Back in April we signed up with postcrossing.com in order to send and receive postcards from all over the world. We are taking a short break from the process while we are traveling this month because I would hate to have postcards waiting—unregistered for days—when we got back.

Through this website we’ve received cards from folks in Romania, the Netherlands (4), Brazil, Norway (2), Germany (5), Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Greece, and Russia.

Here are a few of our favorites…

(clockwise from upper left: Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Russia)

You can see our entire Flickr set here.

Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery, Nederland—We made fantastic time from the Denver Airport, through Boulder, viewing Boulder Falls, and into Nederland to pick up the Peak-to-Peak Highway, but we need some nourishment. What better than beer and bbq! I tried the Big Ned Red which came in a wine glass and was delicious with my pulled pork sandwich. Eric ate the entire plate of beef brisket and washed it down with the amber ale. We also split a plate of sweet potato fries thanks to the happy hour special. If I ever find myself nearby, we will come back.

The Egg & I, Estes Park—Our hotel had a modest continental breakfast, but we needed something more substantial, so we stopped by this popular breakfast place near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. I had the hikers benedict (of course) with asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes and crispy bacon on top and my very own carafe of coffee (!!!). Eric’s breakfast croissant was good, but a little dense. I’m not sure pastries bake too well at 9,000 feet?

Creekside Cellars, Evergreen—A scenic detour took us down to this area on our way to Colorado Springs. The red wines were passable but the whites, not so much. And skip the tawny port altogether, yuck. We didn’t stay for lunch, though the patio looked nice.

Charles Court @ the Broadmoor, Colorado Springs—Our fancy dinner of the trip, the Broadmoor Resort is a complex of accommodations, restaurants and grounds to behold. We arrived early and enjoyed cocktails and a cheese plate at the bar while waiting for our table. The service was exceptional and the meal was lovely. April, one of the bartenders, gave us a few suggestions for our main courses and I took her up on the venison main course with a carpaccio appetizer. Eric’s pork special was very tasty and the potato side was a stand-out. Interestingly, they had several wines on the menu that were of good value. All around, we had a fantastic and memorable meal.

Jack Quinn’s Pub, Colorado Springs—We were looking for a quick bite to tide us over until dinner at the hotel on Saturday evening, so we ventured downtown to get a pint and a snack. The place was next to empty at 2pm, but our private booth was a treat and the atmosphere was very pleasant. My guinness and beef boxty was very good and Eric’s fried potato wedges hit the spot.

Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, Colorado Springs—A brewery for breakfast? To prove that it’s never to early for beer, we dined at this brewery for brunch on Sunday. I enjoyed a porter with my chorizo, egg, and potato wrap and black beans while everyone else had a more traditional breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

Comfort Inn, Estes Park—A charming lodge, one of the better Comfort Inns we’ve stayed in. The front desk was very helpful, and the only bad thing was the free wifi connection that did not work properly in our room. We just dragged the laptop to the lobby. Otherwise, the room was clean and we had own own marked parking spot. This hotel is a little further out than some other options but Estes Park isn’t that large and this was an affordable place to stay.

Crown Plaza Hotel, Colorado Springs—For some reason the hotels that have hosted the last two River Rats conventions cannot seem to handle large amounts of people. Our room wasn’t ready when we tried to check in at 4:30pm. Then (after requesting a room close to my dad) they put us in the complete opposite end of the hotel. And when I say complete opposite, I mean a 10 minute walk through this sprawling place. No exaggeration, it really took 10 minutes from end to end. The front desk staff was woefully slow and not able to help with even the simplest request (i.e. a reservation for a local restaurant). Despite all of this, our king room was quite large and the bed was very comfortable. Once we figured out that we could park just outside the room, the excessive walking was diminished. I honestly think they just need to hire better managers.

First of all, this is our 501st(!) post since we started with WordPress two years ago this month. Time does fly!

So, about the post title… Eric arrived home on Tuesday with the news that on his way home from work a stone hit his windshield making a crack that would definitely not pass inspection come fall.

