Chris Moody’s Blog

While on vacation, I decided to take my family to SkyVenture Colorado for indoor skydiving in their big vertical wind tunnel. Pretty fun stuff!

Just returned from a big vacation with my family. It started early on a Saturday morning with me getting up at 3:30am to catch a plane to Denver. I met up with my parents, some extended family, and Kabinett neighbors to board another plane to Orange County.

In the O.C., we spent two days at Disneyland. We hit most of the staple rides. Star Tours, Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Indiana Jones Adventure, the Haunted Mansion. I bought my dad a Capt. Jack pirate hat with dreadlocks and he promised to wear it the whole day. He didn’t disappoint, getting lots of great looks and comments from kids and adults alike.

Monday rolled around and we all piled into a shuttle van to take us to L.A. (well, San Pedro) to board Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship. After settling into our cabins, we met in the dining room where my dad was wearing his pirate hat and commenting on “meeting up with some friends later.” After dinner I went to one of the night clubs to watch people make fools of themselves singing karaoke.

Tuesday morning rolled in and not being used to noises of a ship, I woke before sunrise and went up top to take picture of our arrival into San Diego. We passed a few other vessels on the way in, including a submarine, the USS Ronald Reagan, and an aircraft carrier that was pretending to be the WWII version of the USS Enterprise (is there a movie being made?).

Our excursion into San Diego was a whale watching trip. We boarded the Marietta headed back out to a noticeably more turbulent sea. It took us a while to find a whale, but saw sea lions sunning them selves on a channel buoy, and dolphins bow running our boat on the way. To be honest, I thought they were more exciting anyway. The whale just shot up a spout, showed us his tail and then disappeared for 5 minutes before repeating the process.

The evening was filled with me donating some money to the casino and going up to watch the fools singing karaoke again. But this time I discovered it was much more fun to watch after two amaretto sours.

Wednesday started with us pulling up to Catalina Island… but not docking. Our ship was too big for their port so we were ferried to the island on little tenders. I made the mistake of signing up for a snorkeling excursion in the first week of March. Granted they did provide wet suits, and granted the wet suits did help tremendously, but my hands were completely numb by the time I got out of the water. About the only thing making that excursion worth while were all the gals in bikinis (before they put their wet suits on).

I skipped dinner in the dinning room that night in favor of the buffet instead. After that I caught the tail end of a show in the auditorium (a musical impressionist). After that was over I went to go laugh at the karaoke singers again, but they were getting much better which meant I was clapping more than laughing.

Thursday came with us docking in Ensenata, Mexico. I had an excursion scheduled for something to do with Fox Studios down there, but discovered that half of the 5 hour tour was spent driving to and from the location. So I skipped it in favor of reading by the pool, watching a movie in my cabin, and finding an internet connection.

Breakfast and lunch had been buffets in the Windjammer Cafe as usual, but I was back to the dinning room for our final dinner. I ordered my 2nd steak of the week, the wait staff danced for us, and we passed out our gratuities.

Evening entertainment started with karaoke that night, since it had been moved up several hours. Almost everyone was great on the last night. There were some I wouldn’t be surprised to see on American Idol next season (if I actually watched that show).

Following that, was an entertaining hour of “The Quest”. Essentially the host called out a item, and a drunk team member had to rush up to the dance floor with said item. Things progressed from common items like our “Sea Pass” cards, to men wearing lipstick, to men wearing women’s shoes, to women holding men’s jeans, to men holding women’s bras. It all ended with guys from the audience standing on stage in their boxers shorts wearing almost all of the aforementioned ladies items. That was good for a laugh and made me glad that I didn’t join a team as I happened to be wearing briefs that night.

And that was just about it. Lots of waiting on Friday. Waiting in line to get off the ship, waiting in line for US Customs, waiting for our shuttle to LAX, waiting in lines at the airport, waiting for my plane. I was glad to get home. And I was glad that I didn’t have to wait for Nicole to pick me up.

Click below for my photos on Flickr.

I’ve just spent my first full day on vacation in Colorado with Kurt and Monica. We took the cog railroad up Pike’s Peak, we sprinted through Garden of the Gods, and we had a family dinner. A nice full day.

Tomorrow we see the Colorado Rockies take on the San Francisco Giants, and then drive up to the Kabinett. Hopefully we can relax and sleep in once we’re up there.

Click my Photos link in the menu if you’d like to see the pictures.

Well, I’m sitting here on a Saturday afternoon pondering the last day and a half of my 2-week vacation. How can I make the most of my remaining days? What can I do that I won’t get the opportunity to do once I’m back at work? Unfortunately, taking another nap will just screw up my sleeping routine even more.

But, alas, it’s been a pretty good vacation. For the second year in a row, I watched the CO Rockies play the Chicago Cubs. I spent several days relaxing at the Kabinett (even managing to bring the internet to our mountain hideaway). I photographed some nature with a new long lens for my camera; click here to see those pictures. I road a jet-ski for the first time. I spent some quality time playing with my nieces. And on returning home, I spent a lot of time doing nothing.

