Everything has gone well on our travel and transition into living in the mountains.  The flight was smooth and arrived early, along with an uneventful drive up from Denver into the mountains.  We decided to rent a car one-way, use it for a couple days, drop it off in Frisco and then utilize the free county and city shuttles to get back to the condo.

Our condo was just as advertised with a location right on the mountain and all the amenities we could need.  Living in a studio has it’s space challenges, but nothing out of the ordinary for us.

We’ve spent the first couple days getting settled into the place, stocking up on groceries and a play day today.  A great start to our winter season in the mountains!

Waking up on day 1 to a mountain sunrise

Stocking up the condo

Winter gear!

300 days of sunshine per year in Colorado

Sledding on day 2

Going strong after 20 runs down and hiking back up just a few blocks from our place

Charlie is really enjoying the mountains

After the action-packed events in Europe, we took the month of November to relax from discussions about future plans.  Starting in December, Cindy and I began conversations about what to do next.  We rolled around the following ideas for quite awhile:

• Travel to a new destination
• Settle down somewhere and locate jobs

We spent a good share of December and January mulling over the pros and cons to each.

• After spending a few months here in Cape Coral, settling down here wasn’t an appealing choice.  The winter weather here has definitely spoiled us compared to prior winters in Jacksonville.  But the offshore fishing isn’t great for Chris’ charter business, the people aren’t generally as friendly as what we’re used to, and the congestion of winter residents is frustrating.
• Settling down in Stuart, Florida seemed like a better choice with warmer weather than North Florida, good fishing opportunities and a good public school system.  We have spent a few days in Stuart the past couple years and really enjoyed the experiences.  But the job market is smaller than Jacksonville unless you are willing to commute further south.
• Weekly flight deals via email appeared to various countries, but nothing was really appealing us as to a destination we wanted to go.  Nothing was hitting us like the idea for Europe where we knew we wanted to visit that area of the world.

No decisions occurred and with family in town for holidays the time flew by.  Once the festivities ended, then we restarted our discussions about what to do next.  The topic of a ski trip started with some friends but as the planning got underway we noticed it would be a challenging option for us based on budget for only a week trip.

We were both still interested in a way to get out skiing this year, so we continued exploring options.  This led us to start looking at seasonal job listings near Breckenridge (a favorite ski destination of ours with many memorable trips over the years).

Cindy and I both applied for jobs which aligned with our prior experience (albeit with some resume updates to reflect jobs from many, many years ago).  The whole process started a couple weeks ago and has moved swiftly towards a job offer, locating a place to live for 3 months in Breckenridge and booking one-way flights for each of us.

We are really excited to pack up and depart for Breckenridge, Colorado on February 1st to spend the next 3 months working, teaching Charlie to ski and enjoying the Rocky Mountain high.

Hard to believe it’s been 3 months since our last blog update, but we’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends and family over the holidays.

Here’s some pictures highlighting our activities since we returned from Europe at the end of October.

Pumpkin patch in Cocoa Beach with grandma and grandpa

A monkey on the search for candy on Halloween in Cocoa Beach

First day of school in Cape Coral!

Surprised the family in Chicago for a quick trip in November

Beautiful Cape Coral sunsets along the Caloosahatchee River

Loving the warmer southwest Florida weather in winter for tons of time at the parks

Turkey Trot success at the Cocoa Beach 5k

Thanksgiving dinner extravaganza

Low country boils are always a favorite

Checking out the parks in Stuart, Florida as a potential for our next place to settle down.

Cape Coral boat parade on a beautiful evening

Christmas event at Charlie’s school with grandpa and grandma

The Chicagoans in Cape Coral for a warm-weather Christmas

Cousin bubble hugs!

Bike rides around town

Group dinner’s at various restaurants around Cape Coral

Exploring the mangroves at a sanctuary on the north end of Cape Coral

Brushing up on skills at a cooking class in Fort Myers

Some chores to do each week

An impressive model train display at a retirement community in Fort Myers

Birthday lunch for Cindy!

Bingo winner two times at Fins restaurant

Cindy’s birthday dinner with our uncle and Charlie’s great grandpa

Driving the big RV while visiting friends in St Pete

Checking out the latest Rpod’s at the RV show in Tampa. Brought back good memories of our road trip with an Rpod from 2013.

Coloring with a new friend at Thai Temple in Tampa. (Delicious home cooked Thai food for anyone in the area on a Sunday)

Transplanting a Charlie palm tree out in the yard

Freshwater fishing while camping near Palmdale, Florida

Group camping with beautiful winter weather

Camping and playing in the dirt is so tiring!

We enjoyed our adventure in Europe and safely returned from Barcelona to Orlando on 10/27.  Luckily none of the Catalonia independence events had an impact on our travel plans.

The next couple months will be spent between Cocoa Beach, Chicago and Cape Coral for quality time with family for the holidays.

Our 2018 plans aren’t solidified, so stay tuned as we possibly continue our travel adventures after the new year.

