Spring Break '11: Austin

all of these photos were taken with my iPhone. not bad, eh?

It's Friday. That means my Spring Break is officially coming to an end. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Finished February Medicaid billing and all that can be done for March!
• Got my eyes examined (new contacts!)
• Read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
• Made progress on These Is My Words (savoring it)
• Went to an Etsy Austin SXSW party
• Took some ridiculous, unflattering photobooth pics
• Had dinner at Maggiano's, including marshmallow creme chocolate torte (so good!), with a Christmas gift card
• Lunched with Henry at Jax Cafe
• Free lunched at a med spa where I won a free mini-facial and some anti-aging lotion samples
• Slept a lot
• Blogged three four times
• Made three new digiscrapped pages
• Went to the temple
• Played games and had dinner with friends
• Went grocery shopping by myself
• Met Henry's coworkers and saw his cubicle for the first time 

• Saw a free Neon Trees show
• Kind of saw the free Strokes show, but really ended up talking to Cristy on the phone instead
• Made skillet chicken vesuvio (a new recipe)
• Watched The A-Team with my hubby

In the midst of these activities, I realized that concerts (even if they are free) are really not my thing anymore. Too much smoke. I hate it. I was reminded over and over though that I really love my city. I'm glad we get to stick around for a while.

Mesa Verde National Park

Oh, Mesa Verde. It's located in the southwest corner of Colorado, and it's known for its 600 Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings (circa 1200 AD).

Before I go any further I should say that I am afraid of heights. I don't think Henry understood the severity of my fear prior to this vacation, but it became readily apparent as we went around/over/through high mountains at the Colorado National Monument, Independence Pass, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, etc., etc. Yes, I spent much of this trip feeling anxious about our altitude. (As an aside, I did get altitude sickness the first night we were there. I felt terrible. I thought that for sure I was going to have to waste a vacation day in a doctor's office, but thankfully after lots of fluids, tylenol, and some rest, I felt better.)

Anyway, fear of heights + Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings=scary. Once again, Mom and I must've been feeling brave, because I think we chose the scariest tour. No, actually, now I remember...it was the only tour that had available tickets within two hours of our arrival. It was more a matter of convenience than bravery. Coincidence that it was the "Adventurous Cliff Dwelling Tour" that was available? I think not.

This is what we had to conquer: a 32-foot wooden ladder on the side of a cliff. I told myself "don't look down, one step at a time, just keep breathing" over and over, but my legs were still literally shaking as I climbed up with my mom.

Things were okay once we actually made it into Balcony House. There were some tight spaces, but those don't bother me so much. We walked around the cliff dwelling for 15-20 minutes learning about the various rooms, and then it was time for the really scary part. It was way scarier than the 32-foot ladder. This is what the brochure referred to as the "60-ft open cliff face with stone steps," which was closely followed by "two 10-ft ladders to exit the site." Eek!

That was really tough. Between those crazy scary stairs and the two final ladders, I had to stop, and a man who was a perfect stranger had to give me a little pep talk to keep going. He reassured me that he'd catch me if I fell. I thought that was really nice, especially since I was in freak out mode, and my husband and mom ended up being several people behind me. With his help, I made it back to the parking lot.

So, am I glad I did it? I still don't know. It was definitely a memorable experience, but I can't say I enjoyed it by any stretch of the imagination. If we ever go back, I think I will sit it out with Dad in the car.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The details: Located in Colorado Springs. One of two mountain zoos in the United States.

Prolific giraffe breeding program + feeding ops = one awesome African Rift Valley exhibit.

They had a lot of other cool animals too (black bear, moose, really cute lambs), but this was what really made the trip worth it for me. I LOVED feeding the giraffes. In the picture above, the giraffe licked my hand. Definitely an experience I've never had at any other zoo, and the giraffe is definitely my new favorite zoo animal.

Glenwood Caverns

The first three days of our Colorado vacation were on the rainy and cold side, so once the sun came out, we knew we wanted to get right to some of the fun outdoor things we had planned.

One of the first places we visited was Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. It is located in Glenwood Springs, CO, which was about an hour's drive west of our timeshare.

In order to get to the park and go on the cave tours, you have to ride the tramway up Iron Mountain.

Here's Dad and Mom in our cable car.

My mom, Henry, and I knew we wanted to do the cave tours, but we weren't sure about any of the rides. (My dad has very bad knees, so he knew doing a 90-minute cave walking tour wouldn't be fun for him. He stayed under a tent and read a book instead.)

