Contents Under Pressure

Here's the thing about pressure: it will either make you thrive or implode. Either way you'll get a definite ending.

We've bought a house and a car within 1 week of each other. The house and all the stress that comes along with closing the deal is enough to drive someone a little bonkers anyway, but I've also thrown in a new stick shift which I have no idea how to drive and I've spent the last week screaming at my clutch and honking my horn at myself.

That same week, my employers sold our company and now we're gearing up for a remodel and will be shut down for 3 weeks. My daughter is sick with bronchitis, my dog is going blind, my husband needs a hair cut, and I could use a cocktail.

In addition, California is now only a rock's skip away! In two short weeks, Kalynn and I will be flying over our little world of beautiful hectnicity (hecticness? Are these words?) to escape for a week of sunshine and total lack of responsibility. The week of our return, we'll be closing on our new house and starting our own little version of the American dream, followed by our 3rd marriage anniversary, Jason's 35th birthday, an amazing Mother's Day weekend with my mom complete with a show by one of my very favorite bands The Dandy Warhols, and then straight to a book signing by soul mate of an author Tom Robbins at a bookstore which was a visiting place on my Colorado Bucket List from a few months back.

I mean, Jesus Christ.

I need to redirect some of this pressure.
My dear Luna has filled up and is deflating once again drawing a close to the 3rd quarter and moving along into the 4th.
I often take my cue from the Moon.
In football, as I've learned working in a sports bar the last year and a half, the 4th quarter isn't much of a time for slacking. The 4th quarter is a time to gather your shit and make sure you leave no room for things to creep up behind you. It's an important time to be alert and on your A game.

Which is why it makes no since that tonight I'm planning on grabbing a 6 pack of good beer and drowning in my couch watching the new Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

So in conclusion, I have no cute craft or recipe or photo shoot or advice. I just wanted to throw a tiny little update out here to explain why I've been on a brief Rocky Mountain Hiatus.
(Did you see what I did there?)

Love to all,
-Krista

Disneyland Paris

I've been trying to finish my Paris posts for weeks, but the combo of losing employees at work and having to cover all the unfilled shifts, the awful Colorado flood last weekend, and every other daily distraction, my writing has been few and far between.

My final Paris post is a quick one!

We all know how I feel about the happiest place on Earth ...

Because going to all 5 Disney theme parks is on my bucket list, I was just dying to find out how the Paris Disneyland stacked up against the California original.

Initially, Euro Disney received really poor reviews for numerous reasons. First of all, France considered Disneyland Paris to be a sick representation of American consumerism. Further, the American managers required nothing but English to be spoken throughout the park. And lastly, it probably seemed a bit ridiculous to them that we romanticised Kings, Queens and Princesses and that we had a strange obsession with enchanted castles. Royalty were the every day norm for them and you don't see Europeans going around dressing up like the President of the United States and decorating their bedrooms like the White House.

Eventually, Paris and the rest of Europe either got sick of fighting it, turned the other cheek, or just relaxed a little and let it go. Either way, the upward climb of business has been amazing and now it is the number one most visited attraction in all of France and Europe.

Yes, it's true that most people don't fly all the way across an ocean to visit another country and then end up at Disneyland. But this is my family we're talking about here. We're Disney fanatics. So the option of not going wasn't even thrown into the ring.  Also a tradition in my family, you can't just go as your normal self. All three of us picked a character and dressed accordingly.

Pulling up seemed familiar. We were really early so it appeared as though the only other people there were employees. This just gave us more time to take it all in.

Some obvious differences were clear right from the get go. Everything was in French. I assumed the fairy from Pinocchio was still saying "when you wish upon a star," but for all I know she could be spouting off profanities.

Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant = The Castle of the Beauty who was Dormant in the Wood otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

In California, the riverboat that plunges through the Rivers of America is called the Mark Twain. In Paris, the riverboat is named the Molly Brown. As in "the unsinkable Molly Brown," survivor of the infamous Titanic.

Pirates of the Caribbean is almost the same as the one we're used to. The outside façade is very different but the ride itself is very similar. We got our picture taken going down the first steep slope in our boat, but the "Dead Men Tell No Tales" anthem was still prevalent all the way through, the option of taking a wench for a bride was still available, and the damn dog still won't give up the key.

Instead of the Haunted Mansion, we were now entering the Haunted Manor. Guests still sit through the ride in the usual "doom buggies," but instead this house tells the story of The Phantom of the Opera and it is designed to be scarier and darker than it's sister mansion.

We rode It's A Small World twice. Once to get the picture of the Eiffel Tower out front,

and then again because we thought it was funny that the American part of the ride was stereotyped with a Greenbay Packer and a New York Met.

My favorite thing about the entire park was that Alice has an entire wonderland spread over the majority of Fantasyland. Not just a ride and some teacups, but a separate labyrinth, a castle, a ride, a photo station, statues and some teacups. She's kind of big deal.

