On Saturday morning, I woke up early and joined Jenny in a birthday run. We ran around her place, near downtown Denver. It was a Ghetto style run, but also featured a long stretch adjacent to the Platte River. (What a treat that was!). We ran for about 45 minutes, a great way to start the day.

Later that day, we met Jenny & a gaggle of her friends at Hot Cakes (a Denver Breakfast hotspot). It was yummy. I ordered Huevos, with black beans & vegetarian green chile sauce. Dennis got the sweet potato pancake, and he thought it was yummy too.

At Jenny’s brunch, there was talk of climbing, and before I knew it, plans were drawn to head up to Golden for the afternoon. Yippie! First outdoor climbing of the year! And to go with a small group of females, how awesome!

So, I met Jen & Jenny at around 1pm and we headed up to Golden. Even though North Table Mountain is not my favorite crag, I was totally psyched to be outside climbing.

I only hoped it would stay warm out…a cold front was building and who knows what would happen.

Here’s Jen & Clare (Jenny Obscured by Clare’s Big Huge Head)

Here’s Jenny on a Mission to Climb

We got to the parking lot around 1:45pm and things did not look great. But, who knows, maybe by the time we put on our gear and got to the crag…

About 500 feet above the Parking Lot, at the Crag:

Lucky for us, the weather held out and we were able to climb 3 routes before the wind picked up and sun died down!

In addition to the climbing, Jen discovered a buried #2 BD Cam at the start of Killian’s Dead. She mentioned it to us, and when it was Jenny’s time to climb, Jenny spent a good 30 minutes working on the piece. She got it loose enough so that it was freely moving around, now how to get it out of the flared crack?

It was my turn to give it a whirl, so I stuck my little digits in the crack and experimented with different angles. Finally, I decided to angle the lobes downward and, using my nut tool, I squeezed the trigger at the same time as pulling the cam out. It was tricky, but I finally dislodged the cam.

I gave it to Jen, as she had done most of the work on the piece. I was happy to have been there for Jenny’s first booty experience! It’s an exciting opportunity for Jenny…and that it was successful is even better.

My first attempt at scoring free booty almost turned into disaster…

I was in Red Rocks in the Icebox Canyon and spotted a #3 wedged in a crack about 30 feet off the deck. There was a bolt about 10 feet below it. I was a big sport climber at the time, and with about 2 years of climbing experience. I decided to go for the cam, but I didn’t have any other gear. I climbed up into the crack and tried to retrieve it. Only one lobe was moving and my arms were pumping out. I almost had it, when my foot slipped and I took a pretty big fall, nearly landing on my belayer, as the bolt creaked. Darn it! After that, I did not feel the urge to continue with the confiscation and went home in defeat.

But, I digress…back to the climb at hand! Jen was fired up to lead Killian’s Dead, a wonderful short 5.6 crack with good pro and a fixed anchor.

Here are pictures of Jen’s lead of Killian’s Dead (5.6).

Here’s the Birthday Girl, Jenny, Ascending Killian’s Dead (5.6)

Then, we set up top ropes on Deck Chairs On the Titanic (5.9) and Pee on Dee (5.8)-no pictures the light was dying.

It was nice to get out climbing. For a half day effort, one can’t beat the sunny crags of North Table Mountain! However, I can’t wait to get over to Eldo, Clear Creek, or Boulder Canyon. Any one of these would be preferable, for a full days time 8^)

We left the house around 8am and got up to Nederland around 10am. We stopped for coffee & baked goods (a macaroon, apple turnover, and orange scone).

We arrived at the parking lot on County Road 116 and started skiing around 11:15am. Here we are at the start:

About 10 minutes down Road 116, and you reach this sign, where the road to the campsite breaks off to the left…

About 30 minutes into the ski, we stopped for a short break:

After about 1.5 hours of skiing, we reached this bridge. Here’s Kat looking totally fresh! From this point, it was about 50 minutes more to get to the campgrounds.

WE MADE IT TO THE Rainbow Lakes Campground!!!

It took about 1.5 hours to make it back to the car. It’s 4.5 miles to/from the Rainbow Lakes Campground with about 800 feet of elevation gain, so the ski back is super fun! We made wonderful time getting back to the car, with Emma & I swapping lead. Here’s Kat celebrating upon return to the parking lot!

What a wonderful day of skiing, we all had a blast!

Early in my run, I had a feeling of light heartedness and quickly a smile flashed across my face. I guess it was frozen there, because in about 10 minutes I could no longer feel anything from my chin to my eyebrows. The numbness did not matter, I was out on a mission.

I ran over to the park, and passed one solitary jogger. Some dude wearing about 10 layers of clothing, I thought, “He must be drowning in sweat!”. I was already hot, as my new fleece lined running tights provided a cozy layer of warmth.

