Round 2

Hello again!

It's two years later and mom and I are finally finishing the last leg of our cross-country road trip - - - minus a few of the boring states, ie. IDAHO!

I have been spending this summer back on the East Coast in Stonington, CT with my family and my East Coast friends.

On August 24th, mom and I will be flying to Seattle, Washington where we will rent a car (a convertible to be more precise), stay with friends for the night and explore the pacific coast highway and end in Los Angeles to visit my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin.

This is just a brief introduction to the second round of the fun that will be happening!

am i in a fake land?

the mountains! my favorite flower...peony

hello all....this is claire.

i just got to bolder yesterday to visit miss eliza and let me tell you....i feel like i am in fake world. its almost like i am living in the truman show with jim carey.

let me explain. i am from the east coast and have never been to the west cost except to for a little trip to vegas. i am used to seeing really tall buildings and lots of traffic and not much green stuff. here all you see is everything in front of you and then BAM the rocky mountains. its pretty cool. i think it feels so different for me because everything just looks brand new.

everything is a superstore...target...DILLARDS...walmart..but all so nicely settled in alot of green. ohh and there are the cutest little bunnies running around everywhere.

tottles till tomorrow.
ck

My New Home

MY ROOM

YOUR ROOM

MY BATHROOM

ENJOYING SOME BUBBLY WITH MOM

Momma's additions: not sure I should call it an addition since I'm starting this entry while Eliza sleeps soundly in her new bedroom. I was up early with the light and birds chirping, looked out the guestroom window and saw masses of bunnies; came into the LR which is almost pulled together and caught a great view of the mountains before they became enshrouded with gray mist-laden clouds. 

We officially moved in yesterday, a BIG day with cable hook-up and furniture deliveries, unwrapping, unpacking and assembling much of furniture. We are pros now. The first dresser took 3+ hours, the second was finished in an hour. There are 3-4 items left to put together and 1 and 1/2 walls left to paint but today we are taking a break and going to Colorado Springs to visit an old friend from Brussels. All in all, we've had fantastic luck and a great time: good breaks and deals on furnishings and we are so in tune after this concentrated time together that we gravitate towards the same items without any "no, really, what are you thinking" choices. 15 years ago that was not at all the case when Eliza wanted to paint her room black and I still wanted  (probably) pink rosebuds. The apartment looks wonderful, all guests will be most comfortable. Two contacts have become friends and the guys living below are pretty agreeable. Eliza will be making them cookies before too long. But come one and all and keep my girl company while she looks for a job and settles in.

Apartment Searching

There's only so much to write now as the road trip has ended, but alas there is another adventure ahead of us.

On Sunday we looked at some potential apartment and townhouse communities and then ventured into Boulder. It was about 85 degrees and sunny and gorgeous yesterday. We wandered around Pearl Street, watched the street performers, did some shopping and sat outside and had a wonderful dinner. We were exhausted, probably from the walking and the altitude and headed back to the hotel at 7pm. Earliest dinner we've had yet! But it was smart to go to bed so early because we had a long day today!

I woke up early this morning with a migraine and proceeded to throw up. Fantastic....I'm sure it was a combination of being excited about searching for a place to live and quite possibly the altitude!

Anywho besides all of that we went on a tour of Horizon's at Rock Creek, which is a community of apartments and townhouses. Mom and I instantly fell in love. My one requirement being that I have a view of the Rocky Mountains. We looked at a number of apartments and both of us fell in love with one. We decided it best to look at a number of other places so that we had something to compare it all to. Unfortunately NOTHING compared to what is now , what I would like to call MY NEW HOME!

By Friday May 22, 2009 I will be living at the Horizon's at Rock Creek! I don't want to give you all my address yet because I don't want to jinx anything but as soon as I have signed the lease I will absolutely be sending out my new address!

We also had high tea at the Dushanbe tea house in Boulder and had yummy tea and crumpets (or just finger foods). The tea house is so beautiful!

Here are some pictures of the Rockies and the past few days.

View of the Rockies

Outside of my new apartment!

Kitchen/Dining room. Light fixture to be replaced

Terrible picture of the living room with a fireplace!

My bedroom

Street performer in Boulder. The most flexible guy I've EVER seen!

May 16, 2009 NOUS SOMMES ICI !!!!!!!!

We are here! We made it! It's beautiful and perfect and we're here!!!!

