Late fall in Steamboat Springs - SLC - Lisa in Orlando

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The fall color peak in Steamboat had passed, but that meant he days were sunny with blue skies and the smells of fall were in the air. Shoulder season meant we got a killer deal on a suite at the Steamboat Grand with a full kitchen as we were looking forward to a home cooked meal with Julie. Of course we were on the lookout of great eats and Steamboat delivered. We enjoyed delicious meals at the dipping grill, soup and sandwiches at Backcountry Provisions and a Mexican lunch at Rio Grande before we hit the road.

Disc golf in Steamboat

Fish Creek Falls

Biking along the Yampa River

On our first day we found the local disc golf course and hiked to Fish Creek falls. Ryan had found a fun event in the local paper for Saturday. It was the 6th Annual Mustache Ride to benefit the local humane society. We met the local crowd at the top of a hill in a residential area near the mountain. As instructed we were all sporting a mustache – Ryan’s was all natural, and Lisa and Julie needed some artificial enhancements. We road our bikes down the hill to the first bar in the series of the pub crawl. After our $2 PBR, some people watching, and lots of laughter we decided to move on with our day and biked along the path that followed the Yampa River.

On our last night we ate our yummy home cooked meal: Julie’s famous slows cooked ribs, twice baked potatoes, and asparagus. We had a wonderful relaxing and fun filled weekend with Julie in a beautiful fall setting. From Steamboat we were off to Salt Lake City.

In Salt Lake we were welcomed by Mark and Becky Bibler and their family. They gave us the grand tour of the surrounding area. We got our exercise biking 22 miles along the bike path that connects the cities along the base of the Wasatch Mountains. We are now proud owners of a Costco membership again that will come in handy in the near future. Dinning at The Red Iguana was a must and delicious as were our first taste of a Mormon Muffin. We met up with Lisa’s friend Justin in Park City one evening for a tour of the Olympic ski team training center (Justin in an athletic trainer for a part of the ski team) and a sushi dinner. Just another reason we love traveling is that we get to catch up with friends and family!

Lisa was off to sunny Orlando Florida for the National Cystic Fibrosis Conference where she was presenting a poster on work her, fellow PT and MD put together while we were in New Hampshire. Ryan stayed in Salt Lake and interviewed at the University of Utah for a fellowship position in Pulmonary and Critical Care. Lisa had an amazing time reconnecting with the CF team from Dartmouth and learned lots of information especially related to exercise for patients with CF, and the poster presentation went really well too.

Lots of plans from here: today we take off for Canyonlands National Park and are hoping to do about a three-day backpacking trip in the Needles district.  We will head west across southern Utah and hit the other national parks: Capitol Reef, Bryce, and Zion.  We are planning five nights in Zion and some of the classic canyon routes including the Narrows and the Subway.  From there we head to Vegas where we’re staying at the Flamingo and seeing some shows, then we head further south to San Diego to fly to Hawaii!