Day 2: Fruita!!!

The second day of our journey from Denver to Salt Lake, Jeff and I drove through most all of Colorado before hitting Fruita, our planed stop for the day. Most of the mountains still had tons of snow up high so we were headed to the desert scene to get our mountain bike on.

Fruita was pretty exciting because there was a general dinosaur thing... something about fossils... I was excited.



We headed to the book cliffs to get our bike on. These trails were the friggin bomb. Fast smooth delicious singletrack. This was called Joe's Ridge:



DELICIOUS.

We climbed for another lap and road the more famous trail called Zippity-Doo-Da. Indeed. I enjoyed it.



(this picture is worthy of being bigger.... so fast and fun!)

After the ride we headed to Moab and after hunting for a hotel for a while finally crashed...

So far behind...

I'm unbelievably far behind on updating this blog. Quite a bit has happened in the past couple of months. I road-tripped out here to Seattle mountain biking along the way with Jeff, fought to find an apartment, started work, traveled to China, struggled to find a long-term apartment (I move tomorrow), and am finally settling into the groove of things around Seattle.

I thought I'd share some pictures from the road trip across... perhaps I'll bring you up to date slowly but surely.

I picked Jeff up in the Denver airport after two days of traveling through the big flat part of the middle of the US. It was good to hit Denver. We rallied to Loveland pass:



So much snow... so little time. I wish we could have hung out here longer... but it was off to Dillon.



This beach in Dillon was walking distance from our hotel. Bling bling. We were both exhausted from long days of travel (Jeff on a plane, me in the auto) so we crashed early. Ok, maybe we went to some bars first... but.... yeah.

Epic Update

My blog needs a pretty serious update... A lot has changed since the last time around.

I had a birthday! Woohoo! Now I'm a stunning 22. Schnazy, but not much different.

I got a job! And it's the one that I really wanted! I'll be moving to Seattle towards the end of the month. I'm pretty pumped about the position and hopefully it goes well.

I bought a new car! Kind of! Went to the dealer and negotiated prices today, they're going to find one in the color I want (hopefully). It's a VW Jetta.

That's pretty much the short story of whatsup with me. For now, I'm still in Cincinnati and probably will be until the weekend when I'll be going back up to Sandy Pond. Then I'll come back for a couple days before I take off for Seattle... probably around the 19th.

Woohoo!

Comin' Home

Life's rad.

See all you Cincinnatians tomorrow. Applebees? mmmhmmm!

Gradumicated

College is done... no more classes, exams, etc, etc.

Senior week was a week ago and it was a high quality week of saying goodbye to good friends and old places...

Graduation was a bunch of fun and it's probably time to move on.

We had graduation rehearsal in the field house and they had a really entertaining administrator (seriously) talk about how it was going to go down. In a comical way he explained that we were officially in the real world upon finishing the walk across the stage. At which point someone (presumably intoxicated) yelled "F@%#".... yeah, it's a whole new game now.

I'll be back in Cincinnati after Memorial Day and hopefully I'll see a lot of you there!

Na na na naaaaaaaaa

hey hey heeeeeeeeey

Goodbye

classes.

Yesterday was my last day of classes and I'm pretty stoked to be done. Since I don't have plans to head to grad school, this may be the end of rigidly structured learning for quite a while. I know that I'm ready for a break. Of course, I've still got a couple of exams and final projects to knock out.

Over the weekend I went kayaking with a bunch of Outing Clubbers. It was West Fest which is the bi-annual release of the West River in Jamaica, Vermont (yes, Jamaica!). We did the lower section which is fun Class II rapids and where one year ago I swam in an eddy and have gotten (and given myself) crap about it ever since. I managed to figure out the eddy turn a bit better and conquered the eddy. BUT! It did manage to own two of the beginners on our trip. I knew that thing was tricky.

Good times, although I wish I was shorter and felt more comfortable in teeny whitewater kayaks. Then again, being tall is good times.

No more classes! Woot!

Goodbye Stratton Hello Chinese food

This weekend marked the end of ski season up at Stratton. I've had a pass there for a three years now and it has been a bit of a love-hate relationship. With graduation coming quickly and ambiguity of the plans after that, it'll probably be a while before I get back.

Last year Jeff, Scott D, and myself started a tradition where on the last day of the season we all actually spent money on the WaffleHaus waffles at the base. Normally we're dirt bags and bring PB&J and granola bars, but on the last day of the season, you've gotta go huge and after being taunted by the waffle smell all year long, it's about time.

Sadly, the WaffleHaus wasn't even open this weekend! Tragedy ensued until we realized that the tradition was only 1 year old anyway. Fagetaboutit.

Instead we went for some cheeseburgers and brews. Goodbye Stratton, it's been rad.



On Sunday I decided I should take up a culinary adventure. I know how to cook stereotypical staple meals from a bunch of different cultures: Spaghetti, Burgers, Tacos, etc. But I haven't really learned how to cook anything Asian. I decided to get after some sesame chicken (it looked more or less the easiest). I was pretty stoked when I discovered the 1.5 lbs of chicken I cooked would require half a cup of sugar. That's a lot of sugar.



It turned out really well, and I'll definitely be cooking it again. I forgot pineapples and cashews so maybe those will get thrown in next time.

Have a good one!