Today we left Laramie, Wyoming on a beautiful day and arrived in Boulder, Colorado (an hour away) on a cloudy day! The drive probably would have been even more beautiful but we were transpoting through a cloud of fog most of the drive.

We first stopped in Fort Collins to visit Nancy Schwartz. Nancy and her husband Dan lived in Brussels with their two daughters Erika and Katie. Katie was in my grade and we were great friends. I haven't seen Nancy since I was in Brussels and it was great to see her and her home and have a nice (and tasty) lunch.

We then headed to Westminster where we are staying at La Quinta Inn and Suites. We hung around our room for a bit which has beds as comfortable as our beds in DuBois, PA. We drove up to Boulder to walk around a grab some dinner, but realized that it must be graduation weekend there because it was extremely crowded. So we drove to the town of Lafayette and had a fantastic Mexican (yes again) dinner. We drove around the town, which is adorable and then the town of Louisville, equally as adorable. Both towns have a fantastic view of the mountains- my one requirement when looking for a home.

Tomorrow we will do some more exploring (avoiding Boulder until the college kids leave) and try to relax before we go straight to work on Monday!

Not many photos today because of the weather but the sunset was still breath-taking!

Not so beautiful when we arrived!!!!

Drive to Fort Collins on I-25

Small detour on CR-72....very weird

Rocky Mountain Sunset

Momma's addition: we crossed the border under a cloud which to me mirrored some of the mood descending on me as it sunk in that this was to be Eliza's new home. Thank God for airplanes and FF miles. It's beautiful and what I've seen combines culture, nature and a diversity of settings all without the "edge" we hate and prize in the NE. I think Eliza will be very happy here and we will be happy for her. Now, where to start? We have to case the neighborhoods today, for potential condos and town centers, the criteria: mountain views, good coffee shop, pet-friendly neighborhood, between Boulder and Denver... this does NOT narrow things down much but it will be fun.

Road Trip Day 11 Yes, Still in Wyoming

I cannot imagine doing this trip that we've done in less than a week! I can't imagine passing by some of the things that we have seen without stopping to soak it all in.

Today we just hung around in Laramie. We went into town and had breakfast, then decided to treat ourselves to a manicure for mom and a pedicure for me. Well if anyone is in Laramie, Wyoming and needs their nails done, DO NOT go to NT Nails!!!! The girl who did my toes made my feet bleed and the girl that did mom's nails made them look like talons!

Then we drove up the Snowy Range Scenic Byway...well, not really. We actually could only go up about 7 miles because there was still so much snow on the ground. I was very happy about this because the elevation goes up to about 10,500 feet and my track record with high altitudes is not great. The drive was however absolutely breathtaking!

We headed back into town and went to the Wyoming Territorial Prison where Butch Cassidy was imprisoned. It was impressively well preserved and layed out for tourists and we spent a long time walking around. It was especially interesting because it was supposed to be high security however they were extremely lenient with their prisoners, releasing them years before their time was up, allowing such luxuries as pets, fine meals and even vacation time in which they were allowed to go out of the prison for weeks on end.

We returned back to Laramie where we went to Walmart and picked up some things to fix our nails and went to a store where mom bought the best pair of cowboy boots! I'm so proud!

The rest of the night we stayed in our hotel room, did laundry, ordered fantastic Mexican food that delivers and watched TV and hung out. It's nice to just hang out and stop for a while when you've been moving, moving, moving for the past 11 days!

Tomorrow Boulder. We will stop and have lunch with Nancy Schwartz who is the mother of an old friend of mine from Brussels who I haven't seen in more than 10 years! It will be nice to see a familiar face. It will also be nice to have a place to stay where I don't have to pack up my suitcase every morning! We are supposed to be staying at La Quinta hotel in Westminster because it's damn cheap, for the next two weeks, but HOPEFULLY we'll find me a home during those two weeks ( cross my fingers)!!!!! So ta-ta for now!

Oh and we figured out the weird billboard signs too! Today we saw one that said "It's like beating a secondhand smoking horse". One of the others said "Curiosity secondhand smoked the cat", they're substituting the words "dead" and "killed".....now it's a little more genius...

Driving to the mountains

Timber truck....we stayed pretty far behind

Jess, every time I see these open plains with horses (and lots of foals) I think of you! Come and see me so we can go riding!

Wyoming Territorial Prison

Sunset from our hotel room