Long Overdue Travel Update
Ok, so I’m very aware we’ve been more than a little slack in sending out an email with what we’ve been up to. But we actually have been so non-stop busy that this is just about the first chance we’ve had.
So, trying to fit a month’s worth of activity into one message is going to be a little tricky but I’ll do my best. As a warning, it’s very very long and so some degree of dedication is required.
Florida
Florida was definitely the least travelly way to start our travelling. We were staying in the apartment that Alan’s parents have as part of a time share in a resort called Orange Lakes. It’s exactly what you’d imagine of a Floridian resort: lots of pools and golf courses. But as it was only about 15 minutes away from all of the theme parks the location was fantastic. We spent 10 days there and the time flew by. Alan’s parents had bought us a Flex ticket for the theme parks which gave us access for 14 days to all of the Universal/Seaworld/Busch Gardens/Waterparks theme parks.
Universal Studios
So we made it our goal to visit everyone of the parks on our tickets. The parks were all great fun and the rides are soooo much better than the ones in England. I was really torn at seaworld, because I’m not sure about the whole idea of keeping dolphins and whales in captivity. But on the other hand we got to see the Dolphin Nursery where the babies and pregnant mums are kept. Alan and I stood there watching for what must have been nearly an hour. The calves are like puppies in that they are continuously playful. The mum’s have one trick where two of them will swim under a baby and then push it up out of the water so that it flies through the air. The babies also get really cheeky and pop their heads up over the tank and squirt water at the people watching.
We also went to see the Shamu show, which again was the same dilemma – an amazing show but not entirely sure about having the animals all kept in a big tank. Ho Hum. I just can’t wait to show Alan what it’s like to see wild dolphins in New Zealand.
Our first night at the resort we all decided to head to the hot tub for the evening and ended up having the swimming pool to ourselves as the sun set over the lake. Not too shabby for our first night out of England.
The next morning we got a real taste of Floridian culture: the All you Care to Eat Buffet. We went to a place called Ponda Rosa, which in the evening is a steak restaurant, but for the morning they just serve and endless buffet. For $3.99 you could have pancakes, French toast, regular toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, tomatoes, hash browns, cereals, porridge, fruit, cakes, yoghurt and on and on… The amount of food some people were piling onto their plates was actually scary. But we escaped without a coronary.
We had a night out to city walk which is the street of bars and restaurants in the Universal complex. We manage to time it so that we got the happy hour deals on the cocktails 
We got to try the world famous Hurricane drink from Pat O’Brian’s. Which is very strong and very cherry flavoured. Not my ideal drink….
Before we knew it, it was time to leave Florida and head to Colorado following long goodbyes to Alan’s parents and to Carl.
Colorado
While in Florida we’d had weather around about 13/14 degrees C. We knew that was going to change as soon as we got to Boulder. The day we arrived was actually not too cold and we managed to get through baggage claim etc. in about 20 minutes. Barry picked us up from the arrivals and we headed back into Boulder.
Our week in Boulder was so so busy. We spent the first day doing some grocery shopping, then we met Cory and Kellen (My cousin and her boyfriend) for lunch at Noodles and Co’ (Alan’s new favourite place to eat). We spent the afternoon preparing for Thanksgiving the next day by supervising Cory’s pumpkin pie making. Alan and Barry spent the evening playing guitar as I tried very hard not to fall asleep on the sofa.
On Thanksgiving morning Barry and Cory had to work so Alan and I went to see the new James Bond movie. (Overall pretty disappointing we both felt) Then we went back to Barry’s to make the Pot Pie for the dinner. Cory rustled up some fabulous pastry while Barry made a not chicken and veg filing. And to finish it off, Cory created 4 pastry turkeys to go on top. We then went over to Cory’s mum’s for our Thanksgiving dinner which included a roasted turkey, but also some more unusual items we’re not used to seeing with a roast dinner. The first you may have seen our photo of was the sweet potato salad, which is sweet potato roasted in maple syrup with marshmallows stirred in until they melt. The second item was just plain ol’ jello. With the roast dinner.
Thanksgiving pot pie
Nope, we couldn’t get our heads around it either. But dinner was lovely and we spent the rest of the evening with a game of wise or otherwise. We are, it turns out, the latter.
The next couple of days were spent introducing Alan to some boulder highlights: A hike up Mt. Sanitas, a visit to foolish craigs and of course dinner and drinks in the Mountain sun. Then we had to start getting ready for our little walk in the mountains.
Now, Barry had described this trip as an easy 4 mile walk through the mountains up to the Arestua hut. The hut is a simple building with bunks and a stove which is maintained by the Colorado Mountain Club who go up at the beginning of the season to chop firewood to provide for all the travellers over the next year. The hut is available for anyone to use and you just turn up there and hope that there is a bunk free. All they ask is a suggested $2 donation. Sounds pretty snazzy so far. So, a friend of Barry’s had been up to the hut a week or so earlier and reported back that there was very little snow and he’d walked almost the entire way to the hut without any need for snow shoes. We had therefore assumed that a similar experience lay in wait for us. Oh how wrong we were.
Hiking to the hut
As we drove up to the carpark where we would leave the trusty Subaru, the clouds closed in on us leaving little visibility and a lot of snow. The walk begins at 9,000ft, that’s about 3,000m. As a means of comparison, Ben Nevis is 1,344m (4409ft) and is the highest mountain in Britain. So we start our walk at 9,000ft with the snow driving at us as we cross the bunny slope of the Eldorado ski resort. This is the part of the walk where Barry has specifically given us permission to call him names as the icy wind whips over the bunny slope, and we are wearing the recommended one layer less than we feel we need. The theory goes that being cold on this part of the walk will have you at optimum temperature when walking the uphill sections.
