Man-cation 2009

Fly fishing in Colorado 2009

2009-10-08T18:10:00.002-06:00

We had a great time of fly fishing today. We left around 7:00 a.m. and got to the river where we would be fishing for the day around 9:45 a.m. We got dressed in a cute wadders and headed for the river. It was really quite cold, 24 degrees with the wind blowing but luckily the area we would be fishing in was in a valley so the wind was not to bad. Our training from the night before helped us some and Ken caught a fish almost within the first few minutes. We split up with our 2 guides Chris and Steve who were very good and very patient with all of us. Over the next 4 hours we caught 30 trout, of course we released all of them so they could be with their families. It was really fun and also quite an experienced that we all enjoyed, for most of us maybe the best experience we have had in a while (this has nothing to do with our wives or families they are still the BEST EVER). It also snowed on us for a while which was cool and we are expecting maybe 1-2 inches tonight in CS.

Here are some pictures of our adventure today. I am sorry to say that there are none with us actually fishing but we did.

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnacrews1/ManCationFlyFishing2009

Alan and Ken will be making a hike tomorrow if there is not to much snow, the rest of us will be staying inside and recouping and staying warm.

Wednesday Air Force Academy tour

2009-10-07T22:16:00.003-06:00

Today we had the opportunity to have a visit to the Air Force Academy with a special friend, Dave Gaw, who had authorization to walk around the campus where most people can not go. Dave was graduate of the Academy back in 1970 and gave us some really interesting information on the inter working of the academy. We asked lots of questions and he gave us lots of great answers. Sometimes the answer was... we did not do that when I was here. We did get to see the beautiful chapel, the huge dinning room for 4,000 cadets, the athletic areas for the teams and intramural sports, classrooms, etc. It was a really special time and we felt special that we were walking around the cadets while most visitors were only seeing a few things. We were treated special. For lunch we headed over to 5 Guys Burgers... need I say more... this lead to a time of going back to the Imrie's and resting our bodies and hoping all of the burgers and fries would settle quickly. We had great discussions today but not much of the world problems were actually solved, but it is always fun to talk about them.... maybe tomorrow they will be solved, we will let you know if anything worth sharing. Tonight we went to training for our fly fishing adventure tomorrow. We are excited about this but the weather is expected to turn a bit chilly, high of 42 with 60% chance of rain and snow, 10-20 mph winds but we are ready to tackle the elements..nothing will stop the Man-cation boys. We are ready for the elements and the trout better be ready as well, although we will probably just let them go back into the water...oh of course it is the law. Hopefully we will catch some.

More later: pictures of today

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnacrews1/ManCationAirForceAcademyTour

Tuesday Jeep adventures in the mountains

2009-10-07T22:06:00.002-06:00

Tuesday was a day of driving adventures. We started off early in the morning leaving Colorado Springs in bad weather and worried about what we would run into once we reached the mountains in Salida, CO. But it did not take long before the sun was out and the skies were clear. Once we reached Salida we had to stop at MacDonalds and have some breakfast and coffee. It was cold we clear blue skies. We got our 2 jeeps and the owner gave us directions on what would be the best routes for us inexperienced adventures. He lead us straight and we had a great time of traveling about 100 miles in 7 1/2 hours up gravel and large rock roads. We had a great time with lots of laughs along the way. The scenery was incredible as you can see by the pictures I have attached in the link below. The Aspens were not as full as we had hoped but a big wind of 85 mph had brown through the area last week and many of the leaves were no more. We made it back home after stopping in Canyon City (where the Royal Gorge is located) at the village in and had nice dinner and Mr Rice bought us all a very large piece of their famous pies. They were sure good, the only problem I still had another hour to drive home. We were all tired and ready for bed.

Overall we had a great time. See the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnacrews1/ManCationTuesday2009

2009-10-05T22:17:00.001-06:00

The last stop today was to drop by the Broadmoor Hotel for a little coffee and drinks and just enjoying the beautiful weather.

2009-10-05T22:11:00.001-06:00

Alan checking out the dip that he made tonight, it was good along with the wonderful dinner he made for us. Thanks Alan.

2009-10-05T22:09:00.001-06:00

Ken and Alan checking out the maps on the route that they want to hike on Friday. Sam came over tonight to give them some advice.

2009-10-05T22:05:00.000-06:00

This is a waterfall we came across.

2009-10-05T22:03:00.000-06:00

Some of the Aspen trees turning

2009-10-05T22:01:00.000-06:00

Monday afternnon

2009-10-05T21:52:00.000-06:00

After lunch we drove up the Gold Camp Road and looked around, great scenery it was a dirt road and we traveled through 2 tunnels. This was an old route for the railroad.

Alan takes a look around the area.

Monday on Colorado Springs

2009-10-05T21:38:00.000-06:00

Well after a good night sleep we awoke ready for a great breakfast and then some time in the Springs. We went to Garden of the Gods looked at those crazy rocks and then went to the big rock that is balancing on some little rocks. Pretty cool place except we arrived at the same time as a tour bus with 50 old folks, boy we could barely get around several of the tourists almost got run over by cars, I guess they did not realize that they could not walk down the middle of the road.

We then drove around CS and looked at some other places, too many to explain here and basically I don't recall where we went.

Anyway we then went to Young Life world headquarters and met with Joe Walters and he gave us a nice tour of everything. We then went to lunch and had a nice meal (Mexican way to many bean burritos even for us guys).

Sunday arrival in Colorado

2009-10-05T21:27:00.000-06:00

Sunday after John I, Ken, Kem and Alan arrived at the Denver airport, John C picked them up and we traveled to Colorado Springs had some dinner at Chili's and then off to King Soopers for an adventure in male grocery shopping.

We spent around $150.00 for groceries for 3 meals there were a few snacks as well. We guys are good why is there such an issue about spending money at the grocery store these days?