We were going to just deal with it when we got back, but he noticed a 50% off deal that Safelite.com was running, so we scheduled the replacement for this afternoon.

The technician, Matt, was quick and courteous and didn’t blink an eye when I started taking photos. :)

It was a $230 oopsie, but thankfully, did not involve an entire day of sitting at a car repair place.

We were invited to spend the afternoon with about 15 other mini schnauzers for a Memorial Day cookout, and we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to let Riesling off leash in a fenced backyard.

Did I mention the 15 other schnauzers?

To tire her out a bit we took a long walk around the North Carolina Museum of Art campus to take in some outdoor sculpture, like Gyre by Thomas Sayre.

Riesling was pretty tired afterwards, so we took a quick break in the shady Lowe’s Pavilion.

Thanks to our trackstick and Google Earth, I know we walked 1.7 miles.

With a panting schnauzer in the backseat, we continued up to North Raleigh for the party. North Carolina Schnauzer Rescue volunteers Eve and Bob hosted the cookout with generous amounts of food and libations.

Of course, there was a lot of excitement with each new arrival…

Riesling behaved herself quite well and managed to be far away from most of the scuffles while looking angelic.

It’s always interesting to see all of the different schnauzer personalities, including Kayla, an absolute sweetie who is available for adoption, check out her profile here.

Another highlight of our visit to Colorado Springs was the Garden of the Gods, a free city park near Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. Frustratingly, we arrived at the visitor’s center two minutes after they closed but a quick mime on my part prompted a volunteer to open the door and fetch me a park map. :)

We only had an hour or so before we needed to head back to the hotel and get ready for the formal dinner that evening, so we parked by the Perkins Central Garden trail and walked around the signature rock formations of the park. There were climbers on every rock and the sky was clear which made for some good photographic opportunities.

We decided to come back this way the following day on our way out of town to show Dad and Lynn the park and boy am I glad we did… look at this view from the visitor’s center!

That’s Pikes Peak in the distance with the Garden of the Gods park in the foreground. Stunningly beautiful.

My dad insisted on all of us taking the trip up to the top of Pikes Peak and because the roads were closed, that left the cog railway. When we picked up our tickets they let us know that the track was frozen near the top, so we would be stopping short. However, the price was discounted to $25 as a result and we only stopped about a quarter mile from the top, so we still saw some spectacular scenery.

Here is a view of Colorado Springs as the train started up.

There were trees for quite a while, but once we passed the timberline, it became barren and everything was frozen over.

Well, everything except the yellow-bellied marmots!

These guys were not here on the way up, I think they came out specifically to check us out when they heard the train go by.

We stopped around 10,000 feet on the way down for some photo opportunities and to let the 12:20pm train pass us. I started to feel the altitude once we started back down but it was past in about 20 minutes—not nearly as bad as the Grand Canyon.

The whole ride took just about three hours. The seats weren’t overly comfortable (molded wood) and there was a lot of chattering on the crowded cars (I like my nature without a lot of other people around), but the wide-open vistas made up for it.

Eat & Drink

Thirsty Bear Brewing Company, San Francisco—We try and hit a brewery in every city, so we can collect a representative pint glass. This place has the distinction of being the only organic brewery in the city, and it receives even more bonus points because the beer is tasty. We just had appetizers as we planned on a late dinner elsewhere, their Spanish-themed menu looked good and the patatas bravas were excellent.

Scala’s Bistro, San Francisco—We were eating pretty late (after 9pm) and this place was still packed when we left. We don’t normally eat in the hotel’s restaurant, but made an exception as this place had great reviews and well, it was close. I ordered steak frites while Eric enjoyed the rigatoni with duck bolognese. A glass of wine each made us even more sleepy so we retired soon after dinner.

Sears Fine Food, San Francisco—Famous for their little swedish pancakes, it is the only reasonably priced item on the menu and while Eric loved the small pancakes, my breakfast was just okay. Service and atmosphere was fine but I have no idea why this place was so crowded.

