Update on What's Happening

Since last we spoke, we've settled into Denver pretty well. We purchased a condominium in the Capitol Hill Area very near downtown. It's a smallish two-bedroom on the 6th floor with a good view to the west of Denver and the foothills. We completely cleaned the unit, replaced the microwave and the garbage disposal, repainted crown moulding and baseboard, and painted all the walls in new colors. We've put up pictures and the TV works, most of the stuff we hauled directly to Denver has is here and we're pretty comfortable. The bulk of our goods are in storage in Antioch awaiting the start and completion of the new house.

The Denver area is pretty interesting. Not a big town population-wise (630,000), Denver metro area is very spread out and has about 2.6 million people in it. So if we are willing to do some searching and a little traveling, we can find what we need. When we move to Roxborough Park we'll be closest to the suburb of Denver called Littleton so we're locating services in that area so we'll be close when we move.

I'd like to tell you all about the hiking trails in this area, but there are so many of them that we haven't even scratched the surface! I hiked Green Mountain the other day; it's a trail to a peak of about 6900 feet located West of downtown about 10 miles. Beautiful place and a challenging hike for me. I'm not used to the altitude and I've sort of slacked off a strict training regimen like I had in the past (but I'm back in the swing of exercising each day).

Our good friends Sue and Anthony have invited us a hike this coming weekend to something called "Devil's Head" (!). It's south of Roxborough Park and the trail leads to the only active forest fire lookout in Colorado. The trail goes up 950 feet in 1.4 miles to a resting area where you gather the strength to go up 143 stairs to the lookout! We may not get to go this Sunday - it's going to snow and the lookout tower is a magnet for lightning strikes.

One of the strangest things I've experienced here is the weather. I remember being in Portland, OR and having the temperature go down to the mid-40s and being so cold and uncomfortable that I wanted to stay inside all the time. And, we've been in Burlington, VT with the same sort of temperatures and the same kind of discomfort. But here, if the sun's out, you may be wearing only a T-shirt when the temperature is 45 degrees! I'm guessing that the low humidity, the high altitude and the cloudless skies contribute to the comfort. We're looking forward to what we think is a more traditional winter - snow and lower temps, skiing, etc. We bought snowshoes so we could go out onto Arrowhead Golf Course in Roxborough Park. (Not my pic - I'll put in ours when the snow comes!)

So much for today. Now that we've begun to get settled, I'll hopefully do this more often.

Phil