Recently one of my aunts asked me how many of the national parks had I been to.  After visiting the Grand Canyon last week, I am now up to ten of the eighty-five national parks.  I was thinking that the number would have been higher, but an older post on my blog confirms it.  The ones I have visited are as follows:

• Arches, Utah
• Bryce Canyon, Utah
• Canyonlands, Utah
• Denali, Alaska
• Grand Canyon, Arizona
• Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
• Kenai Fjords, Alaska
• Mammoth Cave, Kentucky
• Rocky Mountain, Colorado
• Zion, Utah

There are numerous other parks nearby that I hope to get to sometime soon.  At the top of my list are Yellowstone, Glacier, Great Sand Dunes, and Mesa Verde.  Add your list to the comments, using the full list of national parks as reference.  I’m sure someone out there has to have more than my little list.

As mentioned yesterday Kim, my family, and I all met up in Phoenix last Wednesday to start celebrating my 30th birthday. After everyone had arrived at the airport, we found our rental car and started driving north toward our first destination, the Grand Canyon. Everyone was already pretty hungry, so we decided to stop in Cave Creek for lunch. One of my guide books suggested a place called The Original Crazy Ed’s Satisfied Frog Saloon & Restaurant in the tourist trap Frontier Town. We found Frontier Town without any problems, but couldn’t find the restaurant. Finally we realized that it had changed names and is now the Silver Spur Saloon. Fortunately they still had the same good bar-b-que that the book promised, which we washed down with our first tastes of Oak Creek Amber Ale.

After lunch we continued on our way north to the Grand Canyon. We didn’t make any other stops along the way, but it was very interesting to see the drastically changing scenery. Around the Phoenix area there were cacti everywhere, especially the Saguaro cactus. The further north we drove, the higher in elevation we gained, and the less cacti we saw. In fact, there are national forests surrounding much of the Phoenix area. As we approached the Grand Canyon we even started spotting patches of snow, along with evergreen trees. The route we took was I-17 to Flagstaff, I-40 west towards Williams, and then finally AZ-64 north.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon as the sun was beginning to set, which was our goal. We quickly found the Maswik Lodge, our home for the night, and then walked swiftly over to the Grand Canyon rim. The colors of the canyon walls were already beginning to glow, so after a few photos near the Bright Angel Trailhead, we walked west along the rim toward Hopi Point. As we reached Maricopa Point, a park shuttle bus was passing by, so we hopped on it and were quickly dropped at Hopi Point. The view from there was amazing, as you could see for many miles west into the canyon as the sun was setting.

After enjoying the sunset views we headed over to the El Tover Dining Room to sample the food of the best restaurant inside the Grand Canyon National Park as well as a nice bottle of wine.  I had the Garden Penne in Lemon Garlic White Wine Reduction with grilled chicken and it was delicious!  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday and to kick off my 30th birthday Edventure.  Some photos of our first day are below, and my mom has added her’s to her flickr site.

Cave Creek on Dwellable

I am back from sunny Arizona sunburnt, sore, and a year older than before. To celebrate my 30th birthday Kim and I flew to Phoenix and met up with my parents and brother. From there we were on a long weekend tour of the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Phoenix areas as well as all stops in between. Along the way we hiked, mountain biked, off-roaded, ate great food, and drank good beer.  One of my favorite adventures was hiking in the Grand Canyon. I had never been there before so seeing it at sunset upon our arrival was amazing but nothing can top hiking into it. I had done my research and everything I read said not to attempt hiking down to the Colorado River and back to the rim in one day. I’m assuming that in the summer this can be extremely exhausting due to high temperatures.

Before leaving I talked to a friend who had hiked to the river and back and he said it is definitely doable. My plan was to start on a ranger guided hike on the South Kaibab trail that would go a mike and a half down the trail and to take it from there. Well this hike isn’t actually offered until the summer months. Instead everyone in our group started hiking the trail, with me leading, just after eight in the morning.

As we descended down the South Kaibab the view got better and better. When we reached the mile and a half turnaround, Cedar Ridge, we decided to continue on down the trail. Shortly after we ran into an older couple who said the were going down to the river and back up another trail, Bright Angel. They told us they had done it before and it took only nine hours or so. This is much quicker than the guidebooks say.  I had always wanted to touch the river and go back but was afraid that we didn’t have enough time on this trip. Once I heard their estimated time, I was all for it. Everyone else really liked the idea of doing it and so we hiked down with a new goal!

