I just have time for one last quick post before the computer is going to be broken down...this will be the last entry from Colorado! The packers are coming tomorrow morning, our stuff and cars will be shipped on Thursday, and we will make our return to DC on Friday.
What a great year...full of experiences we'll remember forever. Although we're excited to be going back to more familiar territory with much easier access to family and friends, it's very tough to leave. IF you've been keeping up with the blog, you already know about the grand, freakishly tall, adventures of the past year. If not, please check out the archives and see for yourself.
The blog will continue, although you're probably safe not to check for new entries for at least a couple of weeks to get the computer shipped and back online. I figure I may modify the name but I've actually liked blogging and am planning to continue.
Bon Voyage!!!
7.18.2006
7.16.2006
The List (Part 2)...
The gripping conclusion of the List of Colorado stuff to do before we leave...
4) Climb a 14er - DONE
For those who haven't heard, a 14er is commonly referred to in these parts as one of 53 mountains over 14,000 feet in Colorado. We ended up missing our chance to climb one last summer because the season for 14ers is so short if you don't want to deal with too much snow (mainly late June, July, and August). This year I was determined to do one before we left town. For our hike, we choose the standard route to the top of Mt Bierstadt, about 6.5 miles (round trip) with ~ 3000 feet of elevation gain. Despite being one of the "easier" 14ers, we had to stop a lot when the climbing got steeper and the air got thinner. Even though we followed all the rules as far as starting early, the weather (hail storm and some rumbling) came early, when we were almost on the summit at 11:00am. We scrambled up the last 200 feet or so with whatever remaining energy we had left, we looked around for a few minutes, took a few pictures, and then quickly headed back down the mountain to avoid any danger. By the end when we reached our car, the storm was getting pretty close and violent - a nice time to say goodbye to the great outdoors and head home.
5) Go to a Rockies Game - DONE
Denver is a big pro-sports town, yes you hear about college sport teams now and again, but it is really the professional sports that rule. We've been to a Broncos game, we've been to a Nuggets game, but we'd never seen the Rockies. All that was cured on the July 4th fireworks game.
The Pitch on its Way
We had pretty good seats, the crowd was into it, and the Rockies ended up winning pretty big. All this meant that it was a lot of fun, except of course the big rainstorm that came rumbling through around the 5th inning. Minus the 1 hour and 47 minute rain delay huddling with hundreds of other people to find shelter on the upper deck, it was a cool experience. It was one of those instances where you've just about made up your mind to leave, and then they announce that the game will be back on in 30 minutes. We stuck it through till the end, and even though they were a bit late, the fireworks show was pretty cool.
6) Go to Casa Bonita (or the Broadmoor) - DONE
Sorry Mike, but Casa Bonita doesn't look like its going to happen. I ended up winning the grand prize raffle at my company golf tournament, which was a rather large gift card at the Broadmoor. So, instead of going to Casa Bonita (the kids place where everyone gets sick off the food) we ended up being pampered and getting free food and drinks at this incredible 5-star resort. It was certainly the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed at; it was almost annoying how "helpful" everyone was being...you couldn't carry a bag 10 feet without being tackled by bellhops and other attendants. It was amazing how much money you could blow in a place like that...two fancy meals, a few after dinner drinks, and one golf shirt went through almost $800!! Casa Bonita will have to be motivation for us to move back...
The Grounds at the Broadmoor
4) Climb a 14er - DONE
For those who haven't heard, a 14er is commonly referred to in these parts as one of 53 mountains over 14,000 feet in Colorado. We ended up missing our chance to climb one last summer because the season for 14ers is so short if you don't want to deal with too much snow (mainly late June, July, and August). This year I was determined to do one before we left town. For our hike, we choose the standard route to the top of Mt Bierstadt, about 6.5 miles (round trip) with ~ 3000 feet of elevation gain. Despite being one of the "easier" 14ers, we had to stop a lot when the climbing got steeper and the air got thinner. Even though we followed all the rules as far as starting early, the weather (hail storm and some rumbling) came early, when we were almost on the summit at 11:00am. We scrambled up the last 200 feet or so with whatever remaining energy we had left, we looked around for a few minutes, took a few pictures, and then quickly headed back down the mountain to avoid any danger. By the end when we reached our car, the storm was getting pretty close and violent - a nice time to say goodbye to the great outdoors and head home.
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5) Go to a Rockies Game - DONE
Denver is a big pro-sports town, yes you hear about college sport teams now and again, but it is really the professional sports that rule. We've been to a Broncos game, we've been to a Nuggets game, but we'd never seen the Rockies. All that was cured on the July 4th fireworks game.
We had pretty good seats, the crowd was into it, and the Rockies ended up winning pretty big. All this meant that it was a lot of fun, except of course the big rainstorm that came rumbling through around the 5th inning. Minus the 1 hour and 47 minute rain delay huddling with hundreds of other people to find shelter on the upper deck, it was a cool experience. It was one of those instances where you've just about made up your mind to leave, and then they announce that the game will be back on in 30 minutes. We stuck it through till the end, and even though they were a bit late, the fireworks show was pretty cool.
