009: Yo Tambien

Yo Tambien
Originally uploaded by Haska.

Tambien (meaning "also" in Spanish) is the second restaurant from the guys who brought you Mezcal on Colfax. It's a great spot in Cherry Creek featuring all of the usual tequilas, and great Mexican eats. But the best part? All Mexican BBQ on Sundays from 2:00 on. Open flames with Carne Asada, corn on the cob with crema and chili powder, and fresh cut fruit with chili and lime. It's not quite being in Mazatlan, but it's as close as I can get on a Sunday.

008: Creating an Oasis

My oasis
Originally uploaded by Haska.

After five years of trying to garden, I FINALLY have plants that miraculously spring up each year. It looks lush! Ok, it looks healthy. At any rate, the work has paid off, I now have a little slice of heaven in which to sunbathe, relax, eat breakfast, write! It 'Swonderful!

007: SATC + Sleep-over = Girlie FUN!

No pictures of this, and for that I'm sure my friends will thank me later. :) But we all went to the screening of Sex And the City and then had a grade-school style sleep over! (well, grade-schoolers don't drink Cosmos...)

If you haven't seen the movie, you should—even if you never watched the series—because to quote my favorite bloggers, the Go Fug Yourself Girls, "We watched the movie, but really we watched the clothes."

006: Red Rocks—The National, Modest Mouse & R.E.M.

IMG00125.jpg
Originally uploaded by Haska.

Great, great show! Probably the earliest I've been to the Rocks in at least 5 or 6 years, so a really fun way to kick off The Summer Vacation! I hadn't heard The National much, but I really like their sound. Modest Mouse (click that link to see a photo from the band) was good as good, but I'm not their biggest fan, so I wasn't too into it.

But R.E.M. — WOW! I can't say enough about the show. They played their new stuff (they ARE actually promoting an album) but a bunch of cool old stuff too (Fall On Me, Orange Crush, Worlds Leader Pretend) and some good deep tracks. Plus, they utilized the screens behind them in interesting ways—I'm sure Michael Stipe's appreciation of experimental film influenced the "second show" as I like to think of it.

005: Los Alamos

No photos from this, but we took a little side trip on the motorcycle to Los Alamos. Or as Paris likes to call it, "The Town That Science Built." One of the main objectives of the labs now, (post-cold war) is to maintain the nuclear weapons we currently have in our nation's arsenal. I wasn't too interested in seeing this because I thought it was going to be uber-nationalistic and really depressing. But in fact, I was somewhat awed by what goes into "testing" a nuclear weapon if you can't detonate it.

I was also enthralled by the numerous other labs that do work on everything from the Human Genome Project, to Nano-technology. Of course the big draw is still the history behind The Manhattan Project. But even if you're not keen on that sort of thing, I would still recommend taking a day-trip to Los Alamos if you're in Santa Fe.

Another aspect that makes the trip so cool is the interesting topography of the region. Los Alamos was built along side a dormant volcano. And the resulting hills and valleys throughout the town were left behind from an ancient eruption—very cool.

004: Santa Fe—The Andrew Smith Gallery

andrew smith gallery.jpg
Originally uploaded by Haska.

One of my favorite galleries in Santa Fe, but it was NOT open. So I had to settle for making my own little Lee Friedlander homage with my Blackberry instead.

003: Santa Fe—The Coyote Cafe

Coyote Bar
Originally uploaded by Haska.

This is a little patio on a deck overlooking one of the main streets around the plaza. If you go, be sure to have a Sunburned Senorita—it's a type of margarita made with fresh squeezed watermelon juice. :)

002: Santa Fe—The Cowgirl Bar

the cowgirl bar.jpg
Originally uploaded by Haska.

We headed down to Santa Fe and had some great eats at The Cowgirl BBQ / Bar. This is a shot from their patio—you can see a super-chill deck with live music. They really do a great selection of BBQ and it's served in really interesting ways. We had the Nachos one day and returned for breakfast the next where I had a BBQ hash—YUM!

001: Glamping

This photo was taken of Paris and I "Glamping" at the Pueblo Resevoir. For those of you new to Glamping, the phrase became popular in the UK, from people like Kate Moss who take everything they own out into the wilderness, and basically re-create a home. It's the combination of the two words, Camping and Glamorous. And I love it!

99 Things I did on my Summer Vacation

OK, the Memorial Day holiday is just behind us—the un-official start of summer as it is. And with that, I've vowed to NOT look back at the summer this coming August and say, "Crap, where did the summer go? What did I do?"

So, with that, I am unveiling the "99 Things I Did On My Summer Vacation" portion of this blog.

It's a little ambitious since there are just 102 days between Memorial Day and Labor day, but it should be interesting!