Prior to the fun of last weekend, I had a 10:30pm hockey game on Friday night.   Normally my games are fun and a nice break from the work week, but playing this late on a weekend night was a downer.   Not to mention that despite our best efforts, we still came up short with a very close loss.   The team was happy to have at least won a game in the playoffs, but still we should have won this game as well.   With the loss our season came to an end.   We’ve called it quits until sometime around Memorial Day, when we will take the ice with new uniforms and improved focus.   The upstairs bar at the rink is sponsoring our team by giving us a free team pitcher after each game (a $20+ value).   It doesn’t take much to bribe our team.

After our big hike at the Grand Canyon, we spent the rest of the day working our way to Sedona.   We traveled east out of Grand Canyon National Park along AZ-64 and then south along US-89.   When we reached Flagstaff, we stopped for dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery.   We had excellent meals and beers at this brew pub and continued on our way down to Sedona via AZ-89A.   At this point, it was already getting dark out.   I wish we could have seen more of the scenery in the Oak Creek Canyon, as I’m sure it’s a very pretty drive.   We finally made it to Sedona, checked into the Sedona Real Inn, and called it a night.

The next set of pictures comes from the following day, our third day in Arizona.   We started off the day by driving down to the Montezuma Castle National Monument.   This is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America, built by the Sinagua Indians around 700AD.   Part of the ruins was built deep inside a cave, and therefore it was protected from the elements.   I wish visitors were still allowed to climb up to the ruins, but that stopped in 1950.   There wasn’t too much to see, so our visit was fairly short.   We also made a quick stop at the Montezuma Well on our way back to Sedona.

Once back in Sedona, we stopped for some information at one of the visitors centers and then drove around looking at some of the amazing rock formations, namely Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, and Courthouse Butte.   After that we stopped for lunch at the Oak Creek Brewery & Grill.   Yes, it was my goal to hit as many breweries as possible!   Again we had another great meal and washed it down with some delicious beers.   We had originally planned to take a ride with the Pink Jeep Tours this day, but decided to wait on that until the next day.   Instead, we decided to rent mountain bikes from Bike and Bean for a couple of hour adventure around the Bell Rock area.   It was so much fun, and I think everyone really enjoyed it!

After beating ourselves up on the bikes, we picked up a few six-packs of local beer and headed over to the west side of Sedona to view the sunset.   We decided on a spot along the Red Rock Loop Road, and enjoyed the amazing views east.   Sunsets in Sedona are viewed looking east, not west.   This is because the setting sun really lights up west-facing faces of the red rocks.   It was beautiful!   From there, we had another late dinner at the Barking Frog Grille.   Their website says they are an American restaurant…with a Southwest bark!   The restaurant is much nicer than their website or even the outside of the building would suggest.   We were all treated to some of the best food of the trip, along with some delicious margaritas.   I even got a belated birthday desert!

As mentioned earlier, my photos from the day are below, and again for more pictures see my mom’s flickr page.   Including this one:

Flagstaff on Dwellable

This past Saturday I headed up to Breckenridge along with Kim and our friends Ryan and Rob.   We made plans earlier in the week to attend the Breckenridge Beer Festival and arrived just after the event had started.   It was fairly cold and windy out, but that didn’t stop a pretty decent sized crowd from gathering outside to taste unlimited beer samples from over twenty breweries.   The website said, “Rain or Shine, we’ll be there and hopefully so will you!” We didn’t see any rain, but there was plenty of snow.

On to the sampling.   The first surprise was the beer from the Rifle Brewing Company.   I’d never heard of the city of Rifle, Colorado, let alone the brewery there, but their IPA was delicious as was their Anvil Point Amber.   Another brewery that I had never heard of before was the Grand Lake Brewing Company, also from Colorado.   While I wasn’t as blown away by their brews, they did have a couple of tasty entries.   Of the larger breweries, I was very happy to get a taste of small batch offering from Deschutes.   I walked up to their booth just as a bottle of Hop Henge IPA came out of hiding and encouraged them to give me a pour.   It went fast, but all in our group were able to try it.   We also enjoyed beers from Great Divide, Kona, Breckenridge (obviously), Avery, and many more that I am forgetting.   It was a great festival, and my only suggestion would be for them to add more restrooms into the mix, as we had to wait for fifteen minutes or longer each time.

Breckenridge on Dwellable

Earlier this morning the initial lineup for the 2010 Mile High Music Festival was announced.   This will be the third annual festival, and I’m hoping it mostly goes back to the way it was the first time, as I’ve mentioned before.   They are definitely off to a good start by announcing that the Dave Matthews Band will be back to headline the festival.   DMB headlined one of the nights the first year, and was able to bring in a very large crowd.   This helps explain why there wasn’t a Colorado date when the band announced their summer tour a few months ago.

In addition to DMB, I am very excited to see Steve Miller Band, Cypress Hill, The Samples, Amos Lee, ALO, Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Ozomatli, Railroad Earth, and many others.   The full lineup is below, though I’m sure there will be more additions at a later time.

Saturday August 14th

• Jack Johnson
• Steve Miller Band
• Slightly Stoopid
• NAS & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley
• Phoenix
• Keane
• Cypress Hill
• Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band
• The Samples (All Original Members)
• Keller Williams
• Donovan Frankenreiter
• Rusted Root
• Amos Lee
• One EskimO
• Mayer Hawthorne & The County
• ALO
• The Constellations
• The Motet
• Bobby Long
• MyNameIsJohnMichael

Sunday August 15th

• Dave Matthews Band
• Weezer
• My Morning Jacket
• Atmosphere
• Jimmy Cliff
• Train
• Bassnectar
• Ozomatli
• Railroad Earth
• Drive By Truckers
• Punch Brothers
• Tim Reynolds & TR3
• Trevor Hall
• Matt Morris
• BoomBox
• Oh My Stars!
• Joe Purdy
• The Knew
• Danielle Ate The Sandwich

Earlier this week, I wrote about our big hike into and  out-of  the Grand Canyon.  Today I am posting photos from this amazing day.  For even more photos of our hike, check out my mom’s flickr site.

Arizona on Dwellable

My hockey team finally won a game!   I missed the last two games while in Arizona, but the team still managed to lose both games.   The second game was the first for our team in the playoffs.   After that loss, we had our second game in the double-elimination tournament last night.   Had we lost again, our season would have been over.   We managed to have the lead for most of the game last night, and with a last-minute empty netter we won 6-4.   The bad thing is that we now play at 10:30 on Friday night.   I couldn’t think of a much worse game time.

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