Colorado Rocky Mountains
We got back a few days ago and are still catching up on things work-wise and home-wise. However, I was eager to get to our photos as I was pretty happy with a number of them. I'll scatter them through this roundup of what happened.
Our trip to Denver was a rather up and down affair in its first day. Everything went smoothly with our departure. We left late enough in the day that I was able to see some of the morning World Cup games and then got to catch up on news on the plane itself thanks to some free TV.
I had only seen part of Uruguay and Italy and missed the now much talked about biting incident since I was switching back and forth between that and the match with Japan and Colombia. But I completely agree with the ESPN announcer who said he should be ejected from professional soccer entirely. Maybe if it was the first time, people do have emotions run high and you could call it a lapse in judgment. But THREE times? No way, that's just a guy who's never gotten used to not getting what he wants (especially if you consider his behavior in the 2010 World Cup).
Anyway, things hit the skids once we arrived in Denver (an airport with a lot of ups and downs to get around it). The plane took a while to get a gate, and then it started raining on our way to the car rental place. Although there was hardly anyone there it took us half an hour to get the car. The hotel wasn't too far so we were startled to find it was 9:30 local time when we were nearly there. We managed to find some relatively healthy fast food options (fish and rice bowl and some yakitori sticks) and because the place was about to close we got it to go. Lucky thing.
When we arrived at the hotel they told us they were overbooked and did not have the 2 double beds we'd asked for. Instead they had, not a king, not a queen, but a single double bed. It was late, we were hungry, and we said fine. It was just for one night.
Then we got to the room. The bed was small enough we could have risked knocking one another out of it. It was also the smallest room I'd ever seen in a Fairfield Inn. They do range in size -- one I stayed at in Orlando had a room so large for a king-size single that I could have fit three such beds in it with space to spare. But this was so small there was no room for anything else but a chair, one side table and a desk no larger than my suitcase (which I knew because I put it on the desk since there was no room to put it anywhere else.
But the real kicker was when I went to close the drapes. It didn't have any -- only the decorative ends. So we called the desk who sent someone up to confirm that yes, there were really no drapes there. He mentioned that there had been construction in the room and apparently they hadn't replaced them and he wasn't sure they had any. He asked if we could be sent to another hotel. We said maybe, and asked where that would be. He said the desk clerk would call up.
In the meantime we ate our dinner as we were both quite hungry by then. After a while the clerk said she could send us to a hotel "down the road" and they would give us rewards points for the inconvenience (to date they have yet to show up).
So after some confusion trying to figure out her directions in the dark, we ended up at another hotel. When we arrived there was a sign on the door that said they were completely booked. But when I said we were from the Fairfield she did have the room. I was curious why the hotels were so full -- we'd seen some flyers at the car rental place about a Cherry Blossom festival in a few days, but I found that unlikely. The clerk said that they were fully booked every night and "that's why you need reservations."
Given that I'd made reservations 3 months earlier, that was not the most helpful comment but I just wanted a room given that it was midnight our time. And it had 2 beds and drapes so that was good enough for me.
WEDNESDAY
Day 2 went much better. We checked out, I dropped Mike off at Coors Field to see a baseball museum and a game, and I went to grab some lunch. We had seen the kickoff of the Nigeria and Argentina game in the room and by the time I got to the restaurant (a small Vietnamese place) I was able to watch the last quarter of it on their TV. Just as the game reached the 90th minute their muzak decided to churn out Girl from Ipanema. Appropriate -- though the news of the second bombing in Nigeria was a pretty sickening ending to the meal.
I then stopped in a bead store for a while before checking into a new hotel downtown. That went a whole lot more smoothly -- which was good because the desk clerk was a hottie, and I was glad I was too busy fumbling with papers and bags to spend much time staring at him.
I was able to get into the room in time to see the next two matches kick off, though they were much less interesting. Ecuador was trying hard against France but couldn't make something happen and by the game's end they just looked worn out. Honduras didn't give Switzerland much of a challenge, though between flipping back and forth I managed to miss each of the three goals.
Mike and I met for dinner on 16th Street -- they have a nice collection of shops and restaurants in that area, and it was walking distance for us. We went for crepes and then took one to go as we were eating somewhat early. We later split the last one while watching more World Cup coverage.
THURSDAY
I caught parts of all the games on Thursday as well, though I had to watch the U.S. game after the fact (it was rerun on ESPN Classic). Given the conditions, I'm amazed either team was able to have any ball control. A 1-0 score wasn't the worst that could have happened, though many thanks to Ronaldo for making that Portuguese goal.
