Welcome to Leadville!

On Wednesday, August 15th, we drove from Steamboat Springs to Leadville. What a pretty drive! Since Vail was sort of on the way, we stopped there to check it out. Mike needed an extra pair of shoes for the race, so he thought maybe he could find some there. He didn't, but we were glad we stopped. It was definitely a destination of luxury! It reminded us of a little Austrian or Swiss town. Very cute. And ritzy.

We made it to Leadville in the afternoon.

Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States.
They call it the two mile high city.

The house we rented was PERFECT. 

(I actually took these pictures the morning we left.)

It was on the main street, and just a few blocks from the main part of town.
And it had LOTS and LOTS of space for all of our visitors.

Mike and I slept in this room. He called it the bike room.
The boys and I called it the naked baby room. Haha

We saved this other room for Colin and Janine since they were bringing their kids. It was perfect for them! There was a bathroom attached, and a little bedroom with a twin bed.

(The mess is from when they left and Collin slept in there.)

The little attached bedroom was called Tommy's Nursery.

It was cute, but creepy at the same time!

The boys slept in the bunk bed room at times, and the crow's nest at other times. In the first picture of the outside of the house, you can see the octagon room at the top. That's the crow's nest.

The boys slept in there, then Doug slept there one night, then Mike's parents slept there when Collin and Janine came and they moved out from the downstairs bedroom. We called it musical bedrooms. It worked!

The great room worked out so nicely.

So much space for everyone to spread out!

The weirdest thing though were all of the family pictures EVERYWHERE. The people who own the house had 11 kids. And pictures of them and their 11 kids are everywhere. Everywhere! The best were the bubble bath pictures in the bathroom. Very interesting. Hahaha

One of Mike's pacers said after the race that we should run

a bubble bath for Mike and take a picture of him in it, then

label the picture and put it on the bathroom wall. Lol.

So, Mike's parents arrived just a few hours after we did. We all went to the Golden Burro for breakfast the next morning, and then on to visit the Mining Museum. I can't say that I was excited about the museum, but I sure was impressed.

They had a fake mine that we walked through.

It was like Disneyland. Very cool!

Matthew is always the comedian ... This part showed how minerals are used all over in our houses. Even the bathroom!

And Matthew made a friend ...

I loved these stained glass windows.

The miniatures were cool ...

... but creepy. What's with the doll face in the window???

We went to the Matchless Mine next. 

The boys panned for gold while we waited for the tour to start.

Mike stole the "gold" he found. He said he earned it. (gasp)

The mine was interesting, but I really liked Baby Doe's cabin. From Wikipedia: Elizabeth McCourt Tabor (1854 – 1935), better known as Baby Doe, was the second wife of pioneer Colorado businessman Horace Tabor. Horace Tabor's divorce and subsequent marriage to the young and beautiful Baby Doe caused a major scandal in 1880s Colorado. Although Tabor was one of the wealthiest men in Colorado when she married him, he later lost his entire fortune, and Baby Doe Tabor lived the rest of her life in poverty. She lived in this cabin and died here.

I bought a book about her, so I'll have to 

let you know what I think when I finish it.

We also went out to the Fish Hatchery, checking out the first 

aid station where we would meet Mike on the race. It's a real fish hatchery!

We paid 25 cents for a healthy handful of fish food,

and set about feeding the fish. They were trout.

Who knew feeding fish could be so much fun? Seriously!

(i don't know why the quality is so crappy. it shouldn't be.)

Next post: THE BIG RACE!

Last Days in Steamboat Springs

One of my favorite things that we did was the alpine slide. They call it The Howler. The chairlift up to the slide is NOT fun. It makes me so nervous! But the views were beautiful.

See Lauren & Michael? And Collin is behind them.

This is the top portion of the slide.

Waiting to go down . . .

So much fun!

We walked around town for a bit and ran into Mark, Ben and Abe. Matthew was giving them each a sip of his drink. Ha ha.

One of our favorite things that we did was walking around the Botanic Park. Who knew it could be so entertaining? Everyone really had a great time looking at all of the plants, flowers, sculptures and such. It was a huge park.

You will notice that there are
pictures of beautiful flowers,
and then there are lots of silly
pictures. We were having fun. :)

Mike was getting in the mood for
the Mambo Italiano Garden. Cute!

CATFISH FACE!

Getting in sync with the Monkshood flowers.

 

Matthew just ran into the car and died. Doesn't he look like an outline of a dead body?


Lauren flew home on our last day so that she could get back to work.I drove her to the little airport near Steamboat Springs.

It was a nice airport!

The last thing we did on Tuesday was visit the old town hot springs at Strawberry Park. We had to drive back up into the mountains to where they are. It's all very natural and HOT.

The hottest pool was the first one where the spring starts. It was WAY HOT. Nobody was in there.

Most of the lower pools were around 100 degrees, but there was one that just felt like a nice pool. The boys liked to hang out in there.

This is one of the dams separating the pools. Cool!

We didn't stay long, but we were glad we went. It was a unique experience. And, hey, there's a picture of me!

 Now, on to Leadville!!!