catching up: Denver and San Diego

ok, we've been home for a couple weeks now and i'm ready to report on the second half of our trip.  After Chicago we took the bus to Omaha, where my sister did a mission for our church, and visited a few of her friends and saw the beautiful winter quarters trail center.  We arrived in Omaha in the morning, found a park, slept for a couple hours, ate our leftover jam and hummus on crackers and then wandered around.  We weren't particularly impressed with the downtown which seemed kind of abandoned (although the park we slept in was quite beautiful).  After visiting the trail center we got back on the greyhound which took us overnight to Denver where my uncle lives.  Upon arriving in Denver we heard about the theater shooting which had happened in Aurora that very morning.
Staying with my aunt and uncle was fantastic.  They were extrememly hospitable and we were able to get to know my little cousin Sean who we hadn't ever really spent much time with before.  This was the only segment of our trip that did not involve wandering around a city.  We spent the 3 days we were there hiking, swimming and kayaking.  We didn't even set foot in Denver itself except when exiting and boarding the bus.
After Denver we took a strait shot ride to San Diego.  With the exception of our initial SLC-BOS trip this was the longest of our rides. About 24 hours long if I recall correctly.  When we arrived in San Diego Sam's sister picked us up from the bus station.  We were instantly relieved by the cool weather!  All through the midwest and even north east temperatures had been in the 90's or above.  San Diego was perfect and breezy and we loved walking around for a couple of days.  We wandered through the old town and saw the mormon battalion museum, took the train downtown and had lunch at the Gaslamp District near the convention center, and then hiked up to Balboa Park where every wednesday there are track races at the San Diego outdoor velodrome.  We need a velodrome in Utah.

WILD MOUNTAIN GOATS!

ride safe,
spencer