After around three and a half hours of hiking we had reached the suspension bridge that crosses the Colorado. We crossed and actually went down to the river and felt the frigid water. We took a short break to eat some food and fill our waters and were on our way up shortly afterward.  The hike up started pretty steep. We knew the South Kaibab was steeper than the Bright Angel, but we also knew it was around three miles shorter. We may have started the first set of switchbacks with too much speed, which led to a few extra rests and some tired family members.

Eventually after another four hours of hiking we were all standing back at the top of the Grand Canyon. We had all made it down and back! I was so proud of everyone and so happy that I was able to accomplish this. With stops included, it took us nearly eight hours exactly to hike the 13.5 round-trip miles. It was a hike that I’ll never forget.  Pictures and more adventures coming soon.

The majority of O.A.R.’s summer tour dates were announced today. I’m always glad to see a Red Rocks date in the list, as it truly cannot be topped. Another interesting date is the Starlight show in Kansas City. I saw a few plays and concerts at the venue while living in KC and it is a much better option than whatever they are calling Sandstone these days. I doubt I’ll make it out for the show, but you never know. Also I’m thinking that the 17th is either going to be in St. Louis or Cincinnati. The other TBA’s are likely to be on the east coast. Here’s the full list of dates:

• July 8^th @ Lawn at White River State Park in Indianapolis, IN
• July 9^th and 10^th @ Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago, IL
• July 13^th @ Westfair Amphitheatre in Council Bluffs, IA
• July 15^th @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO
• July 16^th @ Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, MO
• July 17^th @ TBA
• July 18^th @ Meadow Brook Music Festival in Rochester Hills, MI
• July 21^st @ LC Pavilion in Columbus, OH
• July 22^nd @ Nautica Pavilion in Cleveland, OH
• July 23^rd @ Comcast Theatre in Hartford, CT
• July 24^th @ Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, PA
• July 27^th @ TBA
• July 29^th and 30^th @ Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, MA
• July 31^st @ TBA
• August 1^st @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY
• August 4^th @ Star Pavilion at Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey, PA
• August 5^th @ nTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth, VA
• August 6^th @ PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ
• August 7^th @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, NY
• August 10^th @ Venue TBD in Raleigh, NC
• August 12^th @ Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD
• August 13^th @ Uptown Amphitheatre at Music Factory in Charlotte, NC
• August 14^th @ Family Circle Magazine Stadium in Charleston, SC
• August 15^th @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta, GA

Kim and I spent the weekend up in the mountains with a rotating cast of others.  One of our friends rented a three bedroom condo that we filled with seven to eight people throughout the weekend.  We took advantage of a nice spring storm that hit us on Friday, and headed out to Vail on Saturday morning.  This was our first time there this season, so we stayed until closing to take full advantage.  We met up with a few of our other friends out there and took to the slopes in a mass mob of nine boarders and skiers.  After a few runs we split into smaller groups, and the group we were a part of decided to go straight out to blue sky basin.

It takes a few runs to get all the way out to blue sky, but we eventually made it around noon.  We were quickly able to find all kinds of powder in some tree runs near Pete’s Bowl.  We tried some of the other more open bowls, but found the snow to be too crusty and hard.  So we did a few more runs over near Pete’s and then decided to start heading back towards the front side of the mountain.  This is always a challenging task, as it takes a number of runs to get anywhere around the massive grounds of Vail.  Eventually we made it back to the area where we had started the day, found the rest of our large group, and called it a day.

We all drove back to our condo in Frisco and had some food and drinks at the divey Moose Jaw restaurant.  From there it was wine, socializing, and games back at the condo.  Kim and I got another early start on Sunday, along with a few others, and headed out for a half day at Keystone.  Kim hadn’t been back to Keystone since early in the season, and conditions have vastly improved since then.  It still is nothing like a couple of years ago, but at least most of the mountain is open.  We had a couple of icy runs to start things off, but quickly found some better runs on the front-side of Dercum Mountain, Frenchman being our favorite.  We tried a few runs on the backside slopes, but found it to be mostly icy out there as well.  We were able to get ten runs in before 1:30 and decided to call it a day.

