Before the Colorado pics, just some thoughts/comments...
Some astute viewers might see that I've made the content area a bit wider...that's because Flickr sizes uploaded images to widths of 500px or 240px (among others). Since 240px is just to small, I had to accomodate the wider 500px. Hopefully, people won't mind the larger image sizes...I had thought about mixing the two sizes in the blog or just having the small ones while forcing people to click through/mouse over to see the larger ones. We'll try this out and if it doesn't work, I'll try implementing the other layouts.
There are so many stories to be told about the people I see everyday on Caltrain...for instance, there was this girl today that had jeans with lettering that said "Apple Bottoms"...of course across the butt. Apparently, it's a line of clothing by Nelly that caters to women of all different sizes. Anyways, I noticed that another woman was eying the pants...I could swear she was thinking,"If that's an Apple Bottoms jean, then I need a Watermelon Bottoms jean." I think I'm clairvoyant. Then there are the girls out there who get Raisin Bottoms jeans and look like they are on stilts. I'm glad Emily is neither a Raisin nor a Watermelon Bottoms person. :-P Anyways, they do have good clothes for the, what they call, "Curvy Ladies". Don't let that euphemism fool you though...if you look at the url, they still call the dept "plussize". lol
I wonder if I could get away with wearing pants with lettering across the butt. Maybe it'd say something funny like "Grabbing Accepted" or "No Entrance". If you create jeans with these designs, make sure to credit me. :-D
We traveled from Oakland to Denver to attend one of Emily's friend's wedding in Colorado Springs. I saw these security cameras in the Oakland airport. They have got to be the coolest I've ever seen. Whoever thought of this deserves some kind of design award.
Emily didn't like this mural that was painted on some of the windows. It was done with the glass in the vertical position which meant that the paint would run down in streaks. Personally i think it's cool since glass is so unforgiving...
Looking at these two, you'd think they were sushi addicts or something.
There's a Fentons right in the airport!
Robo Bob is the mascot of Crumpler...Emily got me the Four Million Dollar bag and I later got myself the Seven Million Dollar bag. They both have their uses so usually I bring them both on trips. One of these days, I'll do one of those "What's In My Bag?" shots.
Inside the Main Terminal at Denver...they're supposed to look like the Rocky Mountains...well from the outside at least.
You know you're in snow country when the oversize baggage claim has its own carousel AND looks like something from the ski section at REI.
Our first glimpse of wildlife! They're actually Bighorn sheep but since they're female, they only have a slight curvature.
Rented a Mercury Mountaineer for the trip. The whole car rental process with Budget was somewhat painful. We used a Costco offer and was going to get a Ford Edge for the price of a Ford Fusion. At the counter, they tried to sell us another upgrade to one of these Mountaineers or a Hummer (although that would have been cool, the fuel cost alone would have made it unbearable). I guess they didn't have any Edges, since they gave us a Mercury Mariner intially but since a Check Engine light kept coming on, we went back in to get another vehicle. They tried BS'ing something about that the light just needed reseting but after they did that twice to no avail, they ended up giving us the Mountaineer that they had tried to power sell us earlier. The guy wasn't all that nice about it either. We had them mark down the time we actually got a working vehicle since we planned to return it close to the last minute. They were very unwilling to do that too...when we returned the vehicle, they actually charged me for being late so I had to go in and straighten them out. To be fair, it was the person outside handling the turnin who charged me (guess that addnl info about our problem with their cars wasn't displayed on their neat wireless device) but it was still a hassle. Back to the car..it's actually a pretty cool vehicle. The seat assembly is a little cheap...I think the side panel came loose after I brushed it with my leg...but other than that, it's comfortable and a fun drive. Loved using the AC and revving the engine.
Definitely large enough for the 3 of us. I've never rented a SUV before and I had to kind of sell that idea to Emily but I think all of us were glad we got one.
On the way to Estes Park where we spent our first night, there was a little casino complex. I don't think I took pics of the place on the way back so I'll just go ahead and mention it here...they have really lame restrictions on age. Some casinos didn't even want anyone below 21 stepping foot in them. Much more stringent than Las Vegas. All we wanted to do was eat at the buffet...getting refused entry really sucked ass. We thought about having Angela sit on the curb and wait but.....hahaha jk :-D
As you can see, sometimes our GPS sent us on scenic routes...more on that later.
This plant is incredibly soft...soft enough to be used as toilet paper if need be. That's what Emily says...not sure if it's based on experience.
Usually I don't do much post-processing...this was taken somewhat into the sun so it's a HDR image. It's the only way you can see the clouds and foreground so clearly.
Colorado has really amazing scenery...while I was in Sweden, I often remarked that some parts looked awfully like Colorado.
We all got kinda excited when the GPS would send us on these "roads". I'm assuming that TomTom thought that logging roads are perfectly fine...almost thought I had turned the SUV mode on or something. Thankfully, EmilyEmily, AngelaAngela, and AndyAndy enjoyed it. Both of our families have the same Lexus SUV which both have NEVER gone off-roading like this. It was the best way to explore nature since the tree branches were literally inches away from us. I could have sworn I heard a squirrel squeal too. I'm sure it was a squeal of delight.
This is the spot where I had to get a little creative and call upon all of my ESPN2 watching experience (yes, they have xtreme vert off-roading on it) to make it up this hill. ESPN2 should have a show called Off-Roading in Your Yuppie SUV. The vert wasn't that bad but we did have all of our luggage in the car. I would have let out a Man Yell at the top but that would probably have scared the bejeezus out of the two women.
White Tipped Pine!!! I've never seen this before...
St. Malo Chapel on the Rock...Thank Flickr for letting me find out about this place. One of the main reasons I took the road that we went on...it was a little longer but much more scenic and had this! You can read more about it here.
Angels? More like Devils in Disguise. Harpies luring unexpecting weekend tourists to certain doom. :-P
Some situations simply call for HDR. It's somewhat of a hassle to make since I need to set Auto-Exposure Bracketing (AEB) + RAW mode everytime I want to take one...esp since the XT doesn't have a custom function mode...something even my Canon S60 has...I'd use the S60 for this purpose but the fps of point and shoots are just to slow for handheld HDR. This just means that I'll need to get either that 40D or 5D or wait for the 6D. :-D
See why I was looking forward to seeing this place in person?
We stayed at Aspen Lodge, a little resort-type place south of Estes Park...I was a little worried due to the reviews on Tripadvisor but the rates were great AND they offered horseback riding. The place really wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. I did specify that we wanted to stay in the main building and not in the cabins which I think made a difference. The cabins did look a little shabby and dilapidated. They even had the biggest amenity basket I've ever seen. They must have thought we were sick or something.
Oh yeah, this was during Fourth of July weekend so we made a night trip to Estes Park to get Chinese food and watch the fireworks. We were especially ravenous so finding Chinese food took priority over fireworks. We did get to see the finale anyways. There was no time to setup a tripod or try any long exposures...this was done handheld while illegally parked.
We really had to race to get Chinese food before the place closed...we ended up getting some Hot/Sour soup and some Shrimp Fried Rice. Both are acceptable although we were all extremely hungry so obviously biased.
Hunan Restaurant
460 W Riverside Dr
Estes Park, CO 80517
(970) 586-8287
