Rocky Mountain National Park

Yesterday we went up into the mountains.

We drove for a considerable time. Once we actually got into the park, we drove some more. We lost the second car in our caravan by accident. Apparently they were waving at us and honking and blinking their lights, but we had some cool music on and weren't looking at much besides the mountains.

We stopped at one place that had chipmunks that did not fear humans, and we climbed around a little, waiting for the others to catch up. After 15 minutes we were sure they weren't that far behind us so we went on, wondering if they'd somehow missed the bright blue car in that stop lot and gone on ahead. We got to the next big scenic area and waited THERE for a while, and just as we were heading down, we found about half of the second car's occupants. Apparently the other half stayed just before that first point because someone was feeling sick. So Erin went back to get them and we all hung out in the snow for a while.

Ah yes, the snow. It was my first real experience with it since I developed self-awareness and/or started forming memories. I've seen some dusted yards in my day, but I made a few real snowballs and experienced the slippery surface formed when snow has been walked on a lot. I didn't squeal or throw myself into it or anything. It was just like, huh. So this is it.

It was a little chilly, but after being outside a while, I got used to it, even after we all trooped up to one of the peaks where the snow was so deep we kept falling into it and getting our shoes wet at the bottom.

On said peak, we climed up to a rocky part with no snow on it and hung out for a while. The air was actually kind of warm in the sun, but the snow was keeping itself cold for the most part. I still didn't need my jacket, and thank goodness the air wasn't freezing because by this point my shoes were completely soaked from that patch where there was water under the snow just waiting for your feet to fall into.
Note: converse are good for damp conditions up to a certain point. That point is the line at which the rubber ends and the canvas begins. To be honest, even if I had brought my real boots, I doubt they'd have fared much better: they certainly aren't leak proof and they're fake leather so they probably would have been damaged. Texas people aren't known for having proper snow gear. :)

Okay, so up on the peak. There was some cool multicolored lichen growing all over the rocks.

Just before the peak, I stopped on a small rock to photograph my feet with some mountains. Also to get some of the ice out of my shoes. Why am I on a feet kick? idk. I feel more comfortable with it than selfies. bleh. Also, feet kick. ahahahahahah

 

Note: this was before the water-under-snow trap. My shoes, while icy, were not yet saturated.

From the same rock:

After the mountain, we went down to a stream. Now the mountains are cool and really get some people going, but for me it's woods and forests. I like those. :)

We went on a short-ish hike with the kiddos. It was difficult for them to keep going without getting distracted.
By the end of the day, my shoes (again!) were interestingly affected. The white rubber was cleaner than usual, but the wet canvas + forest hikes resulted in dirty canvas.

After all that, we went to a pretty nice restaurant to eat. The waiter was cool, very knowledgeable, and had his longish hair in a ponytail. He also sort of resembled someone I knew, minus the long hair.
Note: I think long hair looks awesome on guys IF they can work it. But it's probably for the same reason I like short hair on girls: it's a little non-conformist and means people actually put some thought into their choices and decided they didn't care if people thought it was "wrong." But usually I don't think that deeply into it. I just think: oh, that dude has a bun. That's cool. Or that girl has seriously short hair. That's awesome.
Anyway, I ate some yummy mushroom pasta while looking at mountains and listening to people tell stories which were kind of funny and kind of a bit much.
By the time we got home, I was tired.
So tired.
I got in bed by 9.