Busy Days

Well, we are into the weekend, and enjoyed some sight seeing today.

We made a trip up to a weather research place called NCAR. Not to actually go in, although Mike has been up there before. He was here years ago for a tdy to NCAR. We went up because there are some hiking trails, and for the view---it is pretty high up, gives a better view of the local mountains, and a good look out over the town. Also, there is a little museum in the lobby, although we found it is mostly aimed at kids, it seems?

Mike pulled into the parking lot and as he was pulling into a spot, we saw a deer walk past! It was not all that far away from us, just calmly walking along in the grass, towards the building!

They have a nice little weather trail, that is 0.4 miles long, and has occasional plaques with information about weather aspects of the area. It was really interesting. There were plenty of places for Mike to take photos, and we hope that a lot of them came out well. I found that I finally noticed the change in altitude. Walking along the trail was just enough effort (it rises significantly during the course of the trail) that I quickly found myself breathing harder and deeper, in the thinner air. Not uncomfortably so, but enough to notice---haha.

Later in the morning, we headed out to do the Celestial Seasonings tour. It was easy to find, and although the tour is free, they give you a ticket---a packet of tea! Each tour time has a different flavor, so they can control how many people go in each round of the tour. They weren't actually working there in the factory, as they generally just work 5 days a week during the summer, but at other times in the year they work 7 days a week, and they have 3 shifts all the time, it sounded like. The tour was really interesting. While waiting for one's tour time, they have brewed tea samples so you can try out a number of different teas.

We made our final trips to the spinning/weaving/knitting/basketry, etc, store. It is called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins and it is a great shop. There is so much stuff in there, it is almost impossible to take it all in.

We haven't finalized our plans for tomorrow yet, but we will probably get an early start, whatever we decide. It was supposed to get up to 98 today, and I think it did, and it is supposed to hit 100 tomorrow. It sure hasn't felt all that hot--but hot enough!

We have had a good time here, but I will be glad to get home. It is always nice to get back to the familiar routines.