After celebrating our friends’ wedding in Newport, Rhode Island, we spent the next day exploring parts of Connecticut.  Rhode Island was my forty-fourth visited state, and Massachusetts was number forty-five, making Connecticut number forty-six.  Rather than taking the interstate between Newport and Mystic, CT, we drove the entire way on highway 1, which included a couple of scenic moments.  It wasn’t nearly as pretty as I had hoped, but it was better than the highway, which we later took back to Providence for our flight out.

Our friends Tracey and Kevin came along for the adventure in Connecticut.  Our first stop was for lunch at the famous Mystic Pizza.  Prior to our trip I had never heard of the movie with the same name, but I was able to view clips of it on the restaurants TV sets as we enjoyed some pizza.  It wasn’t the best pizza I had ever had, but it was good enough to satisfy a very hungry group of four.  After lunch we decided to check out the Mystic Seaport.  Admission was a little pricey, but once inside I realized there was a full day of entertainment available.  It was a little hot for my liking, but we gave our best effort to see as much as we could and actually stayed all the way until closing.

After the Seaport, Kevin decided to start his drive back to New Jersey, leaving Tracey to explore with us for the rest of the day.  Eventually we made our way over to our hotel in the nearby town of New London, and after getting settled, decided to drive back over to Mystic for dinner at the Captain Danial Packer Inne Restaurant and Pub.  After checking out the upstairs menu, we decided to eat at the more casual downstairs pub.  Fortunately many of the dishes served upstairs are also available downstairs and at a discounted price.  This was another of my favorite meals!  The Lemon Peppered Chicken was delicious.

The next day we explored the boardwalk of another nearby town called Niantic.  Part of the boardwalk was closed, but we still enjoyed the limited time on the rocky shores of this tiny town.  We had one last meal at Dad’s Restaurant before making our way back to Providence for our flights out-of-town.  We had a great time exploring New England, and I’m happy that there are now only four states remaining that I have not yet visited.

My friends Karen and Aaron were married in Newport, Rhode Island at the beautiful Belle Mer Island House a couple of weeks ago.  It was a wonderful time with many close friends, wonderful food, and delicious drinks.  Before helping them celebrate their wedding vows, we also spent time exploring Newport.  We had a big group dinner at the Brick Alley the night before, which might be my favorite meal of the trip.  I would highly recommend the Triple Hot! Hot! Hot! Buffalo Pasta. Earlier on the day of the wedding, we took a tour of the famous Breakers mansion and enjoyed a nice lunch at the Marina Cafe & Pub.  I really enjoyed our time in Newport, but the large tourist crowds and traffic congestion made me happy to only be spending a couple of days there.

Before ducking out of Massachusetts and heading back toward Rhode Island for the wedding a few weekends ago, we made a quick stop in Cambridge to see the Harvard University campus.  I didn’t take very many pictures of the campus, but it was cool to see, and we even sat in on a tour for a bit.  We attempted to grab lunch at Mr. Bartley’s Gourmet Burgers, but the line was insane.  Instead we ended up at the Cambridge Common for great food and a wonderful beer selection.  I don’t recall what everyone ordered, but my Uncommon BLT was excellent!  After lunch we headed toward Rhode Island with a quick stop past the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  We didn’t even get out of the car, just drove through, as we were running out of time.  Here are a few pictures from the day that was filled mostly with travel.

After checking out Fenway on our first night in Boston, we spent the majority of our second day walking the Freedom Trail.  We started in Boston Common and made it all the way to the USS Constitution, which I’m told is about two and a half miles.  It certainly felt like it was longer than that, but the effort was well worth it.  The amount of history along this trail is unparalleled, at least as far as the U.S. goes.  I would highly recommend the walk, and I think you’ll agree after flipping through these photos.

If you recall, we recently spent some time in New England.  The first activity we took in was a baseball game at the legendary Fenway Park.  My friend Jay secured some tickets for us from StubHub, and though they were located in the second to last row, we were all excited to see the stadium.  I was prepared to see lots of history inside the stadium, but I wasn’t ready for just how small it really is.  Despite being in the top rows of the outfield, we still felt close enough to the action.  We spent about half the game in our assigned seats, and the other half of the game walking around the park and taking it all in.  Here are some pictures from our experience.

