September Surprise

We had been told that mid-September is the best time to see the golden Aspens in the Rocky Mountains, so my siblings and their spouses met us near Nederland, Colorado, for a "half-way" reunion, driving from California and Michigan. We rented a house on the side of a very steep hill (mountain?) with a challenging, switchback driveway. The first morning we were there, we woke up to snow and 28 degrees. The lovely deck was viewed from inside, the hot tub was used twice, and the pictures of our hikes could be captioned "Winter Wonderland." We went to the local hardware store to buy gloves. (It was in the 70's in Michigan and in the 90's in California. Needless to say, most of what we had packed was never worn.) Trying to get up the driveway in Bob's front-wheel-drive van was the biggest adventure of each day.

In spite of the weather shock, we had a wonderful time of being together and exploring part of beautiful Colorado. I'll post more pictures later--some of the Aspens minus snow as it melted later in the week. We actually sat out on the deck on the morning we left for home. We were really grateful that the inside had as much room as it did!