I Guess He’d Rather be in Colorado

August 16, 2012









I Guess He’d Rather be in Colorado

The trip to Indiana was followed up by what seemed like a quick turnaround back in Key West, before we were headed back out again, this time on our semi-annual trip to Colorado. Not much was happening in Key West as it is sort of the winding down of what is generally a slower summer season. There was basically only a single event that we attended before taking off to Colorado and that is the celebration of the start of the lobster fishing season known as Lobsterfest.



Alicia & Kathy

Sandy

Key West Lobsterfest is held each year a couple of weeks after the official start of the Florida spiny lobster fishing season. A street fair is held along Duval Street and many of the restaurants and bars set up booths to serve up the delicious crustacean in a variety of forms. The most popular being simply grilled up lobster tails served with corn on the cob and potatoes. But there was also fried lobster, lobster chowder, lobster bisque, lobster ceviche and more. A lobster fiesta indeed.









The week after Lobsterfest, Kathy & I were flying the friendly skies once again, headed to Colorado to once again attend the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons. We fly out and arrived at the Denver airport around noon on my birthday, renting an SUV and heading towards Boulder, which was our first stop. We wanted to stop in and see my nephew Jerome who is working at a wonderful upscale pizza restaurant and bar called Pizzeria Locale on Pearl Street in Boulder.





Jerome



We stopped in for lunch and sat at the bar as Jerome was tending bar. We had a fantastic meal and a great visit, planning to stop back on Monday after the music festival to hang out more with Jerome. We then drove on up to Estes Park where we had plans to celebrate my birthday dinner with our friend Kerry at the restaurant she owns, The Rock Inn Mountain Tavern.







Kerry is one of my best and dearest friends and spending my birthday with her, her boyfriend Matt and Kathy was just about the perfect way to celebrate. Being at the Rock Inn is like being back among family as we have visited so often that we have made friends with many of the people who frequent the place and the new people we meet feel pretty much like family right away anyway.





On our way through Estes Park to the Rock Inn, we encountered a herd of about 60 Elk, mostly females and young ones, with a huge Bull to keep watch as well. They were meandering through town and we stopped like the tourists we were to watch them. They walked so close to us, it was truly amazing to see and to hear the bleating of the young ones was really cool. It was one of those magical Colorado experiences.







We had another sort of magical experience the next day as we headed off to Lyons, after a brief but fun stop at the weekly Estes Park Farmer’s market, to get in line to secure a camping spot on the Planet Bluegrass grounds for the Folks Fest. They have a somewhat unique and interesting way of handling lines at Planet Bluegrass as we lined up in spot 118 for the six pm opening of the campground at about noon.





We had plenty of friends in support of our efforts and we joined with Kerry’s parents Mike and Donna, who had a lower number to rush in and secure camping space by throwing down tarps in a frenzy of activity as the gates opened. In the meantime, Kathy & I walked over in to the town of Lyons to have lunch at the famed Oskar Blues Brewery and to explore the town while waiting. It was a fun day and when the smoke cleared after the gates opened we had secured a massive campsite for all of the friends and family who would be joining us in camping for the festival and we preceded to set up our camping compound.