El matrimonio de mi hermano en Troncones, México

 My brother and Mary (M-nuggz) have been dating for awhile and decided to finally tie the knot with a destination wedding in Troncones, Mexico. There was a danger, do not travel alert by the US State Department, which caused a few people to not come, but overall I think they had about 50 people. And as is often the case, the most dangerous thing there was not what one would expect, but seasickness on the boat ride.

10/16-17

Trying to pack for 2 trips (Asia and Mexico) and finish up last minute things for the Oceanic Society. Oh, and work on some edits for some publications I'm working on. Drove to Estes on the 17th I believe.

10/18

Very early flight to Houston from Denver, then on to Mexico City. We had a long layover,so we took the subway into the city. We got tacos (Elisha's favorite) and ice cream and explored a few areas like Zocalo (the main square), Mariachi Square, and the palace. Because the airport has weird terminals that are very far apart and we were storing our luggage in the opposite terminal, we nearly missed our flight going to Zihuatanejo. We got off at one subway stop too early for the terminal where our luggage was stored, but since we still had tons of time, we decided to walk. But then the path we were taking dead-ended. The rest is a bit confusing in my brain as to what exactly happened. But we finally got to a terminal, but it wasn't the one with our luggage. So we took a bus to the other terminal and collected our luggage. Since we had flown in to that terminal, we figured it was the international terminal, so we took the sky train back to the other terminal, which we assumed was domestic. It mostly was, but apparently most the AeroMexico flights leave from the terminal we were just at. So we rushed to take the train back. When we got there, check-in was closed, but we split up to look for a manager, and I managed to convince someone to give us a late check-in bording pass. But she said we'd have to run. We rushed through security and then sprinted through the airport to arrive in time to catch the flight. And in fact, we had to wait a bit as the flight was a bit delayed. We met up with some wedding goers at the gate, and then once we arrived to Zihuatanejo, we took a shuttle together to the small coastal village of Troncones where all the wedding folks were staying and the ceremony was to be held.

10/19

We were sharing a villa with my parents. It was a beautiful beachside resort with a nice pool. You could hear the waves and catch a glimpse of them from our villa's seating area. The villa was an open air style where the kitchen, dining room, and sitting area were all open air, while the bedrooms were enclosed with air conditioning (thank goodness!).

We lounged around the villas in the morning, and I worked on my best man speech. We then went out to lunch with Stu and explored the town a bit. In the evening was a cocktail party, then a costume dance party. The catch was that someone else chose the costume you'd be wearing and you had to parade down in your costume, runway style. Mom had the costume of a Swifty (which I think Allison selected). Elisha was an attractive Arabian woman (my mom selected it), and I was a blue M&M with cool light up glasses that Scott K selected. I dressed up Alex Banas as a funny cowboy with apron chaps. Not surprisingly, given the heat, the party ended up in the pool

10/20

We did a catamaran sail booze cruise out of Zihuatanejo. We did some snorkeling (really bad---murky and no corals, but a few fish) and swimming in the incredibly warm water. The highlight would have been the open bar and food, but both Elisha and I got seasick, so we could not enjoy it. Several others were also seasick, including Mary, who was very sick and actually got boated off the main boat later. 

Afternoon cocktails, and then it was the rehearsal dinner where Kelsey (best friend of Mary's), Gerry (Mary's Dad), Emma (Mary's best friend in CB and interestingly my second cousin twice removed or something like that), Steve Dole (Zach's best bud from college), Dave Pfeifer (Colorado friend of bro's), and myself (brother! ha) gave speeches. Supposedly mine brought a lot of tears to the crowd. I'll paste in the outline of my speech at the end of this. After dinner there was a Mariachi band and dancing

10/21 Wedding Day

We (mom, dad, Elisha, myself, and Dave Yogg) hosted cocktail hour. It was a nice ceremony on the beach, presided over by Gaelen, one of Mary's Whitefish friends. Mom read a poem at the ceremony that I had found for her. Dinner and then a good dance party, that of course ended up in the pool

10/22

Relax day. We hug out at the pool and did some walking around. We hiked up to a nice viewpoint above the resort with good views of the coast and town. We went as a family (bro, mom, dad, Elisha, and me) out to dinner outside of town at a seaside place with a nice sunset. Had a delicious red snapper!

10/23

Drove out to Saludito for some longboard surfing with several people. It was fun, but tiring, but I caught some waves. Back in Troncones, I led mom and Elisha to a place where they were going to be releasing a bunch of sea turtle hatchlings. They were so cute, and it was really picturesque as the sun was setting as we released them. The guy drew a line in the sand, and then we dropped our hatchlings behind the line to make it a sort of race. But it was really cool to watch, and a really cool experience! Afterwards we threw the frisbee around a bit.

Some people had gone out deep-sea fishing that day and caught quite a lot, so we had a group dinner of fresh fish, steak, and fish tacos

10/24

Lazy morning. Then got a seaside massage for ~$30/hr. Took a taxi to Zihuatanejo. Flight to LAX, then a flight to Denver. Arrived to Estes about 3am.

