Here are my photos from Ken and Becky’s wedding weekend which I wrote about yesterday. Actually I take that back, these are mostly Kim’s photos from the weekend. I think she did a pretty good job of capturing a little bit of everything. Such a fun wedding weekend. Best of luck to the newlyweds.

Over the weekend I participated in my very first hut trip. Along with fourteen others, I hiked around six and half miles (from 8,620 ft to 11,180) up to the Eiseman hut on Saturday morning and afternoon. Most of the trip we wore snowshoes on our feet as there is still a ton of snow up in the mountains. We managed to accomplish this strenuous hike, with large and heavy packs on our backs, in around eight hours. This includes the time we spent lost off of the trail. Thankfully we were well prepared with plenty of snacks and water, along with GPS units, two-way radios, and maps. We all arrived with no major injuries just many blisters, aches, and pains.

In each of our packs were sleeping bags, minimal extra clothing, and lots of food for dinner that night along with breakfast the following morning. After leaving the cars at 8am, we all arrived within a half hour between 3 and 3:30. After that we popped open a few celebratory beers, relaxed and tried to stretch out our painful muscles. We then prepared a great dinner, and afterward held a friendly euchre tournament with sides of whiskey and wine. It was a great way to spend the evening hours.

The following morning, after breakfast, we packed up all of our bags, cleaned up around the hut, and then started our descent back toward the cars. The hike back was mostly downhill, besides one section of strenuous hiking, and we actually managed to follow the trail the entire way this time. The scenery was beautiful as we had a couple inches of fresh snow covering everything. The trip down only took three and half hours and was pretty relaxing for the most part.

For those who have a list of sites that read each day (or nearly every day) I have one for you to add to that list, or to subscribe to via RSS. The Big Picture is a photo blog from the Boston Globe, which documents news events using amazing quality photos. I probably should have mentioned this site long ago, and it’s possible that I’m spreading old news to many of you. Entries are posted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I found today’s entry for Holy Week especially interesting. It is very enlightening to see the way that these religious holidays are celebrated throughout the world.

After spending the previous day exploring Austin, we picked up our rental car and headed south toward San Antonio. Before we got too far along, we decided to take a quick detour over to Salt Lick BBQ after reading so many great reviews. Though the wait for a table inside was only 15 minutes or so, we decided to order “to-go” and sit on the picnic tables outside since it was so nice out. As we ate our lunch and drank our beers that we brought ourself (they don’t have a liquor license but allow you to BYOB), people continued to pour into the parking lot. They even opened a secondary seating area to accommodate the growing crowd. And after eating the food I can see why it is so popular, delicious!

After lunch we continued the drive down to San Antonio and immediately checked in to our hotel. From there we quickly gathered what we needed and headed out for a tour. We stopped by Market Square first, and after quickly walking through the open air Mexican style market, we moved on to the San Fernando Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in the US. After a quick tour, we then moved on to the Alamo. We arrived toward the end of the day and managed to catch the last educational presentation of the day. It was nice to have a refresher on the story of the battle that took place so many years ago, and it helped to visualize what the mission looked like at one time and what buildings are still standing today.

With our sight seeing out of the way, we moved on to the famous River Walk area to stroll along the river banks. We had dinner at Acenar on the recommendation of a guide book and were impressed with the speedy service and great tasting food. Kim loved their guacamole and I was very happy with my enchiladas. After dinner, we continued walking along the river until we encountered a band by the name of The Krayolas who were busy entertaining a nice sized crowd at the Arneson River Theater. This theater is one of the coolest setups I’ve seen. The stage is on one side of the River Walk, and there is theater style seating on the other side with grass growing on the benches.

After the band had finished their show, we found our way to a couple of River Walk bars to round out the night. Despite being tired from two busy days, we managed to stay out until two or three in the morning. We had a very good time in San Antonio.

South Texas Plains on Dwellable

As mentioned earlier, Kim and I took off on Friday and headed down to Austin, Texas. After arriving at the airport we decided to wait 20 minutes for the next bus that would take us right into downtown. We arrived at our hotel (Hampton Inn) right at 3pm, and after heading up to the room, we were shocked at what we saw. The room was actually a two room suite with a couple flat screens, king sized bed, couches/chairs, a dining table, fridge, microwave, etc. It even had two bathrooms. And on top of it all, we were staying on a reward certificate so the whole thing was absolutely free.

