Epic Thanksgiving Adventure Trip!

Ok, I took pictures this time!! They are all from my crappy camera phone, but you'll get the idea.

Friday the 19th Caley picked me up from work, and we headed south to the airport! Best way to leave town, didn't even stop by the house for a last minute pick up or anything! The trip was very smooth, we both "won" at the security line (no pat downs) and the flight was uneventful. All we had to do was wait for dear Emily to pick us up!

Caley waiting...


That night, Kelly came over for dinner and it was a grand Fort Collins reunion! Next day we headed to the coast for a gorgeous hike through the muddy woods to an overlook of the ocean. Gorgeous day, it was even sunny part of the time!

Caley at the beach


The hike was followed by a delicous picnic in the car, care of the always prepared Emily! Oh man was I ever glad to eat some lunch :)



The rest of our time in Portland was spent hanging out, eating delicious food. Case in point:

The food carts


And the best pizza place I've ever been to!!! We saw it on Anthony Bourdain, and had to check it out. The more than an hour wait was totally worth it!


Soon our time in Portland came to an end, and we headed out on the bus to Salem and family!

Our first bus ride!

There was a crazy guy up front who kept yelling out innappropriate comments...very entertaining!

Aunt Erins new house in Portland is super nice! And it was wonderful to hang out with most of the cousins...only my dear sister was missing, and we missed her terribly :(
The day after Turkey day was a blast! Caley missed out because he caught a flight home to prevent premature death-by-stress with all of his homework and work work. This time of year is really busy at VeloNews. But anyway, the rest of us ventured off into the countryside to taste some wine and visit an olive orchard! We went the long way and took a ferry across the river! The water was really high and it made me a little nervous, but we all made it safely across, whew!

View from our car


And the view from the other side watching Uncle Kevin's car


Jesse at the Methven winery tasting room!



After Methven, we made our way through the twisty and winding hills of Oregon wine country to the most charming inn/herb shop/garden shop/olive orchard I've ever been to (and the only one...). It was incredible! The views were fantastic, and the olive oil was delicious. Aunt Erin and I agree, this would be the perfect place to get married. They have a huge trellis thing in their garden that is covered with flowers in the summer.

Views



The olive press


This beautiful day ended with some coffee and dessert in Portland with Kylie and her friend, and Martha and Lloyd, who just happened to be in town visiting Martha's family for turkey day. Small world.

Uncle Kevin, Meara, and I headed out the next day for the long haul home. Part way through the Columbia River Gorge (which thankfully wasn't as icy as everyone was saying...) was Multonomah Falls. It was breathtaking in the mist, and everything was covered in ice.




We dropped Meara off in Missoula after a tasty Thai dinner, and headed out for Fort Collins. Uncle Kevin was a champ and drove through some really bad snowy and limited visibility conditions late at night. I did quite a bit of the drive myself, but had dry roads, much less stressful. Also, I stopped taking pictures, it was dark, and I was driving or sleeping.

We made it home around 10:30am the next day. Brutal drive. I hope to never do it again.

So that was Thanksgiving break! I didn't post pics of the meal because Caley has a whole album on facebook. You might be able to see it if you paste in this link http://www.facebook.com/caley.fretz?ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=2442845&id=19226249 but I'm not sure what his security settings are.

It was an awesome trip, I'm so glad we went! I think it was really special for Aunt Erin to have us all out there this year.

-Megan

USGP Weekend Recap!

This past weekend, the USGP (U.S. Grand Prix) of cyclocross was held in Fort Collins!!! The weekend turned out to be sooo much fun.

We started things off Friday night with the rider presentations a the Rio Grande restaurant downtown. This is where they introduce all the "famous" people. Teal was there, and she was one of the famous people being introduced! We talked about it later and how it's kind of funny how cyclists are only really famous among other cyclists. So they can be a rockstar at the race weekends, but then during the rest of the week, or on the off season, nobody knows who they are or what they do, it's not like the have to deal with paparazzi (unless you're Lance of course). We both found it amusing. I am super excited for all the success she has been having lately! It's highly amusing to think about how we have been rivals all along growing up in sports (although she was aways just out of my reach...) and now she's in the big leagues! So cool!
It snowed some on Friday, and Saturday was FREEZING!!!! I had a great time spectating and cheering. I have a "technology" assignment for a class due on Tuesday, so I was video taping some of the races to get some footage for my project. I think I'm going to do something about muscles...maybe zoom in on all the cyclists gluteus maximus' for effect or something :) Caley drew kind of a bad start, 56, and ended up finishing a few places ahead of that! Whoo hoo!
Sunday I was at the venue allll daaaaaay looooonnng. My volunteer shift was from 11:30-4:30, but I had to go in early with Caley because he was in the pit for Brian, and I wouldn't have had a ride over later. Anyway, it was another cold day, and suuuuper slippery in the morning, people were crashing all over the place :) My volunteer job was to fix the tape marking the course, it was pretty fun. I just had to walk around, cheer, and fix tape :) Caley drew a much better number, 36, and ended up in the 40's somewhere, but he didn't get pulled until two laps to go, vs three laps to go on Saturday!
All in all, a GREAT weekend!! What an amazing group of super nice people!!