Here's the speech and an intro about it:

It's sort of 3 parts. The part in pink, I memorized and is from one of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld skits. The part in yellow is derived from Chat GPT, which I read directly off of a phone. I actually asked ChatGPT 4 or 5 times to write a best man speech and then I combined the best parts. I can't quite remember, but I think the prompt I gave chatGPT was something akin to this "Dear ChatGPT, please write a best man speech for my brother, Zach and his fiancee Mary in the style of Vince Vaughan's character from Wedding Crashers. They live in the ski town of Crested Butte, Colorado now and Mary is from Montana"  Wedding Crashers is one of Zach's favorite movies and is of course wedding themed. The part in blue was just some notes for what I wanted to speak of more off the cuff, in a real manner. I think I probably followed fairly close to the prompt, but I did vary some. I know because Emma had mentioned in her speech something about how friends are so important b/c they are the people you really choose, and I referenced her and said something about how we don't get to choose family but I was lucky with who I ended up with. But other than that, I'm not entirely sure what I said. It's hard for me to remember though b/c when I am public speaking, I'm so nervous that it's really a blur to me. But Elisha might remember better.

I heard about, a study, that speaking in front of a crowd is the number 1 fear of the average person. Number two is…death. Death is #2. As Jerry Seinfeld commented,  this means that for the average person, if you have to be at a funeral,  you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.

So to take some pressure off me, I decided to ask my good friend chatgpt out…

[Imagine a confident and charming delivery, Deliver with comedic timing and a touch of sarcasm]

Ladies and gentlemen, grab your champagne flutes and your laughter hats because we're about to get this shindig rolling! I stand before you today, honored to give a toast for my little brother, Zach, and the stunning Mary. And, boy, let me tell you, being Zach's big bro is like having a front-row seat to the world's craziest rollercoaster.

Now, these two lovebirds met in good ol' Montana, and let me tell you, their love story is like a trip through the terrain park. They found each other in the wild, and now they're living it up in the ski and party paradise of Crested Butte. You know, Montana…. Colorado - that's like Love at First Powder!

Now, before I dive into this, let me just say, Mary, you look absolutely stunning today. Zach, you clean up pretty well too, buddy. I guess someone had to finally convince him that cargo shorts and flip-flops aren't suitable for a wedding.

Now, I've got to say, when Zach told me he was getting hitched, I thought he was pulling one of his classic pranks. You know, like the time he convinced us he could breakdance (and trust me, folks, he can't). But then I met Mary, and I realized he wasn't joking. And thank goodness for that!

You see, Mary is the real deal. She's got this way of taming Zach, and believe me, that's no small feat. I mean, he's like a wild stallion, and Mary, you've managed to saddle him up and ride off into the sunset together

I've known Zach my whole life, and I gotta say, he's a character. Remember when he thought the microwave was just for popcorn and he nearly blew up the kitchen? Classic Zach. But when he introduced me to Mary, I knew something was different. He looked at her the way a kid looks at candy.

Zach, my little bro, you've always known how to make life one epic adventure. You've found your partner in crime in Mary, someone who's equally ready to tackle the slopes and hit the dance floor like there's no tomorrow.

Mary, you're an absolute saint! You've managed to snag my wild child of a brother, and for that, you deserve a medal or at least a lifetime supply of patience. Jokes aside, Mary, you're the peanut butter to Zach's jelly, the cheese to his macaroni, and the yin to his yang. You've added a spark to Zach's life like no one else could. You've got the same zest for life, and together, you're a force to be reckoned with. Your love is like a double black diamond run - thrilling, exhilarating, and sometimes a bit of a wild ride, but you always come out on top.

Now, I've had the pleasure (and sometimes, the pain) of knowing Zach for a while. He's a unique character, let me tell you. He's got a charm that can melt glaciers, humor that can make a grizzly bear chuckle, and loyalty that would put a bloodhound to shame. And Mary, you must be quite the catch to snare this elusive bachelor!

And speaking of Zach, well, he's always been a bit of an oddball. You could say he's like a fine wine – he gets weirder with age. But he's also got a heart the size of Texas. He's the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, even if it's covered in pizza 

So let's raise our glasses to these two lovebirds who are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. May your marriage be filled with more laughter than rom-coms, more love than Disney, and a love that’s as wild and untamed as the Rockies themselves!

Here’s the deal, I have to hide behind this cover of comedy and technology b/c there aren’t really words, at least none that I’ve mastered, that can come close to conveying how much you mean to me as a brother and to describe all the life adventures we’ve been on. Just know that the feeling is there bro. I’m so proud of you. Mary, obviously he’s a great catch, but I know that he’s a very lucky guy to have found you. I’m lucky and honored to call you a sister and i’ve loved our heart to heart hikes we’ve had.  I’m definitely looking forward to hanging out more, and of course looking forward to sharing laughs as we watch zach shake it on the dance floor.

Cheers you guys!

