Colorado: Part 3--Nederland and Eldorado Springs State Park

For those not sure what is going on here, I am finishing up on blogging about a 5 week road trip. Colorado was out last stop.

Where I left off on my last post: A dream of mine has always been to see where I was conceived in Colorado. It happened to be just outside of Boulder, and the kind folks we were staying with in Boulder offered to take us there, literally. I had planned to leave some of my mother's ashes at Yellowstone the week before, and had forgotten to do that. My mom went with us, at least. It had been since 1972, while pregnant me, since she had been. LOL. I thought it would be neat leave some of my mom in Nederland (population under 5000, I believe). So I bagged up some of my mom's cremains for the day's road trip. My mom apparently met my bio dad there and fell in love with him at a commune. It was a beautiful little town with a new fire station and big post office. When we arrived I got a photo of the town hall and we ate lunch at a cafe. The food was really yummy!!! After we ate, Mama L wanted to take us to Mud Lake Open Space down the road, so we could go on a hike. I fell in love with the place, and decided to leave a small scoop of cremains there, since it was still in Nederland--my town of conception. I know my mom would have loved that idea.

It was a really neat day and I am so grateful my new friend made time to take us there. It was a beautiful, scenic drive along the Boulder Creek and Mama L was certain my mom would have visited Mud Lake years ago when she lived there.

Afterward, we headed to Eldorado Springs State Park. It was really beautiful there. The cliffs were amazing. We saw dozens of serious rock climbers doing their thing, too. There was a short hiking trail we took. I loved it there and was sorry they didn't have a place to camp. But it was well worth the time to check it out. Again, I was very grateful to see it. The kids were all pooped after that and we headed back to the Holcombs'.

The following day we went to their local unschooling park day in Boulder at a park along a lovely creek. I was really tired that day, but still enjoyed it. The end of our trip was near and I was really having to come to terms with that, and some really overstimulated little boys. We all needed some down time, but it was still hard to imagine leaving our new friends. It was a good run.
We left for home on Thursday morning and made it home that night. We had the chance to go to New Mexico to see Sandra Dodd. But we decided we really needed to get home for some down time, and to check on the house and dog. All was well, except our phone and internet were down for a few days due to a storm.

Thank you Holcomb family for all your hospitality!!!! We hope you know how much your kindness meant to us. We love you all so much.

Peace and joy to all!!!!

~Heather and family

P.S. We are still home and all is well. My next posts will come in the next week. We are still adjusting to home and missing life on the road, and all our friends and family. We'd do it all over again.