Oh, I forgot, we also went out to dinner with some industry people on Saturday night. It was a blast! Of course there was lots of bike talk, but the conversation never really lulled (is that a word?) and we made some new friends/connections. I had a great time talking with the guy named Peyton who works in the entertainment industry in LA. He was really nice, and we had a great time. The next day we were chatting at the race course, and I come to find out his "entertainment job" is the lighting director for Greys Anatomy! Whoa! Go figure, a cyclocross superfan who works for Greys Anatomy! :) I love meeting random people like that :) I'm also really glad Caley includes me in his work life. I was definitely the hanger-on at the dinner of industry mucky-mucks, but nobody seemed to mind, and now I'll know who Caley is talking about when he mentions the "sales guy for SRAM, etc, etc.

Then I came home and did 4 geology lab and 1 geology exam. Go me!

For real, pics coming sometime...maybe not in the near future, but sometime :)

Goodbye Fall?

Snow in the forecast for tomorrow, although I'm pretty skeptical, we shall see. It was 85 on Saturday down in Boulder, I got quite the sunburn watching Caley race and working the pit for him. In cyclocross racing, you can have an extra bike in what is called the "pit" usually located at the middle point of the loop, and accessible from the outgoing side of the loop, and the incoming side of the loop (if that makes any sense at all). Racers can enter the pit from either direction, and swap out bikes. They may choose to do this for several reasons: too much mud and goo, flat tire, lost brakes, mental issues, etc. The pit crew can then change the flat, clean the goo, or pretend to do something to calm the racers mental issues. The racer can then come back to the pit on the next go around and get their original bike. They can do this as many times as they like. The pit is a crazy place, luckily Caley didn't need any flat tires changed, he would have been out of luck with my skills :) This past weekend, I also had the pleasure of working an 11 hr day in the lab. I got to switch labs a couple of times, but it was pretty horrendous, never again!

The next couple of weeks before Thanksgiving break are going to be pretty hectic. I am teaching another lesson on Thursday after completing a take home exam on Wednesday, then I'm giving a partner presentation on a "unit plan" the following Wednesday (the unit plan we still have to finish...) This coming weekend, I have 4 labs due in Geology, plus an exam and some discussion posting online. The USGP is here as well, and I'm volunteering on Sunday! Good grief... But! Then I get to hop on a jet plane taking me to the Pacific Northwest to see some excellent friends and family and eat some delicious food! Soooo excited!!

I do promise I'll put a montage of photos up here at some point soon, or maybe a link to a picasa album or something...I figured out how to do that the other day, neato :)

Fall Friday

It's raining. I wish it was snowing.


The past couple of weeks have been super busy! We drove 18hrs out to CA for mtn bike nationals, placed 6th as a team, had one nationals champion, fineagled our way into the banquet for the 6th year running (at least), imbibed a large amount of "juice" and then drove 16 hrs home to Fort Collins. I taught a lesson the next day, and we have yet to catch up on laundry :)

Mountain bike nats, as you might have guessed already, was an incredible time! We had such a great group of people and even the downhillers were respectful and responsible! My races were ok, not great and not terrible, so it was a bit of a let down, but I'll take it.

Up for this weekend: Veloswap, homework, and work.

I Got a Raise

It's true, $0.25 raise effective for my next paycheck I think :) I don't believe I have ever gotten a raise...no wait, when I worked at the climbing wall I got a raise...but my first since high school! Apparently it's an unusual situation where they are trying to remain competitive with other computer labs on campus, and I've been doing a good job and will only be here through the spring, but in any case, I'll take it!
Me in the computer lab...