The Mad Hatter's Teacup ride is under its own little weather proof station.

Pretty much the coolest ride I've ever seen.

Of course we spun our cup as fast as we could go, but when a photo opportunity presents itself, we know when to slow down for the camera.

So to say au revoir to France, we did it the way our family knows best, which is to give back a little to the American Economy.

Now that we're back across the pond and in the States, I'm happy to say that we're all safe and sound from the terrible floods that destroyed our little corner of Colorado. Both my house and my sister's house was luckily spared from any damage as we're both far enough away from our beloved Big Thompson River and the Cache Le Poudre River. None the less, our poor towns and the towns we love around us are destroyed and it will take quite a while for roads and bridges to be repaired. 

I'll keep you posted! 

Until then, please keep the rescue workers, those who lost their lives, property, friends and family in your thoughts.

Rocky Mountain Way

Last Summer, I wrote a list of things I wanted to see and experience in this breathtakingly beautiful state of Colorado. I was fresh off the move to Fort Collins from Orange County, California and all I wanted to do was just day trip every tiny corner of "God's Country" that I could find. I wanted to really see for myself why everyone seems to be so in love with the Rocky Mountains.

Since then, I've learned. 

Oh, I've learned!

Colorado has no rival. 

There's no place in the world like the Rocky Mountain range.

It is absolutely stunning. 

And it isn't just the views, it's the people. 

Mountain people are of another breed.

So anyway, last week we took a trip up through Rocky Mountain National Park to one of the stopping points of the Continental Divide which was on my Colorado bucket list from last summer. Although I've driven the canyon up to Estes Park many many times in my life, I've always taken the same highway 34. For whatever reason, it never dawned on me that there may be another route up. So when my sister took a right at the Glen Haven split, I was a little unsure as to why. 

But then I smelled the smell and everything became very clear. 

I'm telling you, these cinnamon rolls are taste bud blowing delicious. They're gooey, they're sloppy, they're melt in your mouthy. I ate mine in record breaking time. 

The whole town has 5 buildings. The Glen Haven General Store, a fire department, a bed and breakfast, a trading post and a town hall. With a town population of 11 (I assume) there was still a line out the door for these cinnamon rolls. Cyclists, townies and tourists come from all over Colorado and Wyoming for these things. I'm not even kidding.   

There's a perfect cinnamon eating spot just around the corner with a tiny picnic table nudged against an old truck and Indian teepee.

Once we had our cinnamon and coffee fix, we headed up Devil's Gulch Road which dropped us off at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park for our ride up to Alpine Visitor Center.

The visitor center is a nice little resting place to decide whether you'll make your way to the other side of the continent, or return to your original side. It's only open from May through October because of Winter snow conditions and sits just 2 miles North of the highest point of Trail Ridge Road.

The views of the Alpine Tundra from up here are out of control, especially if you take the time to climb to the very top.

One of us wasn't very happy about it.

But we did it. 

The other one of us was twirling around because the hills are alive with the sound of music...

Just across the street of the visitor center is the beginning of the Ute Indian trail. It's believed that these Indians traveled by foot thousands and thousands of years ago to get through the Rocky Mountains going from East to West. To walk a small portion of something made so many years ago is truly humbling. It was one of those times I reminded myself that I'm just a tiny speck when it comes to the history of our giant world.

Last fall, an illegal campfire sparked a forest fire that burned from October to December. In late November, a crazy strong wind storm doubled the size of the fire and pushed it 3 miles in just over half an hour taking out a large chunk of the historic Ute Indian Trail. During its peak there were more than 600 firefighters on the line trying to contain the blaze. The Fern Lake Fire is the largest forest fire in Rocky Mountain National Park history.

Stupid people...

Anyway,

Next stop, The Continental Divide!

I was so excited to cross off something from my Colorado bucket list but my crabby kid was way beyond nap time, hungry, over the car ride and ready to be back in civilization with Bubble Guppies and her Cabbage Patch kids. I was annoyed and she wouldn't look at the camera. What you see is what you get.

The Continental divide runs high peak to high peak all the way from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan and separates the drainage of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
There we were, me and my kid, on opposite sides of the continent and opposite sides of the excitement spectrum. It honestly couldn't have been a more fitting circumstance.

We also got to check out the Poudre Lake, which starts the beginning of the Cache La Poudre River. This is a river with which we are very familiar. The Poudre's headwaters are located right in our town of Fort Collins, we camped next to it last summer and we visited it on our day trip up Poudre Canyon. Cache La Poudre literally means "hide the powder" in French referring to a giant snow storm in the 1820's which forced French trappers to hide their gun powder in the river banks.  

All in all, it was a great trip with my family (of which you'll see no pictures of because I never got their permission) and I can't wait to do it again in the future when my daughter is a little bit older. Maybe next time we'll make it all the way to Grand Lake? You never know...