Since the weather in Germany took a turn for the worse on the 22nd, we decided to look for better conditions for our last few days in Europe.  The south side of the Alps had a sunny forecast and we had 1 day left on our rail pass.  Plus the train trip was a mere 4 hours from Munich to Trento, Italy.  We rented a car from Trento to use for a few days before a flight from Milan to Barcelona on the 26th.  The train schedules and prices just didn’t make sense to get back to Barcelona, so a quick flight on EasyJet was our choice.

We booked an apartment up in the hills north of Bolzano, which ended up being a nice farm stay with beautiful mountain views.  Took some day trips around the area to explore a bit of the Dolomites.  Northern Italy was an interesting combination of Italian and German/Austrian cultures.  For any fellow fans of the movie “European Vacation”, a fun-fact is that they filmed the German scenes in Brixen, Italy.

Improvised wine bottle holder for the train ride from Munich to Trento.

Rainy and cold weather on the north side of Alps during our train ride

Beautiful sunny conditions after crossing the Brenner Pass from Austria into Italy

Impressive views from the apartment

Going to miss the delicious olive oil and buffala mozzarella

Solitaire and breakfast in the peaceful, mountain sunshine

Day trip over to Gardena Pass

Throwing rocks at 7,000 feet

Sunset views after playing at the park in Bolzano

Playing ball with the farm cats!

Hanging out by the river in Merano

Some sightseeing around the old town of Merano

Soaking up the afternoon sunshine on a Merano bridge

Our final sunset across the Dolomites

He’s hooked on solitaire

Quick flight from Milan to Barcelona. Definitely glad we chose riding trains for ease of boarding and comfort versus the airplanes and airports.

As mentioned in our last post from Croatia, the weather forecast significantly improved further north so we took the opportunity to see a couple destinations which we passed on earlier in the trip due to the frigid temps.  The forecast was quite accurate and we had some fantastic days to explore a bit of Salzburg and Munich.

Finalizing our plans now to get back to Barcelona (and keeping on the eye on the Catalonian independence situation) for our flight back to the USA on the 27th.   In the meantime, cold and rainy weather returned to Germany, so we are headed south again into Italy.  Plan on spending a few days in the Dolomites!

Leg # 1 from Rijeka, Croatia to Salburg, Austria on a bus due to rail maintenance

Leg #2 on the normal train to Ljubljana, Slovenia

Leg #3 from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Villach, Austria

Final leg from Villach, Austria to Salzburg, Austria. Not sure how many toddlers could handle a road trip starting at 9am in Croatia and ending around 8pm in Austria

A bit of sightseeing our first day in Salzburg. Mozart statue for all the fans of the show “Little Einsteins”

Rented bikes to check out some sights further out of town. Fantastic fall weather for a bike ride from Salzburg to Hallein.

Impromptu bus ride out to Bad Durenberg had us enjoying some end-of-season summer toboggan rides.

Beautiful views from the top of the toboggan chairlift

This thing’s FAST!

Might submit this one to the resort to add to their brochure

Worked up a hunger after our toboggan session, so we checked out Stadtkrug in Hallein and it was delicious!

Charlie musta been worn out to sleep through dinner

Second day on the bikes was a shorter trip out to explore Hellbrunn Palace along a splendid bike trail.

A local milk ATM

Ok, picture time but where is that park we saw earlier today??

This Hellbrunn park may take the “best park” prize

Spent a long time at the park, so old town sightseeing was a sunset event

Beautiful old town Salzburg

Mid-day train from Salzburg to Munich in a comfy suite

Halloween cookies on the outskirts of Munich near the hotel

A bit of sightseeing our first night in Munich

Forget the sightseeing, let’s ride escalators all the time!

Big boy riding solo

First day in Munich was a trip to English Garden

Pit stop at a beer garden while searching for parks, then enjoyed some beer, food and live music. (Irish couple from last night’s dinner gave us some intel on this playground next to the beer garden, a perfect combo!)

Why is the kid from Florida the only one wearing shorts on this balmy October day in Munich?

A bit more sightseeing on the way home on Day 1, but still no working glockenspiel

Day 2 weather turned colder and cloudy/rainy, so indoor activities were best. Headed to the Deutsches Museum which was humungous!

Live demonstration of an automated miniature brick factory

A bit of walking in the blustery weather

Never too cold for ice cream and this stuff was worth the chilly walk!

A scenic walk through the Hofbräuhaus was a must, but we drank and ate at other beer halls.

ROAR it’s cold!

After a few days in Split, we picked up a one-way car rental to make our way around some other areas of Croatia.  Some folks who own an Italian restaurant in Cape Coral, Florida were originally from the Istria peninsula and highly recommended we visit it on our trip.  We chose a couple towns in that area along with a couple days near Plitvice National Park.  Quite the noticeable differences in terrain, culture, language and average height of people between the areas of Croatia.  You can go from sunny and arid southern coastline to mountainous fall foliage in just a couple hours of driving.  Many people in Split seemed to be of NBA stature.  The great weather continued for us throughout Croatia and glad we took the time to explore a number of areas.

