Yesterday Kim and I both participated in the Runnin’ of the Green 7K race in downtown Denver. I decided to run with a couple of friends, while Kim opted to push Trey through the course in his stroller. We both did really well. I finished the 4.35 miles in 36:09 according to my timing chip. That’s a 8:16 pace, which is about a minute faster than the pace I’ve been running during my lunchtime runs. I know that races often make you run faster than you are accustomed to, but this was really fast and I was very happy with the time. Kim managed to finish the entire run, which is a huge accomplishment itself, but she did it around a ten minute pace! She said that she only had to stop once to assist Trey, and that he enjoyed most of the run.
My hockey team struggled through another game on Wednesday night as we took on the top team in the league. We actually hung with them for two periods, but were pretty much destroyed toward the end of the game. This marked the end of the regular season. My team finished in tenth out of twelve teams. The playoffs start on Saturday and it will be a long journey for us if we are fortunate enough to advance deep into the tournament.
Fortunately, bowling was a much better experience last night. After missing last week, my team had climbed up into second place. Last night we again played the first place team. The night started off average for me with a 135, but then moved up to 149, and then back down to 126. My average is 132, so I’m pretty much sticking to that, which is a huge improvement over last season. Unfortunately our team only won the first of our three games. I think that will be enough to send us back into third place. We have just two weeks left in this short season.
Another great meal my family had while in Estes Park this past weekend was courtesy of Poppy’s Pizza and Grill. I had actually been to this restaurant with my wife once or twice before. During the summer the wait for a table can easily be a couple if hours, but during this offseason we were seated right away.
The first thing I recalled on this return visit was their surprisingly great selection of beers. I started with Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers after my first choice was out of stock. Others in the group had Pliny the Elder, Estes Park Brewery’s Longs Peak Raspberry Wheat, and a nice variety of Belgians. I also added a Big Bear Black Stout from Bear Republic for desert. Delicious!
As far as the food goes, we all decided to split two different pizzas. Poppy’s Special came with Italian sausage, sautéed onion & green pepper, and fresh mushrooms. The Thai Pizza had a spicy peanut sauce (though not too spicy), red onion, chicken, broccoli, and water chestnuts. The Thai Pizza was our personal favorite but both were pretty good. If you can avoid the long waits, this restaurant is an easy choice for vacationers in Estes Park.
Writing on my blog while connected to work has become a bit of a pain. My website is being blocked by websense because they have categorized it as Social Networking. I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I’ve emailed them to get it corrected.
Anyway, Kim and I took Trey to the doctor today for his two month check-up. Everything went well and he is a growing boy. Details of the visit are on kimandedjr.com.
One thing that has really struck me is that every time they ask if he is doing something, whether it be putting weight on his legs or laughing, the answer always seems to be yes. He not only loves to put weight on his legs, he even tries to walk up our torsos. Not only does he giggle, smile, and coo all the time, he put on a nice little display for the doctor full of every noise he knows. Our little guy is advancing quickly.
The first meal my family and I had while on vacation in Estes Park was at Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ & Taphouse. My dad recommended it after reading some reviews before our trip. The first thing that really surprised me was the beer selection, which was really great for a small BBQ restaurant. I decided to go with a Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing to compliment the smoky food. I seem to recall other fine beers on tap including Breckenridge Vanilla Porter as well as solid choices from both Odell and Avery.
For meals, we all decided to choose from the smokin’ platters and while everyone else went with the single pulled pork, I decided to try the roasted half chicken. Each platter comes with two sides and with so many options we had very few repeats at the table. I chose the cole slaw along with red beans and rice. Both of my sides were good and the half chicken was plenty filling. There were four sauces on the table to sample and I think the original and tangy were the best. I also sampled the pulled pork, which was really good, as well as their sweet potato fries, BBQ baked beans, and spiced apples. All of the food was very good and I would easily put it at the top of my list in Estes Park.
Pulled Pork And Chicken
As I mentioned at the end of last week, my parents were in town visiting over this past weekend. Originally we had planned to spend the time in Breckenridge, but Trey’s pediatrician suggested that he stay below 8,000 feet until after three months of age. Instead, we decided to spend the weekend up in Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park. This still felt like a mountain vacation, but the elevation was safer for our newborn son.
We headed up to our condo for three nights after I had finished work on Thursday evening. Packing the car was much more difficult than I was thinking it would be. Who would have thought that four adults and a baby could fill the back of a crossover SUV with no problem? Sure Trey’s clothes are tiny, but his bassinet, stroller, and other supplies more than make up for that. We did eventually make it to our rented condo near The Stanley Hotel.
