What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Financial precarity aside, being one of the founders of a startup has its perks. in my recent case, it means i can fuck off for a few weeks to various locales and not worry about job security. It doesn't hurt that our little company is entirely virtual and I can check in from places far and wide. 

What follows is a journey in (mostly) pictures from a river in Maine to the mountains of Colorado to the Atlantic Ocean white with foam in North Carolina.

I've chronicled my various paddles down the St. Croix River in northeastern Maine before, so I won't bore you with all of the details, but my fifth multi-day canoeing and camping trip with family and friends was top notch once again. Water was a little bit higher than most trips, so we got to run some rapids that had been previously inaccessible (and required portaging, which is less fun than paddling). Saw some eagles, cool ducks, chipmunks, couple of sunrises over our four days and three nights. 

We paddled the stretch between the Vanceboro Dam and the Grand Falls Dam

Smaller crew this time

Little Falls, site of our first night's campsite

Egg Point, last night on the river

Logo of the St. Croix International Waterway Commission 
captured at Loon Bay. Would make a good tattoo.

After a seven-hour delay at Logan, dragged my tired ass into my house at 3:00 am and spent most of the next day napping. Two days later, my wife and I headed out west to help our daughter move into a new place in Boulder, but we took advantage of the occasion to spend a few days in Colorado Springs before shlepping household goods.

I'd been to the Springs once before for a conference on youth sports. Met Jeff Ament and Edwin Moses (shoutout KQ!) at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum, but otherwise didn't get to do too much sightseeing. As an aside, Ament has run a non-profit called Montana Pool Service since 1992. It's dedicated to creating skate parks to connect kids in the state to arts and skateboarding opportunities. 

This time, a lot more opportunity to see, do, eat, and drink. Our AirBnB was almost literally in the shadow of Garden of the Gods, which is a city park fill of spectacular rock formations and meandering hiking trails. These photos really don't do it justice.

This formation is called the Siamese Twins

You can see Pike's Peak off in the distance
through the keyhole in the Twins

Mrs. Rob and I scrambled up a rock,
unaware of the impending danger

We drove up the aforementioned Pike's Peak, all the way to the summit at 14,115 feet. The effects of altitude at that height are no joke - felt like I'd had a few high octane beers in a short span of time. We saw marmot and mountain goats, though we missed out on Bigfoot, despite warning signs that he might be around.

The view from 14k'

We had an opportunity to see the Olympic museum, and had great meals in Old Colorado City. Missed out on a chance to climb the Manitou Incline (2,744 steps, a 2,000 foot altitude gain over 0.9 miles at an average incline of 41%) due to storms. Bummer?

This is the actual scoreboard from the arena in 
Lake Placid used in the 1980 Olympic hockey
tournament

Jimmy Craig's gameworn

Not much worth reporting from Boulder - been there a bunch and shared a lot of photos. Moving out of a third-floor apartment is a young man's game. Thank God my kid is strong like bull. Here's a gratuitous shot of her and her Mom.

Closed out my three-week gallivant with one of the highlights of my year. Much fun, many beers, lots of fresh fish, late nights, cool ocean water, one very ill-advised attempt to paddleboard while drunk (which cost me a pair of sunglasses), and camaraderie that's an absolute blessing. Couple shots of the lads to wrap things up.

2,270 miles of travel, 25 of paddling, nearly three up a mountain over 25 days. 27.5 if you count the time it took to recover. I'd happily do it all again.