early and the campground was able to find us a spot for the night even though we needed to move the next day.

Then, it was three days of walking.  My family keeps telling me that we did not take walks but that we were on hikes.  We let Koda Bear decide when it was time to turn around and he was pretty persistent.  We did not make it to the last destinations for two of the hikes we took but we were post holing in the snow.

The above picture is of Loch Lake and it was so pretty.

This is a better picture of the view from our campground.

We made it to Emerald Lake, which was mostly covered with ice.

But I think my favorite was Mills Lake.  It reminded me a lot of the lakes in the Cascades.  It was a bit smaller and felt a bit more intimate.  We tried to hike to Black Lake from here but again, too much snow.  I was actually in pants for this hike and I was more wet then when I walked in a skirt!  Koda Bear turned us around before we got to Black Lake.  Three days of that small boy hiking was almost too much for him.  He walked with me on the way back and I have a tendency to be the slowest.  I just call myself a turtle.  I can get there, but I may be slow.

I went to the Estes Park Wool Market while we were camping there.  It was the point of the trip.  I enjoyed it.  And I saw sheep breeds I have never seen before.  Sheep the size of small cows!  It was fun.  Or at least I thought so. 

I bought a fleece, even though I did not need a fleece.  I loved the color.  And I am thinking I wish to go down the rabbit hole of making hats.  I guess I will see if I have time for that.  Next week, I start a breakfast nook that I am getting paid to build.

I would like to go back later in the summer and try all those hikes again.  At least the one to Sky Pond and Black Lake.  I would like to try them without the snow.  I was thinking August 2020.  

I am now trying to get back into the swing of things and not doing a very good job.  I keep hoping it will get better but two days in, it has not.  I really enjoy being outside that much.  Until next time, I will just keep moving forward.