While we were in Colorado we wanted to take a quick jaunt into Boulder. It’s such a fun town to visit and while the drive was much longer than we remembered (Britton used to drive this route EVERY day to work), it was nice once we got Aeden’s belly all filled up (that kid can eat!). We enjoyed walking around Pearl Street, watching the street performers and grabbing a nice sweet treat.
When walking on rainbows is not strange at all!
And the flipflops are HUGE! 🙂
Fun in the fountains
Yum! I scream for ice cream!
Where the buffaloes roam (or are at least in bronze)
Colorful Pearl Street
Loved all the potted flowers! They even had some tropicals planted for the summer
Later we took a little side road to enjoy the Boulder countryside
Overall, it was a fun quick day trip visiting Boulder.
We had always wanted to see a show at Red Rocks Amphitheater on the 4th of July, and so with this vacation we made it happen. Blues Traveler has been playing there on Independence Day for about a decade now and we had always heard great things about it. Our show lived up to the hype even though you could tell they were a little used to playing there and had a lot of the opening bands play with them. Blues Traveler put on a decent show, but the real star of course is the location itself. Nestled between two huge triangular red boulders, Red Rocks is a natural wonder. I am generally not into concerts because they tend to be really expensive and indoor venues just never do justice to the music. But Red Rocks is special even to musicians. You just aren’t a “true” star until you’ve played there and been listed on their museum wall.
The rock formations are out of this world!
We took advantage of our family’s offers of free babysitting to go out to this concert. We were expecting a great show, but what we didn’t expect was a lightning show, rainbows and all the fireworks shows that lit up the whole Denver area. It starting raining in the middle of the show, but it cleared out half the crowd which made the rest of the performance all-the-better. The firework show put on by Bandimere Speedway was the best and it was so interesting to watch the displays from above instead of below. We loved our time at Red Rocks and encourage anyone who loves the outdoors and music to go (hint: pack some snacks and expect some outrageous prices at the concession stands). Here’s a little from our time with our niece and her boyfriend at Red Rocks.
With Summer in the summer of Colorado
Britton and his niece with an impressive rock formation
You could see Denver in the distance
And rainbows forming over it
We took the long way to the amphitheater and saw deer on the hike
We are visiting Colorado for the first time in nearly 6 years! We have a lot of things we wanted to do while we were here including visiting our properties, family (some hadn’t yet met Aeden) and Colorado. So many memories have come up and it is strange to see if from Puerto Rico eyes. I have definitely changed, or been changed by my time in Puerto Rico. I will get into more about our comparisons/contrasts later, but for now, here’s a little of what we’ve been up to. It’s the 4th of July in Colorado, a more “American” style vacation there couldn’t be. BBQs, ice cream, flags and fireworks, big trucks and overly polite people calling me a “gal” abound. It’s funny how easily we stepped back in. Some things have changed, but more have stayed the same.
Hasta Pronto, Puerto Rico! Taking a Cape Air Flight. Aeden’s first!
Rincon from the air
Colorado weather is so nice this time of year!
Aeden travels well even though he is teething and developed his first cold. A baby certainly complicates things!
Greeley Stampede is as fun as ever. We walked around the carnival a bit and saw REO Speedwagon!
Fun spending time with old friends like Lorena and Kelly
REO Speedwagon was fun even if I only knew 3 songs haha
S Family and Farmer’s Inn, it’s a tradition!
I had forgotten about squirrels! They’re so cute! (Puerto Rican “ardillas” are really mongoose!)
My 90+ year old grandma met her first GREAT grandbaby for the first time! 4 generations in this picture!
My brother met his only nephew too!
We went to Target!! haha
We visited the old houses we called home for a long time
So much food! I haven’t eaten steak in years! But we’re in cow country and not “lechon” anymore!
And there is just so much food in general it’s amazing!
Saw some bigfeet at the Dam Store
Pose like a tourist in Estes Park!
The mountains and drive were gorgeous! I do miss the mountains of CO!
Family in Estes Park
Fun at the Stanley Hotel -The inspiration for the movie The Shining
We are constantly on the lookout for new plants, trees and flowers. It seems that most of the viveros have all the same common plants: trinitarias, hibiscus, bromelias, orchids, citrus, avocados. What they don’t have are heliconias, gingers, plumerias and all the exotic fruit trees. We are currently on the lookout for durian, Australian finger lime, and reina de las flores (this is a common tree, but for some reason we have a hard time finding it for sale).
Also looking for Rainbow Eucalyptus like this one seen on the side of the road
At the last pulguero in San Sebastian we had a good score! We found another Ylang Ylang tree (the fragrance is so divine, it is used in Chanel No 5), an achiote tree (a natural food dye for the color red and very cool looking fruit), a huge Tibochino espiga and a Raffy palm (that’s what the vendor called it). At Jardines Eneida we also found some new trees like a Cordia, Saman and mamayito (lemon drop mangosteen).
The meadow area after a good mow -we need to mow about every 2 weeks now that it’s raining so much
I also found this nepenthes pitcher plant that reminded me of well…you know
All the rain has brought out the mushrooms
And so we bought some garden art to commemorate them
Rainy days at the cabin. Notice the new railings!
Still not sure if we want to put rails on the bridge though
The mosquitos come out a lot more in the rain, so we put a mosquito net on Aeden’s play pen outside, that he promptly pulled down 🙂
He’s our little farmer so we did an impromtu photo shoot with him
Our little red is getting so big! 9 months now
Aeden’s 9 month video update
In order to find the heliconias and ginger varieties we want, we have to find direct vendors. The rhizomes don’t do super well in pots for long periods of time, so they have to be directly transplanted as soon as possible into the ground. They also need a lot of space and water, that the average home gardener can’t often provide (hence why they are not commonly found in the stores around here). Well, I found someone online who specializes in them! Not only did Carlos sell us some amazing rhizomes, he also delivered them from San German and helped us identify many of our wild species. We hung out for quite a while and got to know him pretty well. We scored some plants, but even more importantly a new friend who is as geeked out about botanicals as we are! He is a student at the University in Mayaguez and knows a TON about plants.
