It's over, it's all over

Well, this trip is pretty much a wrap. We just returned the SilverCar after two good weeks and the Audi attendant was nice enough to drive us to our hotel near the airport.  Flight at 7am, so leaving hotel at 5.  Ouch.

I think the highlight of the day was our dinner - we checked TripAdvisor and found a place called the Golden Wok in Aurora.  I can't believe I'm typing this, but it was worth the near 20 mile drive each way to eat.  Soup, Pu Pu Platter to share, and 2 huge dishes with rice. Mmm...but that sure was a lot of food.

Earlier in the day, we hit El Dorado Canyon State Park for our final outdoor adventure. It was near Boulder and picturesque. It's a rough comparison with RMNP, but isn't everything?  We got in a good hike for our last outdoor adventure of the trip.  A nice park overall.

We then had a couple of hours to kill before checking in to our final resting place (no, not that one), so we drove towards Denver.  Saw the sign for Coors field, so exited the highway and drove up. Unfortunately, tours for the day were already sold out and there was a baseball game, but not until 6pm.  We next decided to check out Union Station.  It was bustling with activity.  Lots of places to dine and things to do to kill time waiting for your train, I guess.  Also, the weekly farmer's market was right outside, so we did some light sampling and checked out the goods.  Didn't buy anything, as most of it was produce and not ideal for a cross-country flight.  This ends the Denver portion of the trip.

We had a really good time this past two weeks.  Back to the salt mines soon.

5 lakes and a waterfall

Today was a big hiking day. We only hiked officially about 5.2 miles, but in total, walked over 8 miles today. We got up early to beat the crowds to the trails, which turned out to be prescient, as by the time we completed our first loop, the trails were packed. We had a bit of a rough night with crazy thunderstorms and the forecast today called for more starting by noon and lasting all afternoon; so getting out early was a goal.

We drove down to Bear Lake, arriving around 7:45am with the intent to see three other nearby lakes. There is 1.6 mile (one-way) trip from Bear Lake that took us past Nymph Lake, then onto Dream Lake, finally ending at Emerald Lake. All were nice in their own right. We hit Nymph pretty fast and pretty early. It was calm and quiet and full of lily pads. Dream was substantially bigger and still pretty quiet and gorgeous when we got there. Emerald was freaky cold. It was super windy and cool there, but only walking back 20-30 yards on the trail it really warmed up. Mountain views from the glacier-fed lake were spectacular.

After the lakes, we made our way to Alberta Falls, at a round-trip, of about 2 miles.  It was really super packed.  And several young people were doing some relatively crazy s&^t here and crossing over the falls, climbing the slippery rocks, and generally goofing around.  I promptly told the young whipper snappers to "GET OFF MY LAWN"!  (not really, but were tempted to lecture the numb skulls)

When we got back, we took in the views at Bear Lake and tried to relax, but alas all of the families and kids swarmed us like bees.  We don't like bees, nor did we enjoy all of the kids screaming and yelling, destroying the tranquility of a beautiful lake.  In search of a calmer experience, we drove up to Sprague Lake, which definitely was quieter.  But the views weren't great, it was getting cooler (winding towards rain), and so we only stayed there a few minutes.

To end the day, we drove into Estes Park and checked out a couple local shops. We did get some tasty fudge at Laura's and while we saw some cool art, pictures, and mugs, we restrained ourself from more purchases.

Back to the crib for dinner and resting.  Boulder is the last stop on our journey and we've only got 2 days left (imagine baby crying now).

*** A little later, back at the crib***
We are sitting in our sweet little kitchenette having some leftover pasta when Brian suddenly notices this:

Something old, something new

Today was a day to shift from the West side of RMNP over to the East, moving from the Grand Lake area to the Estes Park side.  We ended at Aspen Winds - a nice set of condos; our condo was equipped with a full kitchen and laundry, amongst the usual bed/bath/living room.  This was welcome, as we've now been traveling for about 10 days and Brian (especially) was tiring of the restaurant life. Plus, we needed to wash some clothes. We hit Safeway, got some groceries, and had a home-cooked meal for the first time in a while.