We saw the Chihuly exhibit at the botanical gardens on Thursday. We were there less than an hour after they opened but the parking was full and we had to go scouting around nearby roads for some. Most sported alarming looking "No Parking" signs which had some of the most detailed exceptions I've seen. Luckily we were there on the correct day.
The garden was very nicely laid out, not overly large or particularly spectacular but a nice outing and, as usual, the glass installations fit their locale very well and looked great. For example, I love how this next installation looked like cranes in the water.
It was also awash in bees and had an exhibit on them. I couldn't help remembering a friend of ours who has to take an epipen to garden strolls for just this reason.
After, we went to a French restaurant for lunch. The food was good although I was surprised I was able to finish my dish given all the water I was drinking. Mike had developed a headache partway through the garden stroll due, I suspect, to dehydration.
We watched a bit of the afternoon games, enough to see the Russian goal. That was one of the strangest reactions I'd seen yet, with the player trying to hush and quiet everyone after. Mike asked if he was undercover hiding from the KGB and was afraid that the goal might bring too much attention to him.
We then went to the Denver Aquarium. In general it was a nice visit though I was disturbed to see both a parrot and macaw all alone in some not large cages and nowhere near one another. They supposedly had 4 tigers but we only saw one and couldn't figure out what it was doing in aquarium anyway. It also didn't have the largest habitat, but I really couldn't imagine more than one in that space.
The above photo amused me, as their turtle apparently really liked the bubble jet in the tank and liked to hang out by it. We caught a ray going by as well.
There were supposedly mermaid shows but there was nothing mentioned about them when we bought tickets, offering either times or extra costs. We had dinner there -- it was fun seeing the fish tanks but the food was overpriced and just ok. To be expected, I suppose.
Just adding our starfish photo as, next to cats, they always look like they're lazing about.
We watched the U.S. game in the evening -- a struggle but one which turned out ok in the end. Given Belgium has won all three of its matches, I didn't feel all that hopeful about a U.S. win.
FRIDAY
Mike went on a stadium tour of Coors Field in the morning and then we met for lunch after in Larimer Square. The Mellow Mushroom had an interesting menu but like a lot in Colorado, I found it overpriced. Also, strangely, neither of us chose anything with mushrooms in it. Then we returned to the hotel to pick up our bags and the car to head down to Colorado Springs.
The drive was fairly quick, just long enough for us to finish off an Agatha Christie audiobook we had begun during last year's vacation.
The weather was up and down during the trip. On that afternoon it was turning cool and breezy enough that, after dropping Mike off at a baseball game, I went back to the hotel to get him a jacket. The line to get into the stadium had gotten much longer and it was a bit tricky to meet up with him. The game ended up as a 16-3 blowout in the 8th inning and ran for nearly 4 hours.
On the plus side, HBO was running The Normal Heart so I got a chance to see it. Not the cheeriest subject matter but a Mark Ruffalo/Matt Bomer ship+ Roxy Music was not a bad way to start things out.
I was reminded, though, of a conversation I had with a friend about how it's often easy to spot films that were formerly plays because there's generally a number of loud monologues and characters often seem to be speechifying to one another rather than conversing. Of course, when you have a character like Ned Weeks as the center of the story this seems inevitable but there were various times when you could see different characters getting the stage spotlight.
SATURDAY
We went to Canon City primarily for a train ride through the gorge but also to try tea at a mom & pop shop called the Queen Anne. There were some great tea flavors available and we had so much of it I'm surprised we could drink that much so quickly.
The train ride was nice enough but a bit disappointing after our experience in Sedona. It was comfortable and had some nice scenery but it seemed to be going slower so there wasn't as much area covered and it wasn't as varied.
The company does a particular run when there's a white water rafting competition going on though, and since it follows the river, I could see that being a very cool outing, being able to follow the boats from the tracks. As you can see above we passed a number of people rafting that day.
Disappointingly, we saw next to no wildlife during the trip unless you count one hawk during this train ride, and the bunnies in our hotel parking lot. There was, however, the above rock formation that looked like a bear head.
The scenery was nice but monotonous after a while as much of it looked like the shot above. In fact, I deleted almost all our photos from the ride because so much of it looked the same. The train trip was also shorter than I expected as it wasn't moving very fast and we didn't cover as much of an area as the trip we took in Sedona last year. Still, it was a nice outing especially if, like Mike, you like trains.