We’re into the last 10 days of this trip and need to be back in Barcelona for our return flight on the 27th.  Our latest itinerary was to stay south for some spots in central Italy, but a weather check showed that things had warmed up again further north and we hadn’t booked any travel or accommodations yet.  A quick check of train schedules from Rijeka showed that we could make our way to Salzburg in a single day, so we went for it!  Looking forward to seeing at least one of the destinations we passed over last month.

Day 1 near Plitvice National Park was chilly and rainy, so we chose to explore the area a bit.

Appropriate weather and safety gear for Charlie’s first cave exploration at Baraceve Špilje

The skies cleared later in the day and we found a lovely cafe with a view and heat lamps

Our hosts in Jezerce kindly greeted us each morning with homemade treats.

Day 2 was beautiful weather for hiking around Plitvice National Park for splendid fall foliage.

Very peaceful park with fewer tourists this time of year.

Lunch stop along a lake at Plitvice National Park

The BIG waterfall!

A never-ending amount of scenery to enjoy at this park!

Our cheap but lasting umbrella stroller wasn’t cut out for this terrain, so we got a workout walking for about 4 hours to explore the park.

Our next destination was a return to the coast to spend a few days in Rovinj.

So many sculptures!

Keeping an eye out for scallywags from a bunker

Choo Choo rides at a park around the bend from Rovinj

Beautiful sunset strolls along the riva

Cold beverages after a day of sightseeing and watching the “Watermelon Moon”

Day trip to Motovun to explore the hilltop village

Lunch at a Motovun cafe

Hooray for scenic cafes! We’d find this to be the first day of hazy/foggy conditions for the rest of our days in Croatia. Has to do with warmer air temps and cooling sea temps.

Post-lunch chocolate ice cream leads to antsy pants

A sunset in Porec with a local beer

Pit-stop in Bale on our way from Rovinj to Pula

Bale was a very quiet village in this off-season Saturday

A deserted camping resort called “Mon Perin” on the way to Pula. Things really shut down here after the summer high season.

No one to be seen for miles, is this some sort of Walking Dead episode with a deserted park?

Our next step was sightseeing for a few days in Pula (our last stop in Croatia)

Charlie and Charlie

A number of historical Roman buildings in Pula which are quite well preserved

Learning a bit about the game of Monopoly

The ferry boat we took over from the mainland to Brijuni National Park

Scenic train tour of the Brijuni Park

Golf course with greens made completely of sand, interesting..

A decent size safari park on the northern end of the island, which was mostly a collection of animals from Tito’s reign back in the Yugoslavian era.

That’s a big bull behind a tiny stick fence.

Dinosaurs roamed here a few thousand years ago

If only it was a bit warmer, we’d be swimming in this clear water!

Roman ruins needing a bit of rehab

Quite serene riding bikes around the island in the late afternoon with a light fog.  (This light fog turned into a nerve-racking drive home later that night in the densest fog we’ve ever seen.)

Charlie here for an update since I snuck onto the computer while mom and dad were asleep…

It seems that I have been away from home for a long time now, but I’ve seen so many things and met so many people from other places.  I do miss my family back home, but we’ve been able to FaceTime pretty often.

I’ve mastered the day-time undies thing, but Mom and Dad still give me “good job” treats, so I’ll keep working that angle.

Checking out all these new houses is a blast and so far I’ve had my own room every time.  Some even had a couple beds for me to choose.  Sometimes Dad tries to greet me in the mornings, but I tell him “hasta luego” and ask to see Mom instead.

I’m really enjoying math and numbers with so many things to count, like stairs and statues.  I’ve learned how to play solitaire (“It’s a match!”) and Monopoly, but that game never seems to end.  I’ve also learned how to read (ok, I’ve memorized) all of the books that my mom brought.  I “read” them to her every night now.  I asked for some new books but I haven’t been able to find any in English anywhere, so my mom can’t read them to me.  I can also spell my name now- C-H-A-R-L-I-E, and I can type it on the keyboard.  Woohoo!!!

Whenever we get to a new place, one of my favorite things to do is check out the local grocery store.  I’ve gotten pretty good at pulling the cart around the store while my mom and dad pick out the groceries. While I’ve eaten so much good fish back in Florida, I definitely enjoy these European fish sticks.  I gobble them up and keep Mom and Dad happy by also eating some veggies they put on my plate.

Desserts have been great in every place!  Italy had the best gelato and Slovenia and Croatia were a tie for the best cake.

Looking for parks each day is a blast!  Trying so many new types of slides, monkey bars, merry go-rounds, swings and some zip lines which are my most favorite!  Most of the kids talk to me at the park, but I haven’t a clue what they are saying and my counting in Spanish, French and German only goes so far.

Another one of my favorite things is sunset time.  We stop at the grocery store so mom and dad can get drinks and then they find a place to sit while I run and jump around and watch the sunset.  The sunsets have been really beautiful, especially over the Adriatic Sea in Croatia.  Sometimes the sunset looks like a “watermelon moon” because the sun is so big and red.

Until next time, hasta luego!