Soxtober!!!

The Red Sox have clinched (at least) the AL Wild Card and are off on the road to defend their 2007 World Series Championship!!

On the same night the Red Sox clinched their ticket to the postseason, they also dealt with the near inevitability that they won't win the American League East as the Rays swept the Orioles in a doubleheader. The only way the 92-65 Red Sox can win the East is if they win their last five games and the 95-62 Rays go 1-4. Because the Rays beat the Red Sox in the head-to-head series, they would win the division if the two teams finish with the same record.
The Red Sox play two games with the Indians and three against the Yankees. The Rays have one more game at Baltimore before playing four games in Detroit.
In other words, barring a miracle, the Red Sox will enter the playoffs as the AL's Wild Card entry, and play the Angels in the Division Series, beginning either Oct. 1 or 2 in Anaheim.

Read more here.

What was Brewing this weekend?

This past weekend, we decided to go on a Brewery Biking Tour through the Denver area. We picked out a few locations and headed out on our bikes. Our first stop was to be the Hops of Cherry Creek Brewery. We biked along the Cherry Creek bike path for about 6.5 miles and found that the brewery was closed. Most likely due to the rising cost of hops around the world (read more about Hops prices here at the Boston Globe). So, instead we stopped by the Cherry Cricket, a popular sports bar in the area and had some food and a pint of some other local Colorado craft brews.

Next, we headed back north on the bike path to Pint's Pub. This is an English brewery that has 12 beers made on location. Two of them are "Live Ales" which are cask conditioned, served at cellar temp, hand pumped instead of CO2 and still have their live yeast cultures in them. I had the Dark Star Ale and Melissa had the Lancer IPA. Tasty!! They also serve some great Crisps. Pint's is also word-known for having the largest selection of Single Malt Whisky outside of Great Britain. Very cool Old English atmosphere. We will be back again to try some of their other brews.

For our third and final stop, we cruised over to the Great Divide Brewery, near Coors Field. Here we tried a few of their craft brews and also took a short tour of their facility. I had the Samurai and Melissa had the sampler and a very dark and heavy Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. They have been in business for 14 years and distribute to almost every state and outside the U.S. as well.

Full of beer and food we peddled back to my place to finish our 15 mile Brewery Biking Tour. Melissa now has 30 breweries visited in Colorado and I have 28 out of about 95.

See my photos of the Brewery Biking Tour.

One a side note, we worked off the beer on Sunday morning with a 5k road running race in Arvada. I ran a 25:30 and got second place in my age group (20-30yrs). Melissa ran a good race finishing at around 30min.

And, I'd like to mention that I am sorely disapointed in the Patriots performance on Sunday. There is no excuse for losing to the worst team in the NFL, even if you don't have Brady. They better bring their defense into San Fransisco in two weeks because they forgot them in the locker room this past Sunday.

Aspen Weekend

This past weekend Melissa and I headed West over Independence Pass to Aspen on Saturday. On the way we stopped for a picnic lunch and explored the ice caves. Then checked out Aspen center and the Aspen Brewery before heading to the Snowmass Balloon Festival. We spent the night at "The Peirson Inn" in Carbondale and woke to a magnificent breakfast of sausage and stuffed french toast made by Chef Karen. Then we headed out to check out the Maroon Bells, the most photographed peaks in any park in the US. After hiking up to the base of the peaks, we fly fished in Maroon Lake and had some great luck. Melissa caught her first trout on a fly rod (named it Fred) and I snagged three others. On our way back to Denver we stopped into the Glenwood Canyon Brewing Company for dinner and a pint.

You can see photos from the trip at the following links:

Jason's Photos

Melissa's Photos

Enjoy!

New England Vacation 2008

Well, it took me a few days to get to this one after coming back from vacation and having a ton to do at work.

Time sure flies when you are having fun. Our nine day vacation went quicker than we wanted, but we were able to do and see just about everything we wanted to. Between Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, we covered a lot of ground and saw many friends and family.

You can see a map of our trip (more than 600 miles) by clicking HERE.
It may take a second to load, so be patient.

You can see photos from the trip at the following links:

Jason's photos

Melissa's photos

Enjoy!