 

Bula Fiji!

 Wayne from the Oceanic Society asked me to lead two snorkeling trips this fall, one to Fiji and one to Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Unfortunately, I could only do 1 because of bro's wedding, but I was definitely excited to go to Fiji as I had never been before. I would be leading a group of 10 people and taking the group to 2 main areas. The 10 people were James, Donna, and Connie (from CA); Winnie and Warren (biologists from British Columbia); Roland and Debbie (from Washington); Sergei (from Boston...originally Russia); and Mark and Paula (Apple engineer from SFO)

Bula is a Fijian greeting that you hear ALL the time

9/30/23

I drove to Grand Junction over gorgeous Kebler Pass at sunrise. The fall colors were in full bloom, the mountains were pink with the sunrise and a bit of snow, and a full moon was setting. Absolutely stunning. I made record time to Grand Jct at that hour in the morning all while reporting a small fire to dispatch that I witnessed high up a valley. I met Dan Sturgeon at his house (where I'd be parking my car) and he treated me to a burrito before taking me to Safeway to get a COVID booster. Then I flew to Phoenix and on to San Francisco

10/1

Overnight flight from SFO to Nadi (pronounced nandi), Fiji. In the SFO airport I dined on some Philippine food. Pancit Bihon! and Chicken adobo.

10/2

I arrived to Fiji very early in the morning. I got picked up by the guesthouse host (Uma) and driven to my airbnb accommodation. I walked around town to get some snacks and visit a market where I got some coconuts, bananas, and sour sop. I took a taxi to Wahiloulou beach. I walked the beach and got breakfast and a smoothie at a beachside place. I then walked all the way back to my nice little homestay. It has some nice views mountains and tropical agricultural fields. I worked on my lectures the rest of the afternoon and then went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant.

10/3

I met the guests at the airport. When we all gathered we took a twin otter flight to Taveuni Island. It was a commercial flight, but we were the only ones on it, so it was like a private flight. We got picked up and driven to Taveuni Paradise Resort. Along the way we stopped for organic ice cream. Everyone else was in a van, and I was in a pickup truck with everyone's luggage. I told the driver that I liked his shirt (they are called 'bula' shirts here), and he offered to give it to me. This would be the first instance of so many where I witnessed just how amazingly friendly, nice, and generous the Fijian people are. At the resort, we were greeted with a foot massage and welcome drink. We then had a lunch of yummy fish. 

The resort is just beautiful! It's overlooking the water and is very lush. The rooms are spectacular with lots of flowers and a sweet outdoor shower. My room is so fancy and you can even see a bit of the ocean from it. There is even a bakery at the resort. The people here are so incredibly nice. They had all of our names memorized by the 1st day! My favorite was Kimali, who was just so sweet. 

In the afternoon, we did 2 snorkels by boat at Vuna reef. The water was pretty chilly, so I was thankful to have just purchased my first snorkeling wetsuit. Steak for dinner

10/4

Early wake up for a nice breakfast, then a boat ride to snorkel at Rainbow Reef. On the way there, we saw an actual rainbow! The reef was super beautiful! Very colorful with lots of good corals. Lunch of fish Afternoon snorkel to Vuna reef where we were lucky to see a sea snake. 

That night at the resort was "Fiji Night" with a Kava ceremony (not the tastiest thing ever, tasted like wood), singing and dancing, and a lova feast (food cooked over fire covered by leaves). Really delicious!

10/5

Again an early wake-up with a yummy breakfast. Snorkel at Rainbow Reef. Delicious lunch (again)--grilled fish. In the afternoon, a snorkel to Vuan reef. In between the two snorkel trips, we visited the local Vuna village to see how the villagers live. We were given a tour and met the Chief's spokesman. Also visited a blowhole, that wasn't super impressive with the current tide and waves. This area was supposedly the first surfing spot in the world, but I am sure this is debatable. I gave a presentation in the evening.

10/6

Early morning snorkel to Vuna reef. Really great coral! We were supposed to to an island hopping tour to an island settled by Tuvalu people who have been displaced from their own country by sea-level rise, but the weather was too bad and the sea too rough, so we did an island tour instead. 

Our first stop was in town for organic ice cream. The ice cream is made with local fruits or cocoa (if you got the chocolate variety). We then stopped at a shell jewelry "factory" where a few women take shells and turn them into jewelry with the help of some grinding machines and such donated by a European country (maybe Switzerland?).  We then hiked to 2 jungle waterfalls that were very beautiful. I swam in both and did some cliff jumping. Next we visited a natural waterslide, which was wild and a ton of fun! It was getting dark, but otherwise I would have loved to do it over and over again. Only 1 other guest (Mark), tried it. We had a lot of fun with the 2 locals guides, Dan and Lucia. Lots of laughter. Dinner was an Indian themed night (there is a large Indian influence in Fiji), and it was of course delicious

10/7

Travel day. We left Taveuni Paradise Resort with songs and farewells from the staff. We drove to the airport and then boarded the twin otter to Nadi. From there we took a bus to Pacific Harbor where we took a catamaran boat to Beqa (pronounced Benga) Island where we landed on the beach to singing from the staff of Beqa Lagoon Resort. I'm in this large beach house divided up into rooms. Sergey and I share one section of the house. We each have our own rooms, but then share a huge sitting area/ living room and a deck, all with ocean views. Delicious fish for dinner. 

