Bowling, “Toy Story” Uno (family game night), Louisville Street Faire – and blink…it’s time for all to go home. Always goes so fast.
HOLD ON – we still have Saturday. Today’s destination: the Springs – Garden of the Gods, followed by mighty Pikes Peak.
Visitors Center, drove the Garden loop, hiked 2+ miles around the God’s infamous boulders – finished at Balanced Rock. Top 10 Colorado destination. LOVE LOVE this place!
Elk burger in Manitou, then a mile drive UP to tram parking – had purchased 6 tickets on the 1:20pm train. Ash & Tom were engaged on Pikes two years ago. Good memories.
Lotta traffic, hmm. Arrived to find our train was cancelled – actually STUCK 12,000ft UP. Argh.
Plan B? Hiked Barr Trail to Pikes (28 miles round trip) in 2013. Rode the railway UP same year – but have never driven. Pikes & Evans are Colorado’s 2 14ers accessible [in summer] by car. Tough on the brakes – glad Sis brought the rental 🙂 Outside temp dropped from 91 to 39 degrees within the hour-half ride up to Summit House. Truly stunning views!
My 2015 memory? Sis at the wheel hugging mountain curves while Tori & Jack screamed/jumped & waved their hands wildly in the back. Apparently we picked up a wasp while at Garden – a wasp not interested in resettling outdoors at 14,000ft in glacial snow. No room to pull the car over. Nat’l Lampoon vacation memory. Pretty funny in hindsight.
Ultimately parked without injury, purchased Pikes’ infamous high-altitude donuts & snapped a few pics before clouds moved in & pellet’d the car with snow. Ranger stopped us 20 minutes into our descent – brakes were smoking hot, 30 minute mandatory wait while they cooled.
Jetted back to Denver – WAIT, day’s not over. Sis bought tickets to Colorado’s MLS team, the Rapids. Been a tough year for the local team, last in our division. This day however, the soccer gods shined on Colorado: a 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake. All scoring happened in the last 4 minutes. If you haven’t attended a soccer match – GO! Lotta energy, lotta noise, super fun.
2 Nat’l Parks, 2 14er summits, Garden of the Gods, a glacier hike & glissading, mineral springs swim, train ride thru the Rockies, MLS game (professional soccer), geocaching, shopped Boulder’s pedestrian Pearl Street, hiked Chautauqua’s Royal Arch AND toured a silver mine nearly 1,000ft underground.
For monsoon season, this family filled their days. Miss you already sis 🙁
-
- beautiful faces, beautiful places
-
- Balanced Rock
-
- next Colorado adventure: rock climbing
-
- Pikes Peak, AMERICA’s mountain
-
- long stretch of highway UP
-
- outside temp dropped from 91 to 39 degrees
-
- inspired “America the Beautiful” in 1893
-
- SNOW cloud ahead
-
- Rapids 3, Real Salt Lake 1
-
- soccer selfie
-
- amazing family vacation — miss you guys already!
vacation extras
-
- Jack & Ro
-
- bowling at Fat Cats
-
- Salvadoran pupusa at Louisville Street Faire
-
- Chautauqua’s Royal Arch in Boulder
Happy July 4th – Happy Birthday USA!
Woke early to chilly temps – not the summer norm for July but today’s 26.2 adventure started at 8800ft 🙂
Less than 100 runners lined up for the inaugural Angel Fire Adventure (full & half #s combined).
National Anthem, 3 wheelchair participants upfront – then we started running. No gun, no announcement, just running. 9 miles flat or downhill, surrounded by high peaks, alpine flowers & sage. Hard to imagine a prettier marathon start – breathtaking.
Outkicked by a runner near mile 13. I continued up the highway, he turned & finished the Half.
The number of runners now thinned considerably. Constant climb, miles 14 thru 18. Ran with two runners thru 18 – one picked up pace, one slipped behind – then I was on my own. 18 then 19, still climbing – zapped all energy.
Heat kicked up, became aware of sun blazing my neck & arms. Felt like a soft white marshmallow toasting in raging campfire. Car traffic increased along the highway; not sure the town was aware of this year’s inaugural event. Kept on the shoulder, no worries, but felt more isolated than I have in any previous race. Walked/jogged most of mile 23, then IT happened.
Older lady (70’s 80’s) pulled her truck directly in front of me on the highway shoulder. Heat delirious, lifted my head, looked her way.
“Have you been in any accident? Can I drive you into town?” (super nice I agree but…)
“I’m in a race.” Pointed to my race bib. All the time thinking: maybe I could hitch a ride to mile 25 & limp in from there. I wasn’t gonna win so who cares, right? Thankfully oxygen returned to my brain & I waved her away. How bad did I look? LOL>
My most embarrassing marathon moment.
Eventually I would finish – under 5 hours, but just barely. (Only a handful of finishers — heat & altitude bested most.) Grabbed an ice compress from the volunteer nurse; DJ still randomly pumping club music into the sparse high-altitude sky. Weird but true.
OVERALL PLACE OFFICIAL TIME BIB # NAME CITY STATE
13 4:58:35 104 K R HAGA Louisville CO
34th marathon Finish – post race celebration?
8am zip lining reservation (next day) with my friend Cliff. Had never previously zip lined. First pass was a head trip but after that – no worries. Super fun. Heck less scarier than skydiving, that’s for sure. HA!
Love New Mexico, love 3-day holiday weekends. Next up? Sis & family’s first Colorado vacation. When? 12 hours ago. Yikes!
-
- 34th state, first high-altitude marathon, 8,800ft
-
- wrapped in the American flag, running on the 4th — super proud moment!
-
- zip lining at 12,000ft — SPECTACULAR views! LOVED LOVED LOVED it!
My first live soccer match & I attend a National game. FAAAANNNNNTASTIC luck!
Scored 2 tickets on stubhub & drove to Denver (with my friend Matt) to watch Team USA (defending Olympic champions) play China at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids.
Skies were overcast, then sunny, then dark grey – lotta rain clouds. Layers on, off, then on again – typical Colorado spring day. Luckily the weather cooperated; rain held out until the final 2 minutes.
The American women dominated this day – China relegated to defending both halves.
Final score – USA 2, China 0.
Could have been much worse – Team USA outshot the Chinese 23-1. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
-
- my first live match – SCORE!
-
- Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – home of the Rapids
