Colorado Trip

This is Adam again!  We had quite the busy summer this year.  After my birthday, we had a short visit by my mother who brought a desk and a glider from my parent's house since they did not want them anymore and we could use them.  It was a fun, short visit and the furniture that she brought has become some of the most used furniture in the house. :-)

Later in July, Ashley and I went on a well-planned trip to Colorado.  Not only was this a chance to visit family and not only was it Ashley's first visit to Colorado outside of the winter months, it was also necessary for a research paper that I am doing.

Ashley was really enjoying the view of the mountains in the summer

She also enjoyed taking pictures of me driving. (This is my excited face) :-)

We were visiting for three full days but we reserved the last day, Saturday, for the family as my sister Ruth and all of her kids were going to be in town as well.  The first two days, Ashley and I would go into Denver to visit places and then go back for games and rest in the evening.

At this point, I should probably explain my research project.  I am doing a paper on Colorado Mining Age Domestic Architecture.  I have been interested in how a city like Denver, famous for the instant wealth of a mining boom, would reflect architectural practices of the more established wealthy of the east coast, in a period commonly referred to as the Gilded Age.  My goal was to visit a few houses to explore some of the architectural and interior design techniques used and compare them to the Gilded Age 'cottages' of the East Coast.

The first house I visited was the Castle Marne, a old home turned into a bed and breakfast.  The owners were most interested in helping me with the project and I spent over an hour talking to the owner, Jim, who gave me a ton of information and was just a wonderful host!  I was very impressed by their kindness, and I would give a glowing recommendation of them as hosts. :-)

Here are a few pictures I took (I took a TON for the project, but only a few I think would be interesting in general):

Ashley and I in front of the Castle Marne

Standing on the front porch

A picture of us from the front door as we stand on the grand staircase

A picture of the fireplace which is original. (In the reflection, you can see our host, Jim)

A portion of the Dining Room

The windows in the Dining Room

After visiting the Castle Marne, Ashley and I went off to lunch and then ended our day at the Molly Brown House.  There are no pictures allowed of the interior but I took a few on the outside.  Here is the best one of the house as a whole:

The next day, Ashley and I went to visit one more home: The Molly Brown Summer Home.  This house is a little less well-known after having been in the same family for 80 years.  For a while, it has been a normal residence, but now they are starting to set it up as a museum.  We had a small group and the tour guide/owner was very informative and kindly allowed us to take some pictures of the place.  I am well aware that permission was given for the purpose of the paper, so I will just show one exterior picture:

This house's interiors were not quite so lavish as the others but it was interesting as the Browns had a greater influence on its design.

That was the end of the research part of the trip but Ashley and I had some fun going to the Adventure Golf place that I used to go to a lot as a kid.  It was fun but we went right after a rather large rainstorm so there were puddles everywhere and the 'greens' were a little squishy.

On Saturday, we got to spend time with Ruth and her family. It was so much fun, as we played croquet in the backyard (a family tradition), spent some time shopping with my teenage niece, and then went to Lakeside Amusement Park as a family.  It was a lot of fun but it was cut short by a rainstorm (the theme of the trip).  I loved going back and introducing Ashley to the old amusement park.  Lakeside was founded almost 100 years ago and some of the rides are very old, but still in operation.  The Roller Coaster ride, for instance was built in the 1930s.  Ashley likes roller coasters, but she was scared of that one a bit just because it is so old, but no worries, it ran perfectly. :-)

Sunday, we packed up and headed back to Utah.  We certainly loved our trip and I loved letting Ashley experience some family traditions especially since we don't know when we will visit Colorado again.