Joylin in Colorado! 2017

We had an awesome visit from my niece Joylin. The cousins had a great time and Leo wanted to show Joylin EVERYTHING, which is hard to do in a week.

To get into Maroon Bells these days, you need to take a shuttle, which sort of doubles as a tour guide. We went to Maroon Lake which is gorgeous:



And hiked up to Crater Lake (about 3.6 miles round trip):

Where we successfully searched for caddisfly larvae - the larvae make cocoon-like structures to protect themselves from fish and other predators:

The weather was starting to turn a bit when we hiked down but we got to the shuttle bus dry!

That night, Brothers Keeper and John Popper played a free show on the slope next to our condo:

Being a big Blues Traveler fan, I thought it was really cool. Plus I could walk right to the front of the stage and hear a howling harmonica solo. But the kids were not as impressed.

We told Joylin the story of how we had to cut a backpacking trip short because we started craving kitfo (raw beef) at Ras Kassas (Ethiopian restaurant). Just telling the story made us hungry. So when we got home, the first place we went was of course:

We ate ALL of it.

My friend Chris was getting married in a Scottish wedding so we all went to see what men look like in kilts!