I’m not sure if we’ll make it out again anytime soon.  The closing dates for the resorts are quickly approaching, with most of the last days in mid April.  With that said, I’m sure we’ll have another couple of spring days at Arapahoe Basin and potentially some closing day fun at some of the other resorts.  I still have a long way to go to reach twenty days this season, but that can be blamed on the worse than usual conditions.  I was glad to have another weekend in the mountains, especially with a really good day at Vail and a typical day at Keystone.  Even after seeing so much snow recently, spring is still coming on strong.

Frisco on Dwellable

I wish I could say I forgot to write because I’ve been watching so much basketball. But I’ve actually been so busy at work and away from an Internet connection all afternoon. The new group I’m a part of had two servers that should have been delivered early in the week. Well they didn’t show up until four yesterday. We only have until tomorrow afternoon to get them setup before they are shipped away. So I’ve been logging some extra hours the past couple days. At least it won’t interfere with the weekend though. Plus I’m actually enjoying the challenging work.

Over the weekend I found my new favorite little Italian Restaurant in Denver, the Saucy Noodle Ristorante. It’s not even two miles from our house, but it’s not in an area of town that we regularly visit. I guess there are too many other places nearby for us to venture too far out very often.  Kim and I played a round of racquetball after work on Friday, and afterward decided to get some food.  We thought about grabbing something close to the University of Denver, where we workout, but an upcoming hockey game had packed all the restaurants.  So we headed north on University Boulevard and ended up in the Bonnie Brae neighborhood.

We found a parking spot directly outside the Saucy Noodle and headed inside.  The restaurant was actually bigger than I was expecting it to be, and it was pretty well packed.  We were told it would be up to twenty minutes for a table.  We decided to stick around and ordered a couple of drinks from the small bar.  We were seated before finishing our drinks, so the wait wasn’t too long.  Kim decided that she wanted to have pizza and ordered one with their spicy hot Arrabbiatta Sauce.  I decided on the Stuffed Shells Florentine, which are filled with a creamy Mixture of Fresh Cheeses, Parsley, and Spinach. Both dishes were excellent, as was the side salad that came with my meal. The Arrabbiatta sauce was definitely spicy and delicious, but I’m glad that I also got to sample their equally delicious and famous garlic marinara sauce. We will absolutely be back!

Saturday was the day for our now yearly ritual of watching the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I originally thought it was the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade west of the Mississippi. This is true, but after reading it again I think it’s actually the largest parade for any event west of the Mississippi.

The Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade bears the reputation as the largest parade west of the Mississippi River and one of the largest in the United States. Over 230 individual units mass together in a parade of 10,000 plus participants. Winding through the streets of Lower Downtown Denver on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, over 200,000 spectators enjoy a three hour plus parade.

Either way, it’s a fun way to kick off a typically great Saturday afternoon in Denver.  As with years in the past, the weather was great.  I was telling our friends that it’s usually the first day of the year for people to get a nice sunburn.  Standing around outside for over three hours can easily do that will all of the sunshine.  Once again the parade entries were as strange as ever.  The Hare Krishnas were back, and a large group of Star Wars characters joined in this year as well.  The longhorn cattle made an appearance, along with lots of drunken float riders.  The best part is that we finally brought a camera along to capture some of the experience.

Last week some members of OARfans.com had a discussion about miles traveled to see O.A.R. concerts.  At some point I decided to calculate my estimated miles traveled using both Google Maps and this WebFlyer calculator.  I already knew that I wasn’t traveling for shows as often as I used to, but when I do travel now it tends to be larger distances.  Currently I’ve been to 90 shows in 15 states (CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WA, WI), thanks oarsa.org.  I quickly realized that my longest road-trip was likely the spring break trip back in ’03 that I took with three others.  Nearly 2,000 miles roundtrip to see seven shows.

Despite a couple of wins thrown into the mix, my hockey team continues to lose most games.  Since a win three weeks ago, we’ve gone on to lose 9-1 and 9-5 in the last two weeks.  Even with our 5-11 record, we are only a couple of points from moving out of last place.  Fortunately our last two games are against the second and third worst teams in the league.  We actually have a chance to improve in the standings before heading into the playoffs.  We all realize that the playoffs are what really matters, but if we can move out of last and get a better seed for the tournament we might actually stick around for awhile.  It wouldn’t be the first time my team has miraculously improved heading into and through the playoffs.