SUNDAY
We did more running around near Colorado Springs. We visited the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings but found it disappointing. It was rather touristy and though we went early there were several families with badly supervised small children who went crawling around everywhere, refused to leave certain areas so others could visit them, and generally ran around screaming. Their museum is also rather small although there were some interesting displays. I wasn't sorry we went but I don't know as it's a must see either.
We went afterward to the Miramont Castle, a house preserved by the local historical society which was once a sanitarium. It had some interesting architectural features but I think had a lot of things more interesting to locals than visitors. It did also have a nice little tea room with some tasty offerings on the menu.
We then went to the Garden of the Gods, drove through, stopped and took photos, went to see a video at the visitor center, etc. It was definitely the highlight of our drive south and well worth seeing. Also, coincidentally, free to visit. There were a lot of people there and limited places to stop for photos but we both found it very pretty.
We had dinner at a local place called Shuga's, which had decent quiche, some good sandwiches and a really pleasing Tuscan Chicken Soup. I had a cup of it with my dish despite heat in the 90s and liked it so much we got a bowl to go for later that evening. We ate watching, what else, more World Cup games.
MONDAY
On our final day, we took the Cog Railway up to Pike's Peak, which is an elevation of over 14,000 feet. Supposedly it is the highest railway in the world. As such, I found it disappointing as I expected there would be much more dramatic views (and also, hopefully, wild sheep). But much of it was trees close to the line.
My big concern that day was that Mike and I would take ill, not just because of the altitude but because both of us seemed to be coming down with something. Mike, in particular, had gotten quite miserable the night before. The rail line limits stops at the peak to 30 minutes because many people start showing altitude symptoms after that. However, strangely both of us were fine. Mike had a bit of a headache, but he'd had one off and on during the trip so it wasn't any worse.
The following was the only natural lake on our trip up, as there has been a dam project on the mountain. We could also see, in the distance, the remains of a massive gold mine which had produced more gold than any other site in the U.S.
There were also some interesting trees to be seen. In the bright sunlight they looked rather silver and had very interesting shapes. Mixed with the reddish/green granite blocks around I wish I'd gotten more photos but it was a bit difficult given our seating and the speed with which views might disappear.
There wasn't much snow left at the top, as you can see here. (Note the lone guy standing on top of the ridge for scale). It was running from 70s to 90s at the base but there was about a 30 degree change when you got to the top. We'd taken winter coats given the website warnings and the variable weather, but most people had sweatshirts and not a few women were in flipflops and shorts -- and then complained that they couldn't climb about on the rocks with their footwear...
The train was somewhat noisy for conversation despite being seated fairly close to other passengers. We ended up across from a retired pastor who, it so happens, had once worked in the area where we live. So we chatted with him and his wife throughout the trip as they had been on it many times in the past having once lived in Colorado Springs. Then at the end of the trip he asked me what church we belonged to, which makes for an awkward conversation if one is trying to be polite. I remember he was earnestly telling me about the importance of being saved for the last 15 minutes of the trip, much of which I couldn't hear anyway due to the noise.
We were heading back to Denver but it had been quite a few hours since breakfast so we stopped back in Shuga's which had just had a menu change. The delicious soup was now gone but they did have a rather good gazpacho which was probably more appropriate for the weather. (The accompanying quiche, however, was not as good).
We ended up back at the same hotel which was supposed to host us on our first night. This time there was no problem at all with either check-in or room. However, frustratingly, neither ESPN nor ESPN2 were coming in so there was no World Cup coverage to be had. ESPN Classic was running an evening of Battle of the Network Stars reruns, which we had a surprisingly good time with. There were some people I'd totally forgotten about on the shows, and we spent a fair amount of time on Wikipedia and IMDB as a result. I hadn't any idea it had run for so long having seen just a few of the events. Unfortunately they were also chopped up for broadcast (more commercials no doubt) and there was one show that I swear looked like someone's warped VHS tape was being used. It was also rather creepy watching the female contestants trying to get away from Howard Cosell while trying to seem polite.
TUESDAY
The next morning was a matter of getting to the airport and a shorter flight home. We were able to see most of the U.S. v Belgium game on the plane again. It was particularly interesting since cheers and groans would periodically erupt during the flight. When we got off the plane the game was still on due to the extra time. There was a crowd at a bar and then people peering in at another closed one that, nonetheless, had its TV on as we saw the final few minutes. A shame, though not unexpected. A goalie's triumph is always a mixed bag since it generally indicates the defense is either weak or the offense isn't gaining sufficient ball control. But we were glad to be home, defeat or not.
