Colorado Trip

At the Smith estate in Trinidad, Colorado

Jenn and I were fortunate enough this summer to take one last trip. It was a last minute decision, but we were able to go visit my no-longer-homeless parents at their new house in Trinidad, Colorado.

The flight there wasn't too bad. It was a little discouraging that our plane was the only one to be delayed and therefore we missed our connecting flight in Denver (although the plane was still there another 10 minutes, they "had closed the doors"- dumb rule). So we got on the next flight which was another 45 minute wait, but could have been much worse.

When we arrived in Colorado Springs my parents took us to The Garden of the Gods. It was really pretty and nice to walk around on the various trails to stretch our legs a bit. Then it was onward to Trinidad to check out their new crib.

The "Kissing Camels" rock formation (right)

Me and the folks

Wild sunflowers were all over the place

Overlooking the park

It was really hard to follow the signs that read "do not climb on the rocks". There were so many hand/foot holds! It would be a perfect rock to climb!

On the way to the new pad, we briefly saw a couple of bear cubs dart across the road. Unfortunately it was too quick for me to get a picture or movie, but it was neat to see. Coincidentally, when we arrived at my parents' new house, a bear seemed to have visited there as well! We relaxed a little when we arrived and planned out what we would be doing the next few days.

During our trip we had a lot of fun. We toured the city of Trinidad with a very creative tour guide, ate a lunch at the beautiful Kit Carson park, walked the river walk, had some root beer floats, and had a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant that serenades you with different songs while you eat. We also took a trip to hike and explore Capulin Volcano which was really cool to see, and another side trip into Cimarron, NM to eat at the St. James Hotel, which is known for the famous western outlaws and cowboys who used to frequent the joint. We also had a day we spent around the new acreage exploring and target shooting. If Jenn ever decides she wants to go hunting, I feel bad for the animals- she doesn't miss!

Testing out the new ATV

Target shooting- I feel like I held my own, although I enjoyed the compound bow more than the gun

Around the "pond" collecting wild sunflowers

Eating lunch at Kit Carson Park

Trolley Tour of Trinidad

On the rim of the Capulin Volcano

Capulin Volcano with volcanic fields in the background

Jenn on our ATV trip around the ranch

Mom and Dad with their property in the background

The old man hiking

Horned Lizard/Toad

Massive herd of elk on the way home from Cimarron

The In-laws Visit

Karen and Jenn at Latta Plantation

August started off with a bang for us. On August 1st we had a visit from Jenn's parents, Bill and Karen. We had a lot of fun while they were here. We went to Historic Latta Plantation where we hiked some trails and rode horses. We even saw a live copperhead near the nature center. We also went on a 16 mile bike ride to the lake one morning. As Bill would say "it's all about the workout". Another day we went to Carowinds and spent the entire day riding coasters, relaxing in the wave pool, and cruising down the water slides. I was impressed with the old folks' stamina. I was exhausted after about 6 hours at the amusement park and they kept going full steam until 9 or 10 o'clock. Another day we spent playing games (yes, even Bill played some games) including Scene It Squabble and Boggle. We also put up new ceiling fans in the living room and bedroom. Now we have a 60 inch fan in the bedroom which keeps it nice and cool. It was great having the in-laws come to visit and it will be nice when we move closer north and can see them more frequently.

Jenn on Belle (cousin of a Clydesdale)


Jenn and Me getting ready to ride

Bill and Karen on our hike

Testing a vine (it held)

Setting up the fans

July in a nutshell

Dan and Erica- The Fielders

There were many things Jenn and I had planned to do this summer- camping, go on trips, take tennis lessons, and of course- get back in shape. We accomplished about 1/2 of what we wanted. We took our big trip in June right after school was out. In July we stayed busy trying to exercise 4-5 times each week. However, the weather was WAY too hot to go camping or tennis lessons. Hopefully we can get some days off together this fall when it's cooler to do these things.

It seemed like July just flew by. When we weren't exercising Jenn and I were playing games, Jenn studied her college algebra, and I played my videogames. Weekends Jenn worked to make the big bucks while I usually went to Mavis and Will's to hang out about once a week. We also had the opportunity to run another race together. We haven't been able to since Jenn has to work weekends, but there was a twilight 5k on a Friday evening. So that was fun. The big event we had in July was our friends Erica and Dan Fielder's wedding. It was a beautiful setting outside on Lake Wiley. While it was scorching hot during the ceremony, when the reception began it was much cooler. When it was over, the happy newlywed couple drove away on a boat.