Our journey across the park was pretty spectacular.  The drive itself was harrowing at times and fun at others, but the Alpine region of the park is always amazing.  While the visitor center is closed for now and not set to open until 2018, we still were able to stop several times in the tundra and see both incredible views and a couple of creatures.

Oh...yeah...and before we even made it to the "top of the world", we stopped, on a whim, at Lake Irene.  It was a nice, little lake, only a stones throw from the parking lot.  We heard some rumblings of wildlife at the lake and sure enough, the second the lake was in our view, a couple of moose appeared.  They were munching away on something on the far side of the lake (from Brian, as Susan approached them from their side, but still at a safe distance).  That was cool.  I think we saw more animals this year in 2 days than our entire trip in 2014.

During our last foray into RMNP, we also checked out the Tundra and did much of the same.  It was still special.  But, today, our stop at Lake Irene was new and also well worth it.

Nice day.

A very long, but good day

Today was long.  Very long.  Super tired at the end of the day.  The "happy hour" $2.50 whisky drink didn't help.  It was STRONG.

Anyway, we got the day started with an early morning hike to Adams Falls which was just a few miles from the lodge.  An easy 2 mile round trip.  Falls were nice, but not spectacular.  We proceeded past them to a large meadow.  We saw a moose out in the distance.  Got some pictures.  Then it charged us.  Not really us, per se, but it charged right past us.  Passed maybe 10 feet in front of us on the trail, as it high-tailed up the mountain. Wild (haha) stuff.

We then decided to hit the amazing lakes nearby in a 2 person kayak.  Super fun.  We got the boat around 10:40am and had an hour to explore. Made it from Grand Lake into Shadow Lake and back. Super calm waters and quite nice.

After a short nap, we headed for RMNP.  As usual, it didn't disappoint. This park is amazing - so much so that I tend to get desensitized to the beauty quickly.  Anyway, we did a couple of short hikes in the park, knowing we'd be back for the next couple of days for more adventures.  A hail storm cut short our day in the park and we went back to the lodge for the happy hour drinks.

We decided to check out Grand Pizza for dinner, as Brian had a hankering.  Tuesday night.  Super, stupid busy.  Got there at 7:15 and didn't have pizza until 8:30. We did get to watch a hummingbird swarm (see video links) while we waited.

Off to bed. What a long day.

Day of driving

Well, the SilverCar paid off today.  We woke up early, Brian powered up with some Krispy Kremes and coffee and we hit the road.  After our experience driving from Keystone to Santa Fe, this time, we decided to stay on the major highways.  It was a good move - added 100 miles to the trip - making journey from Santa Fe to Grand Lake a whopper at 491 miles total...but we're pretty sure it was faster. Took roughly 8 hours with several stops.

We did get to the Gateway Inn in time to catch their happy hour and take in the stellar views of the mountains and lake from their deck. After a drink, we headed "downtown" and got some tasty treats at Sagebrush BBQ. It was a "throw the peanut shells on the floor" kind of place and we couldn't help think about Brandon Collica and the peanut allergy thing.

That was pretty much it for the day.  Luckily, we've got three more days at RMNP!

Trapped at 10,000 feet

Today didn't really go exactly as planned.  We went down to Albuquerque on time after a quick stop for breakfast at the Flying Tortilla, which was a passable substitution for breakfast.  We headed directly and without hesitation to THE PLACE TO GO in the ALB, namely the Sandia Peak Tramway.  We got our tickets and promptly rode to the top. Sweet. It couldn't have been a nicer day - super sunny blue skies, so bright I couldn't even focus to take pictures (with sunglasses on). I guess given that we live in a mountain town, I should get the fact that the weather can be highly unpredictable in this kind of area.  We hiked about an hour on the top of Sandia and all was well. Then the thunder began. Then the lightning. Fortunately, we looped back to the tram station in time to avoid getting soaked, but because of the thunderstorms, they closed the trams going down. And then the waiting began, cramped in a small tram house with roughly 300 other souls. We waited for about 2 hours before operations resumed and then another hour plus to get our turn to ride down. Each tram only holds 50 people (10,000 pounds).

