Aspen, Colorado: Spring Skiing, Sunshine & a train ride

I love Colorado. That's just all there is to it. Every time we visit we scheme about to to find Matt a job down there, but we kind of love Seattle too, so it hasn't happened quite yet.

I love Ash & Steven too. We've traveled to Peru, Bolivia, and Turkey with them, and were honored to be a part of their wedding last summer. There's few people whose four-hundred-and-something square foot place I would barge in on for a week. But that's what I did. Thanks guys!

Matt and I flew in together to Denver, got ourselves a rental car, and made the drive up to Aspen. The weather was unseasonably warm which made for mediocre snow, but a fabulous weekend. It was 70+ degrees up at ~8000 feet. We had long breakfasts and mornings wandering town, spend long afternoons skiing on the mountain, and cooked up some great meals in the evenings.
We skied Aspen Highlands and Ajax, two of the mountains closest to town, and reveled at doing so in t-shirts. The lack of snow had already closed a number of runs but there was plenty of great terrain open. Highlands has a bowl that's a good 30 minute hike up from the lift, but gives you close to 3000 feet of vertical drop once you make it to the top. The views from the top were fantastic (though it had just clouded up a bit when we got there). We made sure to save time for a few brew breaks on the sundeck as well.

Sundeck 

Entrance to the bowl

Maroon Bells

Chillin at the top of the bowl

Steven shredding, Ash below

And Stevens pics:

Contemplating the climb ahead of me and my sea level lungs

Maroon Bells

Aspen itself was a cool town. It's certainly the height of rich out-of-towner skiing in Colorado and the massive houses, propensity towards fur and other peculiar attire, and prices at local retailers were sometimes enough to make you laugh/choke but Aspen also does a great job of retaining its small town/old town charm. I somehow didn't manage to break my camera out in our walks around town, didn't want to embarrass the locals (Ash & Steven) I guess but suffice it to say it was very cute.
We made some great food, did some planning for our upcoming overseas adventures this summer, enjoyed some food and drink out on the town, took a bike ride, a short hike up Smugglers mountain, and generally enjoyed getting caught up.

Aspen

Thursday afternoon I hopped on Amtrak and made my way down to Denver to visit my sis! I hadn't really every done a train ride like that before, but it was sweet!

Love those two, and can't wait to go back!

Denver, Colorado

As part of our March Colorado adventures, I got to spend a weekend with my sis Adrienne and her fiancée Justin in Denver. They were kind enough to let me crash at their apartment and I had a fantastic time getting caught up with Adrienne and getting to know Justin better (it was the first extended period of time he'd had to endure my presence). ;)   As an added bonus, it was Colorado so it was sunny and there were lots of outdoor adventures.

We spent a Friday afternoon at the park (80 degrees folks) eating guac and playing frisbee. We had peanut-butter-honey-brown-sugar popcorn for (sort of) dinner, which Matt won't let me do at home. We walked to adorable coffee shops like St. Marks. We went wedding dress browsing (no pictures for you!), and had some great margaritas. We also got into a bit of a car accident, but it wasn't our fault, we're all ok, and we even made it to the airport on time.

The grandest adventure was mountainbiking out near Boulder. Dedicated readers may remember my one and only prior experience with a mountain bike (on the Death Road in Bolivia) and that mountain biking isn't exactly my strong suit. But I don't like to let things get the best of me, so with exhaustive warnings to A&J about how bad I was going to be, we decided to give it another go. We went out to Marshall Mesa right outside of Denver, and had a grand time. I won't say I'm any good at it, but I think at least held my own, and managed to enjoy myself, so I consider it a success. Plus it's beautiful out there. And it wasn't downhill for 13,000ft with a 2,000 ft drop off. That probably helped too. On to the pictures:

I had a great time visiting A&J, seeing more of Denver, and was pretty glad to be in my own bed too when I got home (Aspen adventures had already ensued, post is coming). It was great being home this past weekend (it was even sunny) and we're out and about the next two, so look for some more posts. Cheers!

Day Trip to Phoenix

I'm in the midst of finals mania, so you're going to have to wait on hearing about 10 days of bliss in Colorado. In the mean time, I had a surprise day trip (literally) to Phoenix for a few meetings yesterday and was glad to see the sun again, even if it wasn't for long.  A few photos from the phone:

(I did actually leave the airport but wasn't snapping photos in front of all my co-workers who I'd never met before. That would be weird)

Guess! Where will 2012 take us...

It's that time of year again folks. The biggies for 2012 are booked and I'm so excited I can't stand it! We've got a good 8+ weeks on the road already on the books. Below is a picture of each location (country/state) that's supposed to be recognizable without being totally iconic. That was hard for some of them but mad props (and maybe a prize) to whoever can guess the most (all 2 of you)! Doesn't count if I already told you or you're coming with. :)