Breckenridge Colorado

We finally made it into Breck on the 2nd full day there. Mostly shopping and feasting our eyes on what a lovely little town it is. I shot a bunch of selfies alone and in groups using my selfie stick, and while they are all incredible works of art, that's not what I planned on posting here.

During a short period of blue skies, while waiting for my girls to exit a T-shirt shop, I used my phone to grab this view between two buildings:

Again, we waited for the gondolas to stop charging $$$ and took a ride up the mountain.
Right into hell.
Something like 9000 kids were up there skiing and 'boarding, and it was freaking cold.
Apparently I chose an inferior quad of socks, because before long my toes lost all feeling.
The weather was crappier than at any other time during the whole trip, so no photos were taken.
We ended up in a bar eating and drinking, then headed back down.

Next up: It gets much better.

Man vs Ice

Tonight we went to the Quarry Hofbrau for a summer solstice party featuring an ice sculpture competition.
Yeah, that's a sentence you don't hear every day (or decade), but it's exactly what happened.

In addition to live music by the Charlie Lucas Band there was food, drinks, dancing, and Man vs Ice.
Electric chainsaws did the heavy lifting.

Grinders and drills made guest appearances to good effect.

Buddy (The Ice Guy) Rasmussen hits his sculpture with some propane flame action.
Buddy is our go-to guy for ice sculptures, so rooting for him was a given.
He dominated the competition, easily beating Reverend Butter from Houston.

Most of the winning sculpture.

Angie, Holly, and Sylvia.

The Quarry Hofbrau is in the former Laboratory building, and we loved what John and company have done with the place.
The decor is puro Tejas, it's clean and comfy, the staff is great--A First Class operation in every way.



Wow, posting video is a huge pain in the ass!
Apparently, Blogger Video doesn't work with the Opera browser, and Daily Motion was even worse. Errors and lots of waiting around while nothing happened.
PhotoBucket finally came through, although I had to guess at what bit of html would close the tag that was left open.
Come ON people!
Fix your shit!

Air Canada

Sending us their cold air--How rude!


It's lower across most of the city--our sheltered little valley is always a few degrees milder than the norm.



Went for a walk in the cold on Friday afternoon and really enjoyed myself.
These pictures were taken at the drainage ditch under Wurzbach Road...


...with my phone.

Didn't want to carry the big guns, and my LG EnV2 is the only pocketable "camera" I own.
2 megapickles, 1600x1200 resolution, white balance and many other useful setting options--this would have amazed people back in 2000.
It's not too terrible provided you have a lot of light.