New York City Trip

So our second annual trip to NYC with my mom was yet again another success. We ended staying a day or so longer than last year which gave us some more time. We stayed at the same hotel, the Salisbury, only two blocks from Central Park. We scored a sweet room, more like a suite, with a separate sitting room, kitchenette, bedroom, bathroom and many closets! Every morning we woke up to the sound of trash outside before heading out to run in Central Park every morning followed quickly by Dunkin Donuts coffee to warm our freezing hands. The rest of the day was spent walking as much as we could around the city, shopping, eating the best corned beef in the world at Carnegie Deli, riding the subway, seeing the WTC site, a broadway show, Rockefeller Center and the massive tree, gorging on real NYC bagels with lox, Zabar's, pretzels, dining at 21 club, drinking the best infused vodka I've ever had at a Russian bar, and that's only half of it. They other great part was having my good friend Jen travel down on the train from her home in Hyde Park to hang out for a couples days. We ate the best cheesy crusty gourmet mac and chess, froze our butts off at a rooftop club overlooking the Empire State building while drinking hot toddies, shopped until we dropped in Bryant Park and had amazing sushi before seeing Wicked. Overall it was an amazing time. How lucky am I too be able to be with my wonderful Mom as shes takes me and Jen around the city she grew up in. So here are a few pictures from the trip.

Our first night out on the town. A tradition now at the 21 club.

The view from our table at 21 club. We had quite the view! We closed the place down!
The sushi we had at Blue Fin before seeing Wicked!


Views from the streets. The lights we never ending! What a great holiday feeling!
My mom aand I at Rockefeller Center
Jen and I
The angels at Rockefeller center.
230 fifth. The rooftop club. They provided us with robes and blankets and heater to keep warm!
The views from 230 fifth. Can't beat it!
The Empire State Building.
The hot toddy is not quite doing the job of keeping us warm. But it tasted good!
The Salisbury Hotel
Zabar's. The best gourmet market!

H & H bagels. yummy
Running in Central Park!
My mom and I just after finishing a run in the Park!
Views in the Central Park.
The classic scene in Central Park. The mall!
Bryant Park

Our last night out at Molyvo's. A fine Greek restaurant!

Can't wait for next year! Thanks mom for a great trip! Love you so much!

UPS Alumni Women's Soccer Weekend

Over the weekend of October 24 and 25, I decided to make the trip up to Tacoma, WA for the short weekend to join in on the UPS women's soccer alumni weekend. I had not been back up there for years and thought it was about time. Although it was a very short trip, it was well worth it. I got to catch up with friends not seen in a long time and walk through memories of the past. Puget Sound has made some many changes since I have been there. It is looking very posh! The new Baker stadium is awesome. Wish I could have played on it. After my flight was delayed Friday night and not arriving until after 10 into Tacoma, Brianna and Shelley (both old teammates) met me at the airport. Brianna and her husband were kind enough to let me stay at there place and shuttle us all back and forth from UPS to the airport, etc. Saturday, the weather was amazing with sun and warmth all day. The ladies played Lewis and Clark and kicked some ass. Jamie Sato, a teammate from my graduating class, was able to meet us out as she lives and works in the area. It was so great to see her. Then the evening was spent at Maya and her husband's watching the Seattle Sounders on their dual flat screen set up, eating pasta and catching up!

Sunday brought a dreary and cold day but I couldn't be in Tacoma without some rain. We played a little alumni vs alumni pick up game. It was short and sweet but fun to kick the ball around again. Then the ladies played Willamette and killed them. Willamette used to be our huge rivals and now they are hardly any competition. After the game, we had sandwiches with the team, fellow alumni and of course our old Coaches Randy and Kelly. Shortly after that is was off to the airport! Lots of bye hugs and see you next year! What a great weekend.

Jamie and I reconnecting. Go class of 2001!

All the alumni in attendence.

Alumni vs alumni kick around!

A stroll down to the water and Mt Rainier made an appearance!

Me, Shelley, Briana, and Jamie enjoying sandwiches from the Antique Sandwich Shoppe.

Memory lane walk around campus!

The new look of Thompson Hall (math and science) where I lived most of my undergraduate life besides the soccer field.

The new face to the fieldhouse!

Fall Colors 12 Mile Ranch

So during one of the last weekends at 12 Mile in September before closing, I went on a beautiful bike ride through the Pike National Forest with Willie and Fisher. This is a trail I use often when up at the cabin and when the leaves are changing in the fall, it is gorgeous. We stopped alot to take photos. Here are the results.

Self photo trying to get the dogs to cooperate. It took a few times.

Willie and Fisher were very patient.

The cabin just after a storm and just before sunset.

The eyes of the aspen leaves see the trail.

A successful self timer pic.

Sun and showers created a beautiful rainbow. What a evening!

Buffalo Wilderness Backpacking

For a while now, I have wanted to explore the Buffalo Wilderness and hike the peaks. So over Labor Day weekend, John and I decided to spend two nights in this area. We knew the weather was supposed to be iffy with a strong chance of rain but we went anyway. Two trail connect taking you on a 12 mile loop. We went counterclockwise starting on the Rick Creek trail and connected the Rough and Tumbling Creek trail. This trailhead is only about a 15 minute drive from our cabin. My parents left with us and hiked a couple hrs in with us before they headed back to the car and we kept going. We hiked for about 4 hrs and eventually made it to Buffalo Meadow where we found a great campsite. It never rained on us but clouds were building all day. There were a few other groups camping in the meadow but we still were able to get away and feel like we were the only ones out there. The evening was calm with a roaring fire to keep us warm.

