Granby One

Last spring we realized that there were very few open slots on our summer calendar for a week long vacation, so we set aside the last week in July for some sort of Mountain Adventure Vacation -- at least that's how we labeled it on the Cozi calendar. Initially, the event was to be a camping trip nearly two weeks long, and we had visions of traveling around Colorado, exploring little mountain towns, sleeping in the wild, and riding all the best bike trails. Maybe we'd hook a little pop-up trailer behind our Nissan, the top of which would be bristling with our fleet of mountain bikes. Well, reality narrowed it to a week, and practicality planted us in a townhome in Granby, which is a small town and ski resort area centered between Winter Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It turned out to be a good choice as base for our adventure, and we had a nice week.

Our little family of seven arrived in Granby around noon on Saturday, July 27. We couldn't check in to the townhome right away, so we had a leisurely lunch on the patio at a restaurant in Granby to pass a little time and watch the storms brew.

Seven? In addition to the usual scaq, Grandma Sharon, Boyfriend Daniel, and Dog Amos comprised our family. The townhome was nice, with kitchen, dining area, and living room on the main floor, along with large deck elevated deck out back. There was a big master bedroom upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs. We put Q and BD in one room downstairs, A and GS in the other, and C and I took the sofa bed in the living room. The Diddiwah would be joining us on Sunday, staying just a couple of nights, so we saved the three of them the upstairs bedroom. It worked out pretty well, although if the Diddiwah had been staying all week, it would have been a little tight.

Storms? Shortly after our arrival that first Saturday the storms began. We had planned to get the bikes out for an afternoon ride, but dodging lightning bolts wasn't exactly what we had in mind. So we put the bikes under the roof of the porch, the three kids played the Xbox in the basement, and the adults twiddled thumbs, looked at maps, and cooked some fake burgers on the grill on the back deck. After dinner we played a few intense rounds of Bananagrams. And outside it rained and rained and rained.