Dillon Rules!

This weekend was a good-ol' outdoorsy type of weekend. We started on Friday after work, going on a difficult hike west of Golden. When I say difficult, I mean it- I am still sore from it! Lots of steep portions of the hike and the overall hike was probably 7 or 8 miles. I was definitely feeling it the next day!

Saturday we headed up to Dillon Reservoir (in the mountains, about 1 hour 15 mins. away) to kayak and camp. We lucked out and got a campsite super close to the water, so we were able to just walk our kayaks down to the shore and get in the water. The lake is really big and surprisingly quiet, considering the size and location. We shared the lake with a few other kayakers, some sailboats and the occasional pontoon and fishing boat. Anyways, the campground was pretty nice, with the exception of our neighbors to one side of us, and their poor, pathetic dog, 'Tiny'. We heard the word 'tiny' probably more than 250 times over the course of the weekend, because they were too DUMB to put the freaking dog on a leash and obviously too DUMB to train the dog to listen to them. Not the dog's fault for wandering around, but the owners were just freaking ignorant. It says at the entrance of the campground that all pets must be leashed. Just because the dog was the size of a rat, doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be on a leash... Anyways, I just felt bad for the dog and our other neighbors with awesomely well behaved dogs on leashes, because Tiny kept going up to those dogs and barking at them.

Enough of me harping on our dumb campsite neighbors... It's hot here this week, like 90˚, but no humidity, so it's totally bareable. Though, my plants outside are suffering- I am watering them 2-3 times a day, because they just start wilting so quickly! Poor things! Anyways, no big plans for this week, maybe a hike on Wednesday if the weather is good, and a short roadtrip for the weekend...

I 'Heart' Boulder.

Tonight, after work, Rob and I headed up to the foothills west of Boulder for a hike up a mountain. Well, it was more like a foothill, but it's called Bald Mountain. Why? Because it's bald... As in not trees up top. Duh.

Anyways, it was a very quick hike up and back (Sidenote: the views from the top were cool- you could see Denver and the Plains, parts of Boulder, the mountains to the west, south and north, the foothills, and the flatirons), so we stopped in downtown Boulder to check out the infamous Pearl Street Mall. I was expecting it to be all yuppified, and don't get me wrong, it sort of was, but the combination of numerous outdoors stores, street performers, and friendly homeless people made me realize that I love Boulder. They even had a outdoors store totally dedicated to women (you don't know how difficult it is to find women's hiking shoes at a place like Dick's or even REI, the selection just sucks). We had dinner on a rooftop deck of a sports bar/grill that ruled and then came home. It was an awesome night.

Summary: Jackie + Boulder = LOVE

P.S. Can you believe I am STILL wound up from the coffee I drank this morning? Doesn't make sense, I know, but I'm still wound. Maybe it's just the thin mountain air, but I DO make my coffee strong...

fun week...

Well, the week started out a bit bland, but on Tuesday, Rob got a call from Art from '...for all i care', a band he recorded back in chi-town, and they were all in town for a show! So, we met up with them to watch the White Sox/Rockies game at Coors Field on Tuesday night and went on to fadó after for some drinks. Wednesday night we saw them play at the Climax Lounge here in Denver, then Thursday night they all came over for dinner at our place. So, we had a lot of fun with the guys and gal of '...for all i care' this week, and also met a couple cool people they knew out here.

We had plans of climbing Mount Sniktau today, but the weather wasn't looking too promising. There was a chance of snow in the mountains overnight, and today, threatening storms in the afternoon. Can't wait for it to really be summer, when there won't be continual snow up at the higher altitudes! Anyways, so today was a day of running errands, dying my hair, and planting some flowers... oh yeah, and watching the Cubs beat the Red Sox... Again! I couldn't believe it. I was really torn watching it, not really knowing who to root for! We just ate some good pizza and now we're watching the White Sox. Guess we'll just be taking it easy tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get out and bike or hike or do something outdoors, though the weather isn't looking too promising! Guess we'll just have to wait and see....

Couple things...

First and foremost, if I have to see another six flags commercial with that annoying song and that even more annoying old guy, I think I may puke.

Secondly, we went to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail yesterday- very cool. Got to see some Kayak Rodeo, bouldering, and some other competitions, as well as collecting a large bagfull of free stuff.

Friday and Saturday were very blah- it was raining like nuts, flash floods all over the place, and in grand Colorado news tradition... Everytime the weather isn't sunny and gorgeous, they will report on the news NONSTOP for a minimum of 37 minutes. No seriously, on Friday, they broke into Oprah several times, informing children home alone to seek shelter in a room without windows, because there were tornado warnings, also showing pics of the flash floods all over, the traffic jams, etc. Then the news started at 5pm, and went non-stop, and I mean without commercials and all, for AT LEAST 37 minutes (I changed the channel at that point!). People out here really freak out about 'bad' weather!