Costa Rica Debriefing

I made it back to Boulder at 1:00 am on my birthday (today, technically). I'm now celebrating the rest of my brithday by going to work for the first time in 9 days. The trip was excellent and really couldn't have been better unless it was longer. I spent the first half of the trip in Monteverde, where Antonio's father lives. He owns a hotel/restaurant where we slept, dined, and drank for free. We then traveled through the mountains to La Fortuna, the town that lies near the base of Arenal Volcanoe. We spent only one night there and didn't see any of the lava because the surrounding cloud forest was cloudy - go figure. I then parted ways with Antonio and Otto (Antonio's other friend who was traveling with us) and bussed my way to San Jose, where I spent the night and got picked up early the next morning to go on a three day rafting trip. The trip I did on the Pacuare River was recommended by Keith, and I found it to be even better than he had described. In the middle of the rafting run, we stopped at a secluded lodge and spent two nights there, before finishing the rafting on the third day.

So there's the brief version. I'll be working on an over-the-top book version and hopefully post it in the next few days. I've got a lot of pictures too, but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet.

Ice Climbing

I'm still discovering new ways in which Colorado is cool. There are several frozen waterfalls within minutes of our daily commute. Yesterday, my carpool buddy/coworker, Tom, and I took a 10 minute detour on our commute home to do some ice climbing up Clear Creek Canyon. We left work a little early and didn't have much time before it got dark, so we just 'bouldered' around low on the icefall instead of climbing up it. Just that little bit of practice helped me to begin feeling more comfortable clinging to the ice with my crampons and axes.

After climbing we found the highway back to Boulder closed due to strong winds blowing snow onto the road (Coloradans refer to this as a ground blizzard). There was no detour route marked, so we wandered around for over an hour before finding our way back to Boulder.

Cold

As evidenced by this picture of Ashley, it's been pretty cold here in Boulder. The highs have been in the single digits, making it hard to get motivated to go outside and play. Nonetheless, we did force ourselves out for a cold, yet beautiful, hike in our backyard (aka - The Flatirons). We returned home to build a fire in our fireplace and sit by it the rest of the day.

Beard-B-Gone

There are few things in life more entertaining than shaving one's beard. Not so much because you're anxious to get rid of it, but because the possibilities for shaping and design are endless. Here's a before and during picture.

Holiday Break

Christmas break was particularly crazy this year (special thanks to the incompetence of DIA and Frontier Airlines). After spending the entire day of the 22nd at the airport and being told that the line I had been waiting in for 5.5 hours was 'canceled', we had to come up with an alternative plan. Ashley and I started driving at 8:30 that night for her parents home in Corvallis. We arrived there 27 hours later. This Dec. 23 arrival date was much better than the Dec. 27 date offered by Frontier, even though other airlines had available seats for flights on the 24th and 25th. Oh well, I'm always game for a road trip.

It was great spending time with our families and friends while we were back, and totally worth the drive. We didn't get to go skiing due to the time difference between driving and flying. One of the highlights had to have been playing the role of Crazy Uncle Josh with my 9-month-old niece. She's super adorable and always seems to be smiling and laughing.



A blog-relevant gift worthy of mention is the helmet cam that my mom gave me. My goal is to figure it out and get some ski shots up in the next couple weeks.

We made the drive back in just under 24 hours, arriving in Boulder at 10:00 this morning.