Kevin's Trip to Colorado

I've never been west of the Mississippi before (I've been as far east as Germany though), so my trip to Colorado was an interesting experience.

I made the journey with my two friends, Craig Kallemeyn & Zach VerHaar.  We flew out last Saturday night.  Zach's parents recently relocated to suburban Denver from the Chicago area, so we stayed with them at their house.

Among many things we did, some of the more interesting include:  touring the Coors brewery (the largest in the world), seeing Pikes Peak, going to the Air Force academy, and me attempting to ski.  Now, I've never skied before, and I was a little bit nervous when I first tried to do it.  In fact, as soon as I put my skis on, I lost control and started sliding down a little hill about as steep as the incline behind Groot Hall.  I tried to "pizza pie," but I couldn't stop.  I crashed into some kids who were waiting in line for the bunny hill.  I, very awkwardly, tried to get up—but it was so hard.  So I had to just sit there for about 5 minutes in the middle of the line to the bunny hill trying to get up.

Continuing with my skiing adventure, I actually mastered the bunny hill pretty well after about 4 times.  So my friends thought it was appropriate to let me try a green (a green is an easier hill, but still quite a bit more difficult than the bunny hill.)  The lift up there took forever, and as soon as I got up there I was so nervous that I almost fell again.  This was a really zig-zaggy slope, and I fell about 4 times.  Each time it took me forever to get up—I was getting really frustrated.  I was also really close to going right off the side of the mountain, but I sat down just in time.  Needless to say, I was tired of skiing after about 5 minutes of my first run.  I was exhausted so I took my skis off and walked down from nearly the top of the mountain.  That took forever and I was even more exhausted.  I decided that I was done skiing so then I just put my stuff back in the car and treated myself to some chicken strips and several beers at the bar.  I had to wait about 4 hours for everyone else to finish—needless to say, I was having a good time all by myself at the bar while I waited.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of myself trying to ski yet, as I didn't take any on my camera.  But this picture that I'm pasting below is a picture of us by a dinosaur.  We visited a place called Dinosaur Ridge one day that has tons of old dinosaur fossils buried in the side of the mountain.

I had a fun time in Colorado, but I'm glad to be back.

Cheers!