10/8

A snorkeling day with 3 snorkels. We saw several reef sharks. We had a delicious lunch of fish. I gave a presentation after the snorkels. Watched an amazing sunset with palm trees in the foreground and a Fiji Gold beer in hand. A Fijian church choir sang to us during sunset, and I cashed in on my free foot massage.

10/9

Got up early to watch Fiji in the rugby worldcup. Full day snorkeling. We saw more sharks and a turtle. On the way out to the reef, dolphins swam in the wake of the boat. We had a roasted chicken lunch on a tiny island before snorkeling some more. It was rainy in the evening, but they still did a firewalking show, which is a special thing that the people of this island can do. However, there are a few provisions that must be met so that the firewalker doesn't burn his feet. One is that there can be no pregnant women present. Another is that the firewalker cannot have had sex in the past 3 days. And I think there was 1 more, but I am forgetting it now.

10/10 Happy Fiji Day!!  (Fiji Independence)

We had a morning snorkel, and then a Fiji Day celebration complete with songs and dances. We then joined in games: coconut husking, hanging apple eating contest, tug of war, egg relay, gunny sack relay, and kayak relay. Dinner was a delicious steak. At sunset there was a tiki torch lighting ceremony, which was gorgeous against the backdrop of the sunset. Then there were some cool warrior and cannibal dances. In the evening I also gave a talk.

10/11 

In the morning we did a couple of snorkels. In the afternoon we took a village tour and had another Kava ceremony. At night there was a really cool fire dancing and polynesian dancing show!

10/12

Full day of snorkeling. Saw some turtles and a juvenile semi-circle angelfish! which is a super beautiful fish and rare to see. We had lunch at Secret Island, which is a sand island that disappears at the high tides. It was incredibly beautiful with the white sands, turquoise water, and jungle clad island backdrop. We had a bbq lunch on the island. It was just crazy how gorgeous the location of the island was. I gave a talk in the afternoon

10/13  Friday the 13th

Last day of snorkeling. In the afternoon we didn't snorkel so that our wetsuits would have time to dry, so I kayaked to another village on the island. We had a traditional lovo oven buffet feast at night after another stunning sunset. The sunsets here have been amazing!

10/14

Boat ride (a bit rough) back to Pacific Harbor on the mainland. Then a bus to Nadi. Sergei and I took a taxi to tour the area to kill some time and see some sites before the night flights. First we went and got some fish and chips, then we went to the Sleeping Giant Orchid garden, which besides lots of beautiful orchids, had a nice jungle walk and a short viewpoint hike. We then went to the main market where I bought a bula shirt (to wear at bro's wedding), and then went to the beach to watch the sunset. 

After checking into the airport, I was able to go into the fancy lounge thanks to Sergei's buddy pass. Flight to SFO. The flight to Phoenix was delayed so, I arrived late to Phoenix and missed my connection to Grand Junction. They put me up in a fancy suite at a Holiday Inn and Suites by the airport.

10/15 Flight to Grand Junction from Phoenix. Nice drive over Kebler Pass with a touch of snow on the road in the shadows

Fall in Crested Butte and Boise

 9/12

Drove to Denver to stay with and hang out with Nate Dub ahead of my flight to Boise.

9/13

Flew to Boise and hung out with Emily and Sherman and Abe and Ida and of course Gary and Donna. Went out to trivia night at one of the local breweries with Sherman, Lael, and Katie Pond.

9/14-15

Rented a car and drove to Pocatello to see Lucas and his family. Did some really good bike rides with Lucas and had some great talks

9/16-17

More hanging out with Sherman and his family. We also went out to Oktoberfest to hang out with Professor Steve Maughan. And I also went out to tea with Dr. Walser. Yosh did not make an appearance. 

9/17

On the drive home over Cottonwood pass, the light was just stunning, so I took a little hike and walked in my first snow of the season

9/20-21

Our friend Mel (from Antarctica) and her partner visited and we did some fun mtn bike trips including the 401.