Once safely back to earth, it was already after 2pm and we decide to head to the Disney World of Mexican food joints (coined on tripadvisor) - El Pinto.  We pulled into the parking lot and confusion began.  Is this really a place to eat?  Is this a ranch?  Will they shoot us and leave us for dead? Given we had a solid recommendation for the place, we took our chances and exited the Audi.  We are glad we did.  While the dinner was pricey, the chips & salsa were super fresh, the margaritas were spectacular, and our main dishes were good enough.  A tasty way to complete the day.

We briefly contemplated looking for Walter White and company, but after some internet reviews decided it was best not to bother the fine folks that own his house. We drove back to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe - It ain't cheap

Just go back from our true first taste of Santa Fe. Sure, we arrived yesterday and did a very limited driving tour, but today we got to see more.

We started with a delicioso breakfast at the Plaza Cafe (Southside). Susan had breakfast tacos and Brian had Blue Corn Pinon Pancakes. Pinons = pine nuts. Really good. Super filling. Expensivo. Side of bacon $4.25, as an example.  Anyway, it was top tier food - and right across street from our hotel.

Downtown Santa Fe was our next stop. We saw the capitol building and a couple of churches and they had a freakin' massive street fair.  Miles of vendor tents.  I'm not even exaggerating.  It was wild. Crazy part was that these small seemingly family run stands had earrings for $350 and the like.  The architecture here is quite different than what we are used to and pretty nice.  Specifically, we saw the Cathedral Basilica and Loretto Chapel - Loretto Chapel had this amazing spiral staircase that seemed impossible.

We then drove to Upper Canyon Drive - and went to the Randall Davey Audobon Center for some light hiking and birding.  Saw some hummingbirds, but it is middle of summer, middle of day, so not much other life out there.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at chocolate heaven.  Or maybe just HEAVEN. Kakawa chocolates had these super nice drinking chocolates.  But, it was 85 degrees and we craved us some ice cream.  So ordered a 6oz Sea Salt Caramel and 6oz Azteca Chile Chocolate.  First was very sweet, second was dark and intense, with a light back of the throat burn.  $13+ for two ice creams. See, Santa Fe - it ain't cheap!

Dinner = planning for the best green chile burger ever.

Update: Got the burger close to hotel at a shady looking but tasty place.

What the what?

Today, unfortunately, was the day we had to leave Keystone.  Such a great place, so it was a bit sad, but we were excited to head down to New Mexico for our first trip ever to the Land of Enchantment.

Looked like the drive was likely to take about 5.5 hours, but in reality it was much closer to 7.  Once you get South of the Rockies in CO toward NM, it's very boring. Pretty, but boring.  And long.  And lots of stop and go with speed limit changes down to 25 or 35 sometimes for non-obvious reasons. You're really worried about me hitting a person in a town of 600 people enough to drop the speed limit down to 25?  Come on.  Anyway, we did finally make it to the DoubleTree in Santa Fe.  It was sweet because I was able to order an online electronic key, which meant I used my phone to get into the room, completely bypassing check-in desk at the hotel.  I digress..

Now, onto the point of this post. We got here really tired after a long, long drive.  We wanted to grab some dinner and twice failed to get to our goal.  We first tried a place called Maria's - but had trouble getting to parking lot and Santa Fe was super busy. Then we tried to go to The Shed which seemingly was in downtown city Santa Fe.  There was a festival going on and streets were packed...so after failing a second time we drove back towards the hotel.  Which seems ok because we ended at Los Amigos, which had some really, really tasty (Mexican) food.  Green chili sauce had quite the kick.

So,we're sitting at dinner, enjoying a tamale (Brian) and combination (Susan) plate, along with chips/salsa and all appropriate sides.  We overhear a table next to us placing their order...

