Colorado

Boulder, Colorado

animalia7 Colorado Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Welcome to Boulder, Colorado!

Boulder, Colorado is a mix of all sorts of things, but most of them have to do with being outside. This is a town where one can buy oxygen*, grass (wheatgrass or marijuana), and water at exorbitant prices, but can also be immersed in all three for free in any of the more than 40,000 acres of protected green space in and around the city.

Perhaps the most iconic symbol of Boulder is the image of the Flatirons, rock formations located just west of town. Named by pioneer women who thought they looked like irons (not especially creative, but an apt description), they are conveniently located a few minutes from downtown. The Third Flatiron stands 1,400 feet tall, and was first climbed by Floyd and Earl Millard in 1906, the earliest recorded rock climb in Colorado. Since then it has been climbed thousands of times in a number of fashions, including by two men wearing roller skates, by only the light of the full moon, and naked.

The Flatirons

The Flatirons

Boulderites like to play hard. The city hosts a “robust biking culture,” and many take advantage of the roughly 300 miles of bike lanes and paths, which are used year-round. On an average day, city employees counted 3,574 bikes in the downtown area. About 15% of the city’s annual transportation budget goes towards bike programs, and about 10% of all work commutes are made by bike, almost 20 times the national average.

The first people to live in the Boulder area were Native Americans of the Arapahoe tribe. Then in 1859 came the white men and the Boulder City Town Company, who divvied up the land into parcels and sold them for $1,000 per lot, later lowered to attract more buyers. The Territory of Colorado itself wouldn’t be established for two more years. Prior to 1861 Boulder was part of the Territory of Nebraska, which probably has nothing to do with the University of Colorado Boulder Buffaloes / University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football rivalry. The University of Colorado has been up and running in Boulder since 1877, and today hosts about 30,000 students.

The University of Colorado Boulder campus

The University of Colorado Boulder campus

Without Pearl Harbor, Boulder might not have grown into the town it is today. During WWII, the US Navy located its Japanese school at UC Boulder, which brought people from all over the country to the area. After the war, many of them came back, increasing the population by about 10,000. The 300 days of sun a year probably had something to do with it. Today, the population is just under 100,000.

According to a mile-high list of publications, Boulder is an ideal place to live if you are: a woman executive, innovative, a biker, happy, a foodie, well-read, an in-shape baby-boomer, educated, brainy, raising an outdoor kid, an artist, someone who works for a technology start-up, part of a LGBT family, or someone who likes trees, among other things. Says one local, “I love Boulder, sure there are a lot of people who are weird as shit (last night I had a 50 something hippy tell me she could teach me yoga while having sex with my girlfriend) but that’s half the fun of living here.”

Frosty Flatirons

Frosty Flatirons

References:

10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Third Flatiron. By Amanda Fox, Climbing Magazine. http://www.climbing.com/climber/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-third-flatiron

The Best Bike Cities in North America: Boulder, Colorado. By Sarah Ripplinger, Outside Magazine. http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/The-Best-Bike-Cities-in-North-America-Boulder-Colorado.html

The Best Cities to Raise an Outdoor Kid: The Winning 25. By Jason Stevenson, Backpacker Magazine. http://www.backpacker.com/august_09_the_best_cities_to_raise_an_outdoor_kid/articles/13125

Boulder, Colorado: The City Everyone Loves to Love/Hate. By Ryan Krogh, Outside Magazine: http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/best-towns/Boulder-Colorado.html

Boulder, Colorado USA (Boulder Conventions & Visitors Bureau): http://www.bouldercoloradousa.com/

*Boulder’s Tonic Oxygen Bar goes ‘herban.’ By Alicia Wallace, The Daily Camera. http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-business/ci_13248260

City of Boulder, Colorado Homepage: http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/

The Gore-Tex Vortex. By Marc Peruzzi, Outside Magazine.  http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/colorado/boulder/The-Gore-Tex-Vortex.html

Mountain Project Boulder page, submitted by John McNamee: http://www.mountainproject.com/v/boulder/105801420

Oxygen bar’s clients are encouraged to inhale. By Barbara Hey, Denver Post. http://extras.denverpost.com/life/oxygenbar0328.htm

Wikipedia: Boulder, Colorado. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder,_Colorado

Wikipedia: Colorado-Nebraska football rivalry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado%E2%80%93Nebraska_football_rivalry

Picture Attributes: 

Boulder postcard: http://www.yoganonymous.com/

CU Boulder campus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CU_boulder_campus.jpg

Flatirons images courtesy of the author

Lauren Life Update

animalia7 Colorado Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Currently, my life is like this:

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The Flatirons, just a short walk up the street from the house!

