Colorado Wheaton House Reunion 2017

Rocky Mt. High .... sure that phrase has not been overused in the past few years. So I'll leave it at that. A lot of contingencies existed that needed to be addressed before I could consider taking this trip. But things came together and Alicia found a flight 3 days before the departure date that matched up with Mark and Girish and a few of the other participants. We met at the airport in Denver and carpooled up to Darin's place just outside of Winterpark.

And I guess I should explain this reunion as it is a bit unusual for me to be participating as I did not live at the house. These guys all lived together at a house in Wheaton their senior year and I was still living in Wheaton doing various things. So I hung out at the house a lot as a few of my friends lived there. It just so happened that they had a housemate named Kent who they rarely saw so I became the houses surrogate Kent. When they made a time capsule video for the house, I filled in as Kent. So anyway - I was welcome at the reunion - but the reality of it was to go and see Darin and enjoy a weekend away with a bunch of guys and friends.

Obligatory windy selfie in the driveway of Darin's place.

Mark posing outside of Darin's place. We flew in Friday morning and then drove up fighting traffic to Darin's - lots of people had the same idea as we did - get out of the city and up into the mountains. But it was good to chat in the drive up. Once there, we hung out for a bit and then went to a really nice "rustic" mountain lodge type of restaurant. 

Looking good - at least colorful. 

Views from Darins and the restaurant.

This was from the patio of the restaurant. Good eats and a good evening.

Milling about. I think we were one of the only diners other than the folks to the left so that was an added pleasantry. 

The next day we woke up relatively early - I went for a run walk with Girish for about 4 miles or so - beautiful - rather more interesting than chugging around the suburbs of Chicago.  Two of the house fellows were really into cooking and fired up an impressive breakfast on Saturday and Sunday morning and also dinner on Saturday night. After breakfast, we headed out for a drive up to a peak in Rocky Mt. National Park and walked about a bit. I had actually been here before back when visiting my mom and Ardis. 

Cool mountain lake - bet it was a bit chilly.

7 of the 10 fellows who attended. Really solid group of guys and very interesting to hear what has been going on for the last 20 years. 

After the mountain peak drive and walk about we drove down a ways and parked near a tributary of the Colorado River. A nice trail ran thru the woods paralleling the river. We walked for several miles just catching up and enjoying the landscape. We came across a herd of elk and this one was relaxing in the grass just off the trail. I sent the picture home and Ada thought it was a llama ..... 

So after the hike we returned to Darins and had a great evening of fellowship, food and a few beverages. Great weekend.