Thursday, August 14, 2008

Rocky Mountain High

So this past week, Kristen and I went out to Colorado to spend some time in the Mountains. If I get a free round trip anywhere, Colorado would be up there on places to visit. The oddest thing is that there are mountains EVERYWHERE. If you look out your bathroom window, BOOM! Mountains....The first day we got there, we went to Garden of the Gods. This is the picture of "The Kissing Camel".






And nothing special, just a picture of one of the rocks and the foothills in the background.












The following day, we decided to go biking through the mountains. Now hills around Minneapolis are one thing. Biking over 4 miles in a general uphill grade is painstaking. Going back down them is easy as can be though. The side effect of normally being on a fixies is that when I'm on a gear bike, I forget to either change gears at all, or continually pedal (even downhill). My Surly and me.





Kris lucked out and got the trill Bianchi. They didn't have one that fit my size, so I couldn't sport the green.....











There is a path from Frisco to Breckenridge, but I got us lost and blew about a half hour looking for it.....












Once we reached Breckenridge, we stopped to flick some mountains and streams. One thing I plan to do when I get back there is to whitewater raft, and fly fish.










On Saturday we met up with my aunt and uncle and got lunch and hung out downtown. We then went to the Rockies/Padres game. Coors field is great. I can't wait until the Twins get the outside field (well, except the first month and a half of the season--snow and cold). We got free tickets from my uncle and we sat in the "club seats". Apparently that means we get plush seats, carpeted floors, near-private bathrooms and a personal server (In case walking to get a beer/hotdog is too much work for me). It is by far the best seats I've ever had for a game. It is the only way to go....









Being a Cubs fan, I had to take of flick of the now-Padres-pitcher, Greg Maddux. There was a guy in the level above us who would yell "Go Maddux"! every 2 minutes. He became my new friend.









Then one day we decided to drive up to Mount Evans. Driving up a mountain should be easy right? Hell no. As you can see in this flick, there is about 2 feet to the side of you before you reach a 500 foot-straight-down drop. I'm not all that scared of heights, but I got REAL nervous towards the top. There is barely enough room for a 2-way road, and every time a truck came towards us, we both had to stop and creep past one another. I had no intention of cliff diving..



The drive from bottom to top is about an hour and a half. Once we reached Summit Lake (pictured here), the sun came out and it warmed from 39 to about 50 degrees. Being from Minnesota, shorts and a T-shirt were ok for 39 degrees and climbing mountains......









Kristen and me at Summit lake. It's a glacial lake that is about 75% of the way up the mountain. Right before we reached the lake, there was a sign that read "Danger: Extreme road damage ahead". Great, just what I needed while I drive like a 90 year old man up these skinny roads.














I wish I could post my film pictures on here (they capture it better), but these mountains go on for as far as you can see. It's amazing. You could walk for days on end and still not get to the other side. From what I understand, the continental divide is in the background. You can't tell, but it's about 600 feet straight down behind me....







At the top of the mountain. As you can see, we're actually above the clouds. It's very strange to be standing on land, and looking down at clouds....Now I'm a pretty atheletic person, but walking at a brisk pace up here is quite a bit harder due to the lack of air. There were a ton of old people who didn't get out of their cars due to the lack of oxygen.
And yes, that is a Brad Radke jersey.




So we took about 300 pictures and video. I can't post them all, but I'll try to get the good ones up. It was by far, one of the best trips I've ever taken.

For the rest of my vacation, I've been golfing. Yes, golfing. I hate golf, and golfers. But somehow, I find myself on the course hitting the stress out. But I make the game worse for EVERYONE else. I'm horrible, so I hit the ball into other fields and piss off the other players. They yell at me and I argue back. 70 year old guys get really pissed off at a kid in a Shawn Kemp jersey messing up their game.

Since the weather is nice out today, I'll be jogging around the lakes. I'm aiming for the Nokomis-to-Harriet-to-Calhoun and around them. I think it's about 15 miles or so. If I get tired, I'll just do 2 of them.

Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes both died. It was a sad weekend.......

So the American women lost the gold in gymnastics. They blamed a time delay by the olympic officials on Alicia Sacramone (i.e. one good looking lady) falling. I should be an olympian. But in something cool like 4-square......

I'm not sure why, but I'm really caught up in Lisey's Story by Stephen King.

I wish there was more news to talk about, but I gotta go and enjoy this perfect-weather-day!

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