If anyone would like to see more of the photos you can see the album here.
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
Our trip to Denver was a rather up and down affair in its first day. Everything went smoothly with our departure. We left late enough in the day that I was able to see some of the morning World Cup games and then got to catch up on news on the plane itself thanks to some free TV.
I had only seen part of Uruguay and Italy and missed the now much talked about biting incident since I was switching back and forth between that and the match with Japan and Colombia. But I completely agree with the ESPN announcer who said he should be ejected from professional soccer entirely. Maybe if it was the first time, people do have emotions run high and you could call it a lapse in judgment. But THREE times? No way, that's just a guy who's never gotten used to not getting what he wants (especially if you consider his behavior in the 2010 World Cup).
Anyway, things hit the skids once we arrived in Denver (an airport with a lot of ups and downs to get around it). The plane took a while to get a gate, and then it started raining on our way to the car rental place. Although there was hardly anyone there it took us half an hour to get the car. The hotel wasn't too far so we were startled to find it was 9:30 local time when we were nearly there. We managed to find some relatively healthy fast food options (fish and rice bowl and some yakitori sticks) and because the place was about to close we got it to go. Lucky thing.
When we arrived at the hotel they told us they were overbooked and did not have the 2 double beds we'd asked for. Instead they had, not a king, not a queen, but a single double bed. It was late, we were hungry, and we said fine. It was just for one night.
Then we got to the room. The bed was small enough we could have risked knocking one another out of it. It was also the smallest room I'd ever seen in a Fairfield Inn. They do range in size -- one I stayed at in Orlando had a room so large for a king-size single that I could have fit three such beds in it with space to spare. But this was so small there was no room for anything else but a chair, one side table and a desk no larger than my suitcase (which I knew because I put it on the desk since there was no room to put it anywhere else.
But the real kicker was when I went to close the drapes. It didn't have any -- only the decorative ends. So we called the desk who sent someone up to confirm that yes, there were really no drapes there. He mentioned that there had been construction in the room and apparently they hadn't replaced them and he wasn't sure they had any. He asked if we could be sent to another hotel. We said maybe, and asked where that would be. He said the desk clerk would call up.
In the meantime we ate our dinner as we were both quite hungry by then. After a while the clerk said she could send us to a hotel "down the road" and they would give us rewards points for the inconvenience (to date they have yet to show up).
So after some confusion trying to figure out her directions in the dark, we ended up at another hotel. When we arrived there was a sign on the door that said they were completely booked. But when I said we were from the Fairfield she did have the room. I was curious why the hotels were so full -- we'd seen some flyers at the car rental place about a Cherry Blossom festival in a few days, but I found that unlikely. The clerk said that they were fully booked every night and "that's why you need reservations."
Given that I'd made reservations 3 months earlier, that was not the most helpful comment but I just wanted a room given that it was midnight our time. And it had 2 beds and drapes so that was good enough for me.
WEDNESDAY
Day 2 went much better. We checked out, I dropped Mike off at Coors Field to see a baseball museum and a game, and I went to grab some lunch. We had seen the kickoff of the Nigeria and Argentina game in the room and by the time I got to the restaurant (a small Vietnamese place) I was able to watch the last quarter of it on their TV. Just as the game reached the 90th minute their muzak decided to churn out Girl from Ipanema. Appropriate -- though the news of the second bombing in Nigeria was a pretty sickening ending to the meal.
I then stopped in a bead store for a while before checking into a new hotel downtown. That went a whole lot more smoothly -- which was good because the desk clerk was a hottie, and I was glad I was too busy fumbling with papers and bags to spend much time staring at him.
I was able to get into the room in time to see the next two matches kick off, though they were much less interesting. Ecuador was trying hard against France but couldn't make something happen and by the game's end they just looked worn out. Honduras didn't give Switzerland much of a challenge, though between flipping back and forth I managed to miss each of the three goals.
Mike and I met for dinner on 16th Street -- they have a nice collection of shops and restaurants in that area, and it was walking distance for us. We went for crepes and then took one to go as we were eating somewhat early. We later split the last one while watching more World Cup coverage.
THURSDAY
I caught parts of all the games on Thursday as well, though I had to watch the U.S. game after the fact (it was rerun on ESPN Classic). Given the conditions, I'm amazed either team was able to have any ball control. A 1-0 score wasn't the worst that could have happened, though many thanks to Ronaldo for making that Portuguese goal.
