Honeymoon Bests

Mr. Prairie and I exchanged official rings in front of our families and then proceeded to flit off to Central Europe for a bit of a honeymoon. Here are, by no credible rating system, our favourite things.

• Best Beer Garden: The one in Munich where we had the Ayinger beer, possibly here
• Best Hostel: Hands down, Ruthensteiner in Vienna 
• Best Subway Sytem: Munich and Vienna are tied
• Best Hotel: It's close, but I'd say K+K in Budapest, on account of its free breakfast buffet having six types of fancy cheese!
• Best Supper: At the Bouchon Restaurant in Budapest
• Prettiest City: Prague
• Best Looking Church: St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, for it's mosaic stained glass windows
• Best Bridge: The Chain Bridge in Budapest
• Best Museum: a toughy, but probably the Prague Castle Museum, followed by the Art History museum in Vienna.
• Best Dessert: was too hard to choose!

And now, here we are, back in Colorado Springs, renewing our local adventures.

RMNP Pre-plan

This weekend, we are headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park. By my reckoning, everything is perfectly planned.

I phoned the backcountry office several weeks ago to reserve our site for Saturday night. Then I reserved our site for Friday on recreation.gov. We have our topo map, the Saturday night supper is composed. All that remains is to pack up the car (and backpacks) and bolt out to the campground after Mr. Prairie gets home from work on Friday.

Our hiking plan for Saturday looks something like this:

The teeny tiny portion of the park we will be viewing.

Get up super early, pick up our permit from the office at 8, get to the trailhead before 9 am. Hike to the Sky Pond (which, if we are to trust google, may look something like this) eat lunch, retrace our steps a bit (well, quite a bit actually, but only my third choice site is available) set up camp, and enjoy a nice snooze.

Of course, when a plan is very specific, sometimes unexpected situations arise. I'll advise you of any such surprises upon our return.

--- Oct 10 --- editing to add: we were so efficient with this plan that we arrived at our campsite 3 hours ahead of schedule and didn't know what to do with the extra time.

New Garden

Few things exemplify spring and the promise of summer like planting a garden. 

Two tiny rows, lettuce and beets, to begin the anticipation of sprouting.

A nice gentleman at Rick's Garden Center gave us some information on planting times here:

• May 15 - Average last killing frost in Colorado Springs
• June 3, 1951 - latest recorded spring frost
• October 10 - Average first killing fall frost
• September 3, 1961 - Earliest recorded fall frost
• Average growing season is 148 days
• Average annual rainfall is 15.42 inches

The sheet indicates that lettuce, peas, turnips, and squash can be sown outside after April 1. Beets, chard, and radishes are good after April 15. Everything else we should wait until May 15 for.

I actually have no idea how this compares to back home, since I've never looked up this information for Winnipeg before, not even dreaming of ever planting anything before Victoria Day. This is my first 'real in the ground' garden since moving out of my parents house, and Mr. Prairie's first 'real in the ground' garden ever!

10 Things I Learned in Utah

Double Arch at Arches National Park near Moab

10. A sleeping bag rated to -7 degrees Celsius may not actually keep you warm at that temperature without other precautions.
9. Mainly, the yummiest I.P.A.s are from Colorado.
8. The fine red dust that helps to form the beautiful stone formations throughout the state also exists in campgrounds and will blow into your tent if you give it the opportunity.
7. "Jeep Weekend" is one of the busiest events of the year in Moab. Reservations are advised. (Who knew?)
6. You can fit 5 people, their hiking and day packs, a cooler, a large water jug, a small guitar, a ukelele, and a mandolin into 1 Honda CRV and still drive said vehicle down Hole in the Rock Road.
5. The canyons along Hole in the Rock Road are well worth the trip. We visited Spooky, Peek-a-boo, Zebra, and Tunnel.
4. Spaghetti and tomato sauce is a wonderful change from bean burritos, even when consumed at top-speed at 10 pm.
3. "Harumph Harumph" band names have many possibilities.
2. Time spent with good friends is always valuable. Loved ones not along on an adventure are always missed.
1. I will always be a prairie-girl when it comes to heights, drops, and twirly roads.

Sojourn

While I was gone, Stella's added 2 locations to their empire!

Keen readers may note that the "followed by who-knows-what" must be happening soon. Happening it is. I am back "home," contemplating the definition of "home," and experimenting with living bits of other people's lives by staying with them.

I thought perhaps I would have a cute list of major differences between Colorado and Manitoba when I sat down to write this post, like when I returned from my first trip to Europe, but I don't think I've learned enough (or that the differences are big enough) to put my finger on them just yet.

Hopefully when I return I'll be able to discover more. In the meantime, there are a few Colorado adventures I haven't detailed yet that I can tell you about.

Palmer Park

This past Sunday we finally, intentionally, did a hike out of this book. Like reviewers on Amazon.com state, if you had to find your way solely out of the book, you might spend a fair bit of time feeling distraught, but luckily the Templeton Trail is well marked. (Finding the beginning had us scratching our heads for a minute or two, but that's all.) We ended up doing the trail in the opposite direction than the guide suggests, so maybe that is an unfair review.

Beautiful views of Pike's Peak were everywhere

The trail system in the 730 acre park (just under 3 square km) can be viewed here. It's the largest park within the Colorado Springs city limits. William Jackson Palmer used to own the land, and sometime after founding this fine town, he donated it. Come check it out!

Never mind milk and cookies, this year leave Santa a chocolate-chip cookie dough cone

The local ice-cream shop is ready for Christmas!

There's something unusual about an ice-cream parlour being not only open in December, but also decorated in such a festive manner. What flavours do we think are a big hit at this time of year? Candy Cane Swirl? Cranberry? Ice-creamy potatoes and gravy? What would you sell if you were an ice-cream purveyor?