A Michigan Kind of Weekend

Last week, Adeline, Sarah and I headed back to Michigan for a short vacation/family visitation.  Adeline and I flew into town on Tuesday, which was my first experience flying as a single dad.  Luckily for me, Adeline was a joy to fly with, didn't fuss, didn't cry, and really made the trip well.  For the first few days she and I stayed in Middleville with my folks and visited all sorts of great friends and family.

On Thursday we headed down to the cottage where all of the cousins were going to meet up for Cousin Weekend.  Sarah flew into town on Friday night, and I left Adeline with my folks at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we had a ridiculous good time on Saturday with everyone.  Melissa showed up with a massive 8 person inflatable raft which was the perfect addition to the weekend.  It was a much more stable platform to drink on in the lake that our usual personal raft method.  Eventually though, all good things come to an end, and we each had to head our own ways.

I think we all had an amazing weekend and I can't wait to do it all gain next year.

Indian Peaks Wilderness

Last weekend Sarah and I had one of those very rare weekends where we weren't in charge of Adeline.  Caitlin and Knox volunteered to watch her for the weekend so that we could do some hiking and hopefully some sailing as well.  We took full advantage of a responsibility free weekend and went out to a movie (our second this month, CRAZY!) on Friday night, then turned in early for some hiking on Saturday.

After getting up at 4am, we were packed and out the door by 4:30, and in the parking lot at Brainard Lake by 6am.  Despite how early we got there, we found the parking lot already 1/3 full.  Those are some hardcore people.  At first we thought about hiking up to Pawnee Pass, then bagging a few peaks, but after arriving at the pass, we looked at how much scrambling there was to start off, and decided against it.  Instead we relaxed, enjoyed the view, and decided to hike back down, and then up to Isabelle Glacier.

By the time we got down, Lake Isabelle was packed with tourists, but as we headed up the valley towards the glacier, it started to thin out, and eventually, we were hiking alone again.  In the end we never did make it all the way up to the glacier.  We stopped at a small lake right below the last stretch, and decided that we'd relax, and then head back down to the car.  By this time, we had already been hiking for over 6 hours, and I was getting hungry and thirsty for a frosty cold beer.

Sunday, our original plan was to drive up to Dillon Reservoir and put the sail boat in the water.  Mother nature had other plans though, and was throwing up thunderstorms in the mountains, so we decided to head down to the Denver Nature and Science Museum to see the "Real Pirates" traveling display they were hosting.  I highly recommend the display, it was very interesting and you get to see the only REAL pirate loot ever recovered.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend, with my beautiful wife.  Who could ask for more?