"Do you want the white or brown gravy on that?", says the waitress to the two older couples at the table.

What the what?

We obviously didn't hear what they had ordered.  All we could think was either that's some odd Mexican food OR maybe they got either a meatloaf plate or thanksgiving feast of sorts. So, of course, we had to wait and see what came out when their food arrived.

Sure enough. Turkey platter, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and of course, white gravy.  I guess not everyone likes Mexican.  Keep in mind, we were at a place called Los Amigos.  Both couples had ordered one plate. To share.  Not unreasonable given the size of the plates, but still amusing.

Funny stuff.

Freakin' Awesome, CCR @ InstructureCon 0017

Well, that was freakin' awesome, amazing, fantabulous.  We attended the final night of InstructureCon.  They had a ton of great food at River Run - we had pork and stuffing, we had meat pies (lamb specifically), we had shrimp and crab legs (well, some of us did), we had fish and chips, we had an amazing peach ice cream served over waffles with chocolate fudge. And we had a few adult beverages.  The theme of the event was Austin Powers and they had sharks with freakin' laser beams, the car, Austin Powers himself, Dr. Evil, and the fembots.  All of that was cool and frankly I thought it was over.

But, Austin Powers then drove us (he drove, we walked behind) slightly out of River Run proper to a nearby field which is where the magic happened.  The stage was set and Credence Clearwater Revisted (not a typo) took the stage. Bass and drummer were original, but the other players were not. Even without the Fogartys they really rocked.   Frankly, I didn't realize I liked CCR this much, but every song they played was followed up by a seemingly more amazing and bigger hit.  They play for about an hour 20 minutes total and every song was one we knew and they seemed like all huge hits. The lead guitarist, lead vocalist, and the new keyboard/rhythm guitar/cymbals guy were all pretty amazing.  Best band I've ever seen live (not that I've seen that many), but they were on fire.

They sang, amongst other songs Susie Q, Down on the Corner, Born on the Bayou, Midnight Special, Proud Mary, Have you ever seen the rain?, and Fortunate Son.

What an awesome end to a great conference.  We also go to paddle boat today in the lake!

Full conference day, Brian is up!

Brian presented today at the conference.  Not sure what he said, but the audience didn't leave.  His presentation on EvaluationKIT with the VP from the company was at 10am, so at least it was early so he go to relax afterwards and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Instructure really knows how to put on a conference.  Great sessions, sweet food, awesome entertainment.  But, this blog isn't about work, so I'll leave it at that.

Jewel sparkles during the pre-conference night at InstructureCon 0017

Pre-conference sessions this day which were just "so-so".  Might consider skipping the paid ones in future and only going to the R1 Peer group meeting that day.   Early in morning, I overhead some hallway discussions between Instructure people talking about a surprise guest for that night and I was a bit floored by the name I heard, so much so that I wasn't sure I heard right.

But then a good official start to the conference.  Keynote by CEO Josh Coates was pretty good.  But it got really good when Jewel came out and he interviewed her.  It was a bit like "Inside the Actor's Studio" in terms of the questions.  What's your favorite color?  He didn't ask about her favorite curse word though.  Josh told her story and let her also tell parts.  Super fascinating.  For a person with limited formal education, she is quite smart and eloquent and thoughtful and introspective.

Jewel was supposed to go on at around 8pm with her band outside, but the gods had a different plan in mind.  We grabbed dinner in a bit of a torrential downpour (they had tents).  My kielbasa was soggy and it put a damper on the evening.  But, rather than cancel the concert, they moved Jewel to inside at 9:30 and promised an all acoustic set. Just her, guitar, and mad skills.

It was pretty awesome.  She was a great story teller.  People called out songs and she tried to play them, but it was interesting how many of her songs she didn't know.  She even had a girl find a youtube video of her playing her own song so she could remember it and them promptly had her also look up the lyric so she could sing the song "Raven" to a young girl.

Overall, it was pretty incredible.  A small room maybe holding 1000 people got to see Jewel up close and personal.  We'll never forget it.  She played pretty much all her mainstream hits.

