For those of you who are familiar with Seinfeld you may
remember the, “Summer of George” episode. In the episode the character George
finds out his severance package from his job is enough to allow him to take the
whole summer off. He decides he’s going to become very active and do all the
things he’s always wanted to do. Instead of becoming active though as he’d
planned he becomes very lazy. Never changing out of his pajamas, he stops going
over to his friend’s houses and calls them instead to see what was going on and
makes them come visit him. I can relate a lot to George Costanza. My maternity
leave was from March through June and I had grand plans of this being the,
“Summer of Natalie.” I was excited of the prospect of being off work and being
able to do what I wanted. In my mind I would hike a lot of 14,000 foot peaks, I
would frame photos and make scrapbooks, I’d get lots of work outs in and
potentially have dinner ready for my husband every night when he got home from
work. Alas my “Summer of Natalie” went about like the “Summer of George.” I
stayed home in my robe, barely showering on most days, I had friends come to
visit me and I called, texted or facebook’d to keep in touch. Such is the
glamorous first three months of life with an infant.
Those that know me best however, know I am not one to stay
at home very long. After a hiatus I found myself back in the mountains, back to
flying and teaching and of course back to traveling. While the Magee’s enjoy
traveling far and abroad we have found ourselves taking more “stay-cations” as
of late and enjoying our home state. If you have never taken a stay-cation I
highly recommend it especially when living in a state as beautiful as Colorado.
Two weeks ago I had my mom fly out with the intentions of
hiking Castle and Conundrum Peak
with Chad. Once
she arrived in town we packed up the car and headed west towards Aspen.
We have gotten pretty good about traveling with Charlotte but what you come to
realize is that with a baby things become infinitely more annoying. Sitting in
traffic is more infuriating because that’s longer time for the baby to be in
the car. You have to prepare with bottles to feed them when they awake and plan
for stops to change diapers. In short, a four hour car ride now takes five or
six. There were many factors that kept us from hiking those mountains that
weekend as I had planned including running out of break fluid and Chad
forgetting his hiking boots. No matter, we had a hotel in Carbondale
and we were set to enjoy the weekend. My mom has never been farther west than
our house in Arvada so she got to
see some parts of the state she had never seen before. We enjoyed the Glenwood
Hot Springs and the brewery there, we drove to Aspen
and took the shuttle to the Maroon Bells, we ate lunch at a fantastic pizza
dive bar and drove Independence Pass
home. Chad made
me realize that the important thing was not standing on top of a mountain but
spending time with family. As he put it, “the mountains will always be there
and will be the same…Charlotte
won’t be.” Sometimes you can get summit fever before even stepping foot on a
mountain.
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| The Maroon Bells are the most photographed mountains in North America |
The weekend after this we spent five days up in the
mountains again, this time in Steamboat. Unfortunately there are no close 14ers
by (I checked) so the trip was all about relaxing, hot springs and a little
light hiking. Every year since we moved in separate directions my sister and
friends Lisa and Michelle (who are twins which we’ve known since high school)
meet for a vacation in various cities. These adventures started out as girls
trips and since we have all gotten married have expanded to include husbands.
Michelle just had a baby in January and of course I have Charlotte
so this year’s trip included babies as well. This is a chance for us all to get
together, enjoy catching up and hopefully not fighting too much (as siblings
often do). Steamboat was the pick because Lisa’s in-laws own a place there so
it made for a nice trip where we had a free place to stay and everyone even had
their own bedroom and bathroom. You can imagine 7 friends and two babies being
in one condo might be a little tight but there was plenty of activities to do
to keep everyone occupied from mountain biking to hot tubing. We tubed the Yampa
one day, everyone took turns cooking dinner, we visited Strawberry Hot Springs
and took a hike to Fish Water
Falls. As far as ski towns go
Steamboat is one of my favorites and has plenty of outdoors activities to enjoy
without being insanely pricey. I highly recommend the Strawberry Hot Springs
which are mineral springs so you do not smell like sulphur after soaking. After
dark they are 18 and up because it is clothing optional but don’t worry there
isn’t a light there to be found. Be sure and bring a flashlight to find your
way around and your own towel. If you live in Denver
and want to tube the Yampa I recommend bringing your own
tubes as well because the places there charge about $18 to rent one which only
includes one ride down the river.
Before we knew it the weekend came to an end and it was time to head home. Chad and I drove separate since everyone else had to head to the airport and fly home. We decided to drive through Estes Park because of the construction on I70 and the fact we hate sitting in traffic. I highly recommend this as an alternative although it will cost $20 to enter the park (which is good for seven days admission afterwards). We started from the Winter Park side and drove through Estes which took us down to the I25 and 36 junction. On our drive we saw moose, elk, big horn sheep and deer as well as some amazing views of tundra and Longs peak. I will say, if you are a tourist driving through the park please don’t stop in the middle of the road to check out the wildlife or get out of your car. There are designated spots to pull off so take advantage of those. Nothing is more annoying because of a traffic jam due to an out of state license plate driver gawking at the wildlife. The temperature at the top of the pass was around 40 degrees I noted as we were driving and we were treated to some icy slush raining down on us.
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| Longs Peak |
Traveling with an infant is never easy but a better
alternative than staying at home on your couch for the first half of their
life. You just have to remember that you are now on someone else’s schedule and
not your own. Be sure to pack more diapers and outfits than you need and bring
plenty of milk and bottles with you for the drive. Sometimes Charlotte
would get upset because she just wanted out of her car seat so after a quick
pit stop she was fine again. Once you realize that the journey is what is
important, not the destination it makes it easier to relax and enjoy the sights
along the way even if you must stop more often for your baby. Enjoy this time
now while they are young to get out and do things because as they get older
they are more alert and more prone to meltdowns! Traveling with Charlotte
takes more planning and work but I look forward to sharing photos with her some
day of all the adventures she joined us on….
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