9/22-24

Jake and Elya came out to celebrate their anniversary and enjoy the fall colors. Unfortunately, it was a bit early for the fall colors, but it was still beautiful, and they had a great time. We biked the 401 and some of the CBMR trails

9/25-29

The fall colors are really starting to pop. Got to get out for some nice fall color rides

Working at the Los Alamos National Lab

The SAIL project that I worked on at RMBL in Crested Butte will be moving on to Tasmania. I was not selected to go (a huge surprise and sore subject that hurts too much to really write about), but in short. They needed to take 2 people to Tasmania out of the 4 of us. I was the site lead, had turned the project around to being successful when I arrived and according to the top guy from our client (the DOE), the SAIL campaign had been the most successful campaign in a remote place after I took over. I was given an award. I of course was the most senior (in my opinion worked the hardest), etc, etc. So it was a huge surprise when I wasn't selected. Michael, my boss, told me the reason I wasn't selected was because he thought I would have a hard time leaving Crested Butte (I had to remind him I've done fine away from the CO mountains having lived 4 years in Gainesville, 5 seasons in McMurdo, a season in Greenland, and a year in Phoenix). And he was worried b/c Elisha and I took a while to make a decision...which in my opinion means that when we do make our decision (which we did say yes to Tasmania) that b/c we carefully thought about it and went over the pros and cons, that our decision would be solid and final.

Anyways, all the instruments and containers were shipped to the Los Alamos National Lab to be recalibrated and prepped for Tasmania, so I 'moved' to Los Alamos for 6 weeks to help with that. The Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) is pretty interesting. For those that don't know, that's where the atomic bomb was developed and where nuclear research and development still occurs. So it is very high security and we had to have special badges and all this other stuff, even though our work is not of national security concern nor classified. It was also interesting b/c the movie Oppenheimer had just come out.

The work at LANL was mostly outdoors. It's at relatively high elevation, but still quite hot when the sun is out. 

For most of my time there, I actually stayed down in Nambe a Native American Pueblo at a really cool casita on a small ranch. After work I mountain biked pretty much every day until dark (there are lots of trails in the Los Alamos areas).  For my last couple weeks I stayed at a modern duplex place in White Rock, which was much closer to LANL. It had 2 rooms that could be rented, but I was the only one there the whole time, which was nice as the commute was pretty long from Nambe. 

The Nambe casita was so great! It was located on a Pueblo (I can't remember what kind of Native American tribe). It was run by Bonnie and her husband Ramos (Bonnie is white, but her husband is Native American). The casita was a small adobe style building with a nice bed and small kitchen with a table. It didn't have air conditioning, which was fine b/c the adobe does a good job of keeping it cool until you open the windows at night. On the little ranch they had several goats, a couple of horses, some dogs, and lots of chickens. They also had a large garden and small orchard. Bonnie was constantly supplying me with fresh goat cheese and goat milk from her goats as well as honey, jam, and other produce from her garden. There were lots of grapes growing around my place that they would make wine out of, but the grapes also tasted great. And Bonnie of course gave me fresh eggs almost daily. Bonnie had built a little greenhouse in the animal yard that is kept warm by adobe and water that flows through (which she has fish in it). They also had another round style building that they gave me access to that had a hammock, a sweat lodge sauna Bonnie had made and is also Bonnie's art studio.

Bonnie was very interesting. Her dad was a ranger at the Grand Canyon and another national monument in the Southwest. She was an emergency first responder in an ambulance for many years and was Santa Fe's first female fire chief. After a while, the emergencies became too stressful, but she remembered, the emergencies she most liked was delivering babies, so she eventually became a midwife. But even there the stress was a lot and the tragedy of occasional babies dying caused her to focus full-time on her artwork. She paints, and her paintings are really good! She's a definite hippy and is just incredibly sweet

The drive from Los Alamos to Crested Butte is surprisingly not that long (5 hours) and goes through beautiful and empty landscapes, so it's fairly enjoyable. During my time there, I did try to go home a couple times to see Elisha (and Sue) and Elisha came out as well.

Here's sort of a quick journal of my time in Los Alamos:

8/3

Checked into the lab and went through all the security stuff. That evening I biked some cool trails around hoodoo like features near Nambe

8/4

After work, I biked one of the famous loop trails around Los Alamos, Guaje Ridge. It was pretty awesome, though it did have a lot of the New Mexican Locust (which is a very scratchy plant). After the ride, I enjoyed the concert free outdoor concert series that they have.

8/5

I biked a sweet trail, Winsor Trail, that goes from near Nambe (Pojoaque) all the way up to Ski Santa Fe. I gets up into really nice forest and had lots and lots of stream crossings.

8/6

I drove to Red River to bike the East Fork Lost Lake loop trail, which was really amazing, and felt more like Colorado (there were wildflowers and even some Columbines). In the middle of the loop I hiked up to another lake, Horseshoe Lake, and from there, I hiked up to Wheeler Peak at 13,167 feet, New Mexico's highest peak. I did this all in my bike cleats, haha. On the way, I saw lots of bighorn sheep with their lambs, and got really close to them. While on the summit, I watched the smoke plume of a wildfire just starting to get big. After the peak climb, I biked by Lost Lake before heading back down to Red River. At Red River, I got a burger and shake. Red River is an interesting town. In a beautiful location, with a tiny ski hill and with a very small-town Texas-style feel complete with saloons and bbq places.

8/11-13

I came back to Colorado as Sue was visiting. We did some fun things, including rafting down the Gunnison river by Gunnison, which was more wild than we had expected. I also did a couple big bike rides amongst the flowers over in the Cement Creek area.

