Where am I going, and what will I find?

Three weekends ago, I woke up on a beautiful Saturday morning and decided I wanted to go for a drive. Didn't know where or how far. So I started driving farther north on Highway 9, the only other direction in Summit County I hadn't yet explored. Perfect day for a short road trip: warm sun, cool air, and pretty empty roads. The land became more and more flat - and brown - and about 1/2 an hour in to the drive I started looking for somewhere to turn around. And then, as the road curved west, a beautiful blue caught my eye. I had found Lake Heeney, a refreshing sight among the otherwise monotone drive.

On my way back I shot some photos. The road trip was, in the end, worthwhile: I drove somewhere new and found something I liked. A lot.

Fall has arrived

As I sat at work on Wednesday and watched the afternoon rain fall, I thought to myself, "Fall has definitely arrived." Then, as the sun came out and dried the wet ground, I started counting the minutes until I could jump in my car and rush home to grab a camera. I was anxious, to say the least. Finally, as I pulled out of the post office close to home, I caught a glimpse of color in the corner of my eye: it was a rainbow! And not just a small, half arch of color. A huge, full rainbow right above me. Needless to say, I might have blown through the last stop sign on the way home (it's not a terribly busy street, anyway) in the race to capture the beautiful arch...

And I made it! To the other side of our apartment was the other sign of Fall:

Early to rise...

As it gets colder in the mornings here, frost forms on the car and I can see my breath outside. And every time I drive to work, undoubtedly in a hurry, I watch as steam rises off the corner of the lake. When the clouds are low and the morning sun shines on the water, it's unbelievable. Hard to put into words. So last Saturday I decided to suck it up, wake up extra early to make my normal commute to work and finally catch this beautiful sight.

...but it wasn't very cold on Friday, nor was it very chilly that morning. In turn, there was no steam rising off the lake. *sigh* So I made the most of it and went to one of my favorite spots, Sapphire Point off Swan Mountain Road. I was already up and out, I couldn't very well go home without any photos.

The first and last shots were my two favorites:

The simplicity of each image drew me to them. They're both dependent on light. Without having been there at the right moment, they'd be just another snapshot. All in all, the morning was not wasted, though I'm pretty sure I went to be earlier than normal that night!

Choo Choo!!

At the end of July, I had the great pleasure of showing my dad around my new Colorado home. One of the best things we did was take a day trip to Leadville, where we then hopped on a train and rode through the mountains. Rock surrounded us on one side, Aspens on the other. We could touch the trees as we passed.

The blanket that we brought "just in case" proved to be very helpful in the middle of our journey, when we stopped at the highest point and ran into some rain on the way back. In the end, it ended up being a fun new adventure!