Mile High Fourth of July

We hope everyone is having a great and relaxing Fourth of July week! We decided to forgo the usual beer and food-laden activities, which usually leave us sated and patriotic, but just as often bloated and lethargic. Instead we decided to go on a healthy, calorie-burning hike through the beautiful Colorado front range.

Julia got me some great gifts for my birthday, including The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (could he be our next president?) and a couple of excellent hiking guide books for Colorado. We dove into the hiking books and chose Button Rock Preserve, a 5.9 mile hike near Boulder that brought us to beautiful rolling meadows, a giant gushing dam, and the usual beautiful rocky mountain vistas. Our only complaint was that a large portion of the hike seemed to take place on rocky roads suitable for vehicular traffic, as opposed to true walking trails.

On the way home we happened to see a banner on Mile High Stadium advertising a July 4 Major League Lacrosse game and fireworks show. How could we resist? One of the reasons we moved to Denver was because we love to try new things, and we had sure never attended a professional lacrosse game, much less one at the palatial home of the Broncos.

We decided we had to give this a try, and we weren't disappointed. Lacrosse is a surprisingly fun game to watch. It's kind of like a soccer or hockey, but extremely high scoring (The Denver Outlaws beat the Chicago Machine 22-14, huzzah!). A fight even broke out at one point. Add fireworks to the mix, and what more can you ask for at a live sporting event?

As a final note, my last post was a rather crestfallen look at the state of Colorado Rockies baseball. Well since then, they have proven me wrong by winning like crazy, culminating in a series sweep of the Yankees, and now a sweep of the Mets, marking the first time in over half a century that an MLB team has swept both New York teams in one season. As Julia's aunt Mary from Maryland wrote us, "You think the Rockies are bad?! Check out the Orioles AND the Nationals." Touche.

I swear I used to hate sports. Something about the high altitude (lack of oxygen?) in this state must be turning us into crazy, outdoors-loving, extreme sports-hungry jocks. Colorado will mess you up!

Update: Here are our July 4 photos, newly posted by Julia.