The Groomsmen

Me and my woman

White boy dancing

Some Forest Heights teachers and spouses

June Trip- Pittsburgh, PA

After spending a few days in D.C. Jenn and I were headed west to my hometown to celebrate the marriage of some great friends- Dan and Sarah. We got in town Friday evening and found out it's a good thing we booked our hotel earlier. As it turns out they are filming some of the scenes of the next Batman movie in Pittsburgh and many hotels were completely booked. It probably wouldn't have been a problem where we were staying, but Vernon told us later the Crowne Plaza Hotel (the only hotel in Bethel) was totally booked up.

The following morning Jenn and I enjoyed a little down time in the hotel before going to Quaker Steak and Lube for lunch. I wish it had been a wing buffet, but it was still delicious. Then Jenn and I headed to St. Thomas More for Dan and Sarah's Catholic wedding. I mentioned in a blog last September about how much Jenn and I enjoy the Catholic ceremonies. Luckily we sat with friends Vernon and Jason so we weren't the only ones sitting rather than kneeling through what seemed like half the service. It was a nice ceremony though despite the length and Pitt-colored groomsmen.

The reception was a lot of fun. We had a chance to catch up with a lot of Bethel friends including Captain Webb who is stationed outside of Richmond right now and will be transferring to Hawaii in the near future. We also found out that the youngest Vollmer brother ran in the Pittsburgh 1/2 marathon this past year after training for about 2 weeks. The annoying thing is that he had a MUCH better time than either Jenn or I have ever had- 1 hour 37 minutes. My best time is 1 hour 51 minutes.

Husband and Wife

First Dance

Shots with the bridal party

The groom

Can't avoid the pose when with the Captain
The bride and Jenn

Dancing?

Dancing

Jenn and I decided to spend another day and night in Pittsburgh to help celebrate our 2 year anniversary. First we met up with Vernon, Drew, and Brie for lunch and a movie. Jenn was not very impressed with the movie- The Hangover 2. It was basically the same as the first, but I found it entertaining. That evening we booked a dinner cruise on the Gateway Clipper's Empress boat. It was a relaxing and enjoyable way to celebrate our 2 years as husband and wife :).

Me and Jenn on the Empress

June Trip- Washington, D.C.

Me on the mall

Our June extravaganza began the day before my final workday at school. I worked extra hard to get everything done so we could leave as early as possible on Tuesday and so I wouldn't have to come in on Wednesday. The plan was to get up about an hour north of D.C. on Tuesday and Brad would come down and meet us there on Wednesday morning to pick up the pup for the week while Jenn and I gallivanted around. Everything went off without a hitch although it was a very long day on Tuesday, not getting in to the motel until about 11.

The next morning Brad came down to meet us and we treated him to breakfast as a reward for picking up our troublemaker. Then Jenn and I headed down to D.C. As we couldn't check into the Washington Plaza hotel until 3 o'clock we stopped on the way at the National Zoo. We thought at first we were in a bit of trouble because there was no parking anywhere in the zoo. Luckily we problem-solved and parked a few blocks away at a shopping area and just walked up to the zoo.

It was really nice to wander through this zoo. We saw all the animals we were interested in seeing and also enjoyed people watching. We saw a panda, oryx, otters, elephants, gorillas, emus, lions, tigers, and many more. Jenn even made a new friend as you can see in the video. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Then Jenn and I drove down to the city to check into the hotel. By a lucky coincidence, my good friend and college roommate Dan lives in D.C. and only works 2 blocks from where our hotel was located. So he met up with us after work and we all walked down to the mall where Dan had a softball game. Jenn and I would never have guessed how the National Mall changes in the evenings. There seem to be runners and sightseers all day long, but in the evenings all the grassy areas become softball/kickball/flag football/etc. fields. It's pretty neat. Jenn and I walked the mall a little while Dan waited for his team at their "field". When we returned to see his game I recognized my friend from Penn State Jess playing on the other team which was neat. As the game progressed, it became more and more intense. An innocent bystander was hit in the head with a wild throw to first, a player went to the emergency room with at least a dislocated shoulder, and Jenn was recruited to play on Dan's team. I guess they saw her potential and called her up to the big leagues. Unfortunately, the good guys lost the game but it was a nailbiter. Dan, Jenn, and I ended up going out to Chinatown for dinner and drinks after the 2 hour game.

Jenn at the gorilla exhibit

Jenn and some gazelles

Can you tell she enjoyed her day?

Me and Jenn in front of the White House on the way to the mall

Chinatown

The following morning Jenn and I awoke nice and early. We planned on hitting up as many museums as we could while they were open. Most were open 9-5 while a few were open 9-7:30. After planning our museum route, we stopped at 4 different ones.

We started at the Native American museum. The architecture was really neat and if we had more than just a couple days in D.C. it would have been really nice to walk around the building and see the different areas and sculptures they had set up around the museum. Inside was pretty neat, too. There were all different exhibits with lots of videos explaining different traditions and beliefs of the Native Americans. We didn't see everything in this museum as we kind of added it to our list at the last minute, but it was interesting.

