Week in Golden

Walking into Coors Field for Rockies-Giants game.

Panoramic view of field from our seats.

Avery at the game with dad and a hot dog ("Rockie dogs" at the park are really quite long hot dogs!).

Boys at game with dad, also with hot dogs.

Buster Posey at bat, pitcher winding up. He hit a double on this pitch. But the Giants went on to lose in a heartbreaking bottom of the 9th walk-off home run.

Avery agreed to try Rocky Mountain Oysters, even after I told her what they were, if I paid her $5. But she chickened out once we got to the park.

This is the house we rented in Golden with our car in front. It has a nice little backyard where the dogs can run around.

This is the view up the street, standing in front of the house. We're right at the base of the mesa.

We had dinner at Bob's Atomic Burgers, just down the street from the house we're renting. Awesome place. You write down what kind of burger you want on a wax paper wrapper, and then you turn that in, and they put your burger in it. They pick a random name for your family and yell that out to announce your order is ready. We were Gwenyth Paltrow. Some other guy was Pat Benetar. This was my second favorite burger ever.

Avery in front of the sign.

Downtown Golden during one of our evening walks (Monday night).

Eating at Snarf's Sandwiches, which is a lot like PotBelly, on Wednesday night. Luke ordered a hot dog sandwich with bacon. Wow.

Clear Creek running through downtown Golden. It was closed for most water sports due to flood conditions from lots of snow melt. 

Parfet Park in downtown Golden. Luke is in the distance and has just thrown the frisbee to me.

Avery in Parfet Park.

Dad and kids with dogs on evening walk (Wednesday night).

Sunny and Patrick on Clear Creek bridge in downtown Golden on Patrick's day off.

Sunny and the dogs inspecting the swollen Clear Creek. 

Luke, Dakota, and Avery in front of the Mountaineering Center after they completed their camp. Avery was cold because she had chosen to go in the water during her kayak day, despite the overcast, colder day. 

Sunny and boys at the Colorado School of Mines. 

Dinner in our rented house Friday night. 

Dakota and Avery getting ice cream in town on Friday night. 

Avery trying out her bike, prior to our mountain bike excursion, riding by the house we rented. 

North Table Mountain Park, which is a hiking and biking park around North Table Mountain. We biked here from our house on really nice paved city bike trails and then rode on the dirt trails in the park.

We entered at the left at the red parking icon and worked our way around the north side (which was the less steep side). 

Avery on her bike on the trail. She only fell a couple times and earned one skinned knee. 

Luke (front) and Avery on trails. 

Snack stop with mountains in distance. North Table Mountain is behind us. 

Luke, Dakota, and dad at the top ("Mesa Top" on sign). It was a steep, long climb to get here! 

Looking down our trail from the top. We got to enjoy a nice, long descent after making it to the top.

While the kids were in camp, on Monday - Thursday, Patrick toured and had meetings at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). This was the building he mainly was in...the IBRF.

The IBRF sign.

Here, they investigate processes to turn biomass wastes, such as the corn stover in the bag on the left, into fuel products, such as the ethanol on the right. The vials in between are the intermediate products they go through. Patrick spent a fair bit of time talking to people about this to help teach his class better at USNA.