The next day we woke to clouds and minimal sun. We decided it wasn't a good idea to hike up the Buffalo peaks which are at 12,000 or so feet with the weather already looking ugly at 9am in the morning. So we hung out all morning and then went on a short walk up the meadow before turning around because of thunder, lightening and rain. Hiking out to the car wasn't an option in the weather as it was a six mile hike out. So instead, we got the fire going to keep warm and then huddled under the trees during the storm. Fisher was not thrilled to be stuck out there with thunder booming all around us. He huddled as close to me as possible and couldn't stop shaking. Poor guy.

Luckily the weather cleared just before sunset and we had a beautiful evening and woke up the next day to sun. We leisurely at breakfast, packed up camp and headed out mid morning. The hike out was beautiful and most of it was downhill so it only took us 2 1/2 hrs. It felt great to get to the car and take up my pack and hiking boots. Back to the cabin to eat something and then drive home to Manitou. What a fun weekend. Here are some pics.

Walking through the changing colors of the aspen.

Looking back at East and West Buffalo Peaks. Some day I'll

summit them but not this weekend.

Fisher ready to go. Leaving camp.

The sun came out. Perfect time for a beer.

Views from camp in Buffalo Meadow.

The gathering of the wood!

Keeping warm.

Fisher and I huddling under the tree from the storm.

Our camp.

Lunch time! yummy!

The Next Chapter

It has been a while since posting. Since returning from New Zealand, my life has brought many changes. In April, I ran the 21 miler at Big Sur with my mom and then officially moved out of California back to Colorado. John decided to bolt from California too and we drove a big rental truck with both our stuff across four states finally landing at my parents in Colorado Springs sometime in May. Then the next task was to get my Colorado PA license and find a job. After many responses of "we want someone with experience" and many patient hours on the computer and the phone, I finally landed a job at a family practice office in Colorado Springs. The next step was moving out of my parents house. I found a great little spot in Manitou Springs walking distance to a park and to downtown Manitou. It took a while to move in and get settled as I began work at the same time. It is a great spot, close to trails, Pikes Peak, easy access to the mountains, and not a far drive from my parents.

In between moving and a new job this summer, I continued to train for long distance running races, spend time at 12 Mile, backpacked in the Buffalo Wilderness and attended two family weddings in Snowmass and Durango. I ran the Mt Evans Ascent in June earning 10th overall female, Summer Round Up 12K in Bear Creek Park finishing 6th in my age group and 22 overall female, the Pikes Peak Marathon finishing 17th overall female and 2nd in my age group, Imogene Pass Run finishing 13th in age group and just recently finishing Golden Hills Marathon in Oakland finishing 1st in age group and 7th overall female. It was a great summer for events and running with the Pikes Peak Marathon as the most rewarding. What an amazing experience.

So I hope to regularly post now. Some upcoming adventures include a trip back to Puget Sound for a Alumni UPS Women's soccer weekend and my mom and I's annual holiday trip to NYC and of course the holidays are approaching fast!

To be continued..........

Knobs Flat, Milford Sound

Well we made it back to California safely after a 12 hour flight yesterday. It is a little bit of a shock to be back but it is always nice coming home. This morning I finished downloading the rest of my pictures and I realized I missed blogging about an important part of the trip. So I thought I would add another post about our couple days down in the Milford Sound area. We headed down there from Queenstown after finishing our bike tour and before going on our trek over Ball Pass. Milford Sound is in the Fjordland National Park at the tip of the west side of the South Island. Milford Sound is one of the world's top travel destinations and was previously named by Rudyard Kipling as the eighth world of the world. The sound runs 15 kms inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by shear rock faces that rise 1200 m or higher and rainforests that cling to the rock faces. Many waterfalls can be found streaming down the side of the rock depending on the amount of rain. There are temporary ones and permanant ones. 

The road into Milford takes you along beautiful alpine scenery and is 121 kms long. We stayed at a place called Knob's Flat which is run by the Department of Conservation and is 60 kms in off the road to Milford. It was an incredible spot. We had our own self contained cabin with kitchen, bathroom and a great view of the mountains from our window. Unfortunately, it rained two out of the three days we were there and the third day we had some sun with increasing clouds as the day went on.

The view from our window in knobs flat in the early morning. This is the bluest we say the sky as clouds continued to buildup. 
On our way to Milford Sound from Knob's Flat we stopped for a short 40 minute hike. The track brought us up through very wet rainforest to this alpine Lake Marion. It was very steep but well worth the views at the top.
We took a late afternoon 2 hour boat cruise on Milford Sound after our hike up to Lake Marion. It was pretty cold and cloudly but no rain yet so the views weren't quite as spectacular but it was still fun to get on the water. 
We took a small boat out on the water with a 80 passenger capacity as compared to most of the other tourist boats that were twice the size. It was much quieter and not too many tourists. 
This is a picture of another tourist boat getting a close encounter with a waterfall. The captain brought us very very close to the waterfalls. Some of them were gigantic and it was really cool to look up directly below them. The boat took us all the way out to the Tasman Sea and back and we saw seals basking on the rocks and a group of dolphins enjoying the wake of our boat.