New York City Weekend of July 29-31

Headed to NYC Friday morning.  Unfortunately an accident dealing with an oil spill on I-78 at Trexlertown backed up traffic for miles. I decided to hit the back roads.  Went through Topton, Mertztown, Longswamp, Seisholtzville, Shimerville, Emmaus before getting back to I-78.  Still took us a couple of extra hours.

Hannah wanted to see El Bulli, so we went to the Film Forum.  Pretty interesting film but definitely along the lines of the food porn theme.  We walked up 7th and stopped at an Italian Restaurant whose owner was chatting up people on the street to get business at Zucca.  He did a pretty good job and we had the stuffed artichoke, beet salad, risotto, and ravioli.  Pretty good actually.

Saturday we met Hannah at the Whitney.  Spent a couple of hours there.  Coolest was Cory Arcangel.  I really liked his version of Paganini #5.  Check out cats playing Schoenberg!!!

Then we hopped on the subway and went to the Eataly right across the street from Madison Square Park.  It was still busy so we bought a goat cheese and pear sandwich, brocolli rabi pizza and ate it in the park with everyone else sunbathing around us.  Cool sculpture also...

Then we went back to TKTS and bought tickets for Circque du Soleil Zarkana in Radio City Music Hall.  Actually it was very good.  The set was definitely the third ring with cool snakes, cool images, and too much stuff to watch while the performers were doing their thing.

Had a nice hike with a stop a cousin Stan's.   Things I saw in between:
- The Museum of biblical Art.  Free on Sunday's but I was there before it opened.
- Lincoln Center Atrium was open with 4 older ladies playing hearts/bridge and a few people using their PCs.  Ticket office was closed so I couldn't get tickets.
- Riverside Park was fairly quiet with lots of dog walkers
- The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway from 72nd to 103rd was busy with joggers and bikers.  I spent 45 minutes reading the NYTimes Sports and Auto sections.
- Lunch at Stan's and then across Central Park's north fields and then around the reservoir, then past the Met on 5th and then past the zoo.
- Back to the hotel via Dave Letterman's theater where they were giving out tickets for Monday's show.  Too bad we are leaving.

Pretty good dinner at Havana Central complete with Mojito's and music

Colorado July 9

Our vacation is almost over.  We check out and head east to Denver.  First we stop off at Silverthorne to check out the visitor information to see about how to get to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Turns out that the visitor center is in the middle of the Outlet Shops.  Turns out that we made the right exit.  We head up 9 to Rt 40 and then across on Rt 36.  First of all though, we check out the restrooms.  The fanciest we have seen outside of a 5 star restaurant.  The urinals were 4ft wide with walls of tiled stone.   We also check out the Under Armor and Perl Izumi stores.  I get a bike shirt and jacket. 

The drive to Grand Lake is fine.  The visitor center here directs us to the Adams Falls trail.  Turns out it was just what we wanted.  Nice falls but we continued up towards Lone Pine on the East Inlet Trail there are two meadows/wetlands that are surrounded by beautiful mountains.  We keep looking for a moose with no luck but on the way down we spook a long legged fox.  Lots of flowers and running water.

We then drive through the park.  A few miles in we see people gauking and there is a female moose just browsing in the bushes. A few more miles people are looking at a lone elk with a full rack.  Don't forget the great views of mountains, valleys, forests, etc.  Right before we get to the tundra visitors center there is a herd of elk just lying down and enjoying the end of the day.  Lots of great views going down the backside.  We (well I) decide to head down rt 7 to get to I-70.  Turns out that it is good road but lots of ups and downs and turns.  Takes forever.  We end up back in Idaho Springs for Beau Jo's pizza which is quite good. 

Colorado July 8

This time Lisa, Dan, and Becky met me with a ride from the bike shop and headed back down to Vail.  Half way down the rain hit.  We were soaked but everyone kept going.  I left around 7AM and made it to the top by 10:15AM.  We made it back to the shop around 1PM. 

Tonight, the Philadelphia Symphony in the Vail's Gerald R. Ford Amphithetor. 

Colorado July 7

 Stayed the night in Aspen.  Took off around 8:30AM to head for Independence Pass.  Parked the car and headed up a foot path through the tundra along the continental divide.  First 20 minutes was fine around the mud and ponds.  Then we hit a patch of snow.  Looked innocent enough but it was getting softer.  Started sinking up to our knees.  After this patch then next one was bigger. Contemplated turning around but decided to keep going.  Reached the first 'false' mountain top.  Had lunch and just looked around.  Pretty cool being on top of the world.  We actually there were two more mountain tops on the trail but we decided to head back.

