Our 5
th Anniversary 2011 was spent celebrating over 4
th of July weekend. We decided to spend our weekend exploring the Mountain Cities near Denver. Nestled between peaking mountains is Central City and Black Hawk. Just a few minutes off the freeway and some steep ups and downs later, we made it to this historic gold mining area.
Right next to Central City about a quarter mile down the street is the town of Black Hawk. The combination of these old western buildings and gold rush history sitting on Indian land created a mini Vegas of casinos in the mountains. These places range from closet size to Vegas size gambling. We decided it looked like fun, but another day we will spend some time exploring this area. Onward!
On the way up, I decided Breckenridge would be fun. As we turned off the freeway a large lake sits to the side that was filled with boats galore. As we continued towards
Breck, we saw people riding bikes along miles of trails lining the road with snow capped mountains as a beautiful backdrop scenery. It was full of casual bikers, families, and those serious
spandexed professionals. Very cool.
When we arrived to the massive parking lots that sits at the front of the town, I saw a river running through the area. We parked and walked over to find a little raging rapid that ran through the entire city. It was a great time to visit because for the fourth. The whole town celebrates with festivities. We found people set up on the sides of the river with
BBQs, picnics, playing games, enjoying the street fair and art fair, while waiting for fireworks.
I fell in love with this little town. It reminded me of a beach town back home, full of character with little fun shops as far as the eye can see lining the streets and friendly people everywhere.
In the picture above, you can see the local
Breck fire dept. assisting the kids use the fire hoses to water fight each other from either side of the street.
On to the next location. As we continued down the road we saw many abandoned mining sites throughout the mountains.
We decided since we had a little more time before dark that we would drive further down the road to Vail. It was a town themed like a Vegas casino. This to was supposed to be German style with restaurants, hotels, walkways, and more all designed to take you to another place.
I have to admit, it was not very impressive and I think Vegas would have done this theme better. It felt odd and fake. Maybe in the winter the theme works better with the snow and instant access skiing right from the town. Eh, I had high expectations but I liked Breckenridge much better.
The mountains, however, looked great.
Now, time to leave the mountains and head back home. We both discussed where and what we wanted for dinner. Since it was our anniversary, we wanted something nice. The problem is, we are often disappointed when we go out. We had ordered a cheese plate a few weeks ago, and it was overly expensive and extremely disappointing. We knew we could do better.
For under $20, we made this huge cheese plate. Mostly purchased from the
remnants cheese bin and some nice cured meats. It was wonderful. We took it to the porch and sat outside and watched the fireworks. A pretty great ending to a pretty great day.
Before the rain started, it was a beautiful sunny day. Hot, but nice out. Then, almost without warning, the skies opened up and let loose. You can see from the picture above, the rain is up to the curb here.
About five minutes later, it's over the curb.
The whole storm lasted about 30-40 minutes. I heard reports on the radio that during that time pretty close to 3 inches of rain fell. In some areas, golf ball sized hail fell and did some serious damage to cars, windows, and houses. Trees and branches fell and destroyed houses. About three blocks away from where I took these pictures, the radio reported cars were submerged in intersections. This kind of rain and hail has happened a couple time this summer. I am not wondering if it will happen again, but when. 
Month of planning and a Friday afternoon spent with 