The Keystone Part

So, today, we arrived in Keystone.  A pretty nice drive up from Lone Tree.  After solving a problem with our SilverCar (fuse blown for cigarette lighter), we made our way to Keystone.

Along the way, we stopped at the Continental Divide on Loveland Pass which was pretty awesome. Got out of car at about 11,200 feet and I think made it up to 12,600 after a short hike.  53 degrees at top vs. about 85+ in Denver.  Wow!

Checked into Keystone Lodge and Spa @ Keystone Resort that evening.  Went to dinner with work friends at the Kickapoo Tavern.  Mmm....goood.

Red Rocks, Broncos, Stranahan's Whisky, Beer, and God

Sunday certainly wasn't our day of rest.

We got up very early, being on East Coast time and all, and promptly headed out to Red Rocks Ampitheathre to do some hiking and exercise.  From our trip here three years back, we knew there were lots of very fit people climbing, running, wrestling, boxing, etc on the steps and we wanted to partake.  After some sweating, we went back to the Element and showered up for the day ahead.

Our next stop was Mile High Stadium, home of the Denver Losers...I mean Broncos.  Looks like a really cool place to see a game, not that I'd ever want to go there, even if the Steelers were in town. They have an entire replica of the stadium in the parking lot.  Neat.

Much to my liking, Stranahan's Whisky Distillery was nearby and we signed up for the 2pm tour. While waiting for tour to commence, we got some very tasty whisky drinks in their bar. The bartender whipped us up some fancy concoctions that has some very interesting ingredients like "Basil syrup" and the like. The tour was about a hour, informative and fun. Plus, there's that awesome smell when you get to the barrel room.

We had dinner plans to catch up with Stephen and Brittany at the Blue Moon Brewing Co, but decided to hang for a few in downtown Denver. We checked out the capitol building and the Cathedral.  It was under construction, so the outside was marred, but interior was fully intact. Amazing stained glass.

Dinner was superb.  A couple of beers each and not the Belgian White.  Really good food in nice setting.  Great discussion with our new Denver friends.

After dinner, we weren't done hanging yet, so went to the Great Divide for another drink.  It was right around the corner.

A fun day, but not restful.  

Cross-country flight and arrival in Denver

This trip was planned starting in February, so we were quite happy that it finally came time to board the plane.  Day started out a bit behind, as we sat on tarmac for 30 minutes after boarding for no good reason (at least not in my mind).  Luckily, we had a long enough layover to absorb a delay. I still don't get how a flight from ROA to CLT takes an hour and a half.  But maybe it's because of the 1950's style prop plane instead of a jet.  Note to self - avoid American Airlines in future or just drive to Charlotte and go out from there.

Got to Denver mid afternoon.  Picked up the SilverCar. Sweet and easy process.  Drove down to Lone Tree and decided to get a bite to eat after checking into the Element hotel.

Looked online for places and found Grimaldi's Brick Oven Pizza which was only a few miles away. We did have some trouble finding it because it was right near a mall, so street address wasn't helpful. Anyway, the food was killer.  Got a carafe of wine, a tasty Caprese salad, and then an amazing brick oven pie - it was called the "Brooklyn Bridge" or something like that.  Spicy red sauce, italian sausage and ricotta cheese on a toasty, thin crust.

After dinner, we went over to the mall - Park Meadows.  About the only thing mall-like about this place is that they did have stores and were selling items, but it was the nicest mall we've ever seen. The better term for the place is "Retail Resort".  And I didn't coin that term, even though Susan wanted to give me credit for it - I saw it on a sign. The food court was just plain ridiculous.  You have to mentally combine a fancy Colorado Lodge with stores to understand what this place was.  Really pretty cool and nice, not that I particularly like malls, but this one was cool.  They had a whole store of fancy olive oil type products, which I guess is a thing, but nothing something those of us that live in Blacksburg would know about.

A good start to our trip.  Tiring day, but a good one overall.