We saw the Chihuly exhibit at the botanical gardens on Thursday. We were there less than an hour after they opened but the parking was full and we had to go scouting around nearby roads for some. Most sported alarming looking "No Parking" signs which had some of the most detailed exceptions I've seen. Luckily we were there on the correct day.
The garden was very nicely laid out, not overly large or particularly spectacular but a nice outing and, as usual, the glass installations fit their locale very well and looked great. For example, I love how this next installation looked like cranes in the water.
It was also awash in bees and had an exhibit on them. I couldn't help remembering a friend of ours who has to take an epipen to garden strolls for just this reason.
After, we went to a French restaurant for lunch. The food was good although I was surprised I was able to finish my dish given all the water I was drinking. Mike had developed a headache partway through the garden stroll due, I suspect, to dehydration.
We watched a bit of the afternoon games, enough to see the Russian goal. That was one of the strangest reactions I'd seen yet, with the player trying to hush and quiet everyone after. Mike asked if he was undercover hiding from the KGB and was afraid that the goal might bring too much attention to him.
We then went to the Denver Aquarium. In general it was a nice visit though I was disturbed to see both a parrot and macaw all alone in some not large cages and nowhere near one another. They supposedly had 4 tigers but we only saw one and couldn't figure out what it was doing in aquarium anyway. It also didn't have the largest habitat, but I really couldn't imagine more than one in that space.
The above photo amused me, as their turtle apparently really liked the bubble jet in the tank and liked to hang out by it. We caught a ray going by as well.
There were supposedly mermaid shows but there was nothing mentioned about them when we bought tickets, offering either times or extra costs. We had dinner there -- it was fun seeing the fish tanks but the food was overpriced and just ok. To be expected, I suppose.
Just adding our starfish photo as, next to cats, they always look like they're lazing about.
We watched the U.S. game in the evening -- a struggle but one which turned out ok in the end. Given Belgium has won all three of its matches, I didn't feel all that hopeful about a U.S. win.
FRIDAY
Mike went on a stadium tour of Coors Field in the morning and then we met for lunch after in Larimer Square. The Mellow Mushroom had an interesting menu but like a lot in Colorado, I found it overpriced. Also, strangely, neither of us chose anything with mushrooms in it. Then we returned to the hotel to pick up our bags and the car to head down to Colorado Springs.
The drive was fairly quick, just long enough for us to finish off an Agatha Christie audiobook we had begun during last year's vacation.
The weather was up and down during the trip. On that afternoon it was turning cool and breezy enough that, after dropping Mike off at a baseball game, I went back to the hotel to get him a jacket. The line to get into the stadium had gotten much longer and it was a bit tricky to meet up with him. The game ended up as a 16-3 blowout in the 8th inning and ran for nearly 4 hours.
On the plus side, HBO was running The Normal Heart so I got a chance to see it. Not the cheeriest subject matter but a Mark Ruffalo/Matt Bomer ship+ Roxy Music was not a bad way to start things out.
I was reminded, though, of a conversation I had with a friend about how it's often easy to spot films that were formerly plays because there's generally a number of loud monologues and characters often seem to be speechifying to one another rather than conversing. Of course, when you have a character like Ned Weeks as the center of the story this seems inevitable but there were various times when you could see different characters getting the stage spotlight.
SATURDAY
We went to Canon City primarily for a train ride through the gorge but also to try tea at a mom & pop shop called the Queen Anne. There were some great tea flavors available and we had so much of it I'm surprised we could drink that much so quickly.
The train ride was nice enough but a bit disappointing after our experience in Sedona. It was comfortable and had some nice scenery but it seemed to be going slower so there wasn't as much area covered and it wasn't as varied.
The company does a particular run when there's a white water rafting competition going on though, and since it follows the river, I could see that being a very cool outing, being able to follow the boats from the tracks. As you can see above we passed a number of people rafting that day.
Disappointingly, we saw next to no wildlife during the trip unless you count one hawk during this train ride, and the bunnies in our hotel parking lot. There was, however, the above rock formation that looked like a bear head.
The scenery was nice but monotonous after a while as much of it looked like the shot above. In fact, I deleted almost all our photos from the ride because so much of it looked the same. The train trip was also shorter than I expected as it wasn't moving very fast and we didn't cover as much of an area as the trip we took in Sedona last year. Still, it was a nice outing especially if, like Mike, you like trains.