DNC Obama Acceptance Speech

(Click on the headline to see photos from this blog)
Melissa, her friend from work TC and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC. The speech was at the Denver Bronco's Invesco Field, about three miles from my house. The stadium holds 76,000 people and there were upwards of 80,000 there for the event. Many celebrities and media from all around the country.

The line went on forever and it took us about two hours to get in through security. Only one entrance for 80,000 people! The security was similar to what you find at the airport, but with many more police and snipers around the top of the stadium. Our wait was much shorter than it was for many others who stood in lines up to six miles long! Click here to see the route of our line to get inside.

Once inside we found our seats in section 526, but soon were upgraded, thanks to Melissa's connections, and found ourselves in section 135 about 10 rows up from the floor level. Were were behind the news tents for NBC, CBS and ABC, so the view was a bit obstructed, but the atmosphere made up for it.

Click here to see a video of the crowd doing the wave.

We saw Sheryl crow and Stevie Wonder play and heard speeches from Al Gore and Joe Biden. There were celebrities all around on the floor and we saw Martin Luther King III walk by and Samuel L. Jackson was seated just a few rows in front of us.

Click here to see a video of Stevie Wonder.

Then Barack came out to a huge roar. Click here to see a video Barack entering. He is an amazing speaker and goose-bumps came more than once during his talk. Personally, I feel that we need an organizer like him to change this country for the better. As he said, "8 is enough!"

Click here to see a video after the speech ended.

Longs Peak

(Click on headline to see my photos from this post)
On Sunday, August 24, we climbed Longs Peak (14,255 ft). The hike was 15 miles round trip and took us 13.75 hours to complete. We started with five of us (Erich, Wes, Jaimee, Melissa and myself) but Jaimee and Wes had to turn back at the Keyhole due to some altitude sickness.

We camped at the Longs Peak campground on Saturday night. Melissa and I headed over to Lilly Lake on Saturday afternoon to fly fish. I caught a 16 inch Greenback Cutthroat Trout on my fourth cast. It was a beautiful fish.

Our climb started bright and early at 3 a.m. on Sunday. Due to hiking in the dark, I did not get many photos until the sun came up. We watched the sunrise at about mile four, just before the Boulder Field. The Boulder Field is a place where you can camp, prior to making your ascent on the peak, if you want to lug in a 40 pound pack the five miles. From the Boulder Field you can see the Keyhole, where the trail heads through and out to the North West side of the mountain. From this point, there is much more exposure and mostly third class climbing (you need to use your hands to negotiate the trail).

The Trough is one of the harder spots, because there is no noticeable trail and loose rock everywhere. At the top of the Trough you head over a crux and onto a narrow ledge for a while before the Homestretch. The Homestretch leads you up a smooth rock face to the top of Longs Peak.

Once over the top, the peak flattens out into a massive area about the size of two football fields at 14, 255 feet. The views were amazing and the weather was great. Sunny and barely and wind. We enjoyed the peak for a bit and had a quick lunch before heading back down.

The route back is the same as the way we came. However instead of pulling yourself up over all the rocks, you are lowering yourself down and sliding on your rear a bunch. As we came back through the keyhole, we saw the dark clouds heading our way. Erich stopped at one point halfway to the Boulder Field and put on his rain jacket. We joined him, and just in the nick of time. It started to rain and the clouds quickly blew in.

As we got to the campsites at the Boulder Filed, it started to hail and the lighting crashed down all around us. The thunder was so loud that it made you fall to your knees and shook your body. We found shelter with five others and sat out the hail storm for about 20 min. Check out the video of our experience here: Hail Storm Video.

The video only shows the very beginning of the storm. It got worse as the pea sized hail hit our backs and the lightning struck all around. By the time it passed there was about two inches of hail on the ground and covering all of us.

We then headed out to complete the rest of the five miles back to the trail head. Moving as fast as we could we still ran into a few more downpours and a little more hail. Our bodies and feet were aching as we willed our wet bodies down to the car. Our goal was to get to Oskar Blues Brewery and Restaurant as soon as possible to reward ourselves with a pint and burger. Boy did those taste good after that long day!!

Lake Isabelle day hike

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Melissa and I took short hike today. The weather turned out to be more like New England than Colorado!