Another Interlude - Good Times & Hobbits [wmv]

Haha, this is hilarious, and well done. Brings back lots of memories. I love the music.

Hobbits to Isengard

Pff, Oops, Cops [Day 4]

We took off for the long, hot drive mid morning, and it all went pretty well, until a police truck coming the other direction started flashing its lights and pulled a U-turn behind our 2 car caravan. My mom was riding in the car with me driving. She told me to just keep driving, so I did just that. My dad was riding with a friend of ours in the car behind us, and they pulled over, and the cop did the whole interrogation on them.

They got significantly delayed and barely made it back here on time to leave for some opera they were going to in Central City.

This means I still haven’t ever been pulled over by a cop once during my speedy driving career, but its probably a sign that I’m still pushing my luck.

Anyway, we went to have dinner (sashimi!) at a great Japanese restaurant in Arvada. (Namiko’s) My mom knows the owner, so we go there quite often. In fact, The owner wanted to show us her brand-new custom built house, so we went to see it on Hackberry Hill.

It was amazing, and huge. Must’ve cost a fortune. They designed it all exactly the way they wanted it to be built. They must be rich folk. Sort of reminded me of a Japanese house though. A modern one, not one with tatami rooms unfortunately.

Bye Bye Yellowstone [Day 3 Part 2]

Probably won’t be going back to Yellowstone for quite some time, not after all the trips there recently. Who knows though.

Our last stop was at the Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Missed the turn for the Lower falls, the more impressive ones. Ground squirrels were going crazy in the stone wall.

We took off, and left the park, leaving the gate just in time for park closing. This last drive was the first time we really saw any big wildlife.

We got back, just in time for another money shot, then we had dinner.

a wicked fork we found in the house

let the bombardment continue

The next morning, the guys slept in, so we hopped in the car and ditched them to do some exploring. After about an hour of driving, we found a waterfall and climbed around on it a bit. It was set up perfectly for the like, with large, smooth rocks and lots of fallen trees. It was also about a mile long, and nicely sloped. We got hungry, and thus returned to the cabin, but drove back to the waterfall later so everyone could see it.

only now do i realize how similar these pictures look. reminds me of the abbey road poster

had to wait for people often, not many alternate routes

heh...shannon had trouble getting across at some parts

Half of us ended up drenched. As ungraceful as I tend to be, I'm surprised I wasn't among them.

Interlude: Quite Possibly the Best 36 Hours of Summer

Sunday, August 14th. The day of the Disturbed concert.
After a late night, going to sleep at around 3 AM the night before, I awoke at 9 and left at 9:15 to go to my church with our Japanese guest, Sakurako. I put on my Nine Inch Nails shirt, which in and of itself had implications wearing it to church, but I figured I wanted to be wearing it all day. Somehow people seem a little more genuine when they know thay'll not see me again for a long time. I exchanged a few goodbyes and was home by noon.
I had a talk with Sakurako about music in Japan, sharing my meager collection of Japanese music with her, which included a few artists which even she never heard of. This lead to a few artists which composed music for some anime productions, and I showed her some of that which I had as well from Japan. Interesting talk. We worked on making lunch with her mother and my sister with my laptop playing some music they recognized from Japan.
My friends came at 2:30, and I jumped into the Jeep and we cruised down to Colorado Springs. That thing was noisy, and actually couldn't accelerate past 60, but we blasted great music, making it a good ride. We tried making hotel reservations by running around the city and stopping in all the cheap motels that we found, but had no luck. We asked around where the City Auditorium was (the venue), but no one really seemed to know. Finally some guy happened to be walking by and overheard us in a Blockbuster, and he gave us (rather bum) directions towards it, and after parking in the downtown and wandering around, we finally randomly happened upon it. There was still something like two and a half hours till the doors opened, but there was already a line forming. We decided to go back out and find another motel, which we tried, but failed.
We got back about 45 minutes until doors, and by that point the line was stretched out more than a city block and around the corner.
(Shoot, at this point, I didn't save what I wrote, and this crappy blog site crapped out on me)
We got into the concert. Sweet venue. Got on the floor real near the front. 10 Years and Ill Niño opened for Disturbed. I liked the bands in the order I just mentioned them. Awesome concert though. The best parts of it, other than Disturbed playing, and being able to yell along to the songs, was the crowd. I moshed and did some crowd surfing, good times. Hilarious how one girl got up on someone's shoulders and flashed everybody, and suddenly a bunch of girls were doing it. Then the security guards came and stood on the side, taking pictures, to ticket them maybe. (This didn't stop more girls from climbing up and flashing everyone.)
I rode back with Haroun. The motel thing fell all the way though. We stopped at a gas station. He bought some burritos. I gave out call, and changed my route to Denver. When his hands were full eating or drinking, I steered from the passenger side. It was just like a game.
I arrived in Denver, for some movies. I probably smelled really bad, but I used some of Haroun's Axe. (Don't really like that stuff much either.) After the movies when the sun was rising, I went on a walk, then caught a bus to Denver central, and another out to suburban Lakewood. I slept past my stop and ran quite a ways to get back to my house.
Upon returning, I showered, slept, then went to a dinner party. (First meal after skipping three.) We picked up from that, and went to a small punk concert in Denver where I got a bloody nose in the mosh. I just got home.
Good times, though I leave out many many many details and even whole parts which made the hours especially nice. I'll always remember. This is just a nonsensical journal entry for my future reference.

My Turn: Cabin Trip

I mentioned quite a while back that I took a trip up to a cabin in Bailey with a few of my closer friends. We did some four-wheeling, but while at the cabin, we took small hikes and shot at cans (and occasionally each other) with BB guns.

this is the only picture I have from our time spent around the actual cabin, which is sitting about 100 feet behind us and the motor-home

Caleb and I played with fire a lot, using the excuse that we were constructing something with which we could use to cook. I don't think many of the others believed us, but we had fun none the less. Once the parents were gone for a while, we threw a lighter, bug spray, and other flammables in there. Got some pretty big flames, 'twas fun.

We actually did use the fire for something useful (roasting marshmallows and hot dogs) once the evening rolled around. I nearly had my hair caught on fire more than once. It got cold pretty quickly, so Baily, Caleb and I kept at least our fingers warm by plucking some songs on the guitars we brought along. Shannon dragged the cots out right by the fire, and since there were benches built very close, it made things very difficult. We eventually all ended up kind of... piled... for a while, fighting for heat.

Thoroughly warm, we got up, brushed ourselves off, and made our beds. Most people slept in tents, the parents slept in the motor-home, and Shannon and I slept out under the stars. It was nice being away from city lights. Milky Way was visible, the sky brilliantly speckled, and it was wonderfully cold.

Yellowstone, Again [Day 3]

We decided on going out to Yellowstone again. How could we pass it up when we were so close? We drove in, and had a picnic at the base of Old Faithful, waited for another eruption. I got a better video of it this time, I think.

We walked around the geyser field again, taking a different route than the one a week previous.

something like “double pool”

the sawmill geyser. violent one. when it sprayed it would drench people on the path

We jumped back in the car and drove to see the Fountain Paint Pots. A bunch of bubbling mud, really. Did resemble paint though.