This year’s summer vacation was to Colorado. After a quick stop in Denver to see Adina and chill at a really cool hotel, it was up to Grand Lake for camping on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Denver

• The Curtis Hotel: Sweet boutique hotel with a different pop art theme on every floor. Yay Hotwire.
• Jack and Grill: New Mexican food.  Yay green chilies. Thanks, Adina, for taking us here!
• Sam’s #3: Diner/breakfast.

Camping in Stillwater Campground on Lake Granby, Arapaho National Forest.

Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

• East Shore Trail on Shadow Mountain Lake
• Colorado River Trail
• Green Mountain Trail

Grand Lake

• Max and T’s.
• Grand Lake Brewing Co.
• Gateway Inn lodge.

Winter Park

• Silver Screen Cinema: Yay Toy Story 3!

Kansas City Zombie Walk from Eric on Vimeo.

After only a year and a half in this new old house, I finally got around to disconnecting our gutter downspouts from the sewer system.  It wasn’t difficult at all, once I remembered the Rule #1 of KC home improvement: When in doubt, always go to Strasser Hardware on Southwest Boulevard.  That’s the only place that had the proper plugs to top kill the old standpipes.

Apparently it used to be the fashion to direct your rainwater into the storm sewers instead of onto the grass where it can be soaked up and re-used by mother nature.  This is a bit of problem here in the older park of KC where we our storm sewers are still combined with our poo sewers – when it rains a lot all at once the whole thing overflows poo into local streams.  Here in Westport our poo overflows in to Flush Brush Creek, on the banks of which sit the Country Club Plaza.

Now the Feds are finally requiring the City to fix these problems.  In addition paying much higher water bills to raise the billion dollars needed to build new sewers, regular folks can do lots of little things like disconnecting downspouts and putting the newly popular rain gardens and rain barrels.

Here’s some local info on disconnecting downspouts and some more info from Portland, where they know a thing or two about rain.

So, we are now doing our part to keep our poo out of the Plaza.

We recently and unexpectedly had to replace a vehicle, and ended up with this beauty.  This purchase was our first experience with Carmax, and it went quite well.  The no-pressure, no-haggle environment was really cool.  I also want to give a shout-out to Bob Smith Motors in Waldo.  They came recommended by about a hundred friends, and are known for being an honest used-car dealer that works hard to find specific cars for customers.  While we ended up buying from Carmax, we will definitely try them again next time.

At-Large seats (you cast two votes in this question)
Kyleen Carroll
Crispin Rea

Subdistrict 4 (if it’s on your ballot)
Joseph Jackson

Find your polling place here for KCMO south of the river.  There are elections in other school districts, so check your local info and go vote.  For KCMO north of the river and all suburbs, consult your county election board. You can vote until 7:00 p.m.

Congratulations, Marci.  You are warmer in Antarctica than we are here in Missouri

Previous years…

Where did you go in 2009? Rules: Must stay over at least one night. Numbers in parenthesis indicate multiple trips to the same city.