A day to recuperate...

I slept in, while Rouse ventured out for some early morning birding. He was rewarded with this gorgeous sunrise scene...

There's a LOT of bird life here... some that we don't see at home, such as American white pelican, yellow-headed blackbird, Brewer's blackbird, broadtail hummingbird ... and some that are very familiar to us but still fun to see, such as yellow warbler, great blue heron, Canada goose, osprey, American bald eagle, pied-billed grebe, double crested cormorant, etc.

St. Vrain State Park is an oasis just outside of Boulder. Formerly named Barbour Ponds, it offers 604 acres of land and 152 acres of water split among several ponds. It's a great place for fishing, camping, birding, tooling around on bicycles ... enjoying nature.

Our campsite this week is nestled beneath the spreading limbs of cottonwood trees, providing welcome shade.

campsite under cottonwoods

Look closely to see our red-trimmed teardrop on the other side of the pond.

There's plenty of nice vegetation to enjoy. I'm partial to the sunflowers!

We headed over to Noah and Susanna's house about mid-day. It was a workday for both of them... Noah in his home office, Susanna in her commercial kitchen... so we napped, caught up on computer tasks, ran some errands, and simply hung out at the house. It was a true vacation day!

Susanna had a long day in the kitchen, so we didn't even get to see her, but once Noah finished with his work, we took Henry Dog for a walk along the neighborhood trails, enjoying the sunset. We had a late supper of Thai take-out and called it a day.

Noah's office