8/16

Linnah, a really good friend from McMurdo who lives near Taos, took me out to a famous New Mexican restaurant near my place. It was really good to see her!

8/17

Did some nice bike riding up at Pajarito Ski Resort above Los Alamos. I would do several bike rides on the trails up there during my time in Los Alamos.

8/18-8/20

I visited my parents in Pagosa Springs (Colo) as they were staying at Aunt Hope's timeshare. We ate some good food, and went on a hike. I also did some mountain biking in the area, including at a really fun area where I did a 39 miler. Oh, and the Colorado sweet corn and Palisade peaches are getting really good and tasty!

8/20-25 ish

My parents visited. They came checked out the casita. And we also went to the Los Alamos museum. I was working so they did some other things in the area such as Bandalier NM and visited Santa Fe. We also went to the really nice New Mexican restaurant that Linnah had taken me to.

8/24-8/27

Elisha came down to visit. The first night that she got in, we went and visited my parents briefly. On her first full day we went to Bandalier National Monument where we visited the Native American cliff houses and ruins and took a hike. We went to lunch at a yummy dumpling place. We had hoped to go to the summer concert series, but it was lightninged out, so we went to the bar that is in the supermarket that is known for its really cheap tap beers. It's kind of a fun thing to do.

The next day we went to Santa Fe where we went to the famous farmer's market. We then did a fun mountain bike trail before going to a fancy Japanese restaurant for a small dish meal type thing up in the mountains outside of Santa Fe. It's really cool b/c it is set-up just like a place in Japan with fountains and pools and pagodas. Almost feels like your in Japan, including when you go to the bathroom and they toilets they have are the fancy electronic Japanese toilets with all the sprays and such. In the evening we went to a rooftop bar in Santa Fe before going home and we also explored around Santa Fe's old downtown a bit.

On Sunday, Elisha explored around Santa Fe while I did a fun mtn bike ride in the area. We then met up for lunch and then we rode the Winsor trail together, though just the downhill way (we did a car shuttle) so that Elisha would like it more (haha). We went out to eat at a Ramen place in Santa Fe and got some ice cream.

8/29

Did a really cool mountain bike ride outside of Los Alamos in a wild rivers scenic area near to Valles Caldera. The river and canyon was beautiful as was the trail alongside the river. Got a little lost on the way back, had to hide from some lightning, saw lots of elk, and finished in the dark. With the days getting shorter, a common theme for afterwork rides was finishing in the dark.

8/31

Got really close to a bear (maybe even chased it a bit on my bike) on the trails within Los Alamos

9/1-9/4

Drove back to Crested Butte for Labor Day. I did a long (51.07) mile mtn bike ride that leaves from our apartment door that I'd been wanting to do.

9/5

Visited the Los Alamos and Manhattan Project museum.

9/7

Got trained and passed the test to drive the large forklifts

9/8

My time at LANL came to an end.

Summer 2023 in Crested Butte (and trips: Mancos, Mesa Verde, Pagosa Spgs, Lake City, Telluride, San Juans, Vail, Denver, Eagle)

 5/31

First mountain bike ride of the season. Still a fair amount of snow, but aspens are starting to get a light tinge of green. Saw several deer, a ptarmigan, and the first garter snake of the year

6/1

Elisha and I took a mtn bike trail to get to town and then had brunch at Paradise cafe

6/2

Did an early morning mountain bike ride, but then on my bike commute to Gothic is started snowing. I was not dressed warm enough! Snowed pretty hard throughout the day at Gothic, but not a lot of accumulation 

6/3

I had the early (5am) balloon launch, and as always it's nice to watch the mountains slowly wake up. Misty and foggy morning with a family of deer sitting in front of the cabin. Gothic mountain has fresh snow on its slopes.

6/4

Saw the fox kits for the first time this year. So cute!

6/6

After work drove over Lizard Head pass in a driving rainstorm and arrived to Dolores where we had Mexican food at a local joint. Then drove to Mancos (pronounced main-kiss), where I had rented a bus for Elisha's birthday to stay since she likes unique living situations. But we had to keep delaying it, so it ended up being a month later. It's a 1957 old school bus all set up for sleeping on a hill overlooking Mancos and with view of Mesa Verde in the distance. It was cold that night so we utilized the heated blankets

6/7

We started the day by visiting the bakery in downtown Mancos. We then had 2 guided tours of Mesa Verde National Park: Balcony House and Cliff Palace. Was cool to get to see the cliff dwellings up close and even climb up around them a bit using ladders and tiny passageways. Besides the tours, we did a short walk to a viewpoint and then did a couple of car loops to stop at viewpoints highlighting various cliff dwelling or pit dwellings. Between our tours a big storm rolled in with lots of lightning and hail bigger than marbles!