The Spinnaker, Sausalito—One of the best meals of the trip and it was for a late lunch! After leaving San Francisco, we stopped in Sausalito for a quick bite and awesome views of downtown San Francisco. This glass-enclosed restaurant served the best clam chowder I’ve ever had and with the seafood sampler appetizer, it was plenty for a meal. Eric had the butter lettuce salad and the cheese ravioli in walnut alfredo sauce. Delicious.

Crepevine, San Rafael—We stopped here for both dessert on Sunday night (see entry above for why we didn’t have dinner) and breakfast on Monday morning. The kilauea and siena dessert crepes were scrumptious and filling. Come morning, my New Orleans benedict was good, but hardly spicy. We had some issues with the quality of fried potatoes throughout the trip and this place was, unfortunately, no different.

Zza’s Trattoria, Oakland—We met Leah and Simon here for dinner on the last night of our trip. One side is a candle-lit wine bar with dark woods and a reasonably-priced wine list and the other side is a more boisterous home-style restaurant. Eric and I arrived early, so we started on a bottle of wine in the wine bar, eventually moving next door for dinner. My Prosciutto e Gorgonzola pizza was filling and generously adorned with the good stuff and Eric’s gnocchi was rich and delicious.

Sleep

Sir Francis Drake, San Francisco—When researching hotels in downtown San Francisco, we discovered (like in most cities) that the business hotels go down in price on the weekends while the budget hotels go up. We got a great deal on this boutique hotel and the location (about 3 blocks from Chinatown and 1 block from Union Square) was great. Our king room was small, but comfortable. The bathroom had Aveda products and for being in a busy section of town, our room was remarkably quiet. I would definitely stay here again.

Travelodge, San Rafael—Your standard noisy-because-its-near-the-highway motel, it was clean but the floor sloped, so it felt like you were falling as you walked across the room. We also managed to somehow lock ourselves out of the bathroom. Thankfully the hostess let us in but every interaction with her was pretty chilly. This is exactly the kind of place that makes me rethink just how important saving money is when it means staying at accommodations like this.

Millwood Inn & Suites, Millbrae—This was a very pleasant surprise. We needed a place to stay near the airport and most of the hotels in the area had disparate reviews—except this one. Our king room was large, with comfy blankets, nice bath products and most importantly peace and quiet. The included continental-plus breakfast and wifi were also big bonuses. Highly recommended.

Yesterday was my birthday, and these are some of the presents I received. I just hope I can eat all the cookies before we leave next week…

Most of our time spent at the dog park involves Riesling barking at dogs on the other side of the fence so she can chase them or barking at other dogs in the same area just because. Today she was in a particularly playful mood and spent significant time running around with a maltese-yorkie mix named Gizmo.

(quick apologies for the cameraphone quality)

She was so tired after an hour or so of this that she lay down next to me when I asked her to. First time ever at the dog park.

She is currently happily cashed out on the futon. :)

On our way south to Colorado Springs to meet up with my dad and Lynn, we took a short stroll around Lily Lake on the southern end of Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw more birds and small mammals here than on any other trail in the park… including this chipmunk who happily posed for us.

I was mostly bummed about all the snow because it meant it was too early for wildflowers. However! We did find some blue pasqueflowers on the southern side of Lily Lake just coming up. Imagine a fuzzy crocus. :)

We finished the southern end of the Peak-to-Peak highway which included a drive through Blackhawk, a town (seemingly) consisting entirely of casinos.

We took a short detour to Evergreen, CO to visit Creekside Cellars. The red wine was passable, but overpriced, and the white was, well, not really drinkable according to Eric.

Once in Colorado Springs we headed to North Cheyenne Cañon Park to see Helen Hunt Falls and Silver Cascade Falls.

Helen Hunt Falls is adjacent to the parking area, so the place was pretty crowded. It was next to impossible to get a shot of the falls without people posing on the bridge or even sitting in the creek above the falls. Silver Cascade Falls is not worth the uphill climb to see it, although you do pass this lovely cascade on the way. Our shot was taken from an overlook further up the road.

The drive out of the park with the sun behind us was beautiful; the light was really making the red rocks stand out.