SUNDAY
We did more running around near Colorado Springs. We visited the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings but found it disappointing. It was rather touristy and though we went early there were several families with badly supervised small children who went crawling around everywhere, refused to leave certain areas so others could visit them, and generally ran around screaming. Their museum is also rather small although there were some interesting displays. I wasn't sorry we went but I don't know as it's a must see either.
We went afterward to the Miramont Castle, a house preserved by the local historical society which was once a sanitarium. It had some interesting architectural features but I think had a lot of things more interesting to locals than visitors. It did also have a nice little tea room with some tasty offerings on the menu.
We then went to the Garden of the Gods, drove through, stopped and took photos, went to see a video at the visitor center, etc. It was definitely the highlight of our drive south and well worth seeing. Also, coincidentally, free to visit. There were a lot of people there and limited places to stop for photos but we both found it very pretty.
We had dinner at a local place called Shuga's, which had decent quiche, some good sandwiches and a really pleasing Tuscan Chicken Soup. I had a cup of it with my dish despite heat in the 90s and liked it so much we got a bowl to go for later that evening. We ate watching, what else, more World Cup games.
MONDAY
On our final day, we took the Cog Railway up to Pike's Peak, which is an elevation of over 14,000 feet. Supposedly it is the highest railway in the world. As such, I found it disappointing as I expected there would be much more dramatic views (and also, hopefully, wild sheep). But much of it was trees close to the line.
My big concern that day was that Mike and I would take ill, not just because of the altitude but because both of us seemed to be coming down with something. Mike, in particular, had gotten quite miserable the night before. The rail line limits stops at the peak to 30 minutes because many people start showing altitude symptoms after that. However, strangely both of us were fine. Mike had a bit of a headache, but he'd had one off and on during the trip so it wasn't any worse.
The following was the only natural lake on our trip up, as there has been a dam project on the mountain. We could also see, in the distance, the remains of a massive gold mine which had produced more gold than any other site in the U.S.
There were also some interesting trees to be seen. In the bright sunlight they looked rather silver and had very interesting shapes. Mixed with the reddish/green granite blocks around I wish I'd gotten more photos but it was a bit difficult given our seating and the speed with which views might disappear.
There wasn't much snow left at the top, as you can see here. (Note the lone guy standing on top of the ridge for scale). It was running from 70s to 90s at the base but there was about a 30 degree change when you got to the top. We'd taken winter coats given the website warnings and the variable weather, but most people had sweatshirts and not a few women were in flipflops and shorts -- and then complained that they couldn't climb about on the rocks with their footwear...
The train was somewhat noisy for conversation despite being seated fairly close to other passengers. We ended up across from a retired pastor who, it so happens, had once worked in the area where we live. So we chatted with him and his wife throughout the trip as they had been on it many times in the past having once lived in Colorado Springs. Then at the end of the trip he asked me what church we belonged to, which makes for an awkward conversation if one is trying to be polite. I remember he was earnestly telling me about the importance of being saved for the last 15 minutes of the trip, much of which I couldn't hear anyway due to the noise.
We were heading back to Denver but it had been quite a few hours since breakfast so we stopped back in Shuga's which had just had a menu change. The delicious soup was now gone but they did have a rather good gazpacho which was probably more appropriate for the weather. (The accompanying quiche, however, was not as good).
We ended up back at the same hotel which was supposed to host us on our first night. This time there was no problem at all with either check-in or room. However, frustratingly, neither ESPN nor ESPN2 were coming in so there was no World Cup coverage to be had. ESPN Classic was running an evening of Battle of the Network Stars reruns, which we had a surprisingly good time with. There were some people I'd totally forgotten about on the shows, and we spent a fair amount of time on Wikipedia and IMDB as a result. I hadn't any idea it had run for so long having seen just a few of the events. Unfortunately they were also chopped up for broadcast (more commercials no doubt) and there was one show that I swear looked like someone's warped VHS tape was being used. It was also rather creepy watching the female contestants trying to get away from Howard Cosell while trying to seem polite.
TUESDAY
The next morning was a matter of getting to the airport and a shorter flight home. We were able to see most of the U.S. v Belgium game on the plane again. It was particularly interesting since cheers and groans would periodically erupt during the flight. When we got off the plane the game was still on due to the extra time. There was a crowd at a bar and then people peering in at another closed one that, nonetheless, had its TV on as we saw the final few minutes. A shame, though not unexpected. A goalie's triumph is always a mixed bag since it generally indicates the defense is either weak or the offense isn't gaining sufficient ball control. But we were glad to be home, defeat or not.
If anyone would like to see more of the photos you can see the album here.
Comments at Dreamwidth
.