But that’s the problem with having that much free time when you get home. You run out of things to do. Right now I’m considering going to Lowes to buy an edger and a gas powered trimmer. Yuck! Chores! I can’t believe it’s come to that. Of course it might have been better if all of my friends weren’t out of town (separately) at the same time.

Oh well, I have just a little bit of time left and I intend to make the best of it. Maybe I’ll go see how much jet-skis cost.

The Coney Island hot dog stand, long famous landmark on Highway 285 in Aspen Park, Colorado (and currently the lead photo in The 285 Project on my Flickr account), moved this month. You can read about it from The Denver Post or watch the video, but the short story is that the land underneath it sold and someone didn’t want to see it go.

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It’s over!!! It’s over!!! Peak season at work is finally over and I finally have my life back! As I write this, I should be in packing and getting ready to get up at what my parents like to call “oh-dark-thirty”, and what I like to call “the butt-crack of dawn”. Instead I’m procrastinating and just enjoying the fact that I’m not working.

I’m thrilled to be able to visit family for the holidays. Working so hard during the rush up to Christmas makes me grumpy, tired, and sarcastic, but now that it’s here and I know that I’m going to be with family, I’m happy. Especially with everything that’s going on with them lately. In case any of them are actually reading this, I love you guys very much, and I can’t wait to see everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone that may be reading this! Mom, Dad, Laura, John, Morgan, Katherine, Jessica (even if you can’t read yet). To GG & GG Pop, Katie & John and their little Ewok, Kurt & Monica, and Nicci. And even to all those of you who who have drifted away over the years but have clicked by to see what’s going on in my life… Merry Christmas.

(Can ya tell I’m in a good mood?)

-Christopher

The first few pictures of ‘The 285 Project’ are posted on Flickr. They aren’t in the exact order I want them because I can’t figure out how to make the gallery software do it, but there they are (Since switching to Flickr, things have become a lot easier).

I hope you enjoy, and I’ll add to it every chance I get. If you have pictures you’d like to add, feel free to email them to me at 285 at themoodys. org (spaced out to avoid spambots, and the address will change once the spammers find it ). Pictures should be a minimum of 640×480 for posting on the web project, and much larger if you want it included in the eventual DVD or book.

For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, I am documenting the sights seen when traveling from Denver, down Highway 285–a trip that my family and others have been making for generations. The final products may include a better web presentation, a video slideshow on DVD and other media, a coffee table book, and anything else that pops into my head between now and then. Multiple versions of this project will be compiled as well, representing the different destinations of the many people making this trek. As of this writing, I’m not planning on going past the South Park area, but if there’s a response, that could easily change.

Cheers!

-Chris

I write this entry today from seat 5C aboard American Connection flight 5623 to Denver.  I know, I said earlier that I was boycotting this airline, but I gave into family pressure to use the Colorado Springs airport (my return flight) for my travels, and American is still the only one that does it non-stop.  So here I am, once again flying the unfriendly skies.

But I am more prepared this time.  They can’t lose my checked bag, because I didn’t bring one.  I’ve accumulated enough clothes in Colorado–I hope–that I can now fly with just carry-ons.  Of course they aren’t making that easy either.  Not only did I forget about the half sized overhead bins on the wonderful EMB-145, but I forgot they only ran down one side.  So it’s kind of a first come, first served deal there.  But I got lucky.

I also got lucky in that I have two seats!  Whereas I am assigned to the aisle, I am sitting by the window.  And as the flight attendant serves up my 4ozs of Dr Pepper and 3 Goldfish crackers to the empty tray table next to me, I am content to peck away at the keyboard with only minor annoyances like turbulence and having to offer a shave to the reclining passenger in front of me.

That’s right, my traveling is off to an acceptable beginning.  My biggest concerns so far have been more about the things I forgot to pack. Like headphones so I can watch a movie on the plane.  But let’s face it, you can never hear well through those things on an airplane anyway.  And I forgot my Bluetooth adapter so I’d have backup internet.  But that uses up data on my cell plan and is really for emergency only so again, I’m not to upset.

I think, for once, I’m going to do what the pilot told me and sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

Yay, it’s vacation time again! I’m getting on a plane tomorrow to go visit my family in Colorado. Along with my relaxation, I’ll be fixing the parents’ computer (again), upgrading the parents’ computer (again), and training them on the new upgrades (again… if they decide they have time). This time around I’ll be installing an external CD-R/W so my mother can burn her digital photos, maybe helping them buy and all-in-one printer/scanner/copier, and trying to solve the darn USB power issue. Should be a challenging week.

I hope to get some time up at the Kabinett too, but I’m not sure if that’ll happen. My dad just had shoulder surgery, not to mention he canine injuries, so he may not be up for travel. Very understandable, but I’ll be disappointed if I miss it, since my next chance won’t be until August.

I’m sure I’ll have pictures up soon, so start checking the photo gallery in the next few days. And shortly after that, start asking my mother about the cool new place you’ll be able to find her digital photos!

So long for now!

New pics from Thanksgiving 2004 are up. In the time honored Moody family tradition, the holiday was when everyone could be together. Thanks Mom and Dad for scheduling around me!