Kinetic Race

Evidently next weekend there is a "kinetic" race at a local reservoir. According to the locals, many people enter the race simply because this affords them the right to participate in the parade (which is always the weekend before the race). The course starts out on land, and then has a leg of the race in the water -- where evidently many of the contestants sink instead of swim!

My Favorite Float

A truly amphibious entrant...

Boulder Farmer's Market

Spring flowers are really starting to bloom here. Today's market also had an art/craft sale, as well as a parade to display next week's Kinetic Race entrants.

Boulder Canyon

Today was our most ambitious hike yet -- but the payoff was awesome. We hiked a gentle slope for about 2 1/2 miles, and ended up with some unbelievable views of Boulder Canyon. I think the top was around 8000 feet, so we were a bit breathless... Especially with the recent snow, the view was incredible.

It snowed!

We were so excited to catch some snow flurries yesterday... I came home from work and we rushed right out to enjoy the big, fluffy flakes. We hiked about 3 or 4 miles -- just enought to home come and really enjoy Tom's chicken chilli soup. Mmmm.

Boys will be Boys

Tom declares there are no fish here...

I was shocked! (I don't think I've ever heard Tom say that before.) But he says we were walking along an irrigation ditch, not a real creek... so I suppose that's the way it goes.

We found the perfect house!

Too bad it's not for sale. That's OK --as you can see, we enjoyed a beautiful day today. We explored an open space preserve near our apartment. We ended up hiking just over 6 miles. Although it was mostly flat, we both agreed that we're feeling more acclimated....

Tom's Tasty Trout

Tom created a new dish tonight: fresh Colorado Brown Trout pan fried with cornmeal, kosher salt, lemon-pepper blend & paprika over white rice topped with Il Mezzogiorno olive tappenade. Now that's good eats!

Game On!

Tom is in heaven: the fish are not. Tom fished the Eldorado Canyon today -- Lower Boulder Creek -- and caught several fish. This was the largest: a 14" brown trout. He said it was extremely tasty!

I remembered the camera this time

This is the Pearl St. pedestrian mall. Spring is really starting to pop here -- it's a really nice place to (window)shop. We came back here last night for dinner after our hike... we enjoyed a deep dish pizza with all the toppings.

Tom's new favorite store

This place has more cooking gadgets & cookbooks than I have ever seen at one place. Wow.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We were very pleased to find that the entrance to RMNP is only 51 miles from our doorstep. We are already planning return trips! We spent the day hiking an extremely beutiful 6+ mile loop, where we saw plenty of streams, lakes & snow. I am glad we waited a week to start trying these higher elevations: I am already feeing more acclimated to the elevation after only 1 week here. In the shade it is still cool (up around 9000 feet) but in the sun -- especially if there is no breeze -- it can really be quite warm. Later in the summer we hope to drive across the Continental Divide (the road is still closed because of snow). The highest point on the road is just over 12,000 feet.

Driving back from Bear Lake

After our hike, we drove up to 9400 ft to Bear Lake (which was still completely frozen over). This area of the park has lots of peaks that are 12,000-13,000 feet. It was so unbelievably gorgeous... really, the invitation stands if you want to come visit.

Fern Lake Trail

Tom vows to go back with his fishing gear...

The Pool

Yet another destination that Tom was sure he could catch a few fish... if only he had his pole.

La-La-La!!!

That's the sounds of the angels singing as we came around a corner and had this for a view.

That snow's a little deeper than Tom bargained for!

There were sections of the trail still under a foot or so of snow. But at that elevation, the sun is so intense that I'm sure it'll be melted soon.

Cub Lake

This was our first destination of the day. The hike was beautiful... it was only a 500 ft (or so) elevation gain, which seemed much more since the lake is up at 8800 ft...

Elk Galore

Tom and I were very excited to come upon a herd of elk grazing at a pond. We stopped & took several pictures. After several minutes of admiring, we moved on... when we walked around the bend we practically tripped over more elk! They were close enough that we could almost pet them. After several minutes of asking them (very politely) to move, we skirted around them and moved on.

The New Nokia Spokes-Kitty

Ok, so we had a great day in Boulder today -- but I forgot to bring the camera! Oh well, next time.
We started out at the Farmer's Market, which was really nice. There was a 4-piece bluegrass band (stand-up bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin) and some tasty food. We bought lots of fresh cheeses: Camembert, goat cheese & feta, as well as pesto and a few other treats. There were lots of food samples, so we went with empty bellies and left quite satisified.
The rest of the day we walked the Pearl Ave. Promenade. There were 2 distinct highlights: a cooking store called Peppercorn, which had oodles of gadgets and more cookbooks than I have ever seen in one place. We spent over an hour there, and had a ball. Then we went to a local tavern, and had some of the best fish tacos I've ever had: blackened Mahi served over black beans and rice, with guacamole (with plenty of big avocado chunks), good salsa, and cabbage-slaw. Yumm-o. We finished the day walking along the Boulder Creek -- where Tom was dreaming about trout & I was still huffing & puffing for the altitude. By the time we get to Anchorage, I oughtta be in fantastic shape!
Tomorrow we are going to head into Denver... I will try to remember the camera!