After our time at Mesa Verde we went to a cidery in Mancos and tried the flight samplers. It was a cool little place along the river. We then went to a Mexican restaurant. Mancos is a really cool, hip tiny town. We really got a good vibe about it, and really liked it. After dinner we went up to the bus and watched the sunset with beers from the viewpoint by the bus

6/8

After a chill morning in the bus, we went down to Mancos for breakfast at the bakery. We then drove towards Cortez to bike 30+ miles at the famous Phil's World mtn bike trail system. Super awesome! Really fun, rolling trails, especially ribcage and vertebrae trails. Also the wildflowers were really blooming and the contrast between the red trails and spring green plants was cool. Had a great time! 

We then drove to Pagosa Springs via Durango. We walked around town for a bit and then soaked in some hot springs right along the San Juan river as rafts went by. It was a really nice, undeveloped (thus free) hot springs. After soaking we went to dinner at a Bayou place. 

We then drove over Wolf Creek Pass on our way home. We stopped just short of Cochetopa Pass to camp before getting up early the next day to drive to CB for work

6/11

The birds nesting under our porch have hatched

6/12

Nuggets win the NBA championships!!! Watch it at Nick and cousin Emma's house

6/14

Did a really long mountain bike ride at Hartman's in Gunnison. Super awesome!

6/16

First day of SAIL pack up. A lot of the LANL and Hamelmann folks arrived to help out with it.

6/17

Pack-up continues. We got quite a lot of heavy snow! Including a couple of inches of accumulation in Gothic

6/18

A group of us floated down the slate river on paddleboards and inflatable kayaks

6/19

First alpenglow concert of the summer, and a great mtn bike ride up Baxter gulch amongst the lupines afterwards in the golden hour glow

6/21

Biked up Schofield pass to Emerald lake to check it out before they open up the mid-section of the road. Emerald lake still had a considerable amount of ice in it, but the rest was a glowing emerald color. There's a large snow plug that will probably keep the upper section of Schofield pass closed for quite a while. First day of music on the mountains up at Mt CB.

6/22

Last day of pack-up. LANL hosted a big bbq for us in town in the evening.

6/23

First day off! Hiked up Gothic mountain for incredible views. So green all around. And really fun glissading back down as there is still quite a lot of snow.

In the evening was the chainless race. A very fun "race" where everyone cruises down the 7 miles from the top of Kebler Pass to Elk Street downtown. Frank, Tom, Elisha, and I all dressed up in fun costumes. It's a fun event because of all the costumes and unique bikes that are purposely built for the race. There is always a few bikes with large speakers that you follow down the pass. They pull off the road here and there and a dance party ensues. A fun and special event.

6/24

Took Bruno (a visiting colleague from the Azores DOE ARM site) on a mtn bike ride. In the evening when on a bike ride with Lisa Foster who is visiting from Estes. The lupines were insane! Just mountainsides of purple!

6/25

Hiked up Gothic Mtn. with Elisha. Fun glissading down the snowfields on the way down

6/26

The containers and radar from the AOS were removed today using a crane and truck

6/30

Drove to Salida and did some sweet bike riding in the area there. Stayed the night at the little hut Nate has built up in Turett. Turett is an old mining town about 30 minutes up forest service roads out of Salida. He has great views from his place of the Collegiate Peaks. Turett is totally off the grid with no electricity or running water.

7/1

Did some more biking in Salida before hanging out with Nate and Treasure in Turett.

7/2

Did another awesome ride out of Salida, then drove home before the Jake Hess and family arrived to CB

7/3

Took Jake and Elya on a bike ride on the mtn before taking the whole family on Teddy's trail where the flowers are really popping. Then Jake and I did a ride down to Slate River where everyone else was attempting to play in the cold water. At night we took them to the Alpenglow concert series where we played some spikeball with my bro as well

7/4

Jake and I went for a morning bike ride before we all headed to the parade. Zach and I were in the KBUT disco inferno float, which was lots of fun! After the parade was the town waterfight. After downtown festivities we drove up Schofield pass as far as we could until we ran into snow and then hiked the rest of the way up to Emerald Lake. We then attended the RMBL 4th of July BBQ which was just as tasty as last year (pulled pork, brisket, bbq chicken, and more). After the BBQ we played some basketball at RMBL before heading back to MT CB to listen to the band on the mountain and then watch the fireworks

7/5

We did a short hike with the Hesses before they headed out, but then Elisha and I biked the Walrod cutoff loop to enjoy the huge bloom of sunflowers!

It was a great visit with the Hesses. They were so happy and excited to be here and really thought we lived in a Paradise. They truly couldn't believe the beauty.

7/6

Elisha got her new e-bike as part of the town's e-bike rebate program. Really amazing program to promote the use of biking instead of driving, so Elisha will be bike commuting to work (in the summer at least)

7/7

Mtn biked a big loop with Tom today, starting with Deadman's up Cement Mtn pass and trail, down Roaring Judy, and finishing with Eccher Gulch

7/8

Biked the beautiful Teocalli ridge loop with stunning wildflowers

7/9

Bro and I biked a huge loop (~50 miles) including Upper Loop, Strand, and Deer Creek. Flowers were just stunning. I accidentally left my phone at a rest spot early in the ride, and went back and found it after the ride.