Once we got to the top, Henry and I saw the alpine coaster and wanted to do it. I'm glad we did. It was definitely pricey; it cost us $18 to ride it one time, but you only live (and possibly only visit Colorado) once, right? Now I can say I rode the first alpine coaster in the United States and had fun doing it.

Is this view beautiful or what?

You get to ride in individually-controlled cars on the alpine coaster, and Henry thoroughly enjoyed pushing us full-speed ahead.

The walking cave tour was good too. We got to see lots of impressive cave formations--cave bacon, soda straws, popcorn, and huge cave rooms with old stalagmites and stalactites. Pretty cool.

 King's Row cave room

Just an aside: there was a cute Chinese family on our cave tour, so Henry surprised them by asking them in Mandarin if they wanted their picture taken. I like it when he gets to practice Mandarin.

Whitewater Rafting in Frisco

I've spent a good amount of time today trying to organize and group our vacation pictures, and I can't help but wonder WHY we took so many! It's a bit overwhelming now, but I'm sure once I start really looking through them and editing, I'll be glad we have them. I've already stumbled across a few that make my heart go pitter patter.

Since I haven't edited any of our own personal photos yet, I thought I'd make it easy on myself and write about our whitewater rafting trip. It happened to be one of my favorite things we did on this vacation, and we bought the action shots from the rafting company, meaning I don't have to edit anything just yet.

So let's begin, shall we?

Our friend Bill {one of Henry's former roommates, piano-playin' singles ward compadre who once rode his bike from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska!} drove over from Boulder to meet us in Frisco, CO for our little whitewater rafting expedition.

We chose the Blue River Half Day Trip for its moderate II-III class rating. We didn't want anything too scary for my mom or for me. It was definitely a good choice for our first ever whitewater rafting experience. Definitely not boring, but I wasn't scared either...except for beforehand when they were going over all of the safety measures and made it sound inevitable that someone would go a'swimming on our trip. Mom and I were about ready to back out then. But once we got in the water and started rowing, I thought it was awesome.

Here we are pre-safety talk. Bill said I looked prepared for any number of outdoor adventures.

Enjoying some beautiful scenery...

Now we're getting to the good stuff. You'll notice that in this picture our guide, Ben, is flying up in the air. That wasn't supposed to happen, but isn't it cool that they caught it on camera?

And here he is coming back down into the raft where seconds later he'll collide with my lower back. My mom thought I was falling out of the raft. It all happened so fast I had no idea what was going on. They tell you before the trip to tuck your feet into the sides of the raft, and after Ben fell on me, half of my leg was up in the raft. I felt reeeally safe then.

And here's our group back on land. No swimmers here.

This reminds me of my least favorite part of the experience: having to wear a smelly, already wet and therefore cold wetsuit and a pair of nasty, wet water shoes. It wasn't that uncomfortable, but it really grossed me out. So, if you ever go whitewater rafting, hit up Academy beforehand for some cheap water shoes...just in case. My mom was very happy she did.

After our very exciting whitewater rafting adventure we said goodbye to Bill and headed across the street to the weirdest A&W chain I've ever seen. Upon first glance it just seemed kitschy. After we had ordered I noticed the religious pamphlets on Messianic Judaism next to the cash register {one caught my eye because it mentioned UT Austin}. Then I noticed the Psalm 1 {if I remember correctly} wood carvings above the doorways, and the scripture out on the marquee. The playing of the national anthem while we were dining was really just the icing on the cake. I placed my hand over my heart and had to laugh as I saw an older gentleman doing the same across the room.

I'm not the only one who delighted in discovering this gem; you can read the articles Fast-Food Salvation and Thank God for Root Beer Floats {like that a lot}. On the more serious side, you can also read about how the Bible references were taken down for a little while.

So, the moral of this story is...if ever you should find yourself in Frisco, CO, you might want to check out a Performance Tours rafting trip, and you definitely want to check out the divine A&W. Because God so loved the world, He gave us Jesus, ice cream, fish, and curds. Yes. Yes, He did.

Vacation all I ever wanted

Do people like to read about vacations or is that just me?

 {source}

Henry and I just spent the last two weeks traveling 2500 miles around Colorado with my parents, and we have 1500+ pictures to show for it. Since I don't want to make any promises I might not keep, I'll say that I would like to share some of our adventures with you...and we'll see how many posts I get around to actually doing. =)