30 minutes from spring-time

Someone told us here recently that "weather in CO is for people with short attention spans." We think she was right: in the last 24 hrs we've had howling winds (but only a couple of hours), followed by brilliant sunshine (most of the day), then a late afternoon of clouds (when Tom went up into the hills to check out the fishing scene -- where it snowed!) and then back to a beautiful, clear evening with a fantastic sunset. Phew!
Tonight we had our first CO strike-out experience (just to prove that we are, indeed, experiencing reality here). We went to a local wine bar, and ordered a sampler. All three wines were awful! So if you're ever in CO, we do NOT recommend the Iron Mountain Winery (nor the musician who played there). Oh well -- now we're home in front of the fire with our own wine selection, doing just fine.

Real Estate: CO vs. CA

We've been starting to explore the real estate market here in CO, especially in the areas surrounding the hospital where I am currently working. This scene cracked us up: on the left, what you can buy in CO for around $1 mil... and on the right, what the same amount of money buys you in CA!!!

Absolutely Gorgeous Hiking

We hiked at a nearby state park called Eldorado Canyon, up to Traveller's Gulch. The weather was perfect. In the foreground you can see the Flatirons (basically the foothills of the Rockies), and of course the Rockies are the snow-covered peaks in the background. Tom was very happy that they allow fishing in the state parks here (evidently in the national parks, too). He has already purchased his CO fishing license and even the local fishing "bible." I'm expecting to get my fill of omega-3 fatty acids soon...

Tom & the Ladies

We have been fortunate enough to get ourselves involved with a group called the Boulder Newcomers Club. Among other things, they have several hiking groups. I didn't think we were ready for the advanced group (no 14-ers for me, yet!), but they have an intermediate group which hikes 4-6 miles every Wed. morning (with moderate elevation gains). As you can imagine, because the group meets on weekday mornings, most of it's attendees are retired or semi-retired. In this case, the group is mostly 50-something women... so Tom was something of a novelty. :-) However, we were very happy to be hiking with these women: they were full of ideas for local activities, restaurants, farmer's markets, etc. etc. I was very excited to talk to a woman who relocated here 4 months ago from the San Jose area -- we shared thoughts on moving from the Bay Area to Boulder, both pros and cons (mostly pros). We hope to be joining other members of the BNC at the end of the month for a wine-tasting party -- featuring Argentinian wines. Mmm. We are very encouraged that life will be good here!

Colorado, we have arrived!

We are happy to report that all are safe & sound in CO. Tom drove up here (2 days from Phoenix); Sable & I flew. I must admit, Sable did much better than I'd anticipated. She didn't whine or cry at all, and didn't even bite the woman who (at the airport) felt compelled to stick her fingers into Sable's kennel and pet her to "comfort" her. Although she seems to be settling in here ok, she does still seem to have a look on her face that says, "OK, when are we going home?"
Last night when we all reunited, Tom & I went out to our local Target to stock up on apartment supplies. We ended up chatting with another customer -- we bonded over the fact that (gasp!) there are no Trader Joe's stores in CO. Never fear, she gave us the low-down on similar options... we were encouraged to find random friendly people. Phillie this ain't!
Today was my first day "orienting" at work. I was surprised: although this is a Kaiser job, the hospital is not strictly a Kaiser hospital. In fact, it is owned by another private, not-for-profit group called Exempla. The hospital has only been open for about 15 months, and is very, very nice. (I am very happy to report that there is a Subway, but no McDonald's, in the hospital.) It will be very interesting to see how things play out here, because not only has Kaiser made it clear that they are hiring (and would be happy to sign me on) -- but I also (all but) got an offer from the Exempla group today. We'll see what happens.
This community is clearly growing like gangbusters. Our apartment is in a suburb of Boulder called Broomfield; the hospital is 5 miles away in Lafayette. I spoke with a hospital administrator today who told me when she moved to Lafeyette 15 years ago there were 1200 people; now there are 20,000. As a result of the growth, there are lots and lots of planned communities and cookie-cutter townhomes everywhere. If we end up here, we won't be buying one of those places: they tend to be lots of homes on very little land. Very cramped indeed.
The picture here shows the view from our front door. The photo is mostly foothills, but beyond that are the big, beautiful, snow-covered Rocky Mountains. This weekend I have a 3-day weekend, and we can't wait to get out there and enjoy our surroundings....

Our apartment complex

Our apartment is pretty basic, but has everything that we need. The kitchen has plenty of counter space, and Tom brought his Kitchen Aid and his favorite knives... It is a 1 BR/1 BA with a small balcony, a private garage, and better storage/closet space than we have in Phoenix! The complex has a pool, hot tub, sauna & small gym, and there's a huge mall nearby that would rival any mega-mall in Phoenix. We are right up against a golf course, and are looking forward to things turning green over the next few weeks. Bulbs are starting to poke out everywhere, and the grass is starting to turn green on any hills that are south-facing.
Today we took a long walk around the complex (about 3 miles, I think). We discovered that 1)altitude does matter, 2)it's no surprise that this area was the West Nile Virus capital of the U.S. in summer 2004 (there are lots of areas of standing water and plenty of mosquitoes), and 3)when you make it to the top of our little hill, you can see all the way to downtown Denver.