 

I am now living in Boulder, Colorado, in the basement of my good friend’s family. In exchange for room and board, I help out around the house, drive the little sisters all over the greater Boulder area, and help take care of the dogs. My friend and his mom are currently in Antarctica,  so my nanny/dog walker/chauffeur/entertainment buddy/dish washer services should be in less demand once they return.

 

Max Wilderness

Max on a boat in Antarctica, looking chill.

 

Side note: To read about Max’s adventures, check out the blog on his photography website: Max Wilderness. He’s got some neat pictures up from his most recent adventures in Patagonia and Antarctica.

 

 

 

 

Boulder Colorado

Buddy, one of my furry charges. He’s not nearly as innocent as he looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When not driving Mikayla and Ashley to and from school and/or swimming lessons and/or doctor appointments/massages/yoga, I spend my days working on an online travel writing class, which is offered through MatadorU. They have a website full of many wonderfully written articles and pictures on all sorts of topics, from more traditional travel fare to pieces on social issues to food to interviews. There’s something for everyone there, and I have spent many an hour exploring the site when I meant to be working. Counts as research, right?

Check it out here: Matador Network

Matador Network
 

I am also now an editorial intern with Outdoor Minded Mag, an online magazine based here in Boulder. Or, I should say, that’s where Lauren (the editor) lives and works, so that’s where it’s based at the moment. She’s a very awesome person, and yesterday we spent hours holed up together in a coffee shop working on laying out some articles. It was a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to working with her. She recently skateboarded from Boulder to Denver, and wrote about it on the site (check it out through the link below). The website launched 6 months ago, so we’re still getting things put together, but I see the magazine heading in a great direction and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Check it out here: Outdoor Minded Mag

Outdoor Minded Mag

 

I’ve been climbing whenever I can, which isn’t quite as often as I would like. Wednesday I met up with a friend and we climbed for around 4 hours straight. My arms were so tired I could barely make it up a 5.8 by the end of the session. Climbing routes are rated by difficulty, the most difficult being a 5.15, the easiest being a 5.0. I usually climb 5.10’s, and some easier 11’s. 5.8’s are easy, beginner routes, that I normally do as warm-ups.

This site explains the rating system much better than I can:  Rock Climbing Ratings

Rock Climbing Utah

Climbing Castleton Tower in Utah, 2011. That’s Max’s foot, I’m climbing.

I’m hoping to break out my poor downhill skis, which have been languishing in the basement for the past two years, and ski on some real mountains, and in some real snow! Last time I skied was in Ohio, and I’m not sure that counts (and yes, there are places to ski in Ohio, I’ve been to three of the five “resorts”. Didn’t realize there were that many, I just looked it up). Although that one snowboarder who was in the Winter Olympics, Louie Vito, is from Ohio. Columbus, Ohio, which is about as flat as it gets.

I have a few leads for paying jobs, since climbing gym memberships, lift tickets, and gas are a bit pricey. I’ll keep you updated.

That’s all for now, folks!

Colorado Aspens

Aspens in the snow.

Penguins with Mikayla

animalia7 Colorado Tags: , , 3 Comments

The other day Mikayla, one of my honorary little sisters, and I decided to make penguins out of Sculpey clay. For some reason I was telling her about how I used to make these for all my friends in high school, and she decided we needed to go out to Michael’s RIGHT NOW and make them. So we went, and did, and it was just as much fun as I remembered.

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Skier, snowboarder, penguin on sled, three penguins in winter hats

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Nurse Vav, ballerina, yoga Ashley, and push-up Will.

