Back in Big D

Matt and I made our marathon car ride straight from Breckenridge to Dallas late on Saturday without a hitch. We were on the road for less than 14 hours, which is pretty awesome in our opinion! First I'll fill in what went on the rest of our time in Colorado.

• After my last post (on Wednesday), Susie, Emily, Jeff, Matt, and I hiked up to the lake above our house and walked around there. No moose or fox sightings, though, unlike previous times. Then we hiked down the other side of the lake, which took us below a ski lift and spit us out on the street halfway to town. Susie headed back for the house while the four of us continued down to hunt for a lunch spot. John and Susie ended up joining us for a breakfasty lunch and then we got ice cream and caramel apples at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
• Wednesday afternoon, Jeff and I got fishing licenses and headed up with Matt and John to fly fish (Matt was our fishing caddy). We had a great time fishing in the streams that ran into the big reservoir. Many fish were caught by all (I got three on my own and two with John). I also fell down a lot in the thick bushes, but they made for soft landings, too. It just meant that several times observant people would have seen thrashing bushes with a fishing pole sticking out and heard mad giggling. :) We were gone until after 7pm and returned to house to find spaghetti waiting for us.
• Wednesday night Matt decided he wanted us to climb a 14er while we were in Colorado. For those not so familiar with the term "14er," Colorado has almost 50 mountains on a list that are over 14,000 ft and qualify as a true "14er." A few are left off the list because "to be ranked, a peak must rise at least 300 feet above the saddle that connects it to the nearest 14er peak (if another exists nearby)" [for more info, check out www.14ers.com].
• So Thursday, John, Luke, Matt and I climbed to the top of Quandary Peak, the 13th highest mountain in Colorado. It wasn't that long of a hike, but the elevation gain was pretty intense (about 1,000 feet per mile). And over 2/3 of the hike was along break-your-ankle rocks. We saw lots of pika and a couple marmots, and the view was spectacular at the top. All in all it took us about 6.5 hours, which is much better time than my previous 14er experience, climbing Longs Peak with Dad. And a really cool unexpected feature of the summit - crystal clear cell phone reception, which enabled me to call Dad from the top and tell him what we'd done (it was such a last-minute decision to do the hike that no one in my family knew we were doing it). It was quite a different hike than Longs Peak...but not so surprising - on that 14ers website, it has the routes ranked by difficulty and Longs is "difficult" while Quandary is "easiest" (I would guess mostly from starting at a good elevation already and the hike being short - 6.75 miles for Quandary vs 15 for Longs). Well, anyway, the hike was fun and we felt a great sense of accomplishment.
• Thursday night we ordered in pizza and then went to a classical music concert in town. It was performed mostly by the National Repertory Orchestra, a bunch of talented young musicians, which made me think of Brittany. They performed Wagner and Mahler (the latter being much nicer than the former, although both kept us sleepy hikers awake).
• Friday was a low-keyed day. Jeff left us early that morning, heading for a wedding in Canada. John spent the morning fishing, so Susie, Emily, Luke, Matt and I were left to our own devices. We ended up going to town for lunch, where I also hunted (unsuccessfully) for a birthday present for Dad. Matt and I spent the afternoon watching DVDs and packing up while John, Susie, and Emily fished at the local lake. That night we ordered delivery (mostly Chinese) and watched Cool Hand Luke, a Roberts family classic.
• Saturday morning Matt and I rolled out of the house at 6:40am and made the trek back to Dallas. We recovered from the drive by watching almost all of our TiVo-ed shows on Saturday night and Sunday before I went to work.

There were four digital cameras in use during the trip, so acquiring all of the pictures is going to be a bit of a challenge. I'm also waiting until I get my computer back, which just had its motherboard replaced. But I'm optimistic that pictures from the trip will be up by the end of the week.

This month will be a challenging one for me. I need to get my vet school application wrapped up and take the GRE on the 24th (which might require me to study a little beforehand). Also, I have to work on employment opportunities. And Matt's work is picking up and will stay that way until mid-September. I guess that means it is finally time for me to jump back into the real world with both feet. :)