What: Summertime in Colorado 2018
Where: About a week in Frisco, a week in Winter Park, about 10 days in Keystone, and a few days here and there in Broomfield. In the middle, in late June, we also headed to Wyoming for Matt and Jeff to run the Bighorn 100 mile race. A slight detour to Sheridan, WY, that was a really fun (and you guessed it, tiring) weekend.
When: May 26th – July 3, 2018
Why: To spend some summer time in Colorado and around Matt’s brother Jeff and his wife Erin and their 2 year old daughter, Elliot. Matt and Jeff were both training for the Bighorn 100 in Wyoming, so also for good running and mountain training.
Big Takeaways:
- We like Colorado
- We like all the sun
- So many memories about the Continental Divide Trail in 2013 and the Colorado Trail in 2012. Both trails went right through Copper Mountain and Breckenridge.
- The high altitude is no joke for breathing, running, sun exposure and dry skin. More liquids, please!
- Colorado does playgrounds very well – not only in quality and quantity, but also cleanliness. And tons of kids use them!
- Colorado does running trails well, whether it’s bike paths or mountain trails
- We liked the Frisco and Keystone areas the best since it’s lots of little towns all close to each other, like Frisco, Breckenridge, Keystone, Dillon and Silverthorne. Winter Park was a great town to visit, but it is quite small and feels much more isolated, and that was even in the summer when roads are all open, accessible, and snow free
- So many great kids events going on throughout the summer – Keystone had daily events for kids, put on by Kidtopia. We went to a Kidzfest over the weekend, a presentation on winter rescue dogs, a tour of the Keystone horse stables, and even a Strider bike race!
- Only stuff kinda missing is stuff that big cities like Denver have – zoos, aquariums and science museums. We’re closer to that stuff in Boulder, but still a good drive away. While in the area, we did hit up the science center and Paavo loved it. Definitely worth a repeat.
- Lots of friends want to visit Colorado! We had several people come to visit us and we visited those friends we already have in Colorado, including Alan, Teddy, David, Sarah, Andrew, and many more we didn’t fit into the trip (we’ll see you soon, Karla!)
Conclusion:
We liked Colorado so much that we moved here, so that says a lot! We now call Boulder home and completely switched our residency to Colorado, so we went all in. After calling the Pacific Northwest home for 11 years, it was time for a change and for less rain and more sun. And it ain’t too bad being just 20 minutes from Matt’s brother Jeff, and his family. We know we like Colorado in the summer and now we’re super curious to see how we do in the winter and snow. Matt and Paavo already have their ski passes for the winter and Paavo’s doing indoor ski lessons until they head outside, where Matt and Paavo both will take more lessons. Julie will be on hot chocolate duty 🙂
Some Pictures:
Atop the gondola in Keystone
Checking out the stream by the train park in Breckenridge
Playing at the train park in Breckenridge
A view from my run on the bike path in Frisco
Potty training day #1 in Winter Park. Thankfully we succeeded.
Awesome playground near the hockey rink in Winter Park
Matt can’t help but play too
Loving the Rainbow Playground in Silverthorne
More train park in Breckenridge
Hanging in Next Page Books in Frisco, one of our favorite book stores
Paavo taking full advantage of Elliot’s toys
His first hike on the CDT
Still snow at Berthoud Pass!
Matt still playing in Winter Park
The running/biking path along the Dillon Reservoir
Just checking on the horses in Keystone
Checking out the draft horses in Keystone
Paavo loved the Dillon Reservoir
2 awesome dudes inside the Gondola
Paavo’s first bouncy house experience and he didn’t want to get out.
Train ride through Keystone = Priceless
Extremely interested in finding out more about this T-Rex
He specifically requested a pink bunny balloon
Gettin ink done
So much concentration at the Strider bike race in Keystone
Our proud little finisher