In other news, WE'RE GOING TO PORTLAND FOR THANKSGIVING!!!! I'm bummed that the East Coast trip didn't work out, but it was waaaaay too expensive for us to afford, and to ask Caley's parents to fly us both out there would have been asking quite a lot. So, hopefully we can both get back at some point soon, but if not, Caley will definitely be going back sometime over the winter. While in Portland, I expect Emily and Brendan and Kelly to show us an amazing time and take us to all their favorite places, and I expect to eat lots of amazing food and have some quality time with most of my Dad's side of the family! Sadly, the parents can't make it, but we'll see them over Christmas this year! Also sadly, the sister can't make it; I looked up tickets from her godforsaken icy wasteland of a town, and the cheapest is something like $830....whoa.

I hope to have news to share about Caley's position at VeloNews soon! The last time he talked with his boss, the plan was to negotiate a more permanent employment situation after they got back from Interbike....so they're back, and now they're going to talk! I'm excited and nervous for him! They say women are often paid less because they are less assertive in negotiations for salary, well, I believe it! I don't think I would have even the remotest idea of where to start. I guess you learn the more you're involved in the industry or whatever, but still...scary.

I'm excited for mtn bike Nationals!!!! We've had such a great group of people this season, I wish we could bring everyone that's been racing every weekend. I think we've convinced the other two girls to go though! Yay!!!!!! I won't be the only one among 12 stinky boys :) Plus, Jourdan is super fast, it's going to be my goal to stick with her on the xc race, good to have inter-team competition!! We went for a stellar team ride the other night after a delicious bbq at Roger's parent's house, a much more fitting end to the season than the Winter Park weekend was.



Ok, I should go do some homework...ciao!

Monthly Post

The rate of my posting seems directly correlated with the amount of busy-ness in my life; the busier things get, the less I blog, which makes sense, but means there is always so much to catch up on when I finally get around to it!

Let us see...after Caley and I got back from Ogunquit....we had about two more beautiful weeks of summer before jumping into school. Caley finished up his internship with VeloNews, and as I'm sure you all know by now, got hired part time for the Fall semester!! He recently went to Interbike in Las Vegas, the largest bike expo in North America (I think...) and had quite the experience. He was so busy I was lucky to get a 10 minute chat out of him each day, but on the night of CrossVegas, the cyclo-cross race hosted at Interbike, I got to see him on the live streaming video from cyclingdirt.com. It was soooo cool! I felt like we were hanging out :) At one point he was lying down on the side of the course shooting photos, and I yelled at him to get out of the way before his head got run over!

School has been going really well, I've done well on all my assignments, and I'm enjoying being in the classroom at TVHS. My match-up teacher is trying a more inquiry based apporach this year for the first time in 20+years of teaching, very cool! It's a learning experience for both of us, and I wish I was there more than just 2 days a week, I think this would be a very unique opportunity to really collaborate with him and share the techniques I've been learning in my Methods class. Unfortunately work prevents me from going down more on my own, but it makes me even more excited for next semester student teaching!

The mountain bike series is screaming to an end, and I'm sad! Racing and traveling with the team has been so much fun this season! I feel like we've barely started, adn with only 4 weekends of racing this year, it's kind of true :( We leave for Nationals on Oct. 13th, and race that Friday and Saturday. We have two other girls who could go this year, but both of them have really heavy school loads. The team is trying everything to get them to go, and I hope they do!!! It's so nice to be on good terms with the team, all the drama of last season seems like a long time ago (thankfully!).

Some recent photos are coming soon, I promise!!

Catch-up

Yet again, I haven't posted in forever and there is a ton to catch up on!

At the very tail end of July, and the beginning of Aug. Caley and I took our annual summer excursion. We started out at Winter Park for another mtn bike race. I didn't get last, barely, and Caley had fun riding around cheering on his teammates. Then, we packed up the bikes and headed down to Durango to visit my family and go to a Michael Franti concert!!! Here are some photos...at one point, he came out into the crowd and was so close I could have touched him! WOW!!!!





The next day we packed up and headed to DIA for a red eye flight to Maine. A week on the beach was just what the doctor ordered! Lobsters, sun, sand, waves, grilled cheese from the beach shack, tide pool exploring along the Marginal Way, wine on the dock, I could go on and on and on about the magic of Ogunquit. A few pics for your enjoyment!

(coming soon, just have to grab them from Caley)

Back home again, Caley and I celebrated our third anniversary, started school, I had my birthday yesterday, and Caley got officially hired with VeloNews! August has definitely been a go go go month for us.

We rode the tandem out for some delicious Asian food at Taipan


So far school has been good, I haven't had a whole lot to do which is kind of weird. I'm also taking an online geology course. I hope I can keep on top of it. In my new job as a computer lab attendent I'll be spending at least 14 hrs a week on the computer, so it should be too much of a problem...

Oh, and, today I got a haircut!! I like it, even with all the goo they put in there that I never will :)