The rest of the trip was spent relaxing at the condo (which was fabulous!), dining at nearby restaurants, and even some exploring in Rocky Mountain National Park. I managed to get my mom on snowshoes for a brief hike and my dad continued to run his outrageous marathon training runs despite the much higher elevation. The best part of it all was having some extra hands to help with the baby and Trey loved having them around for another visit. I wish we all could have stayed longer.
I didn’t take many photos but my mom (per usual) more than made up for it. Her photos should be up on her flickr page soon.
Elk Outside Condo
This week in sports was pretty boring, especially since I will be skipping bowling tonight. My parents flew into town earlier today and we will be spending the weekend with them. That means no work tomorrow!
I did have hockey last night, and we nearly knocked off the second place team in the league. We are in ninth of twelve teams, so it would have been a huge victory for our team. We played right with our opponents for the first half of the game. By the middle of the second and the beginning of the third, we were being outmatched pretty clearly. We still managed to stick with them and when the final buzzer rang the score was 8-6. We only had 26 shots, as opposed to their 42, so it wasn’t really as close as the score indicated. Our goalie played pretty well, and the other team’s goalie wasn’t that great. One guy on their team had three of their goals, and now has sixty-seven total goals this season. That is a ridiculous number of goals for only twenty games played. The next closest has only thirty-five goals. We only have one more game before the playoffs start and it doesn’t look like we’ll move much in the standings, probably not at all.
Yesterday AEG Live announced that there would not be a Mile High Music Festival in Denver this year.
Today we announce Mile High Music Festival will not happen in 2011. We are extremely proud of our past events and very grateful for all of the wonderful support of this community. We hope to find a way to bring this amazing event back.
They seem to be indicating that the reasons are all financial. It seems to me that the festival should have easily been a money-maker with the large number of attendees and the high ticket prices. But I think that they were expecting it to become even bigger than it was. I don’t think there was a big out-of-town draw for the concert, though I did have a number of friends come in for it. I think their problems lie in the fact that there was no nearby camping, which something that is expected of most other festivals. People don’t want to spend a bunch of money for a hotel (especially one that isn’t within walking distance) after already spending a bunch on tickets. I hope that they learn some lessons from this, if they do in fact try to bring the event back in the future. I would definitely like for it to return but only if some needed improvements are addressed.
I brewed my latest batch of beer on January 2nd. My friend Rob came over to learn all about brewing, and I actually helped him bottle his first batch this past Sunday. I took home a bomber bottle of his American IPA that I hope to sample in a few weeks after I give it some time to carbonate. Anyway, back to my own batch of beer, the third Pale Ale in a row. I’d like to think that I’m slowly perfecting the style, but the truth is that I still have some ways to go.
Things started off well with a perfect 20 minute steeping of grains at 165 degrees. That led to the hop boil, 40 minutes with both the 1 ounce of hops from the kit, plus another ounce of cascade hops that I added in. Unfortunately we turned our attention away from the kettle for a few minutes, and bam! Boil over. Not only is this messy on the stove, it also hurts the starting gravity of the batch. The recipe said that the beginning gravity should be 1.043 to 1.045, but mine was at 1.037. Basically this means a lower alcohol content when it is all done. I did hit the final gravity right on the money at 1.010, so at least that part went well. The result is only 3.5% alcohol.
After I let it sit connected to CO2 for a couple of weeks, I have had a few small samples and I’m actually happy with the way the hops came through. However, I am not happy with the maltiness. I’m not sure if this can also be attributed to my boil over, or maybe the fact that I bought the grains for the recipe and maybe I made a bad decision. Perhaps the beer will grow on me, after all I do have an entire keg of it to drink now. I’m also curious to see what other people think of it.
I was able to enjoy another day on the slopes this past Saturday. My friends (Rob and Ken) and I headed up early in the morning and decided to visit Keystone. Even though we were on the road between 6:15 and 6:30, traffic was pretty bad. So we opted for a close resort and made it to Keystone just after the lifts started turning at 8:30. We all headed straight to the Outback and enjoyed some turns on the fresh powder, including a couple of hikes to the bowls for Rob and I. The line quickly grew on the Outback lift, so we headed back toward the front of the resort and spent some time in the Windows, where we found even more powder stashes. It was a good day and I’m glad I was able to sneak out of the house for a few hours.
I forgot to bring my Garmin watch along. However, Vail resorts has created this cool website this year that helps you track your vertical feet per day along with a season total. Along with all of this, they have created pins that you can unlock by riding certain lifts or attending certain events, which adds some fun to the whole thing. According to the EpicMix website I rode 17,526 vertical feet on Saturday. However I need to add to that some as we hiked four different times before starting our descents. EpicMix just has sensors at the bottom of each lift, so all it knows is what lifts you rode that day, and uses that information to make other calculations.
edpaffjr.com