I missed the third game of the hockey tournament I mentioned yesterday due to the annual Flipcup’alooza flipcup tournament and party.  You may remember this party from many years before.  This time was a little different from past years, as Kim didn’t attend.  Obviously she couldn’t play in the tournament, and she decided to skip the drinking centered event altogether.  The guys on our team remained the same as last year: myself along with our friends Ken and Pulli.  We relied on Ken to provide some girls for our team, and he did eventually come through, even though one participant didn’t show up until a minute or two before the games started.  I guess that was better than last year, when we pulled a random out of the bar to join our team.

Despite some changes, the results were much the same for our team as years past.  The tournament was setup as a round-robin style at one of sixteen tables.  At each table there were five teams all competing for a single spot in the sweet sixteen elimination style bracket.  My team, Sunday Morning, started off with a couple of losses right away.  We did eventually win our third game, but were quickly back to losing the fourth.  We finished 1-3 in the round-robin with no chance of advancing through to the next round.  Despite the results, we had a good time with many of our friends from Denver.

While Nick was in town over the weekend, we did a few other things besides taking him to his first concert.  On Saturday morning we drove back out to the Red Rocks area for a hike along the Dinosaur Ridge.  We started on the side closest to Red Rocks, so we had to hike up and over the ridge to reach the visitors center.  Fortunately, we had decided to pick up sandwiches before our hike, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.  We ate our sandwiches at the visitors center, looked through the gift shop, and thought about paying $3 per person for a ride back to the car.  We didn’t have enough cash, so we decided to hike back to the car, covering the mile and a half pretty easily once again. 

Later in the evening, we took Nick to a Colorado Rapids soccer game along with a few of our friends.  We bought tickets from Groupon a few weeks ago, which gave us VIP tickets and a free shirt.  During the drive to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the weather became a little questionable.  Fortunately our VIP tickets were about fifteen rows off the field and had a roof over our heads.  During the game there were brief periods of rain but we didn’t get wet at all.  The game itself was fun, though there was no scoring in the first half.  Eventually Colorado scored a goal against the visiting Columbus Crew, and that was all it took for the victory. 

Additional pictures can be found on the Hais Family Picasa site.  Nick took most of the pictures that he is not physically a part of.  Here is a slideshow containing all the photos. 

Last weekend, we traveled through New Mexico. After seeing Albuquerque on Saturday, we moved up to Santa Fe on Sunday. We arrived in the early evening at La Posada de Santa Fe, the resort I had reserved on Priceline for only $110. “Nestled on six beautifully landscaped acres in the heart of Santa Fe, this AAA Four Diamond name in Santa Fe hotel resorts is a haven of Adobe-style architecture, colorful gardens, and cozy outdoor fireplaces.” The old structures have been completely renovated and easily exceeded our expectations.

After we found our room, we spent a little time relaxing at the heated outdoor pool. While there we started planning our remaining time in Santa Fe. Originally I wanted to go to The Shed for dinner that night, but we soon realized that they are closed on Sundays. Instead we decided to walk around the downtown plaza area and see what caught our eye. Eventually we ended up at the Cantina at the Coyote Cafe. We dined on more tacos and enchiladas, specifically the Al Pastor tacos (Special Spice Blended Pork, Sweet Grilled Pineapple, Vidalia Onions, Roasted Tomatillo & Salsa Fresca) and Chicken & Cheese enchiladas (Arroz Verde, Refried Beans, Red or Green Chile, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Guacamole & Mexican Crema).

We walked around Santa Fe after dinner and again were back to the hotel and in bed by eleven. The following day we snacked on leftovers and things we had brought along in the morning. We then toured the Loretto Chapel, San Miguel Mission, and the New Mexico State Capitol. Out of the three, I think the Loretto Chapel was the best, though San Miguel was also very interesting to see. After a few hours of walking we had worked up a good appetite and headed to The Shed for lunch. Kim had the Green Chile Stew and salad, while I continued on the trend and had the Enchilada and Taco Plate. This was one rolled, blue corn enchilada filled with cheddar cheese, onion and covered with red chile. One soft blue corn taco with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, baked chicken with green chile. Served with pinto beans & posole. Their red chile was my favorite!

After lunch we left Santa Fe and started on the drive back to Denver. Our only notable stop along the way was near the city of Taos, at Taos Pueblo. Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and said to be the oldest continuously inhabited houses still occupied in the US. We almost backed out after seeing the $10 admission per person and $5 camera fee, but I’m glad we decided to go through. As we were walking in, a tour was starting, so we joined that and then spent some time on our own exploring the ancient pueblo buildings.

