Colorful Colorado

Last week Doug attended The American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society annual conference  in Keystone, Colorado.  I decided to tag along since I have never been to Colorado.  I knew that I would be spending a lot of time alone while he was at all the lectures, but it was great to not have to worry about making sure this and that was done around the house.  I sat in the condo and caught up on the many blogs that I follow and also caught up on matching my credit card receipts to the statements.  This takes me forever and I don’t know when I will realize that I should just do it when the statement arrives and not put it off.  I had a huge zip lock bag full of receipts that needed to be attached to statements from the beginning of the year.  Can you say procrastinator????

I planned on working out everyday of the trip because for the last month I have been avoiding the gym like the plaque and everything is starting to jiggle.  The first day I decided I would go down to the fitness room and workout while watching The View.  I was on the elliptical for 10 minutes and the room was burning up.  I guess Colorado is like the Pacific Northwest when it comes to air conditioning…when it is only hot enough to have one one week out of the year, it is not necessary to have one at all.  I left the gym and thought that I would just jog outside because it was a beautiful day.  I only ran about 500 yards before I realized why it was so hard and why I was already so out of breath.  The elevation is a killer.  I walked by they river for about 6 miles instead and it was some gorgeous scenery.  I forgot my camera ( so no breathtaking pictures of my scenery), sunglasses, and most important sunscreen!  I guess with higher elevation that means your are closer to the sun (DUH)…so sunscreen was greatly missed.  My shoulders and nose are still recovering…all gross and flaky.

The only super exciting thing that happened on our trip was white water rafting down Clear Creek.  Doug had a half day of classes on Friday and we took advantage of his free time.  This winter there was record setting snowfall in the Rockies and only recently has it been hot enough there to melt.  Not only was the melting snow causing the creek to rise, a bunch of thunderstorms had been passing through as well.  The creek was the highest it has ever been on that particular day of the year.   The rapids were awesome.  Here are a few pics…

 

Our river guide was a Georgia boy named Bryan from Marietta that goes all around the country being a river guide in the summer and a ski instructor in the winter.  I asked Doug what he thought his degree was in and he said, “Fun.”  Wish I had a degree in fun!  Doug and Bryan got to talking and discovered that they played against each other in high school football.  It is such a small world!