Fort Collins and surrounding areas

I love this place.
Sara and I both drove up Friday afternoon caught my friend Jenn at home before she headed out for dinner then went to meet up with my old house mate Christy to get some food and drinks. Christy is now teaching a psychology class at our old University and is an assistant teacher for another class, crazy, and in a doctorate program there. Where has the time gone? I guess we are getting old, by 10:30 we were all calling it a night, lame huh. But as Christy and I were walking back to her house we passed the Aggie Theatre where she use to bartend when we lived together, so of course we had to stop in for a drink, say hi and see who was playing. I was the only one who didn't end up at an ex-boyfriends house that night......
Saturday, some of Jenns friends came over to can peaches and make peach preserves, mmm it smelled scrumptious. Sunday, Jenn and I went to the Grant Family Farm to pick apples, plums and visit some small friends:
I headed to Old Town on Monday to pick up some ingredients to make my own lip balm and stopped by my favorite store, Nature's Own to get some stone jars. One of the guys working mentioned he had puppies so I of course had to go take a look at them that evening. Oh man were they cute, I may be picking up a little fur ball on my way back through for my drive south.

Wednesday Jenn and I drove up to Red Feather and camped off Deadman Rd. We were looking for the best spot that was protected from the wind and was surrounded by changing Aspens. We found it after a bit of seeking, but no doubt it was worth the search. We set up the tent and started a fire. Jenn made some delicious guacamole and Magda explored the woods. As the sun set the coyotes began their call, with each set of howls we could hear them getting closer

In the morning we packed up and harvested some rose hips, then headed to the The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya I do not have the words to describe this place, they will come one day.

That evening Jenn and I rode bikes to the last bike in movie at New Belgium for some pre-movie double dutch and a few brews.
Friday I was picking up a CSer at the Greyhound in Fort Collins who was going to travel with me to the west and ran into Kevin a friend of Jenns that I met the night before at double dutch. He came to pick up Jaret with me and invited us to Colorado Springs for the night then go see Bishops Castle Saturday down in Rye Colorado. After sending pictures to one of my friends, he described it perfectly: "it looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie"
We climbed all around it, into the towers and into the globe. I have not been that scared in a long time, the towers were shaking, I wasn't sure how some of the walkways were being held up, there were steep spiral stairs with low ceilings and no hand rails but I felt great. Jim Bishop, the guy who built and is still building this castle was present and working on it all the while speaking his mind on any issue you can think of. My favorite quotes of his were "if bullshit was music, I'd be a walking brass band" and "I have no boss, I work for myself, nobody tells me what to do. Well my wife can tell me what to do, I guess my wife is my boss", he's a smart man.