Breckenridge is for Anniversaries...

This past weekend afforded us a chance to get out of town. It's the perfect time of year to hit the ski resorts for a little getaway because the summer tourist season is over and the ski season has yet to begin. Prices are in the dirt, and there are plenty of things to see and do. We took advantage and headed to Breckenridge for the weekend.

I was excited for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it was time in the High Country during peak leaf season. That was also a bit disappointing because the cold snap we had managed to stop the color in its tracks. Much of the trees were already bare, many more were just pale. There was still some green, but mostly it was pale and past peak. I don't mind, though. It was still beautiful. The hard part was the amount of the evergreen forest that is dead, ripe for a fire to sweep through. Stupid pine bark beetles have just devastated this part of the state. You hear about it, you know it's there, but it's startling when you actually look around and see (I usually don't because I'm looking at or for other things).

Second, Saturday was our eleventh wedding anniversary. This was a time to celebrate and it's not often we do much more than go to dinner for our anniversary. Being able to get away was wonderful!

So we headed out on Friday and made the 2 1/2 hour drive to our destination. The first shock was the amount of snow still up there. We knew the last storm had dumped a couple of feet, but it was amazing how much as still there! It was so gorgeous....

We were there early, so we grabbed some local pizza as a snack. Fatty's is in the old Colorado House hotel building, and it's pretty cool! It's modern now, but you can still feel the layout of what it used to be. And the pizza is great! Worth the stop. We wandered next door to the Mountain Outfitters and found some great stuff. Too bad we didn't need any of it...or maybe that's a good thing. They had such great stuff that we'd be broke if we decided to actually shop! Then it was off to get checked into our hotel, so down the road we went.

Jeff ran in to get the keys and came back out with a perplexed look on his face. I thought "uh oh, what's going on." They had upgraded us and we had to go to another hotel! It wasn't actually a hotel, though. They gave us a 1-bedroom loft apartment in one of the timeshare buildings! That's pretty cool! Made it easy, too, because we now had a kitchen, something I was hoping for.

We dropped everything off, took a quick look around the room and building, the hopped back into the 4Runner for the 20-minute drive to Keystone for dinner. We had been told to check out the Wolf Rock Brewing Company restaurant there, and we figured it was a good time to do so. Anniversary dinner a night early. Oh. My. Goodness!! If you're ever in Keystone, or the surrounding area, you MUST eat at this place! The food is to die for! And so affordable for the quality! Seriously, the only meal I can compare it to is the 5-star restaurant we ate at on our wedding night. It is THAT good!

The next day we just wandered the town, did a little shopping, had some ice cream, and headed toward Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon, and the reservoir named for the original town of Dillon. It is very well known for J24 sailboat racing, is highly touted as one of the best lakes for sailboats, and a place we've wanted to check out for some time now. It was incredible! We've already decided we HAVE to head that way for a regatta next summer and to do a little camping on the shores. Not to mention it was such a great day to sail.

Then we did the little hiking loop known as Sapphire Point. It's just an easy little trail that loops around the hill and overlooks Lake Dillon. Luke initially didn't want to do it, but then decided it would be fun to canter with daddy around the loop. He had fun, despite being a bit grumpy. The sun was thinking of setting by this time so we headed back to Breck, had dinner, and relaxed in our room for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning was warm and vibrant. We checked out, headed to the middle of the town, and to a playground on the river to let Luke play a bit. He thought that was a fabulous idea! Between the playground and the grassy hill on the other side of the river, we had a very happy little boy! We watched a little girl de-cloth herself and play to her heart's content in the river, and Luke wanted to do the same. We let him feel the water and he quickly changed his mind. Not that we would've let him do it because we didn't have towels and it was much too cool (temp and water), but it was fun to watch! Much like most of the snow that had melted from the peaks, it came time to hit the road and head on home. It was such a wonderful weekend and we didn't want it to end. While it's always nice to be home and with our pets, it's always hard to leave the High Country. I'm so grateful we live so close to the mountains that we can get away like this pretty much anytime we wish, and I never tire of it. Great thing is my little family feels exactly the same way....

The Last Day of.....Summer??

Oh, how I love living in a place that's unpredictable! Today, September 21, 2009, is the last day of summer. Autumn actually begins around 5:18am tomorrow, but you'd think we were starting winter today!

I climbed out of bed around 6:30am and it was only slightly cloudy. It was also much warmer than I expected, but I was well aware that would be changing very, very quickly. I set about getting myself ready for classes.

By the time Luke and I were leaving the house at 8:30am it had completely clouded over and was starting to rain. Considering my child gets mad when it's not raining and he thinks it should be, his mood largely brightened by this sight. He still wanted to see ponies instead of his sitter, but he wasn't quite as grumpy about it. And the temperature had dropped a good 10 degrees from my waking.

I had dressed us both in preparation of a cold day, but Luke fared far better than I did. I about froze my bum off walking from my vehicle to my first building! Imagine my surprise at finding that first class was cancelled, and I was back outside. I went to the College Center building and promptly bought another sweatshirt to layer more. Much better!