After exploring the Sand Dunes Saturday afternoon, we continued on our way to Albuquerque.  Along the way we stopped in Alamosa, Colorado for lunch at San Luis Valley Brewing Company.  Kim and I shared both the Chicken Hot Italian Sausage and the Chicken Skewer appetizer. I washed it all down with a Grande River IPA. I definitely enjoyed the beer more than the food, but it is still worth a stop if you are in the area. We eventually arrived in Albuquerque in the early evening and checked into our hotel for the night, the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque. I had won it on Priceline for $42 and it was well worth that price. We had a room on the fifteenth floor with a view of the city. I would have preferred a mountain view, but the room amenities were still great.

For dinner on Saturday, we decided to venture to Sadie’s, a local institution that serves up simple but spicy New Mexican food. We arrived close to eight in the evening and there was still a wait for a table. We found the self-service chips and salsa station and make a basket to hold us over. Immediately we were hit with spiciness from the salsa, and that was just the beginning. Once seated we feasted on a variety of enchiladas, tacos, and chile rellenos. The green vegetarian chile was very spicy as well, but oh so good. We don’t have much to compare it to in Albuquerque, but I would highly recommend Sadie’s.

After dinner we drove over to the area of town known as Old Town. By this time it was getting late, and most of Old Town was pretty deserted. This area of town is famous for its adobe building dating back to 1706. Though most of the shops were already closed, we took a leisurely stroll through the streets of Old Town and enjoyed the nice weather. We were back at the hotel and in bed by eleven.

To start off Sunday morning we drove over to the University of New Mexico and walked through the adobe filled campus. Once we had worked up a good appetite we crossed over the street to the Frontier Restaurant. This restaurant must be packed when school is in session, as it was very crowded on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning. The line wrapped halfway through the long rectangular restaurant. I decided to just sample one of their enormous cinnamon rolls and Kim had a breakfast burrito of some sort. It’s an interesting place, but was dirt cheap and pretty good. Breakfast for the both of us was under $10 total.

On our way out of Albuquerque we stopped at the Sandia Peak Tramway for a ride on the world’s longest passenger aerial tramway. It is a fifteen minute ride from the base to the top, covering 3,819 ft in elevation gain. The slope of the mountain is very steep and picturesque as viewed on the ride up. Once at the top, the Sandia Peak Ski Area offers both winter skiing and summer mountain-biking. There is also acres of forest with many trails to hike along. We hiked for around five miles or so, and then decided we had better get moving on to Santa Fe if we wanted to enjoy our time there.

On our way down to New Mexico for the long weekend, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in south central Colorado.  This has been on our list of things to see for a while, and since it was only about an hour and half out-of-the-way, we decided that this would be the trip.  We left bright and early on Saturday morning and arrived at the Sand Dunes in the early afternoon.  After a quick stop at the visitors center, we headed toward the main parking area near the dunes.  We were warned that this was traditionally the busiest day in the entire year, and though there were many cars overflowing the lots, there didn’t seem to be too many people out on the dunes.  The biggest draw of the park seems to be Medano Creek, which flows only from spring to early summer.  The majority of the people in the park appeared to be enjoying the shallow and wide creek.

After parking the car in a picnic area near Medano Creek, we waded across the creek and on to the sand sheet.  We quickly realized that the sand was quite hot in spots, and that our sandals would have to stay on most of the time.  Our initial goal was to hike to the top of High Dune, which is around 650 feet tall.  That didn’t sound like it would be too tough, but once we were out in the dunefield, we realized it was harder than expected.  First, everyone should be able to imagine what hiking in sand is like.  Every step forward is like three steps backward.  And on top of that, the winds that whip through the dunes carry sand and small rocks with them.  At times this was very painful and we were finding sand all over ourselves even days after the hike.

We considered bailing on our initial plans to hike to the top of High Dune, but eventually decided to go for it.  We decided a slow and steady approach would be best, and I think it took us around an hour or so to summit the dune.  Once at the top the winds were so bad that we could only stay for less than a minute before beginning the trek down.  Going down was a blast, as you could easily let yourself go knowing that you wouldn’t run into anything hard or sharp.  I think I ran down most of the way, especially when the winds were kicking up sand again.  I’m not sure if the winds are always this bad, but I would definitely keep that in mind on future visits to the dunes.  Despite the wind, I’m glad we finally had the chance to spend some time exploring these wonderful sand dunes.