The next parts of the walk could probably, if written poetically, take up several novels. But I fear my writing is not that good and I’ll never get through the rest of this email if I were to elaborate in all it’s uni-colour detail. I’ll try and fill you in succinctly.
The walk was supposed to take us about 31/2 to 4 hours. The two big problems with this were – there was a lot more snow than expected ( a couple of feet more) and Alan and I really struggled with the altitude. Walking uphill at 10,000ft with snow shoes on trying to break trail, as we sink a couple of feet into the snow, was really tough. That’s when you really notice the lack of oxygen up there. Because of this, the walk took us a lot longer than it should have done which meant it started getting dark before we got to the hut. We found ourselves in the dark, with the only the light of a head torch (who looks silly now, huh?) trying to wade through waist deep snow up a steep bowl out of the valley to the top of the mountain ridge. With visibility limited to a couple of feet in front of us, six hours of hiking behind us and a ton of snow on every lift of the snow shoe our energy was wearing thin. We eventually made it out and after walking for another 20 minutes found that we weren’t sure exactly where we were. So we didn’t know if we were lost or not, but also didn’t know if we were heading in the right direction. The dark and blowing wind had really disorientated us and so Barry found himself unsure where we were but reluctant to ask us to walk back the way we’d come. At this point, we knew we were very close to the hut, but with no trail to follow we were wandering around in snow covered woods, without any knowledge of which way to go. We decided that going back the only sensible option and we walked back to where we had made it out of the bowl. Here we were relieved to find a trail marker. A trail marker is a small blue triangle nailed to a tree every 100ft or so. So, from the point of finding one marker we were trying to find a trail in the dark and snow which would get us to the hut which offered the opportunity for much needed rest and heat. We had to try several time to find the trail and each time we had to retreat it was a real blow to our confidence. Each blue marker we saw in the distance was a beacon of safety and we shrieked with delight at finding the next. We came to a large opening knowing that the hut was so so close, but couldn’t see any sign of which way to go to find it.
It’s so so difficult to try and describe what it’s like in this situation, as it seems tough to believe that it wasn’t easier to find the trail and then the hut. You’ll just have to trust me on this, it’s really tough.
Setting off home from the Arestua Hut
So, of course we did eventually find the hut after 7 hours of walking a 4 mile track and elevating to 11,100ft. At this point we had to get a fire going to try and heat the hut above the -10 or so degrees C it was when we got there. We got our pre-made shepherds pie on the stove along with our apple pie and a pot of snow. The snow was use to turn into hot water which was used to de-frost the wine we’d brought up with us. It has to be one of the best meals ever, and certainly the only one I’ve ever walked 7 hours for. As the stove got hotter, the hut began to heat up at by the time we went to sleep we were all in T-shirts as it was so warm. An uneventful night followed, and a beautiful snowy morning awaited us.
The hike down the mountain was much much easier than the day before, and we were able to see the tracks we’d made the night before. At points we were literally centimetres away from where we’d needed to be to catch the trail. Daylight certainly makes all the difference. We got off the mountain without any further dramas, drove back to Boulder and stopped in for some Noodles for dinner.
So, we found ourselves at the end of another leg of our journey as we left Boulder heading for San Francisco.
California
Our first hostel in SFO was a real treat. The private rooms were all in a separate house with it’s own kitchen, bathrooms and internet. Our room looked over a fabulous view of the city and we had a balcony to sit out on and enjoy it. We met another couple who for the first two nights were the only other residents. We also got a free breakfast every morning and an amazing free dinner on two of the nights we were there.
The highlight of San Fran for me definitely had to be our bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was beautiful and so much fun. We went all the way across the beach and down to a place called Sausalito where we had lunch. The pictures probably tell the best story from that day.
49ers Game
We also had great fun going to an American football game, the San Francisco 49ers vs the New York Jets. The opening ceremony to this one (not very important game) put out Olympic handover ceremony to shame. Each team member was brought on with introductory fireworks and flags. The cheerleaders (what a shame they couldn’t afford skirts for their uniforms) did a dance and the drummers did some drumming. There was a giant inflatable helmet for the players to run onto the field from, a mascot in a cowboy suit and Jesse McCartney singing the national anthem. And after all this build up finally the game began. 2 seconds later the whistle blew. Something had happened which meant they had to all swap over. So, it had to start up again…. Needless to say it took me a little bit of time to actually get into the game and try and understand what was going on. Our seats were amazing, 3 row from the field on the corner. We were also sat with all the season ticket holders who all knew each other and made it a lot easier to understand the game. Most importantly, the comments they offered to the ref gave us some idea of when a decision was in our favour or not. Each touchdown meant we had to high five the guy next to us and when we left the game (24 – 14 to the 49ers) we had to hug him and be congratulated on a “good game”. The garlic fries were a must for snacking while we were at the football.
While we were in San Fran we also made sure to take in the cable cars, the sea-lions at pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Coit tower and of course the trip to Alcatraz. Our second hostel was equally nice, although the view of a wall couldn’t quite compete with the first place. Although we did get free pancakes every morning, and use of a free foosball table and pool table. While we were in town we also go to meet up with Alan’s Grandparents and Uncle who took us on a lovely road trip down to Monterey where we got to see the world famous aquarium.
Monteray Aquarium
And once more it was time for us to move on. This time to New Zealand, which actually wasn’t too bad of a prospect. So we found ourselves on another train to another airport to get on another plane.
I’ll leave you all there, and if anyone has actually made it this far I applaud you. The next update will be of our time in New Zealand. But for now you get to enjoy the picture.
Hope everybody’s well, feel free to send me a message too
Sarah (And Alan)
Related posts:
