Events from 2001

Roller Coaster Madness

We are lucky that we have access to an amusement park in downtown Denver, so we have season tickets to
Six flags Elitch Gardens.  Weather has been pretty hot here in Denver, so we haven't  visited as much as Alan would
like, but it features a number of cool coasters and rides.  Here they are in order of recommendation

    Twister II, a wooden rollercoaster that's a real bone shaker
    Boomerang, a loop the looper that also goes backwards !!
    Mind Eraser, suspended ride with a double corkscrew
    Sidewinder, quick inverted ride
    Tower of doom, drop 200 feet in the air
    Shake, Rattle and Roll, kind of weird but fun
    Troika, longest ride in the park
    Rainbow, like the pirate ship
    Thunder Bolt, sit down ride, back and forward

04/30/01    Bon Jovi concert

Our first visit to the Pepsi center.  We were in the mile high city, and we had seats to prove it. Section 322
is close to to the ceiling, and its the first concert we have been to where you actually need binoculars to see
the action on stage.
Bon Jovi were pretty good, played all their favorite tunes, worth going to see

05/01/01    Kinetics Challenge

Wasn't sure if this was some sort of hippy event, but we set off too late to see the start of this annual boulder event.

If we had got up early, we would have seen the balloon festival and pancake breakfast, as we arrived late we were in time to see some of the human powered craft, complete, the water, land, water race.

05/05/01    Malibu

A chance to get some Californian sun, have breakfast on the beach, and go through Malibu canyon.

05/11/01    Leader of the Pack

Good music, bad acting, bad singing, bad dancing, Miss

05/20/01    Toronto Castle

A business trip to Toronto and a chance to explore Casa Loma. A big house built on top of a hill in Toronto.  Built by a canadian millionaire in 1920 and never finished, one of the unique features is an underground tunnel leading to the stables

05/21/01    Colorado Avalanche ice hockey playoff game vs St Louis blues

This was Siew Gin's first opportunity to see real ice hockey.  Tickets were hard to come by for playoff games so we were lucky to get tickets in the nosebleed section.  This was the game that if Colorado won, they would go to the playoff finals.

The game was fairly slow at first, but in the second overtime period, (which we waited 20 minutes for),  Colorado scored after 10 seconds to win the western conference.  It was a very noisy journey home as Hockey fans are notorious for celebrating

05/23/01    The Parents visit

Alan's family (Evelyn, Patrick, Barry, Sarah) came over to visit Denver, so we took some time off to explore Denver as only a tourist can.

We had a packed agenda that included

    The Royal Mint, and the State Capital
        The royal mint, one of only two in the US produces over 11 billion coins a year, and operates 24 hours a day.
        A chance to see a lot of money, but not much chance to actually touch it

        The State capital features a gold dome, and is very beautiful.  A great view from the dome of Colorado

    Coors Brewery, Lookout mountain, Buffalo Bills Grave, Dinosaur Ridge, Buffalo
        The coors brewery is located in Golden, and offers a 45 minute tour of the brewery followed by a visit to the Beer bar
        to sample the delights of Coors beer.  I would recommend reading the book on the Coors family
        Lookout mountain as it name suggests, gives a great view of downtown Denver, as well as the possibility of viewing
        Buffalo Bills grave, we followed this by a 1/2 mile hike up to the top of lookout mountain.  The family made Alan run
        down and get the car as they found the hike very strenuous at around 10,000
        We followed up with a visit to Dinosaur ridge which is a geologically famous national natural landmark, featuring bones
        from the Jurassic Period.  The trail is a mile long and features upwards of 400 dinosaur tracks


    Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods

        No visit to Colorado is complete without a visit to Pikes Peak.  There are three key ways of getting there.  Hiking (no),
        Driving (no), or taking the train (yes).  The train has the distinction of being the worlds highest cog railway at 14,110 feet,
        and takes around 1 to 1 and a half hours each way, with the return journey taking the same time.  This leaves you with around
        40 minutes at the summit.  The Weather and scenery goes through a large number of changes.
        Pikes Peak is named after Zebulon Pike, who first saw the peak in 1806, but only managed to climb to 10,000. The first ascent
        was in 1820, with the first women climbing it in 1858 !!.  The first road was built in 1889, and the first automobile race started in
        1917.
        The top of Pikes Peak is 30 degrees colder than the bottom, and on the day we visited it snowed at the top !!  There are five
        zones you can go through on Pikes Peak, Eastern Plains (mainly wildflowers and grassland), Foothills Zone (Small bushes and
        trees), The Montane Zone (large forests of pines and douglas fir), Subalpine Zone (Engleman Spruce), and finally the alpine zone
        (which consists mainly of tundra and not a lot else !!)

        Garden of the Gods, located outside of Colorado Springs consists of a park full of Red Rocks and is a popular tourist spot.
        It takes around half an hour to walk around the park, and you get to see the kissing camels !!
   
    Red Rocks, Mount Evans

        Red Rocks is 6,200 feet above sea level and marks the point where the great plains meets the Rocky Mountains
        and is located 15 miles outside of Denver, consists of a fabulous setting and a famous ampi-theater.  The ampi-theater holds
        around 9,000 seats and is carved out of the rocks.  Many concerts are featured here, with the background being Denver.

        Mount Evans at 14,264 is number 14 on the top 50 list of mountains, and features the worlds highest road.  At 10,600 Echo lake
        makes its appearance, and the whole trip is 28 miles long.  Well worth the visit, when you can see the continental divide, and it used
        to hold the nations highest snack bar, before fire destroyed it

    Bolder Boulder

Memorial day, and the Bolder boulder.   This is one of the largest road races in the world, and runs through downtown boulder with a finish in Folsom Stadium, home to the Colorado Buffalos.  Alan hadn't been training that much and was hoping to finish
So it was up at 6.30, and a start time of 7.25 in the morning.  There are 67 waves, with the first one leaving at 7.20 and the last starting at 9.10 am.  I was lucky being in the 5th wave, although I would have preferred a later start.  The course is pretty tough with an uphill finish, but it is great to see the belly dancers as you run by and to finish in a stadium of about 40,000 people.

Alan completed the course in 49:46 which is about ten minutes slower than his best time, there were 41,117 finishers and overall

Alan finished in 4869 place, placing 123 by age !!, Average time for his age being 62:46.

Alan vows to run it again next year in a faster time, and has persuaded Siew Gin to run as well !!!

    Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Lilly Lake

        Located about 35 miles north of Boulder is Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.
        Trail Ridge Road is the famous road which goes through the park and crosses the continental divide.  Looks out over dozens
        of peaks of 13,000 or more and Longs Peak at 14,255.  The highest point of the park is 12,183 feet.  Trail ridge road is closed
        in the winter, and had just opened when we visited.  You can regularly see Elk, mule deer, big horn sheep, moose and coyotes, as well
        as vast quantities of birds.
        On the day we were there, it snowed so we briefly crossed the continental divide, its amazing how quickly the temperature changes.
        We did manage hot chocolate at 12000 feet though.

        On the way back, we visited Lilly lake, which is a gentle mile walk around, saw a few deer and lots of fish

   
    Royal Gorge, Cave of the Winds

        One of the most visited attractions in Colorado and located two hours south of Denver, close to Canyon City is Royal Gorge.
        It features a suspension bridge hanging 1260 feet above the Arkansas river, and only 18 feet wide.
        In addition you can take the aerial tram which is over 2200 feet in length and the most exciting of all, the incline railway which goes
        down at 45 degrees to the bottom of the gorge, making it the steepest railway in the world. In addition there is a nature center where
        many of us saw a bear !!! (well everyone apart from Siew Gin)

    New Orleans

        A chance to add another state to Alan's list and to see what New Orleans is all about.  In a word, Hot.  Alan and Siew Gin only had
        the weekend to explore, so didn't get to see everything, saw the docks and the French quarter as well as some of the more famous
        landmarks.  Lots of interesting markets as well as curious facts, like all the graves are above the ground.  Siew Gin finally got her
        Mardi Gras mask and Alan got a real chocolate eclair !!

06/16/01    Renaissance Festival

A chance for Siew Gin, to dress up as a fairy princess from the past, and a chance for the festival organizers to take our money.
There were a number of fun shows that were amusing, including the two Shakespearian comedy actors, and the mud show featuring
the devil.

Also had a chance to watch men pretend to joust and sword fight.

06/09/01    Colorado Rockies  baseball vs St Louis Cardinals

A surprisingly large crowd for this event, as it was the night of the Ice Hockey finals at the Pepsi center, about 1/2 a mile away.
The Rockies play at Coors field, a brand new stadium, built a few years okay with views of the mountains.

St Louis cardinals quickly established a large lead, so the crowd could concentrate on the scoreboard for the Ice-Hockey game
Must have been off putting for the players on the field, as the cheers ran out for Avalanche as they scored.

Amazingly the Ice Hockey and baseball finished at the same time, with Avalanche winning the Stanley cup, and the Rockies getting
a kicking.  A huge police presence was there to ensure no trouble, but this was a great night for sport in Colorado

06/12/01    Dame Edna Everage Show

Hard to describe an evening with Dame Edna, as each show is different.  I would recommend going to see the show, but don't
sit in the front few rows !!

06/16/01    Renaissance Festival

A chance for Siew Gin, to dress up as a fairy princess from the past, and a chance for the festival organizers to take our money.
There were a number of fun shows that were amusing, including the two Shakespearian comedy actors, and the mud show featuring
the devil.

Also had a chance to watch men pretend to joust and sword fight.

06/18/01    Rod Stewart concert

Another event in the Pepsi center, another nose bleed seat, and a great concert.  Rod Stewart arrived on stage late, but was a
great performer. Played all of his favorites and kept the crowd entertained

06/21/01    Colorado Rockies baseball vs ????

Free tickets, and a chance to see the Rockies break their losing streak, well one of these turned out true.  Colorado Rockies seem
determined to lose every game we go and watch and many games we don't watch

06/23/01    Hot Air Ballooning

As a special anniversary gift, Alan organized a surprise trip in a hot air balloon

07/14/01    Glenwood Springs

Glenwood springs hosts one of the, if not the worlds biggest outdoor spa.  They have two pools, one at 40 degrees C, and one at 33
degrees C.  The larger of the two is about 600 feet long and a 100 feet wide.

On the way to Glenwood springs, which is located about 2 hours outside of Vail, we stopped off to climb hanging lake.  This is a
very beautiful lake about a mile up a canyon hike.  We started hiking in the rain and when we got to the top, it was sunny.

This trip is worth it, you get to see a beautiful clear lake and a great waterfall

07/19/01    Colorado outdoor Shakespeare festival 'As you like it'

Rather an unusual setting, for 1 month a year, the Colorado Shakespeare festival is held outdoors, in the middle of Colorado University
Rain always threatens, and you get to sit on hard rock for a seat, with a small cushion if you are lucky.

It is a fairly small stage, and the actors are semi-professional, but its worth going to see, if only to hear English spoken correctly

07/20/01    Cheyenne Frontier Days

A chance for Alan to cross Wyoming off his map, and a chance to see three old bands (Kansas, Survivor and Reo Speedwagon) before the rodeo.  Cheyenne is real close to the Colorado boulder, and is the capital of Wyoming.  Friday we got to hear the bands,
Saturday was the parade followed by the rodeo

07/22/01    Boulder Falls

Located just outside of boulder, on highway 119 is a trail which leads to Boulder falls.  This is a place where people regularly fall to their death, it didn't look that dangerous to us

07/26/01    Little shop of horrors play

This was staged in a nissen hut in Boulder, by a bunch of semi- professional actors, sounds bad, but actually it was pretty good,
Play is very funny, worth going to see

07/28/01    Area One Festival featuring Moby

A chance to go to the Mile High Stadium, before they pull it down, this was a show featuring several acts, the one Alan especially wanted to see New Order didn't play, but we did get to see Moby, roots, outkast, ???,???

07/30/01    Eric Clapton concert

I thought we had bad seats before in the Pepsi center were bad, but these were worse.  The first concert we had been too, where we were backstage, only problem was we were three stories high.

A great show however, Clapton started in Acoustic mode, then moved to rock and blues.  Great backing band full of stars !!

08/04/01    Colorado Rapids soccer versus Chicago Fire

Colorado Rapids soccer team are languishing at the bottom of the table, and were playing Chicago Fire who were at the top.
So we were expecting Colorado to lose, but surprise, surprise Colorado scored within the first five minutes,  and it wasn't until 5 minutes before the break that Chicago equalized.  The second half didn't see any more goals, so it was into overtime.
An American invention I am sure to make the event last longer than 2 hours !!!