Key West, FL

We loaded into the rental mini-van and headed down to Key West.  I’d never been so I really wanted to go.  The trip down is about 2 hour drive from Key Largo.

In route we stopped just past the 7 mile bridge at Vetern’s Park.  It was a nice little spot with Tiki shelters and a sandy beach.

When we got to Key West we walked along the board walk toward Mallory Square.  Right at Mallory square was a cruise ship and a woman walking by said it was the Norwegian Star.  Linda immediately said it was Joel’s boat a friend of theirs from Vermont so Rick immediately started trying to call and text him and his wife but couldn’t get ahold of them so we just kept walking toward the cruise ship.

Well, we walked about another three blocks toward the boat and standing at a stoplight Joel walked right in front of us and stood right in front of us.  Rick jumped and bumped into him and then shoved around him.  Joel told us he thought he was getting pickpocketed by a snowbird.  Well it was him and we got to hangout with him for 30 minutes until he was due back on the boat.

After visiting the boat we check out a sculpture garden.

Rick got really into checking out this sculpture from all angles.One of the famous roosters of Key West.We caught the sunset from the West end of Key West

Lobstering from the back poach

Sharon wanted some lobster for us while we are visiting so she invited some friends over to go diving for lobster in the channel off her back poach.  They showed up with full scuba gear and a drysuit for the 60 degree channel water.

The channel behind the house.

Everyone was entertained by the diving.

Underwater photo looking for lobster.

The lobsters.  I got trained on how to clean a lobster.  My first try without a pair of gloves was a fail and the spinney lobsters lived up to there name but I gave it a second try with gloves on and got it figured out.

Success!

A finger tore up a little.

That night we went out to a sports bar and found this pelican hanging just outside at sunset.

Skiing Flashback

Since Anja wasn’t going going to get to Colorado until after Christmas day.  Keith, Jill, Justin, and I went skiing at Keystone ski resort.  It was a great day at the resort perfect weather and nice snow.  On one of our last runs Justin and I blasted down the run.  No one passed us and we only passed 2 people.  What a great day at the resort!

Florida here we come

We depart for Florida today to see my favorite aunt who I haven't seen in over 10 years.  She lives in Key Largo so it'll be a rough place to go for a few days.  We are all packed to depart the country January 23 as we will not return to Boulder before leaving so this is blast off.  Thankfully since we are stopping in LA on our way I've been able to order everything I forgot about and send it to my friends Kevin's house.  Stuff like camera extra batteries, memory cards, new climbing shoes, and other what nots.  Man I'm glad we are not flying halfway around the world tomorrow just to Florida.

Below is pictures of my brother Keith and I at the West End in Boulder on New Years.  Cheers!

Travel Schedule

So we've spent sometime in PA, VT, and CO with family and it is time to hit the road again to travel.  The van is parked at my folks house in Boulder and we'll be flying from now on with a 44 lb checked bag each and carry ons.  We'd still love anyone to come meet us in our travels, our schedule is below if you are thinking about it.  Currently we have Ram with us in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand and we'll be meeting Dov on the beach of Phi Phi Don in Thailand.  Ali is tentative for part of Thailand.  Jimbo is tentative for Vietnam.  Luca is in for the canyon gathering in Nepal.  It is going to be great to see so many friendly faces as we travel.  It is setting in right now that we will be departing from cold snowy Boulder soon and not returning until the snow is long, long gone.  Wow it is going to be amazing!

1/12        Boulder, CO
1/13        Travel day (booked)
1/14-1/17 Key Largo, Florida
1/17-1/19 Ft Myers, Florida
1/20        Travel Day (booked)
1/21-1/22 LA
1/23-1/25 Flight LAX to Singapore (booked)
1/26-1/29 Singapore
1/30        Travel day train
1/31-2/4  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Batu Caves climbing area)
2/5         Travel day (Kuala Lumpur to Phuket)
2/5-2/7    Phuket
2/7-2/12  Phi Phi
2/12-3/4  Ton Sai/Railay
3/4         Travel Day
3/4-3/6    Bangkok Weekend Market
3/6         Travel day (booked)
3/7-3/13  Cat Ba Island, Vietnam (Ha Long Bay climbing)
3/14        Travel day (bus)
3/14-3/15 Hanoi
3/15        Travel day (booked)
3/16-3/17 Beijing, China (Great wall)
3/17        Over night train
3/18-3/20 Xian, China (terracotta warriors, Huashan Mtn)
3/21        Travel Day (booked)
3/22-4/3   Yangshuo, China climbing (near Guilin, China)
4/4          Travel day (booked)
4/5-4/13   Nepal Canyoneering Gathering
4/14-4/26 Nepal Annapura Circuit trek (Besi Sahar to Jomsom)
4/27        Travel day
4/28-4/30 Egypt , Cairo see the pyramids
5/1          Travel day
5/2-5/11   Turkey Climbing near Antalya Geyikbayiri
5/11        Travel day (firm date)
5/12-5/22 Greece Island hopping (Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, Rhodes) (firm dates)
5/24-6/12 Kalymnos, Greece (climbing island)
6/13-7/?  ?Croatia and Italy?

Burlington VT to Denver, CO flight

So I had rebooked my flight from the day before and was at the airport at 5 am to catch my 6 am flight to O’Hara.  Delayed again.  The flight crew had got in at 11 pm the night before and are required so much sleep so we were delayed.  I rebooked my connection to Denver and headed off.  It was interesting, I had never seen a completely snowed and iced over plane deiced.  First they spray a mist of red chemical all over to break free and melt everything then apply a layer of green chemical all over the plane I’m assuming to keep down icing.

Legally Blonde the Musical

I had gone to the airport to fly to Denver and been told my flight from Burlington to Washington DC was delayed from 2:20 pm til 4:30 pm so I would miss my connection to Denver.  They told me they could get me on a 9:15 pm flight to Denver but I had heard something about a ground closure in D.C. til 9 pm so last thing I wanted to do was sign up to hangout in D.C. and maybe get benighted.  The attendant said I could also reschedule to tomorrow morning at 6 am and I said sounds good.  Turns out this worked out well as Donna and Bruce had gotten me a ticket to Legally Blonde the Musical at the Flynn theater.  Anja picked me up from the airport and we went to the show.

Anja really enjoyed the show.  I thought it was ok and that a few of the performances by the supporting cast was not that good and boarder lined on annoying.  A couple numbers were rather shrieky and high pitched but at moments I wonder if that wasn’t intentional.  The show was written for teenage girls and the audience in attendance was a sure testament to that.  At intermission the lobby was kind of shrieky and high pitched too so maybe they did hit it right on the nose with those songs.