Julie and I will be on a plane to the UK and the Emerald Isle here in a couple of months. I made a quick map to show where we’re headed, but there’s plenty more to update. So, if you’re curious to see what we plan to see, check back often. The map can be seen in large form here: Julie and I go to the UK

In my life, I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles, and in all that time I have never once had a “go around”, where the pilot aborts the landing last-minute and tries it again. Well, that happened to me today – and not just once, but THREE times.

I was flying into Denver, coming from Portland, and the weather in the afternoon was particularly feisty. The plane was a rollercoaster all the way down to about 200ft when the pilot felt the winds shift drastically. He slammed on the throttles and pulled up. I had already been desperate to get on the ground as I hate landings that bumpy (and it was very, very bumpy). We first tried for runway 7, heading east. That didn’t work, so we turned 180o and tried for runway 26, heading west. That didn’t work either, so we approached heading north for runway 34L. Again, no dice. So we circled around and gave 34L one last shot. We finally touched down.

I was sweating bullets, my stomach was upside down and people were nervously trying to laugh with each other the whole time as we bounced violently around the Denver skies. Each time we got close, I kept praying we’d make it down all the way and not give up again. But, I’m glad the pilot was patient and prudent. Thanks to his excellent flying, we had a great ending. It’s amazing the kind of pressure those pilots work under, and I’m very greatful for their skill and ability to be cool under pressure. The pilot even came on after landing and told us he just set a career record for most attempted landings.

I think I’ll stay here on the ground for a little while. It’s good to be back in Denver.

Image courtesy of: http://www.thefringething.com

In keeping with good ‘ol user-commanded interactive online adfotainment (a là Subservient Chicken – which is amazingly still live), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has launched a micro-site with a curious eggish-looking object the begs the user to poke and prod at it with various typable instructions. Two gentlemen (presumably?) in full-on bunny suits take your instructions and apply them to this thing. It’s lovely, hilarious, and incredibly fun.

The Fringe Festival itself is an annual Edinburgh venue for hundreds (really, hundreds) of troops putting on thousands of un-vetted, wildly artistic, and often brilliantly comical performances at makeshift stages throughout the city. It was formed in 1947 to provide organization for the 8 uninvited theatre troops who showed up to the Edinburgh International Festival, but were not able to perform under that umbrella. According to the edfringe.com website, “The Festival Fringe Society (commonly known as the Fringe Office) does not produce any of the shows, does not invite anybody to perform, does not run any venues and pays no fees to performers. We do, however, help performers every step of the way.” So, talk about free range and organic.

Which is what this object seems to be- an endlessly fun (well, at least until you run out of commands) egg to play with for no particular reason at all. Well done, well done indeed.

Julie and I had another packed weekend. We started out yesterday by checking out one of the sights that was recommended in our guidebook – Dinosaur Ridge, just east of Red Rocks. What a cool place! We took a nice hike up the ridge (which is part of the Dakota Hogback, a stretch of sandstone and other rock layers that was lifted to an angle via the magic of tectonics. As a result of that liftage, layers and layers of fossalized materials are exposed, including the odd dinosaur bone. What a cool way to have geology presented in mural fashion. It was like an exquisitely curated outdoor natural hisotry museum. And as you walked down the road, you went further and further back in time. Neat stuff.

Then, today, Julie called me at 7:30am because her office had had to shut down (she was going to work this morning). So, she told me to get out of bed and exclaimed we were going to go excursioning again today. I was all for that. So, we picked a great looking hike up to Paprika Lake (I think) in Rocky Mountain National Park. Anywho, we had so much fun on the drive, and the weather started looking like it wasn’t going to cooperate (not to mention that we later learned dogs aren’t allowed on the trails in the park) – so we ended up not hiking at all, but just enjoying the drive. We went all the way across US-34, down to Grand Lake (where Julie had a Rocky Mountain Oyster), and then back to I-70 returning to Denver. It was a beautiful loop and an incredible drive.

Anywho, it’s been an incredible weekend. There’s so much to see and explore here and I hope we venture out every chance we get.

Hope you’re all doing well!

So, Julie and I decided to get off the couch this Memorial Day weekend and get a few Colorado miles under our feet. A few weekends ago while heading up to Loveland Pass I picked up  a cool hiking map and I opened it up today to find the most Elliott-appropriate (easy) trail. This turned out to be a lovely 4mi loop on Rabbit Mountain called Eagle Wind Trail. There were spectacular views, and as it was a loop, we got a 360o tour of the surrounding area. The terrain was pretty easy, and there was a total of about 475′ of elevation gain throughout the hike. Murphy loved it, Julie had a great time, and I couldn’t put my camera down. Photos of our first Colorado hike can be found here. Hope you had a great weekend too!

Rain evaporating before it hits the ground close to Denver Int’l.