So, a few people commented on yesterday’s post. I guess that means you do want me to keep blogging. Since that’s the case, here we go =).

Today was nothing too terribly special for the last day – in the morning we had a tasty breakfast, then went down to a local sports store to see if we could find me some cleats at a superb price. Unfortunately … that didn’t happen, so I guess I’ll be checking on ebay. Anyway, after that we headed out for a brief tour of where my dad works. Since it’s fairly high security we weren’t able to go inside the building or anything, so we didn’t get to see much (and I didn’t take any photos).

Once we got home, the afternoon was basically a hang-out time. Keltie and I figured out our plans for our return, but apart from that not too much happened. I worked on my entry for the 2009 Github contest and took a few photos – the first three (the daytime lightning was definitely a lucky shot).

After supper, dad and I headed back to Garden of the gods to see if we could get some sweet shots. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t co-operating (it was cloudy) so we didn’t get anything too spectacular. Once we got back, though, the sun peaked out of the clouds so I managed to snap a few photos that turned out not too bad =).

Tomorrow we’re off to Twin Falls, Idaho!

Anyway, enough complaining. Today was a pretty straight forward day with not too much happening. I did get to try out my dad’s macro lens, though, which was lots of fun (see the pictures). And, with me being the music fiend I am, we went to Mardel and I bought lots of CDs (the bottom two on the stack were from yesterday at Target). And two t-shirts, which you may only see in person. For those of you who aren’t from the valley, yes, that means you have to come and visit to see them.

We didn’t do too much for the rest of the day, although Keltie punched me lots with the intention of giving me a dead arm. She failed, I’m glad to say =D. I retaliated and she (apparently) has 4 dead arms and a charlie horse in both legs. Besides that, she’d like to report that she had a lovely day as well. She went shopping with mom and bought green chilis along with some stuff from Mardel as well. And that’s about all. Terribly exciting, isn’t it? Oh, apparently she finished a book too, which is nice, isn’t it?

Enough rambling, here’s some pretty pictures to look at! Ah yes, and one of them is a daytime shot of the city to compare with the shots from yesterday at night.

This evening we went next door with the parents for dinner – their neighbour is a second-generation Italian and he cooked up quite a feast so there was great food to be had.

Well, so I lied up above. I just went out and took some pictures of the city at night so that I’d have some visual stimulation for those who dislike reading =P.

P.S. Don’t forget Day 14 below since I missed it earlier!

All in all a fairly vacation-ey day. =)

In any case, I’m getting ahead of myself. Today was our last day in New Castle, CO. We began the day with pictures. However, you heard about that from Keltie’s previous post, so on to the rest of the events from today!

We decided that we’d drive to Colorado Springs via highway 82 which is through Aspen, so that we could say that we’ve actually been through Aspen. Keltie drove the first leg to Aspen, and we took a bit of a break there and poked around. After that, we were on our way to the top! Now, unlike our Canadian highways (and most American highways) the route from Aspen to Twin Lakes is a little crazier. In some places the road narrows and it’s more like a lane and a half rather than two lanes wide, and in other places there aren’t any guard rails because there just wasn’t room to put them anywhere! However, the drive was worth it as the few from the top is breathtaking – probably one of the coolest in America. Like I mentioned previously, we were at an altitude of 12,075 feet, although if you were willing to hike a bit you could probably go up another 1,000 – 1,500 ft to the very top of some of the peaks. We weren’t up to that, though, as the air was thin enough where we were. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, although we did stop in Buena Vista, Colorado for some fantastic subs from a local place. Ah yes, and we actually managed to crash our GPS! It’s a Windows CE based machine, so we’ve had to reset it probably once a day. However, today we actually managed to get the mapping program to throw an exception. When I get a chance I’ll see what kind of errors a GPS program throws.

Seeing my parents was great as we haven’t seen them since last fall at my sister’s wedding – we had a great dinner and enjoyed conversation around the table. I was stoked, though, as during dinner a storm had moved in so after dinner a got a chance to do something that’s really rare back home – take pictures of lightning! It takes both a bit of work and a bit of luck, but I think I got some alright ones for a first try – that’s up to you guys, though (=.

After the family photos, and everyone leaving, we who remained had a nap since the weekend has been quite full. We are just waiting for dinner to finish cooking, and then after dinner Phil and I are going to go bowling once more (we won a bunch of free games last night, so we’re going to go use them up).

Here are some of the many shots from today….

Today was an awesome jam-packed day of fun. We headed up to the Glenwood Caverns for most of the day. To get up you take a tram (gondola) and then once you are up, there is endless activities to do. 1st we hit up the “alpine slide” which is a rollercoaster that goes down the side of the mountain, and the you are towed back up. Next we went on a Cave tour, which was really neat. Following the cave tour we went on the big swing – which shoots you out over the canyon… and I did it…. crazy I know. Then it was lunch time, which is always a good time of day. After lunch the parental units, Uncle Terry and Aunt Sally headed home, and the ‘kids’ stayed up. We went through the maze, and won great prizes (a sheriff badge, and popper), then it was time for the big trampoline, and after some did the big swing once more before heading down.

Once we were back in New Castle we went bowling… Phil and I have never gone 10 pin bowling so it was great to try it. Phil is amazing, I am okay… it was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of laughs.

We got back to the house and we decided to go play wiffle ball, 2 people hit, and then it was Phil’s turn – his 1st hit be broke the ball, which made for a lot of laughs…. and lots of talk about his intensity with whatever he does! We played with the broken ball until dinner time, which worked just fine.

My Aunt Sally made her famous shrimp dinner and it was amazing, and didn’t fail to impress! Post dinner we were talking about doing something with all of us (there are 14) and we decided to go back to the bowling alley for some games. 12 of us played, and it was awesome. Between 9 and 12 its cosmic bowling, so that in itself was fun. There was a lot of competition going on too. Phil and my Uncle Terry were neck and neck in both games – but my Uncle pulled forward each time. Phil’s awesome though — it shows your speed and he was throwing it 20mph.. FAST!!!

Now we are home, and quite tired – between the sunshine and busy activities we are all pretty wiped. So, goodnight world!

This afternoon Keltie and I went down to the river (the Colorado river) and hung out for a bit – the water’s über cold and the current’s pretty strong so we just waded to about our knees – nothing too terribly exciting.

After all the excitement this day, who’d think it could get better? Well, it did. This evening we were off to the Carbondale mountain fair where we hung out, ate way too much junk food, listened to some blues/country and got some cool stuff (I got a print from a photographer from China, click here and don’t mind the awful site to see some of his work).

Anyway, I think that’s all for this evening, so now on to the pictures …

This is the 1st meeting for Phil and the family, so that’s been good. My other uncle and aunt will arrive tomorrow, and then everyone is here… EXCEPT Shannon who wasn’t able to make it… man I’m going to miss having the big seester around, it’s weird.

For the weekend its set up that the kids are all out in the guest house – but tonight Phil and I opted to bring the beds to the main house living room so we could get some rest, since everyone else was wanting to stay up.

So here we are, tired, and ready for bed. A better post with photos tomorrow!!!

Phil out.