Back to college

September 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Lately I have been feeling old for my 25 years of age. I have been thinking of college and how great it would be to go back with the care-free younger students. Just 4 hours at the CU vs CSU football game made me realize that 25 is a pretty good age. Here is what helped me decide that:

  1. The kid’s underwear in front of me. Underwear
  2. The student that took a football pinata, cut it in half, and placed it on his head as a hat.
  3. The guy that couldn’t make it 10 feet off the sidewalk to pee. Nope. It was that urgent.
  4. The drunk guy that randomly tried to high-five Bob. Bob totally ducked and dodged him.
  5. The already drunk guy that was amazed there was a bus with Christmas lights in it, waiting to shuttle students from campus to a local bar. (“Wait…you mean you’ll give me a ride on this bus?! To a bar?! Really?! Are you going to the bar?”)

Aside from the college students there were a few older gems in the crowd. Take Fanny Pack Man with too small jeans, for example. Fanny pack

Or the lady that thought 83 degrees was 38 degrees and wore a long sleeved shirt with a snazzy fleece Buffalo vest. Fleece

Can you tell I’m more of a people watcher than a football watcher? Bob and I were rooting for the Colorado University Buffaloes. C’mon… Did you think he’d root for any team that didn’t have a Buffalo as a mascot? And true to Buffalo form, they lost. New CU Fans

Filed Under: Fun, Sports

There is a lake in Colorado!

August 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Bob, Coda and I packed up the car on 30 minutes notice and headed to Lake Dillon to go camping for the weekend. I read about a regatta that was taking place there and was anxious to get out on the water since I miss summers at Port Bay.

As soon as we got our tent set up we saw storm clouds rolling in so we got in the car and headed to Wal-Mart to get a hatchett and then stopped at Wendy’s for dinner since having a campfire was out of the question that night. When we got back to the tent it had partially collapsed from swift winds, and despite having an extra rain tarp on top, had soaked our mattress foam that we brought to sleep on. It was a damp, chilly slumber.

Clear skies

We woke up to clear blue skies and headed out to the regatta. While waiting for the race to start we watched as Coda enjoyed splashing and swimming in the water. Then we saw a water taxi that gives rides from one marina to another on opposite sides of the lake. We had no reason to go to the other marina, but were itching to be out on a boat so we paid to go for a 1-hour roundtrip water taxi ride.

Boat race Boat ride Jen and Coda

The views were spectacular and our captain told us that the lake is about 30 miles all around the shoreline and gets to 300 feet deep near the dam, where the water temps hold steady at about 38 degrees. Burrr. I would not want to go overboard there! There was also a slight gap between the floor boards and Coda was fascinated, curious, and angry that water kept splashing up. Watch his reaction:

Coda attacking water splashes from Bob Spryn on Vimeo.

After our boat ride we went to a nearby park that overlooked the regatta and Chef Bob cooked some burgers while I read a celebrity gossip magazine and occasionally glanced up at the sailboats. I blame Aunt Jodi for my celebrity gossip obsession since she gave me all of her old People magazines.

After the boat race, we headed back to our camp where I was going to read up on breckenridge and see what we might do later.

Jen being lazy

That evening we had a camp fire and ate modified s’mores. Bob doesn’t like chocolate, so I got Reese’s Pieces candies to put on the graham cracker instead of Hershey’s chocolate. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but the small candies fell off and I ended up cramming them into the sides of the marshmallows. Despite the logistical disaster, they tasted pretty good!

Crapmaker

On day three without showers, we packed up and headed to Mt. Evans on the way home. This mountain is slightly over 14,000 feet high. The roads were barely wide enough for 2 cars and there were no guardrails. I was sure we were going to die, but was pleased with the lovely views we would see if we fell to our deaths.

Mount Evans

We made it to the top and saw mountain goats that were no more than 10 feet away from us! The park ranger said the goats put up with humans because they needed to be near the rocks at the top to lick the minerals out. They were cute creatures.

Goats Goats

We headed back down the mountain and passed a Dodge Colt Vista along the way. My parents used to have this vehicle and I was amazed that one was still running, let alone climbing a 14,000 foot mountain!

Filed Under: Adventure, Fun, Outdoors

Disney!

July 12, 2009 By 1 Comment

Bob and I took a 3-day Mini-moon in Orlando, FL a couple weekends ago. When we landed at the airport and you could actually see the humidity! I forgot what that much humidity felt like. We got in after midnight so we picked up our nifty red Mustang rental car and went to the hotel.

Mustang

During our first full day there we went to Universal Studios. As soon as I entered through the gates my manager called my cell phone. She informed me that 20% of our employees were laid off, including her, but I was safe. I thought it was a shame to hear that news, but managed to suck it up in half a second to ride on the Incredible Hulk roller coaster.

Wuss

Universal had a lot of rides geared towards grown-ups, so we got to go on a lot of fun thrill rides there. We went on a Superman ride which happened to be semi-motion-simulated, which means I was very nauseous and did not enjoy it at all. I took about 20 minutes to recover in the air conditioned store area after that ride!

Partway through the day Bob got a call from someone offering him a nice new job. Although he loves his current job, the offer was too good to turn down, and counter-acted my dreary phone call from my manager.

We spent a full day at Universal Studios, slathered in SPF 85 sunscreen. At the end of the day, I enjoyed a margarita directly from Margaritaville. And it was strong.

Margartia

On day 2 we met up with our friends Anthony and Katie at Magic Kingdom, Disney. Bob and I got special pins to wear, indicating that we were on our honeymoon. The employees kept congradulating us. We went all over the park and I even managed to drag Bob on the Dumbo ride and It’s a Small World. The lines weren’t bad at all since we never had to wait more than 40 minutes.

