A new way of life...

Picture courtesy of Ross and Beth

It’s the start of a new way of life for Reinhart and me, one that does not include owning a sailboat. Maia is in the hands of new owners who plan to sail her to the Bahamas this winter and head on to more exotic locations year after year. We were expecting to be quite sad about the sale; however, the new owners are so amiable and have such great plans, we can’t feel anything but pleased.

Reinhart is having a great time at work and he joins some friends for bouldering at lunch a couple times a week. We live just a couple of miles from his office, so there’s a lot of time for outdoor activities rather than commuting. We’ve just managed to get the bikes out and have started checking out the amazing network of paved trails in our area. We haven’t really gotten a chance to do any mountain biking yet, but that is certainly a plan. We have done some hiking in the nearby front range; the mountains are just gorgeous and we really look forward to spending a lot of time there. We were hiking in the front range on Sunday and the temps were in the mid 80s. Ross and Beth were hiking a bit higher up and ran into the guy pictured above (bound for one of those distant patches of snow); he gets in at least one day of skiing every month. Oh, and just to keep the blog on-track, we found a great ice cream shop in Golden after our hike.

I’ve been spending these last 2 weeks setting up our place; I had forgotten how time consuming unpacking is. We are all set up and ready for guests now. I also volunteered at the Democratic National Convention! That was an absolute blast; most of the time I was giving out maps and directions in the tourist district, far away from the convention itself, but certainly in the midst of the insanity. I didn’t get to attend the Thursday night speech, but I did set up tables and chairs in the stadium a couple of days before. I’ve also done a couple of phone screening interviews with Raytheon, hoping to get a job on The Ice for the winter. I’m fairly sure I will not be getting a position there this season, and I am pretty sad about that; however, Reinhart’s position is pretty flexible, so he does not have to spend the entire season down there if he doesn’t want to. Now that we are completely moved-in and the DNC has left time, it’s about time I get to looking for a job in earnest.

Weather-wise, our days have been super dry in the upper 80s & lower 90s with our nights quickly cooling down to the upper 50s & lower 60s; the townhouse gets so cool overnight we don’t usually need to turn on the AC during the day. Now that Labor Day is past we woke up to 47 degrees this morning! A cold front has come in and will be keeping our highs in the 70s this week. Ski-wise, we bought our season’s passes, the Colorado Pass, which gives us unlimited access to Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin with 10 limited days at Vail and Beaver Creek. This pass also includes 6 discounted tickets for friends. If we both end up going to Antarctica this year, we should still get our money’s worth out the pass with spring skiing…and if I don’t end up working in Antarctica, we should definitely get a lot of skiing in.

I’ve said we are completely moved in, but that’s not completely true as I have not found the cable for downloading pictures yet! Once I’ve found that, I’ll upload some photos of our new place. Keep in touch!