My second class was held, so that was a nice thing...a good review for our test on Wednesday. I was misbehaving and keeping Twitter up during this time and saw all the reports of heavy snow. Not in the High Country, though it was heavy and shut roads down there, but in Denver and Colorado Springs! Then it was back out to the car. Guess what?

On September 21, 2009, the last day of summer, Pueblo, Colorado had big, wet snowflakes mixed in with the rain!! And it was a whopping 36 degrees! That was about 40 degrees colder than yesterday!

Eventually the clouds broke and the rain/snow mix stopped falling. I could see the Wet Mountains out my front window. Completely white all the way down to the valley floor! I hope to grab some shots in the morning, adding in Pikes Peak. I know the mountains were expecting at least 6 inches, so I'm sure the Peak managed a couple of feet. I can't wait to see it!

While I'm sad to say goodbye to summer, I do look forward to my planning months for next summer. On top of that, Luke loves snow, so I'm happy to see some this early.....

Manitou Incline by "Moonlight...."

I had to place "moonlight" in quotations because the mood didn't peak out until we were on our way down, but that doesn't matter.

Jason, Heather, Kerry, and I did a night hike up the Manitou Incline earlier this month. We actually weren't sure it was going to happen because the afternoon had been quite busy with heavy thunderstorms, but it cleared out by the 8pm meeting time. Funny thing: most of Colorado Springs was wet, wet, wet, but the incline and Barr Trail (our descent route) was dusty, dusty dry!

Anyway, I have noted that we met at the upper lot above the Cog Railway in Manitou Springs at 8pm. Grabbed our headlamps, tightened our laces, and set off. Silly me, the temps had dropped enough that I decided to wear pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Not the best idea for the climb up! You see, the Incline was a sort of railway ride from the town of Manitou Springs up to about 9000 feet to look over the town and city of Colorado Springs. That shut down about 100-years ago, but the rail bed remains, and people here love it. Technically it is private property, owned by the employer of all involved in this particular hike, but it's so popular that nobody seems to mind the trespassing. All sorts of athletes come and train here. It's a mile up the mountain, I mean UP the mountain, with an elevation gain of around 1500 feet, or so. I can't remember for sure, I just remember being impressed. One of these days I'll have to get the GPS out and look again.

What an interesting time to do this hike, though! This was the first time up the thing for both myself and Jason. I haven't seen a view of a city like that since I lived in Hawaii and saw Honolulu and Waikiki from Tantalus (one of the mountains on Oahu)! But it was odd to only see what the headlamp lit in front of you and see nothing but darkness as the "trail" faded away above us. We were all huffing and puffing. Remember: Heather is a triathlete, I am training to do a triathlon next summer, Kerry lives not far from the Incline and does it a few times a month, and Jason is a mega-hiker. The amount of sweat pouring off of us and the amount of panting could make anyone's imagination wander!

(don't let the photo fool you, it's super steep and NOT a bunch of steps!)

We kept on and reached our "summit" about an hour after we began. The view was spectacular!! And the wind was cold. I was immediately grateful that I had on pants and long sleeves....and that I remembered to grab my softshell before leaving the house.

(Manitou Springs leading into Colorado Springs)
(Heather, Jason, Kerry)
(Me standing rather oddly...)
(The other first-timer: Jason)

It took a few minutes in the dark to figure out where Barr Trail met our spot, but it showed up. It's amazing how different everything looks in the dark! Barr Trail is the other trail to the summit of Pikes Peak, one that I desperately want to do. It's 13-miles one-way to the top of the Peak, and we had 3-miles of it to take down to our vehicles. It was amazing! Some of it was slick because of the steepness, but overall, it was just pristine quiet and beauty in the dark. We could hear the stream but couldn't see it. We enjoyed our view of the moon finally peeking out from the clouds, and we loved seeing the lightning that was undoubtedly in Kansas by this time. Above all, we loved the workout. It was time for us all to go home and find our beds (I made it home and to bed by about 1230am, and I had class the next morning...this was a Tuesday night!), but we went happy.

I can't wait to do this one over, and over, and over again! In the meantime, it's now up to Kerry and me to make the date, time, and trail for our next adventure....

Race for the Cure....

What a great day! Luke and I headed out from home this morning at 6am to participate in the Race for the Cure in Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. I was really anxious and excited for this race. Breast cancer has touched so many people, yet there are still tons of people who don't perform monthly exams. I had my own scare. Fortunately, my lump was benign and has since disappeared, but that's not the case for all women (and some men!). My dad's cousin, Carol, is one such example. I am happy to report she is now a survivor, and I was proud to run in celebration of her victory.

It was a cool, cloudy, damp, and somewhat foggy morning. Perfect running weather, actually. We caught a glimpse of a snow-covered Pikes Peak when we left the house, but it was very quickly shrouded in clouds for the remainder of the day. Kind of a bummer given the excellent views of the Peak from Garden of the Gods, but that wasn't the point.

I had the opportunity to join a local news station's team, and I took it. Turns out I was the only community member who was smart enough to figure out the "banner" we were to meet at was actually the live truck. Weird....but they were quite appreciative. We all headed to the start line together.

