Dear Maia and Isaac,

Sometimes it feels really odd to tell you about my travels – I wonder if you care now or if ever will. But, that is OK because you are always in my heart and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Oh, except maybe being in a place where I could take you with me on some adventures. I’m an optimist and hope this reaches your hearts just when you need it the most.

So, the pups and I went to Gunnison (the Curecanti), again, to celebrate the memorial of my kitty Serendipity. This is where we went camping when I returned home to find her so sick – she died a couple days later. Within a week, I started fostering Solstice – I named her Solstice because I first saw a video of her on solstice – two weeks old. It is funny because the people at the next camp space today had their cats with them . . . camping!

The Gunnison trip is fun because we eat out at some favorite places. Friday is a Thai at a place called the Twisted Fork. I have Vietnamese tacos and some dessert. This is after we set-up camp – so we just go back to the campground afterwards.

It has been challenging with Sazi on crate rest, but I won’t let is stop our summer plans because I think it is good for her to have some adventure. Two weeks ago, she started wagging her tail, again. Now, she walks a little with a support harness. But, so is only suppose to take a few steps. I am shocked that she is able to walk this soon after such a hard fall. I will try to add a video of her walking below.

Back to the trip – Saturday, we wanted to go hiking at a place called Hartman Rocks – we have never been there and I am trying to do new things to keep the blog fresh. However, the Gunnison River is pretty flooded, so we just walked around where it was safe. The water was really overflowing!

We headed to town and went to farmer’s market – got some pizza from one of the booths that had awesome sourdough crust . . . then the rain and hail came. So, we sat in the car for a bit and then took a drive up the road part of the way to Crested Butte. The sky was super dark so I devised a plan to put Sazi in Maizzy’s Outward Hound carrier (it has a flat bottom so is better for her back. I put Kachina and Maizzy in the stroller. Those two are too big for the stroller, but every store is dog-friendly is your dogs are like that.

So, we shopped in the rain – the dogs still shivered a lot! Gunnison has some cool little stores, although downtown is really only a couple blocks long.

I will backtrack to say the weekend closest to solstice is when we camp – and it is also the Gunnison River Festival. Sigh, the rain never cleared up so I went to the Mexican Restaurant that is near where the live music usually is. Oh, they set up but it was raining too hard. This year, the dogs had to wait in the car (we usually eat on the porch), and I went inside. It’s funny – last year we had the fire ban our week in Gunnison. This year, we had rain and flooding.

Back to our tent that was pretty soggy outside, but our stuff was pretty dry. I did my reading, as usual. A lot of Dr. Seligman’s book now is about the theories of resilience that I used on my doctorate. It is interesting to read the history. It got super cold during the night – I feel bad for Sazi having to stay in her carrier. I zipped it all the way shut because she looked like she wanted to crawl out. Well, when I unzipped it this morning – she did crawl out – clearly she is getting stronger.

We went to the marina for lunch and then to Morrow Point dam on the way home. It was just a short walk for us today because I can’t wear two backpacks at once. It is only 2 weeks (well, more like 11 days) until we go on our Utah camping road trip. I sort of hope it stays a little cool for the trip to the desert. This is a re-tracing of my graduation camping road trip after I got my doctorate. I don’t think I can blog every day because some of the places don’t have internet. I will do the best I can.

I hope the two of you are doing great and thriving in school. Oh, the places you will go! I love you and your mom to pieces. This weekend was all about never forgetting those we love. Goodnight, Serendipity

Love,

Grandma Hartt