7/10

I biked the same loop again, but also added Snodgrass trail as the flowers had been so amazing, and I had forgotten my phone and wanted to take photos of the amazing flowers.

7/11

Biked Strand loop as well as some trails on MT CB.

Our anniversary! Went to the alpenglow concert. We went out for dinner to Elk Prime as a treat from my parents. In our opinion not that amazing and WAY too expensive

7/12

Started off really early in the morning with a ski on Cinnamon Mountain with bro. Some nice late season turns!

Biked deer creek loop with Elisha b/c, again, the flowers were so amazing, and I wanted to show Elisha. Went to dinner at Teo Burrito for our anniversary as well, and then drove up Paradise Divide to camp for our Anniversary. We were able to camp at a super beautiful spot, looking across the gorge and towards snowy mountains.

7/13

I got up early and skied Treasury mountain, which still had great snow. Then Elisha and I hiked up Cinnamon mountain and glissaded back down due to all the snow.

7/14-7/16

Zach's bachelor party. The first day we went to water world. The rest of the guys went out to Meow Wolf. Since I'd already been and b/c it's rather expensive, I stayed back and went toured around Regis Jesuit University. The 2nd day we played paintball, which I didn't like at all. Then we did grand prix racing with go-karts, in which I managed to win! We went out to really yummy ramen for dinner in Denver and then scootered around a lot before going clubbing in LoDo. On the 3rd day we went out to brunch and then I headed towards Vail, but stopped in Boulder along the way to work on putting an offer on a house with Elisha and our McCall realtor. We ended up not putting the offer down

7/16

Drove up to Vail and mountain biked a trail up on the mountain, which was really awesome. I camped out near Minturn in my car

7/17

Did a huge loop (50.4 miles) on Vail mountain that included the 2 elk trail and the back bowls. The loop dipped down to Minturn before climbing back up Vail mountain and descending to Vail.

7/18

Big biking day. Biked a cool loop in Minturn, then biked some awesome trails in Eagle, and then finished it off by biking a sweet trail in Glenwood

7/19

Elisha and I hiked up Scarp Ridge to see the flowers. It was Bro and Mary's engagement party at an outdoor venue in MT CB with plenty of dancing.

7/20

Had the Halbach family over to Gothic for a family picnic

7/21

Found out late at night that I wasn't selected to go to Tasmania. This was an incredibly huge shocker. Did not see that coming at all!

7/22

Drove bags over to Aspen for some of Elisha's guests to make $400. On the way back I biked at Red Hill in Carbondale, but super depressed b/c of the news, and yea very shocked. I called up Michael and let him have it

7/24

Hiked up Mount Owen, a 13er near Lake Irwin. It had some incredible views! I accessed the mountain via Scarp Ridge due to a landowner dispute with the National Forest on the normal trail. Along the way, I visited beautiful green lake (which is actually a beautiful blue), which still had some icebergs in it.

7/25-27  San Juan trip. 

We drove to Montrose where we stayed with our old neighbors Carleen and Glenn. It's always great to catch up with them. We hiked up to the Blue Lakes (3 stunning lakes) above Ridgeway and below Mt Sneffels (which was the 1st 14er Elisha ever climbed), and we continued up to Blue Lakes pass from whence you can look down at Yankee Boy Basin. The flowers along the hike were just incredible, especially as we got higher up, and the lakes were stunning. We met Nate Dub for dinner at a Thai place in Montrose as he was in the area for some work (he does mining clean up now)

Our plan for the 2nd day was to bike a sweet loop in Telluride and take advantage of the free gondola to not have so much vertical climbing. On the way there Elisha's bike was put the wrong way on the bike rack and her tube popped ad tire shredded from the heat of my exhaust. So we had to start the day getting a new tire for her. But then we took the gondola up and road some of the super sweet trails including Prospect, Magic Meadows, and Sunshine. We also stopped by a ghost town and a pretty subalpine lake where there were so, so many dragonflies, and the fish were going crazy. We had dinner at Elisha's favorite, Gnar Tacos in Ridgeway.

7/30-31 Another San Juan Trip   

We drove to Lake City in Gunther our van. We had dinner at a cute little place in Lake City, and then we drove Gunther up in the dark in the rain up to American Basin, which is a pretty rough road. But Gunther did great! We camped in the van in the storm up above tree-line.

We got up early to climb Handies Peak, a 14er (14,058). The weather cooperated and we were able to summit with good views. On the way down we enjoyed the beautiful lake up there, but especially had fun looking at the flowers and taking beautiful photos of the flowers and mountain in American Basin. So beautiful!

8/1

Bro and I biked up Pearl Pass and did some other trails in the area. Again beautiful flowers!

8/2

Our friend from Antarctica (Clair) and her friend were visiting for a couple days and stayed with us. We went on an early morning hike to West Maroon Pass with them. Elisha and I did a beautiful flower hike in the North Pole Basin and then I biked the 401 trail.