6) Go to Casa Bonita (or the Broadmoor) - DONE
Sorry Mike, but Casa Bonita doesn't look like its going to happen. I ended up winning the grand prize raffle at my company golf tournament, which was a rather large gift card at the Broadmoor. So, instead of going to Casa Bonita (the kids place where everyone gets sick off the food) we ended up being pampered and getting free food and drinks at this incredible 5-star resort. It was certainly the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed at; it was almost annoying how "helpful" everyone was being...you couldn't carry a bag 10 feet without being tackled by bellhops and other attendants. It was amazing how much money you could blow in a place like that...two fancy meals, a few after dinner drinks, and one golf shirt went through almost $800!! Casa Bonita will have to be motivation for us to move back...
7.02.2006
The List (Part 1)...
The countdown has begun. We are leaving Colorado soon and may never be here for an extended amount of time again. You know what that means, squeezing every ounce out of Colorado before we leave. And since I'm a "To Do" list kind of guy, here are the few remaining things we want to do before our time's up (and because I've been so busy crossing things off of the list, I'm just going to go over the first few...)
1) Visit Rocky Mountain National Park - DONE
I've heard that Rocky Mountain National Park was beautiful, and even though we've been to the mountains many times, we've never actually made it to the park. The hike was rather impressive, essentially several lakes nestled among ridges of mountains.
My only issue was with the guide book that I bought - our original plan was an 8 mile hike, however doing the calculations on the way back it was really 11.5 miles and we were almost dead on our feet after 7.5 hours walking around. The elevation gain wasn't too bad (~1500 feet), but the last mile or so there was basically no trail - it was all covered in snow banks! Mind you we hiked this on June 17th and were comfortably wearing shorts. It was definitely a cool experience, but a few sections became quite slow because you were either worried about sinking down a lot or slipping on the hard-packed snow.
This last stretch was a little nerve-racking because as you can see the snow pack actually covered the river at that point with nothing to stop you from falling through.
2) Visit the Ski Resorts in the Summer - DONE
This was something I thought about doing for a while. We had spent so much time at these places over the winter that it seemed fitting to go back and see what was going on in the summer time. It ended up being quite a fun day...we randomly ended up eating lunch at a BBQ festival in Frisco (right on the way to Breck). Plus Sarah saw her first pig race, quite an accomplishment for her. Then we went to the Peak 8 fun park at Breck. There was a lot going on for kids, but we just wanted to ride the chair lift up and do some hiking on the ski slope (it was free with our ski passes). It was actually pretty entertaining to see the same ski slopes that we were used to with more runoff, spring colors, and bike trails than actual snow.
We hiked up a fairly steep slope to a bunch of expert trails and got a kick out of taking pictures in front of the trail signage (the trail signs seem so high without the base):
3) See a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre - DONE
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is essentially an open air concert venue between 3 giant red rocks just outside of Denver. Supposedly it had some of the best acoustics for music anywhere. It was definitely a cool place to see a concert. There wasn't a whole lot of time to pick out a show but Sarah loves Rob Thomas, so we ended up watching a Jewel/Rob Thomas concert there just last week.
See the final list items in an installment next week...
1) Visit Rocky Mountain National Park - DONE
I've heard that Rocky Mountain National Park was beautiful, and even though we've been to the mountains many times, we've never actually made it to the park. The hike was rather impressive, essentially several lakes nestled among ridges of mountains.
My only issue was with the guide book that I bought - our original plan was an 8 mile hike, however doing the calculations on the way back it was really 11.5 miles and we were almost dead on our feet after 7.5 hours walking around. The elevation gain wasn't too bad (~1500 feet), but the last mile or so there was basically no trail - it was all covered in snow banks! Mind you we hiked this on June 17th and were comfortably wearing shorts. It was definitely a cool experience, but a few sections became quite slow because you were either worried about sinking down a lot or slipping on the hard-packed snow.
This last stretch was a little nerve-racking because as you can see the snow pack actually covered the river at that point with nothing to stop you from falling through.
2) Visit the Ski Resorts in the Summer - DONE
This was something I thought about doing for a while. We had spent so much time at these places over the winter that it seemed fitting to go back and see what was going on in the summer time. It ended up being quite a fun day...we randomly ended up eating lunch at a BBQ festival in Frisco (right on the way to Breck). Plus Sarah saw her first pig race, quite an accomplishment for her. Then we went to the Peak 8 fun park at Breck. There was a lot going on for kids, but we just wanted to ride the chair lift up and do some hiking on the ski slope (it was free with our ski passes). It was actually pretty entertaining to see the same ski slopes that we were used to with more runoff, spring colors, and bike trails than actual snow.
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We hiked up a fairly steep slope to a bunch of expert trails and got a kick out of taking pictures in front of the trail signage (the trail signs seem so high without the base):
 |  |
3) See a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre - DONE
Red Rocks Amphitheatre is essentially an open air concert venue between 3 giant red rocks just outside of Denver. Supposedly it had some of the best acoustics for music anywhere. It was definitely a cool place to see a concert. There wasn't a whole lot of time to pick out a show but Sarah loves Rob Thomas, so we ended up watching a Jewel/Rob Thomas concert there just last week.
See the final list items in an installment next week...
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