Colorado Mountain House

 Okay, there really is no such thing as a Colorado sea lion. This guy got stranded after arranging an Uber pick-up at Monterey Dunes and realized that the driver wouldn't find him if he stayed below the mean high tide line. There is a contagious illness attacking the Pacific coast sea lions and THB is pretty sure that has infected this poor guy (pic by the GM of the Dunes)

  

Colorado Mountain House: Our shipmates, MB and RF, on THB and DB's first Antarctica cruse and our more recent Caribbean cruise invited us to visit them at their 2nd place about 2 hours from Denver. 

Sunset, night 1

Day 2: long-ish drive and a short shuttle ride to the Loveland annual outdoor sculpture show

Gary Mitchell: THB and DB's best in show, painted lightweight aluminum, extremely low-priced 

shots from nearby Ft Collins; THB thought the idea of ATM's was you didn't need to talk to real, live teller 

lunch at Austin's

A deep-fried cornbread croton, excellent, and a first for THB; it could have been dessert

the village store

Near the mountain house is "Gnomes" Lane. THB could have taken way more pics, and you still couldn't quite grasp what it was like to walk this stretch of road

Ellie, a distant cousin to Sandy, much better trained than Sandy

Day 3, kayaking at Dowdy lake, followed by a visit to the local stupa 

RF in a white-water kayak

MB in a single

lovely, we almost have the entire lake to ourselves because it is a Monday

A great lakeside picnic, a change into dry clothes, and we're off to another exotic locale

Somehow, MB and RF have driven through a time-warp (gnomes?) and we are now in downtown Bhutan 

the ceiling

there had been a large fire near the stupa (saved by firefighters) and this is what the hillside just to the north looks like now

clear skies

back of sculpture near the firepit (house in background)

front of the sculpture

Ellie with her tongue inside her mouth

Day 4: heading home. Before Southwest goes to assigned seats, they are still loading by when the seats were purchased. Before they start loading with passengers A1 (A1-15 pay  an extra fee to be at the front of the line...not quite happing like that today), approximately 50 passengers pre-board, about 40% of them in wheelchairs. THB chats up the flight attendant as he boards and she reports that it seems to be unique to the Oakland flights (she is Oakland based so she should know)...is there something about Oakland that is seemingly attractive to partially infirm travelers?