Once we were settled in, we decided to start a walking tour of the city. We headed right to Congress Avenue and walked up it until we reached the Capitol grounds. We could see it from blocks away, and it takes up multiple blocks, so it was impossible to miss. We toured through the building and exited on the north side to continue walking up Congress to the University of Texas campus. I was pretty impressed with how clean and new everything on campus appeared. We also toured the Texas Memorial Stadium while there.

After that our legs were getting pretty tired, and we were very hungry, so we caught a ride on the ‘Dillo transportation system down to the famed 6th Street. We settled on having dinner at the Iron Cactus on their rooftop patio. The food was good and the margaritas got us in the bar crawling mood. So we opted to check out some of the many bars along 6th. Earlier in the day I commented that nearly every other building on the street was a bar, but at this time I realized it was more like every building on the street is a bar.

Once it got close to sunset, we walked down the the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the largest bat colony in North America emerge to feast on the numerous bugs along the banks of the Colorado River. At it’s peak the colony can reach 1.5 million bats! It is really amazing to see them come out from under the bridge in huge numbers. I tried my best with the photos, but unfortunately it seemed that most of the action was on the south side of the river.

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off the camera and grab our jackets, we headed to Stubb’s BBQ to catch an outdoor performance from Yonder Mountain String Band. I had heard of this venue year’s ago, I guess when O.A.R. first played it, and have always wanted to see it since. There is a small stage inside of the restaurant, but the fun part is the large outdoor stage behind it. That’s where this show took place, and we had a great time there. After the concert we again headed down to 6th Street to finish off the night. What an action packed day!

Austin on Dwellable

After 24 hours of snow it has finally stopped. At times Denver was under a blizzard warning, and it really was some intense snowfall. After being penned up inside for so long, I decided to go out and do some shoveling. I also decided to snap a few pictures along the way. According to the Paff meteorological center, we received 13 inches of snow. And to be honest, we really needed it. Haven’t had much precipitation at all in Denver, and the conditions in the mountains were not very good. I’m hoping we can get up onto the slopes for some snowboarding this weekend.

I’ve been spending a bunch of time working on my fish tank recently. I bought a new lighting fixture and a couple of brand new compact fluorescent bulbs with the hopes of one day adding some corals to the tank. Since I bought the fixture used on eBay, the bulbs that came with it were also used. After installing the powerful new lighting, the tank quickly developed some green hair algae followed by red slime algae. So I’ve been doing lots of water changes, scrubbing of the tank, and with the new bulbs I am hoping that I can stop the nuisance algae.

Here are a few photos I snapped of the tank and fish today. Despite the algae mentioned above, I’ve avoided catastrophes in the tank for over a year now. Which also means that the six line wrasse has been alive and doing well in the tank for over a year. And both clownfish are doing fine too. One has grown larger than the other so I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll have a breeding pair. It’s well known that all clownfish start the life as males, and the dominant fish of the group will go through a sex change to become the female of the group.

Over the weekend, we took a couple hour drive up to Leadville, Colorado. Situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States. The reason for our trip was was to check out the annual ski joring competition. We first heard of this event this past November when watching the latest Warren Miller movie, Children of Winter. We arrived shortly after 11AM, and quickly realized that we’d be waiting around for awhile. In the future, I would say it’s safe to bet on the competitions getting started around 2PM. I have to admit that it is just as awesome, if not more, than what I was expecting. The horses are flying straight down the course, while the skier being pulled snakes back and forth trying to hit all of the objectives on the track.

Here are a bunch of photos that Kim snapped from this past weekend. The first nine are from our first day in Keystone. The next fifteen or so are from Breckenridge. And the last fifteen are from Vail. There are some great shots in the mix. She also took a bunch of videos that I hope to get online. Perhaps I can get creative and mix them all together into a cool mini documentary, similar to the one Corey made. I can’t do much with this stupid ankle injury, so I should have the time to do so.

While in Cincinnati this past weekend, I went down to the Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olympics that took place at Newport on the Levee. Kim’s family was out supporting the cause, along with two of her brothers who raised money and actually jumped into the frigid pool of water. Although Kim’s brother Jason is an athlete with the Special Olympics he was not able to participate because of a conflicting work schedule. However his friend Andrew was taking the plunge, which Kim and I were happy to sponsor. The night before, we also convinced Scott, a friend of ours, to raise some money and take the plunge as well. He was able to raise over $200 from the group of friends who were gathered at the bar. I think he thought that I was doing it as well, but I have to say that I’m not that crazy. Plus I had to be the photographer of the event. So here are my contributions for the day.