Mom's Birthday Today

It was her 75th birthday and we drove up over Trail Ridge Road in my Wrangler Rubicon to Grand Lake today for lunch. She is the one on the right. The other one is my sweet Granny who is no longer with us. Obviously, this picture was taken a few years ago, but Mom pretty much looks that cute even now.

The weather was cool and drizzly in some spots and raining hard in others. We drove through clouds. Every once in a while there was a hole in a cloud and you could see down into the valley far, far below. There were many elk on the hillside. In one place, there were four bull elk with huge antlers grazing on a hillside. Note: If you are in Colorado and you are driving on a 2 lane road with traffic, please do not stop in the middle of the road to look at wildlife. It's dangerous.

We walked along the edge of Grand Lake watching all of the tourists on rental boats. The hillsides on this west side of Trail Ridge Road are filled with rusty red trees, the result of mountain pine beetles. In a year or so, most of the trees here will be dead. That is depressing, but apparently a natural cycle of nature. The mountains of Colorado are destined to be quite different within the next few years. Spraying is not an option on such a large scale. Other tree types are predicted to eventually fill up the void, but that will be several years in the making.

Got home around 4:30p. Hubby (Merle) got home a little after five in a state of some agitation after having finalized training for a fellow employee who has sort of driven him crazy. But that's all done now and we scooted to Noodles for some chow. Stopped at the video store to pick up a movie, "The Shooter" that's supposed to be fairly exciting. Renting movies in the summer is a rarity. We do more of that in the winter.

Anyway, that's the day today. We are looking forward to a nice weekend. Weather permitting, we will be sitting under our new pergola! A lot.