The first mile of the course was all uphill. It was probably 4-5% most of the way, something I've really never noticed the hundreds of times I've driven it! And it was tough...pushing a jogging stroller with an almost 40lb child in it up that was quite the workout! But the views were glorious. We rounded to where my favorite view of the park lies and I was awestruck by the rock formations touching into the fog. I had my camera, but I wasn't stopping to take a shot. I knew I could come back through with the 4Runner later. It was also at about this point that we were given the relief of a brief downhill. Finally! I was able to extend my stride and catch my breath!

The last 2 miles really were up and down (uphill and downhill), but it was such a great course. I'd have to say it ties as my favorite (H3 Freeway opening in Hawaii is the other course...and only ran once). I was also thrilled with my performance. Given that I just started kicking up my running a bit, that it was 7 months ago I had my embolism, that I sadly struggled in my 4th of July race, and that the first finisher ran the course in just over 19-minutes, I am thrilled with my 26:57 time. And the fact I felt I could've gone another mile or two was icing on the cake. I'm regaining my endurance and speed, if even if it's at a slower rate than I'd like.

About 5-minutes after our run

Bundled up against the rather cold wind!
My "number" and celebration tag (thanks, Luke, for holding it for the picture!)
Not quite as foggy, but who cares? It's just such a gorgeous view!
Our parting shot driving home...

Luke had a ball. He loved the course, he loved all the free food (he's a boy, what can I say??), he danced and danced to the music when we were done, he clapped, he cheered, he sang. And he told me "we need to come again, Momma." He meant to run or bike the park, not just our usual style of visit. Good boy! I was too busy having fun with him to get pictures, we just had such a great time!

For all the fighters, survivors, and in memory of those who lost their battle, I am so happy to have been able to do a small pittance for you and your families. I am grateful for the VERY fun news and weather staff of KRDO for opening this opportunity, and I am happy to have had my eyes opened...even if it was incredibly scary. Ladies, please do your monthly checks, and never be afraid to ask for help. I will continue to run this relaxed and slightly emotional race, but I hope that someday there will be no need.....

Bad Memories...

I hate this date. I dread it the other 364 days of the year. I especially hate being in an area that I can't visit one of the crash sites. I told myself I wouldn't do this, but my mind decided it had to.

I used to live a short hour's drive (40 miles as the crow flies....but the roads wind) from the Flight 93 crash site. I spent a LOT of time out there. No matter the time of year, that strip mined field is always cold. And it speaks loudly. I usually went very late on September 11 for my own mind, after allowing the ceremonies and family visits to be complete. Now I can't do that.

I spent some time working in the Pentagon. Not often, and not a lot. But enough. It speaks. I will never forget my Chief. He was with me in Texas 3 days prior working on a special project. He was taking it up to the SIC on Thursday, September 13. He never made it. I can't believe I have seen the area he died in from both the inside and from the belt loop. It's haunting.

I have yet to visit Ground Zero. Opportunity just has not been there. For now, I am okay with that, though I will visit at some point.

Some out there are aware of not only feelings from that day, some know my own story. There are certain words, certain sounds, certain moments that send me into a bit of a panic. Those who know are the ones who've witnessed it. Last year they released some information from that day that shocked me, though it didn't need to be kept. All I can say is I'll never forget one of the most level-headed and goofy Lieutenants (now about to make Major) I have ever known start to turn grey and asking a why question in extremely colorful language....

I'll never forget actually denting the monitor and cracking the headband of my headphones when I threw them off my head while racing out to the outdoor break area to find my mission supervisor and officer while screaming to the analyst to get to my rack. I'll never forget calling all of my airmen back off of leave, except for the two who were either stranded in an airport while trying to fly home on schedule or stuck in downtown Manhattan and no longer had cell phone service. I'll never forget the relief when those two were finally able to get hold of the unit. I'll never forget seeing on particular word and knowing the world will never know. I'll never forget my normal 12-hour shift turning into a hellish 21-hours.

I will NEVER forget!

Never Forget....

It's been 8 years, but to me it still feels like yesterday. It is a never-ending nightmare. I will NEVER forget!

'Nuff said.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

We've been busy! I've got tons of pictures to share, but they'll have to wait a couple of days. Tomorrow is a sort of sacred day for me....reasons I can't really and fully explain to anyone and expect them to understand. Therefore, I will share pictures from the Colorado State Fair, some fun in the City Park, my hike up the Manitou Incline at night, and the wonderful pony who is Jack's return to Colorado after Friday.

Horrible Fires in the West...

...make for great sunsets. We had our third evening in a row of decent rain last night, but the clouds mostly cleared out just in time for one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen. I'm not even sure I've taken a picture of one since I lived in Hawaii! One of the meteorologists even highlighted my picture on the 10pm newscast last night. The picture led the newscast off, then was used in his "teaser" for his segment within the first five minutes of the broadcast. Point being that my picture may not be the greatest, but people really noticed the sunset.

With how much more smoky it is today, I'm willing to bet the first sunset of September 2009 will be even more spectacular than last night's....