I started vegging out, just lost in that trance like state. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw motion. Hmmmm, not good! Then, “Watch Out Lady!”. A sledder careened out of control down the slope, and narrowly missed me midstride. A few paces slower and I would have been turned into a flat pancake. Whew!

After the close call, I decided to head home. I think the run was around 9 miles, but it felt like much more. It must have been the adrenaline!

This year, to my excitement, Dennis & Emma would be skiing with us. We decided to tackle the Blue Ridge Trail, with the goal of making it up to the loop.

Group Shot before skiing.

Emma Cutie Pie

Goofy Steve

Having Fun on Eagle Valley Trail

When we arrived downtown, we quickly realized the crux: Parking! Finding parking down there is like a finding a needle in a haystack. We drove around for 20 minutes, and finally scored on a space in front of a coffee shop. Whew! When we got out to pay the meter, we were a bit dismayed to find it was only a 1 hour meter!!! We were parked about 1 mile from the Capitol building, so our lunch turned into a BLITZ tour.

Mark was a wonderful guide, he quickly escorted Doug and I around the maze of stark white government buildings. He knew exactly where we would be able to go with our allotted time, and made sure we maximized our experience.

O’bama was to give the State of the Union address this very evening, so in addition to our scurring around, news media camera crews were doing the same. A drove of security in just about every manifestation was out in full force (cops on horseback, motorbikes, bicycles, cars, and unmarked suburbans). This was quite fascinating in and of itself.

Since it was a Wednesday and it was ~40dF, so we did not encounter many tourists. We had many of the sites all to ourselves, so I was able to capture quite a few nice pictures.

Our time was up, so we rushed back to the car. Then, we drove back to the Conference, making it just in time to see one of our colleagues give a talk.

Doug & I saw a fascinating talk about tissue regeneration, and I was amazed by the advances in medicine. For example, with burn victims, they can use existing cell tissue to grow new swatches of tissue. The grafts do not take as much time to heal, and the process is much less painful as the traditional methods. There were many other more complex repairs, and Doug got a little queasy at some of the pictures presented!

Later that evening, we had a group dinner at the Chart House in Old Town Alexandria. I had been wanting to meet some of my colleagues who work in our sister branch in Falls Church, and this was the perfect opportunity to bring everybody together.

The food at the Chart House was delicious, and I had a sampler platter. My dinner came with a grilled salmon flank, Shrimp on a Skewer, a Crab Cake, and a huge mound of fresh steamed broccoli. Yum!!! For dessert, I had a slice of key lime pie-which we split 6 ways, because it was huge!

Wonderful run, up to Woodrow Wilson Bridge, then across to Alexandria. When we got across the Potomac, we headed south on the Mt. Vernon Trail, and turned around at the rest room building. The damp & humid air made it feel even colder than reality, but once we got off the bridge, we felt much warmer…

On Monday morning, I woke up at oh-dark-thirty, and put on my suit for the conference. Opening flag ceremony started at 7:30 (sharp-as with all things military). The conference kick-off went very well. We were honored by the attendence of Admiral Mullen (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), who took time away from his schedule to speak about the state of our military health care system.

The Plenary sessions that day were scattered about since the organizers had not known for sure if Admiral Mullen would be attending. We had a several hour gap in the program, I dearly wished I could go back to my room and take a nap! Instead, we ended up going out to lunch and enjoying a few hours of sunny daylight.

At the end of the day, we went for a walk. The Woodrow Wilson Bridge is just over a mile from the resort hotel, and then another two miles gets you to Alexandria.

We decided to turn around at the halway mark, because an incoming evening storm thwarted us with heavy wind and a bit of lightning!

After our walk, I went back to my room and changed into workout gear! I went down to the gym and worked out for a couple hours. The gym at the hotel has lots of nice aerobic machines, but surprisingly there is no pull-up bar!

As a tribute to the struggle for human rights, I decided to go for a long run (and struggle myself!). The weather was beautiful, with a bit of snow still covering the ground. I ran for just under 7 miles, at a fairly decent pace. I came back home covered in sweat, but happy knowing I fended off a day of lethargy!

This training run also marks the start of my training to do the Rim to Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have made reservations for a campsite on the North end and plan to run on May 22nd. I will need to run over 20 miles, and survive greater than 10,000 feet of elevation change in one day.

In California, we took her out for Thai food, and she had a large white cake with Fresh Strawberries and Thai Coconut Ice Cream.

In Denver, she had a sleepover and the girls enjoyed Pie & Ice Cream. The following day, we took them to the Denver Aquarium (pricey!!!). I liked how the Aquarium had an extra focus on the local stream & river environmental systems, that was a nice touch. The downside is that 12 year old and up are considered adults! It was quite a bit overpriced, in my opinion, but we all had a nice time and learned something while we were there!

After two weekends of celebrations, I was worn out completely. But, I’m sure she’ll always remember the beginning of her teen years!