Fun with Friends in Colorado, Part 4

This is the fourth (and final) post about the long weekend I spent in Colorado with my high school friends. I recommend reading the first, second, and third posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received media passes and other benefits for some of the locations we visited throughout our trip. Many of the places we went are free to everyone and we paid full price for the rest. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

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Fun with Friends in Colorado

On Monday, October 19 we had a delicious breakfast of leftover brunch items and then headed out for our last day in Colorado. Unfortunately, I was sick. I'd been feeling off the day before, but it was clear around 2:00 am that I was not just tired or dehydrated like I'd thought. I loaded up on DayQuil, masked up, and did my best to enjoy all the planned activities without touching anything or doing anything else to risk getting someone else sick. 

Our first stop took us back to downtown Boulder for a memorable experience that, unfortunately, I can't talk about. But I can tell you all about our second destination! Boulder is home to Liberty Puzzles. They make heirloom-quality wooden puzzles and we were there to take their free factory tour. 

The tour started with a display of hand-cut puzzles from the post-Depression era company called Chagrin Falls.  

These puzzles are what inspired the founders to Liberty Puzzles to bring all the best features of classic wooden jigsaw puzzles to modern-day puzzle enthusiasts. Liberty's puzzle making process starts with quarter-inch maple plywood. Images (printed with archival inks on high-quality paper) are heat-pressed onto the wood. Then computer-guided lasers cut the pieces. 

  

Ideally, the laser would make perfect cuts. We learned that is rarely the case. Liberty's team of employees takes apart every puzzle to make sure the cuts are complete. When they are not, the employee finishes the cut, files the piece, and then stains the edge to match the area where the laser did cut. 

Liberty is well-known for their whimsy pieces. We learned that each of their many puzzle cuts averages 25% whimsy pieces. Here you can see an employee has used them to decorate their workspace. 

Employees have created some amazing works of art featuring whimsy pieces. Check these out. 

  

  

Liberty Puzzles has a generous missing piece policy. If you are missing a piece, simply photograph the puzzle with the hole and they will replace the piece. If the piece is missing because the dog ate it, they ask that you send a photo for their Wall of Shame. 

The tour was short, but interesting. When it ended, we browsed through their store. I hadn't known Liberty makes small, round puzzles. 

For a variety of reasons, I didn't come home with a puzzle. But if I had, it probably would have been this one. I love Peanuts. 

They had several puzzles out in their showroom.  

  

  

After Liberty Puzzles, the five of us from out of state headed to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. At 15,000 acres, this sanctuary is one of the largest urban wildlife refuges in the country. Unfortunately, the visitor center is only open Wednesday-Sunday, so we weren't able to go in. 

  

The 11-mile narrated Wildlife Drive is open 7 days a week from sunrise to sunset, so that's how we started our visit. 

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal opened as a chemical weapons manufacturing site in December 1942, operated by the US Army. By 1984, the level of contamination was such that it became a Superfund site. RMA became the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in 2004. It is home to more than 330 animal species. 

Prairie dogs occupy roughly 3800 of the 15,000 acres. With approximately 60 individuals per acre, you can count on easily seeing hundreds of prairie dogs during the tour. 

The refuge is also home to a herd of approximately 250 bison. 

Deer, mice, rabbits, raccoons, and coyotes are some of the other most commonly spotted mammals. Birds, fish, reptiles, and insects are abundant as well. 

The refuge has 20 miles of hiking trails. We stopped at Lake Mary for a picnic lunch...

  

... then we did the easy loop trail around the lake. 

And then it was time to go to the airport and say goodbye. We had a wonderful time in Colorado, sharing memories from our younger days and making new memories together. I feel so grateful to have been friends with these women for so many decades and I look forward to our next trip together.