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Bouldering penguins

We made: a skier, a snowboarder, a sledder, a nurse, a ballerina, two snorkelers, two rock climbers (boulderers actually, since they only have chalk bags), a yoga-er in mountain pose on a mat (complete with bolster), a penguin doing push-ups, a penguin listening to an iPod (complete with Beats headphones, which Mikayla currently covets), a Bronco’s player throwing a football, three penguins in a variety of winter hats, a couple walking two dogs (modeled off Chip and Buddy, the Seigal family dogs), and a couple renewing their wedding vows (anniversary presents for Mr. and Mrs. Seigal, their wedding anniversary is on Feb. 14th).

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Note the heart tattoo on Mr. Top-Hat, that’s Mikayla’s touch.

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Walking Buddy and Chip, complete with tangled leashes.

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Ipod-listening penguin

Can you spot them all?

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Pair of snorkeling penguins

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Staging of all the penguins. Apparently being a nurse means you can marry people… or penguins.

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Denver Broncos. This was all Mikayla.

Mikayla decided I need to change my name to Lauren Smith-Seigal (or possibly Smeigal), since I now live in their house. She also doesn’t understand why I am looking for a job, or why I wouldn’t want to live here in their house with them forever. You should have heard the fuss when I told her I was applying for a field job up in Estes Park for the summer, you’d think I was going to Antarctica and never coming back.

I told her I’ll live here for the rest of my life as long as she wipes my butt when I get old, and she promptly replied that Ashley (her older sister) would take care of that. I should probably add that Mikayla is 11, and Ashley is 15.

Good to know that I’ve got my future taken care of.

Don’t go back to sleep

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I found this poem on the wall of the Denver Airport, just outside baggage claim, while I was on my way out after dropping off my sister for her flight back to Ohio. I stood there and read it twice through, the black letters stuck on the plain white wall, with people collecting their bags and waiting and moving all around me.

It’s a poem by the 13th century Persian Muslim poet named Rumi, who was also a jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic (according to Wikipedia). I find it particularly meaningful at this moment in life, and I think it’s a wonderful way to exit into whatever awaits you in the world outside the airport.

light through the clouds

Walker Ranch Loop, Colorado, 2013.

 

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.

~Rumi

 

pine by waterfall

Walker Ranch Loop, Colorado, 2013.

 

And, clearly, this poem is about hobbits, and is pretty much the entire plot line for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

“People are going back and forth across the doorsill where two worlds touch/ The door is round and open”– Obviously, this refers to when the dwarfs come to Bilbo’s hobbit hole to begin their quest.

“You must ask for what you really want”– when Thorin Oakenshield is reluctant to ask Elrond to read his map. Also when Bilbo finally comes to his senses and asks to come along with the dwarfs.

“Don’t go back to sleep”– telling Bilbo to sign the contract and go with the dwarfs and not to just stay asleep in his safe, cozy, boring hobbit hole. Movie quote: Bilbo- “I just need to sit quietly for a moment.” Gandalf- “You’ve been sitting quietly for far too long!”  Also could be a reference to when the dwarfs are sleeping in the mountains and are captured by the goblins.

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you”– sounds like something Gandalf would say. Something he actually does say: “Home is now behind you. The world is ahead.”

 

I saw the new Hobbit movie with my brother and sister just before I came out to Boulder, which is why I’ve hobbits on the brain. And on that note I think Radagast’s sled is awesome. I would totally put up with birds nesting in my hair and pooping down my face if it meant I had a sweet sled pulled by giant rabbits. As long as the birds weren’t American Robins, or turd birds as we call them (their scientific name is Turdis migratorius, hence turd, from Turdis). Those things are gross, and they make a huge runny mess all over the place when you’re trying to band them. Wrens would be ok, or a small family of warblers, or hummingbirds. Those are all cuter, smaller, and seem neater.

 

squirrel on flagstaff

Walker Ranch Loop, Colorado 2013.

 

I now suggest a listen to “Into the West,” sung by Annie Lennox, from the soundtrack of The Return of the King. I find it fits quite well with this poem, and is a very lovely song. One of my favorites, along with “Concerning Hobbits” on the soundtrack for The Fellowship of the Ring. Howard Shore is brilliant, and the soundtracks make excellent work/study music.