Disney

Katie was determined to meet Pooh bear and that was actually the longest wait, but worth it to meet him and Tigger. It was hot in that line and we were thankful that the little girl behind us was using a spray bottle, so we were able to catch a cool mist from her once in a while. Bob dared her by saying “I bet you can’t spray me!”. Bob lost that bet, but in the end… did he really lose?

Poo Bear

Our last day started at Animal Kingdom where we only went on a few rides, then made our way to Hollywood studios. We spent a lot of time there to go on the Tower of Terror and the Rockin’ Rollercoaster (my two favourite rides).

Then we took a ferry over to Epcot and got dinner in Mexico. At that point we were all exhausted and didn’t want to walk around much more, so we sat around and watched “Cheesy bird”. He was running around with naco cheese on his feathers and looked silly.

Cheesy Bird

We caught a 2nd wind and went back to Hollywood studios for more thrill rides and we went with Anthony’s parents this time. His mom is a hoot and was screaming her head off. We convinced her that the Rockin’ Rollercoaster was a smooth ride with only 1 loop. Maybe we should have told her it goes 0-60 in 2 seconds flat and there were actually 3 loops.

Overall, we had a nice trip to Disney with our friends. I’m ready to plan my next vacation…just not in the middle of a humid summer season. Katie and Antz are already planning to come visit us in Colorado. Say… Octoberish?

Castle Monsters

Filed Under: Adventure, Friends, Fun, Outdoors, Travel

Great Sand Dunes

May 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Bob’s friend told us about Great Sand Dunes National Park and suggested we camp there. The campground doesn’t accept reservations ahead of time. We had to just show up and had a free-for-all for finding an available site. A lot of the sites were small and not nearly large enough to fit out 16′x10′ tent (our friends fondly referred to our tent as “the palace”). We finally found one big enough for our tent and 2 other tents of our friends that joined us. Although, I’m pretty sure we actually found 3 sites and used them all.

Palace The view

The forecast was calling for rain and thunderstorms and for once the weatherman was correct. It would rain for a couple hours, then clear up long enough so we could start a fire to cook a meal. We made sure we got our fix of s’mores before the rain came back and smothered our fire. We also put peanut butter on our s’mores and it was a delicious twist.

Smores

We went to the dunes Saturday morning. The dunes are the tallest in North America and were more like a mountain range than plain ol’ dunes. In order to get to the dunes we had to cross a freezing cold stream. We took off our sneakers and socks and waded across to the dunes.

Water by the dunes

Climbing was incredibly difficult. We put in a lot of effort and received minimum progress because the sand absorbed most of our steps. Bob and I didn’t quite make it to the top (I blame Coda), but the views were still fantastic!

The dunes The dunes The dunes

That evening was very cold. The temperatue dipped down to around 40 degrees and when you combine that with the rain, it was downright bone chilling. After a few rounds of cards with our friends, I was ready for bed. I put on as many layers as there are in seven layer bean dip. Then I hibernated in my sleeping bag with Bob and Coda. Yes, Coda snuggled into the sleeping bag with Bob and I.

Coda was cold

We packed up a day early since there was a lot more rain to come. Luckily, the rain held off long enough that morning to let us pack our tent up. We stopped at Bishop castle on the way back home. This castle was built by a crazy guy that decided he wanted to build a castle with his own 2 hands. He spent 40 years collecting rocks from his property and building this castle. The steps were steep, the iron rails shook and I’m not entirely sure how stable it really was.

Castle

The castle’s owner is very anti-government. In fact, no “drunk taxpayers” were allowed on his property. He also decided that people don’t have to be 16 years old to drive. He thinks anybody of any age can drive because the constitution doesn’t say otherwise. At least his insanity comes out in the form of a creative castle!

Filed Under: Adventure, Friends, Fun, Outdoors, Pets

Mountain Biking

May 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

Bob got a new mountain bike and helmet and, being the gentleman he is, gave me his old bike and helmet. He found out about an easy system of trails to try with me and I was actually excited about going when I woke up this morning. When we pulled into the trailhead parking lot, it was called the “Skunk Lot”. That was my first clue this biking trip might stink. I hopped on the bike and circled the parking lot to try to get used to it. I tried to push the petals backwards to put the brakes on, but apparently bikes don’t do that unless they are made for a 5 year old. I forgot “grown-up” bikes have brakes near the handlebars.

We found a couple of guys with bulging calf muscles in the parking lot and figured they would be perfect to ask which trails to go on. Bob made sure to tell them I had never been mountain biking before. They gave us some guidance, wished us luck and said “Maybe we’ll see you out on the trail in a bit!”. HA! The only way we’d see them on the trail is if they passed us on their way back to the parking lot, while Bob and I were still chugging along… just leaving the parking lot.

We saw some deer and got pretty close to them. One in particular didn’t seem too scared and I thought he was getting ready to attack me so I told Bob to get pedaling, and fast. After escaping with my life, we passed a few horses along the way and several near-pro bikers that whizzed by.

Yet another scary moment was the first big down-hill part of the trail. It was steep and had lots of rocks. Bob greeted the challenge with a smile and enjoyed it. I slammed on my grown-up brakes and walked down the hill. I’m the world’s biggest klutz, so a hill + rocks= trip to the emergency room. I wasn’t going to take my chances. The bottom of the hill took us to a lake. And by lake, I mean a really big pond (nothing compares to a lake after growing up near the great lakes).

At this point I realized Bob left the trail map in the car and was just guessing where to go. We ended up at a dead-end because the trail ran into a swift-moving stream. I wasn’t up for swimming across it with my hand-me-down bike, so we backtracked a bit and Bob finally got us back to the Skunk Lot. Bob enjoyed the trails and I think I may have accidentally agreed to go again with him.

Filed Under: Adventure, Family, Fun, Outdoors
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