14-Jul-2005
We had a nice flight from San Francisco to Denver (via Los Angeles). While at the LA airport, we ran into Vis and Mara who were just returning from their trip to Australia.
We got hold of Rob's brother Andrew who was in the Denver area on business and had a nice dinner at Simms Landing, a nice restaurant with a view of downtown Denver.
We then headed up to "the ranch", where they were staying with Kathy's cousin, Anne. After a couple of wrong turns we finally made it and had a nice talk over tea before going to sleep.
Editor's Note: The two brothers are looking more alike as their beards are exibiting similar color traits ... dark with grey / white accents :-).
15-Jul-2005
We woke up around 9am and cooked breakfast before heading off for a hike around the ranch. Anne had left early in the morning to teach a riding lesson, so we were on our own!
After breakfast we walked down to "The Cabin", where the Van Stone kids stayed during several of their visits to the ranch. We returned from our walk just in time to meet Anne as she returned from her riding lesson.
Kathy went along with Anne took care of the horses while Robert stayed behind to deal with his allergies. The grass was blooming! Anne then took us out to lunch in one of the restaurants in Winter Park, about 10 minutes or so from the ranch. We then headed back to Denver.
To travel to and from the ranch we passed through Berthoud pass (over 11000 feet).
After we arrived in Denver we contacted Kathy's aunt Nancy and we'll be heading over for dinner. More later after dinner!
16-Jul-2005
We got up and headed over to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for half the day. Our first stop was the gems and minerals exhibit which was very educational (talking about the composition of the various minerals and how they are related). After lunch we went to a really nice exhibit about prehistoric earth that took us over an hour to get through. Our last stop at the museum was the planetarium where we saw a short show about our solar system (it used many images taken from the various spacecraft that have visited the planets).
We had a nice dinner at Nancy and Frank's place. Laurie, Julie, Ryan and Darby (sp?) also joined us. Laurie is one of Kathy's cousins, Julie is one of Nancy & Frank's grandkids and Ryan, Julie's son, so we had four generations present!
That evening we took Nancy and Frank out to dinner at a local restaurant. We had a nice dinner and talked about the history of the ranch and the house where Nancy & Bill (Kathy's dad) grew up. We then headed back to the hotel to pack for our last set of flights ... home tomorrow!
Editor's Note: We'll be meeting Paul & Cat Hoemke for breakfast tomorrow morning.
17-Jul-2005
Just a quick note before we head out to meet Paul & Cat Hoemke (friends from Grace Church who moved out to Denver). Our flight is scheduled to leave around 1:15pm from Denver and Jan & Jeanette will be picking us up in Pittsburgh.