This site has some nice pictures of both sides of the drive up and down the pass.  Here are some pics that I took on our hike.

Walked around Leadville without finding much of interest to eat.  Reached the bike shop in time to pickup my LiteSpeed Siena 105.  The owner of the shop was trying to sell it.  Pretty nice bike but I sure could have used a few more climbing gears going up Vail Pass.  I took it for a spin up to Edwards and a little of the back hills.  Had a tough time getting up Batchlor's Gulch.  An indication of tomorrow's challenges.

Colorado July 6

Heading over to Aspen today to attend the Aspen Music Festival with Gil Shaham playing the Walton Violin Concerto.  On the way Lisa and tried to hike Hanging Lake.  We first stopped off at Bair Ranch with had a sign up that the bike trail was closed.  Problem is that the Hanging Lake exit was closed today due to the Shoshone Power Plant doing a construction project.  So after talking this over with the US Forest Service people posted at the Grizzly Canyon Exit (going west you have to get off at Grizzly and go back east), we decided to hike up Grizzly Canyon.  Hike is very nice and follows the creek.

  With all of the water this summer, it was loud!!!  It was nice in the morning as most of it was shaded.  First 30 minutes was pretty easy.  Then it starts to climb.   We went about 1.5 hours and Lisa needed to turn around.  I decided to keep going to see if there was anything new.  I got through a pass and got great views of the creek.   Heading back I ran across a family we met at the Club whose 20 something son is a big biker.  he was doing the trail on his mountain bike!!

On the way we stopped in Glenwood Springs for pizza, beer, and a visit to Doc Holliday's grave. 




Got to Aspen and caught up with Dan and Becky who did a horse back riding trip.  We all went to the concert.  We were very impressed with Spano and concert orchestra.   We all loved the Elgar arrangement of the Bach Tocatta and Fugue and Strauss' Don Juan.

Had dinenr with Lisa's friend at Junk.  Very clever menu and the food was very tasty.  I has the Junk Salad.

Colorado July 5

We took the Centennial Ride ski lift up from Vail.  Hiked the Royal Elk Trail across the mountains to Beaver Creek Lake.  Walked down Beaver Creek trail and then across the village to village trail.  





Poor marking didn't take us straight to Bachelor's Gulch and we ended up going past the resort and down the ski trails to get back to the club.

 We watched The Gift which everyone other than me really didn't like.  Great acting and actually a pretty good story other than being a little scarry.

Colorado July 4

Well the crew joined me for the 4th of July festivities in Vail.  Paper said that this was the busiest day of the year in Vail.  Lisa and I got there just in time to get one of the last parking spots in the parking garage.  The parade was OK but definitely not one of the greatest ever seen:

• Random Harley owners led the parade but there seemed to be a 10 minute gap between them and the cops behind.
• The floats we mostly advertisements for local tourist companies.  I did like one of local dance clubs for kids that did a very original float.
•  The parade ended with the local Lawn Chair Drill Team.

We then headed through town over to the Ford Theater.  I got a free donut from someone trying to clean up from their parade party.   We got our tickets for Friday and then headed into the ampitheter to get a shady spot.  Dan and Becky bought beer for us as we listened to the free concert by the Dallas Symphony led by Jeff Tyzik.  We all like Maestro Tyzik's arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, and Louis Armstrong standards sung by Byron Stripling.

I pushed for going over to Beaver Creek to see the Bruce Springsteen cover band but no one was up for it.  We watched Shrek Ever After.

Overall a good day...

Colorado July 3

We all arrived yesterday and had headaches and dehydration.  So today we decided to take an easy hike from Avon to Edwards.  We took the hike/bike Riverview trail which starts out nice and wooded but quickly gets to be open along the golf course and housing developments.  Cool big skateboard/bike park where little kids were dropping in with no fear.  Had lunch at Main Street Grill which had good food but not very friendly.  When we got back, we reserved bikes for a Friday Vail Pass to Vail run.  I plan to get a road bike and ride up to the top and meet the gang.

Becky's birthday today.  Dan is making spagetti dinner and then we are going to watch the fireworks at Avon.