All About a Picture

In getting started, I want to explain the picture in the header.

Now while I have been known to poach pictures from other sites in order to make sure our site has the aesthetic I like, this one is all my own. The picture, taken from our south-eastern facing balcony, is one that I snapped in March when Erin and I decided that we would make a bid on the flat.

Featured in the picture are the a number of historic Denver landmarks:

• Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception – (Foreground). A neo-gothic form right in the middle of Denver, the cathedral was completed in 1911 when the bell tower spires were added to cap the building and change the skyline. The site was originally broken for a cathedral in 1890. While most of the rock used to construct the church is home-grown Colorado granite and marble, the exterior is actually limestone from Indiana. In a Back-to-the-Future-esque story, the cathedral boasts about the 1997 lightning strike to the east tower...kinda makes you wish you had a Delorean around to dodge the other lifeforms scraping Colfax!
  
• Capital State Capital – (Tucked behind the cathedral). Just to the left and behind the athedral is the state capital building. If you look between the spires, you'll see the iconic gold-leafed dome of the capital. Somwhere around the fifth stair leading into the building from the north is a mark that denotes one is standing at 5,280 feet and lends the city's nick-name, "The mile-high city". Unlike the cathedral, the entire capital building is made of Colorado granite and marble...Indiana is so out. The granite comes from a quarry near Beaver Creek. Aside from the gold dome – which is actually copper covered with gold-leaf – the coolest part of the building are the labrynth of tunnels that wind their way underneath that once carried coal and water from drilled wells below.
• Rocky Mountains – OK, so there's some other buildings here, but their so small that it's not worth going into it....just take my word for it. More inportantly, one can't help but notice the real sysmbol of Denver and Colorado: the Rockies! One of the best things about being here is that within 45 minutes you can be at the Eisenhower Tunnel (Loveland Pass 11,992 feet) and the continental divide. The tunnel rises from 11,013 to 11,158 feet and is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world; the divide is at 11,112 feet. The point is this, give yourself 60 minutes in you're in some of the highest mountains in the country and close some of the most reknownd 14ers (Torreys, Grays, Mt Evans, and Mt Bierstadt). Those are real mountains!!! BTW, the Rockies are the result of a volcanic arc that was pushed up (finally) 70 million years ago as a result of pressure from the subducting North American tectonic plate on the west coast (see the USGS info).

All of that in a picture.

5,385 Feet

The polls have closed and the votes tallied.....and we fooled you all.

It turns out that the GPS reading says we are at 5,385 feet (1,641 meters). So, with that we officially unveil the new blog title.

Get ready for the stories.

And So a New Adventure Officially Begins

A couple of facts point to the need to really get on the ball and rename the blog:

1. We aren't in Berlin anymore.
2. We've made it past the all-important deadlines of September 12 & 15 and can breathe again.
3. BUT we still have lots of adventures to report
   

So with this in mind, we are unveiling our new blog site.

As you can tell, we haven't quite finished the renaming ceremony. That's because we thought it would be fun to mess with you a little. To the right you'll see a poll that we're taking to see how many of you can guess the altitude at our new place. So take a second or two to make a guess. The answer and official unveiling will happen next week.

In the meantime, I'll give you a teaser or two of stories that I am working on:

• Getting back into mountain biking and finding out....I'm not good at it.
• Buying my first beer ever at a CU football game (it's good to know people in high places).
• Pictures of the new place and neighborhood.

Those of you that are not yet completely caught up on our Germany adventures or the closure of my studies need not fret. We've linked the old blog to the right as well. If you're ever looking for it directly, you can also just go to www.erinanddave-v1.blogspot.com.