"The Incline"

In July, Keenan had a conference in Keystone, Colorado. It's the first (and probably last) conference I've gone to with him. More on that later.

I chose to go visit Karen in Highlands Ranch, about a 90 minute drive past Keystone, for the first part of the week. We had a BLAST. I got there Monday night. On Tuesday, we got up EARLY (5:00 am) to go on a hike before she had a meeting at 10:00 am. We figured we'd get to Manitou, park, get on the stairs, get down, and be back to her house by 10:00. Hahaha!

We got to Manitou to find that parking near the trailhead is very limited. We missed getting a parking spot, so we went into town to get free parking and a free shuttle. The hike we were doing was the Manitou Incline or known as just THE INCLINE. It's over 2,200 stairs that go up a mountain. So, we had a bit of a delay in parking the car and getting started. Then we began the ascent. I think the altitude got to me for a bit. I had to stop and felt nauseous. I drank some water and ate a bit and drank more water and felt better. What had taken Karen 75 minutes in May took us 90 minutes. Dang, we lost more time. It was quite the hike. Step after step. Karen can get me to do crazy things, that's for sure. She always finds a good challenge and I'm always up for it. After taking a few pictures at the top, we had to head down because it was already close to 8:30 and it was a 45 minute drive. Well, the walk down the back side of the incline is a nice trail, but not a short distance. It took us about an hour to get down. Good thing Karen's meeting was online. By this point, we were making plans to get to a Starbucks so she could log in and "attend." It was gonna be close, because we had to get to the bottom, get the shuttle (only comes every 20 minutes), and find a Starbucks.

Ready or not...here we go!

 

finally feeling better

the steps from near the top

The kid who took this pic ended up helping us get to our car

 When we got to the shuttle place, we found out it had just left. I recognized a young man that was getting into a car in the nearby parking lot. I asked him and his driver if we could hitch a ride to the lot where our car was. They were happy to give us a ride. The guy I recognized was 17, entering his senior year in high school. He was with his brother-in-law, in his 20's I would guess. They were so nice to take us. We got to Starbucks in time. Karen had her meeting, then we drove toward Highlands Ranch. We had to stop at another Starbucks for meeting #2. We also stopped at the outlet mall to find Colorado t-shirts. We finally got home in the afternoon. It had been quite the morning. Fun times with Karen. We also stopped at the Savor Spice shop, my favorite place for herbs and spices. I got a fantastic Bourbon Barrel Smoked Black Pepper that I've been making everyone smell when they come to my house. I'm such a cooking nerd.

We also ate at Panda Express and just had fun. I left Wednesday afternoon to head back to Keystone. I stopped at Savory Spice AGAIN to pick up a few more items. Their herbs and spices are so fresh and unique. They make great gifts. Cathy Voorhees needed more Mt. Elbert, the awesome all purpose seasoning salt we LOVE.

When I got to Keystone, I found out the conference included all of Keenan's meals and entertainment through Thursday. I was very tempted to head back to Karen's house. I made the most of it, though. I went on a paddle board. I'd always wondered if those were hard or not. It wasn't hard. I also went on long walks and ate what leftovers Keenan brought back for me. It wasn't my favorite couple's retreat, for sure, but Keystone is pretty. I was happy to get on the road Friday morning.

Don't worry. I was on a bridge above this momma and baby moose. It was pretty cool, though.