The Legend of Horsetooth Rock

So when Jason and I were first looking at places in Fort Collins to live via the Internet from California, we didn't know this town at all. The street names were completely foreign, we knew nothing about the neighborhoods and even less about the surrounding landscapes. We finally settled on a quaint little apartment sitting on the corner of Horsetooth and Timberline Road. Horsetooth is one of the busiest streets here in Fort Collins, named after the 25 mile long Horsetooth Reservoir located in the same county. Never one time did it occur to me to ask where the name Horsetooth came from. So it wasn't until months after living here that I came to find out the mountain directly in front of our little college town that was shaped so oddly was, in fact, Horsetooth Rock.

I always thought it looked funny, and now that it has been pointed out, OK yes, I see how it may look a bit like a horses molar.

After doing a bit more research, I've also come to find out this mountain has more of a story to it than just the coincidence of looking like a horses jacked up grill.

According to the Native American legend, The Valley of Contentment, (which is today's Horsetooth Reservoir) was at one time the responsibility of a giant. The Giant's job was to protect the wild animals in the valley from getting hunted by Chief Maunamoku and his tribe of Indians. So when the giant got in his way, the Chief led the Indians to slay him. The Chief himself went directly for the giant and in killing him slashed the center of his heart first, then the right, then the left with a tomahawk from the heavens. Upon his death, the giant turned into stone and his slain heart turned into what is now known as Horsetooth Rock.

Yes, well, isn't that pleasant?

There's actually another side to the story that the giant was super evil and that Chief Maunamoku saved the village people (the regular kind, not the YMCA kind) by coming to their aid and defeating the beast. Either way the story is told, the strange formation in the rock is the petrified heart of the giant. Years later, a group of fur trappers and traders decided that the mountain looked more like a horses tooth than a giant's slashed heart and shortly after the name Horsetooth started showing up on maps. So... Horsetooth was, in fact, their final answer.

So anyway, I've wanted to hike to the top of this giant's heart ever since I've laid eyes on it. I've been bugging my sister for months to come climb it with me, but we've never been able to sync our schedules...

...until last Thursday.

 5.5 miles round trip to a 7,260 ft summit is the funnest thing ever to do on a boring spring morning. What a blast! The trail is partly laid out in a nice friendly fashion and then the end you're actually climbing up a stone wall and hoping to find the top. Had we not run into a couple other hikers on the way, we most likely wouldn't have found our final destination.

So the moral of the story is... Don't take your local giant for granite.

(I'm so funny)

Also, if you live near Fort Collins, climb the rock. It's an amazing view at the top. On a clear day you can see parts of Wyoming so I've heard.

And now it totally makes since why my nephew randomly found a set of Giant's toes at the Spring Canyon Park which sits at the end of Horsetooth Road.

Up The Poudre

My birthday is coming up on August 8th.

This year, I  want to explore more of Colorado. With the High Park Fire destroying 87,000 acres of our surrounding forest, I figured throwing a little cash towards our local economy couldn't hurt. I've heard it's going to take an estimated $24 million to restore our area, especially the Poudre Canyon where the fire was the most aggressive. (The Poudre Canyon starts at the North point of Rocky Mountain National Park where it descends from the Continental Divide.)

SO.

We'll be camping in the great Colorado Rockies to ring in my 32nd year on this cute little planet of ours I haven't been camping in the Rockies since I was a teenager visiting Mary's Lake in Estes Park and I'm so excited I could pee. I chose Mountain Park Campground right up the Poudre Canyon Highway 14 just 9 miles past the Mishawaka Amphitheater in Roosevelt National Forest. The highway follows the Cache Le Poudre River with all of it's twists and turns through the mountains, so even though it's a short 45 minute drive from the headquarters in Fort Collins,  I know it promises to be a gorgeous one.

This morning we made the drive so I could check out what it is we're in for exactly. I wanted to preview our campsite, see the burn damage, and how bad the water quality was from the soot in the Cache La Poudre.

The drive was incredible.

You could definitely see the path of the High Park Fire on the tops of almost every single mountain. Trees were now just charred stumps.

The trees that were still standing were dry as bones and look like they had been singed from the heat even if the fire hadn't taken them over.

 Every single driveway that we passed had written appreciation for the Larimer County Fire Department, volunteers, and red cross workers.

We even passed some white water rafters on the way up; a great sign that the water quality was back to normal!

Since this was the case, we had to stop and play in it just a little bit.

The soot mostly stayed on the banks and left the water clear as crystal.

There are still fire restriction signs every where, but they are now allowing personal campfires as long as they are built in designated fire pits and in listed campgrounds.

Now, as I'm about to head into work for a closing shift (2AM), just to turn around 6 hours later for my open shift (8AM), I'm still dreaming of today's little day trip to Mountain Park. My body may be pouring Jack and Cokes, but my brain is already on vacation!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and if you're in town, come see me!