2012-02 Visit to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

2012-02 Visit to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
What a Beautiful Island!

2012-01 Proud Grandma

2012-01 Proud Grandma
Oakley is now 18 months old

2012-01 Proud Grandpa

2012-01 Proud Grandpa

2011-05 Extensive Nature Trip to China - with some sightseeing

2011-05 Extensive Nature Trip to China - with some sightseeing

Proud Grandparents!

Proud Grandparents!
Easter 2007 in Spain

2007-03 Susan, Tim, + Paul - RMNP w/Big Horn Sheep

2007-03 Susan, Tim, + Paul - RMNP w/Big Horn Sheep

Skiing at Copper Mountain

Skiing at Copper Mountain

Monarchs: Where Did They All Come from? Where will They Go?

Monarchs: Where Did They All Come from? Where will They Go?
Monarch Overwintering Site in Rosario, Michoacan, CentralMexico

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

SURPRISE VISIT TO MONTANA

Thanks to Hans-Eric's wife's help, I managed to pull off a surprise weekend visit to Montana for my son's 30th birthday. I rented a little car, mine is too old and the drive up there too long without cruise control, automatic, nor a CD player!!! Thus the 10 hour drive was not too bad, but a bit lonely as Paul was busy chasing butterflies with a friend in Mexico.

You should have seen Hans-Eric's face when Diana presented the surprise! We had succeeded! The first night Diana was busy making a quite labor intensive beautiful as well as delicious Lego cake for the big event. We all had a lot of fun: got treated to free Pizza at a little restaurant in Whitehall by the owner, a friend, then went camping for two nights near Wise River: nice long walks, HE had fun fishing with his father in the mornings, spent time with me in the afternoons, even enjoyed a relaxing visit to the Elkhorn HotSprings Pool. He said that it was his best birthday in a long time. Then another long 12 hour drive back to Loveland.... even with a wolf crossing my path!

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Back from Family Visit in Europe

First, we had two nice weeks with Paul's son Chris and family in southern France, with an Easter trip to Spain where we still did not find too much warmth, nor escape the rain!!! But we had fun and enjoyed spending time with our three grandsons at a camping resort near d'Amettla del Mar, with walks at the Mediterraneum, a birthday visit to an amusement park, and some birding in the Ebro delta. Upon our return to France we drove to the medieval city of Carcassonne as a grand finale, with an interesting and somewhat disturbing visit to the medieval torture museum. Hard to believe that mankind is capable of those atrocities!!!

On April 13th we flew to Munich, where the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny, to spend time with my family: a wonderful weekend with brother Hans and family, that also included a boat trip in beautiful sunshine on the river Danube with 3 of his 4 daughters. Then we headed southwards to the Alps, stayed with my little sister Petra and her 2 teenage sons, even managed a little class reunion at the Staffelsee thanks to Heidi's organizational skills. We also spent a lot of precious and fun time with my mom (83) and her husband (95) in Oberammergau, but were sad to miss the funeral of my aunt and uncle, who had just passed away. Paul was excited to do some birding there, too: he was delighted when I whistled (just copying a call) a grey-headed woodpecker to come into view!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Skiing in the Rockies...

Had a great day of skiing last week in the Rockies, the last one of the season..... even my bad knees cooperated!!! Went with the Kodak Ski Bus to Copper Mountain..... what a day!!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Mexico Trip to View Monarch Over Wintering Sites

What an exciting experience: to be surrounded by thousands and thousands of Monarch Butterflies whose last summer generations fly every fall between 1500 and 2000 miles to escape the cold and snowy winter in the north so their species can survive, before they head back starting in March. We did not have too much time for a visit: flew into Guadalajara where we spent the first night at Lake Chapala. This beautiful area reminded me of the lake area in Northern Italy, a very similar mild climate with beautiful palm trees, only year around, which attracted about 80,000 Americans, Canadians and Europeans to purchase homes here!

Our second day's drive, with lots of birding stops, brought us to Angangueo, Michoacan, where we ran into Bob Pyle. He was there to make a movie with a German TV crew, filming for "Highway der Schmetterlinge", to be shown in Germany on ARD on a March or April Monday night at 20:15! The next day we drove and hiked up, to over 3000 meters, to visit the El Rosario over-wintering site where we were impressed with the number of fluttering, roosting and mud-puddling Monarchs. But it was nothing compared to the swarms of butterflies that surrounded us in Sierra Chincua..... we rode horses to that site high up in the mountains.... it was like being in a blizzard, but an "orange-out" instead of a white-out!!! They were fluttering around everywhere, covering wet spots on the ground, they seemed to start to get ready for their long trip back to their breeding grounds in the north, looking for water and nectaring sources, some mating going on.

Then we headed southwest. After a morning looking for butterflies and birds in the area of Jungapeo (west of Zitacuaro), we headed south: a long and challenging drive through the mountains, wild canyons, lots of big holes in the road, rock slides, sleeping donkeys standing in the road..... you get the picture! It was after 9 PM when we finally arrived in the Ixtapa area. We felt lucky to still find a nice smaller hotel in Zihuatanejo on the Pacific. After two nights in the area, a birding boat trip to Barrio Potosi, we headed north along the coast. One more night on the Pacific in Playa Azul, and we went inland: another windy road through the mountains led us for one night to Uruapan. The next day we rode horses again, this time to a site where a fumarole came out of a corn field starting in 1943: nine years later the twin volcanos (Paricutin)had covered a town of 6000 people and the only thing still visible in the lava flow is the front entry wall of a big church, and the altar area in a distance of about 50 meters! Arriving back at the car I noticed that I had successfully locked the keys in the car. We found out that it is not that easy to find somebody to get into a locked car, even in Mexico!!! But a couple of hours later we were on our way, back on more windy roads full of pot holes to Lake Chapala for one last night..... before we returned our little rental car at the airport and headed back to snow and reality in Colorado!

Visit with Susan & Tim, March 2007

We had a lovely long weekend visit with Paul's son Tim and wife Susan... drove around Loveland and up to Rocky Mountain National Park where we saw elk, big horn sheep, and many birds. The highlight was a walk across the snow on the Fern Lake Trail. Some of these pictures show scenery from the trip.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Evi's Blog

Welcome to Evi's Blog!

My husband, Paul Opler and I love to travel and take pictures. My son, Hans-Eric lives with his family on a ranch in Montana.