Next we went to the American History Museum. This had a lot of cool exhibits we both were looking forward to seeing. Jenn was especially interested in the First Lady exhibit which I will admit was mildly interesting. We also visited an exhibit about all the wars the United States has been a part of. I found this one particularly interesting and wish I could have spent an hour or two reading all the information. Due to our time-monitoring though we kind of had to pick and choose and focused mostly on WW2. Interesting tidbit- Civil War was the most deadly American War we've had at over 600,000 Americans killed. 2nd was WWII with over 400,000. 3rd was WW1 at over 100,000. This makes the war on terrorism with just over 6,000 not seem quite as bad. We also visited an exhibit about the American Presidents which talked of the different jobs of Presidents, how it has changed over time, and what different Presidents have done to modify the present position. Finally we toured the "American on the Move" exhibit which talked all about the different advancing forms of transportation. It was really cool seeing all the old cars and reading about them. Probably the most interesting thing I learned from this exhibit is that originally cars were all completely different. Some had driving wheels on the right, some on the left; some had engines in the back, some in the front; some were diesel engines, some were gas, some were steam-powered, and some were electric! When the automobile companies began to standardize their machines (although not on which side the gas tank was located, which I know bothers my dad) they decided to make them all use gasoline. Imagine if they had decided to make them all electric...

After having a snack for lunch we headed to the Natural History Museum. Again- a lot of cool exhibits. We had to pick and choose a little again. We visited the oceans exhibit, the dinosaurs exhibit, the evolution of man exhibit, and saw the hope diamond. Jenn also visited the mammals exhibit as I was taking too long for her in the evolution of man. I think Jenn began to get frustrated at the fact I like to read every sign about every thing I see. Especially when I find the topic interesting like I did with the evolution exhibit. It reminded me a lot of my anthropology class in college. Definitely one I would recommend.

Our final stop was the Air and Space Museum. I think I have visited this museum every time I have been to D.C. but with the changing exhibits there's always something new to be seen. We chose this site last because it was one of the few museums to stay open until 7:30. And we used every minute of the time visiting the exhibits of the Wright Brothers, 50 years of space flight, exploring the universe, and WWII Aviation. Of course we also walked through the sample space station, saw all the planes and rockets. Again, I wish we had more time as everything was so interesting to read about as you were seeing the examples in front of you.

We must have walked about 8-10 miles overall, and while we slowly headed back to our hotel that night (getting Chipotle on the way back as Dan has raved about how good it is for years now- and it was pretty good) Jenn and I decided that we could easily have spent an entire day at any one of those museums. We will have to go back again sometime to see other exhibits we had to skip through, and visit entire museums that we did not get to see this trip.

I have the Washington Monument in my hands! (Jenn hates these kind

of pictures but was a sport and put up with it because I think they're neat)

Jenn and Dorothy's ruby slippers

Jenn at the Air and Space Museum

Jenn's next christmas present

Me at the Dinosaur exhibit in the Museum of Natural History

On our third and final day in D.C. Jenn and I were inspired by seeing so many runners on the mall the past two days and also felt a little guilty as we were going to be eating out for most meals for almost a week. So we had decided to go for a morning run down to the mall and run around to see all the monuments. There were a few that are fairly new that neither Jenn nor I had seen before. We started at the Washington Monument then worked past the WWII Memorial and Vietnam Memorial before getting to the Lincoln Memorial and the FDR Memorial and ending with the Jefferson Memorial. Neither of us had seen the WWII Memorial which was very pretty with the fountains and the reliefs on the walls. Probably the most impressive part of the memorial was the wall of stars at the end toward the Lincoln Memorial. There was one star for every 100 Americans killed in the war. Over 400 stars. The FDR Memorial was very large and spread out. It went through his tenure as President and had different quotes etched in stone as well as different statues depicting events such as fireside chats and soup lines. Neat to see.

After our run through the memorials we had to pack up and head out on another fairly long drive to my old hometown. Back to Bethel Park to see Dan and Sarah finally get married. Sarah and Dan had been dating about a year before Jenn and I did. Of course I knew Dan and the rest of the crew since high school and Jenn met most of them in college as the majority (Dan, Jeff, Danny, and Vernon) went to Slippery Rock, too. Sarah was instrumental in getting Jenn out to meet me so we are excited to see Dan and Sarah share the blessings and happiness that married life gives.

Jenn at the WWII memorial
Me at the Washington Monument

Jenn at the Lincoln Memorial

Me and Jenn posing with the Washington monument in the background

Video of the D.C. trip