Chris Poch

This morning, our adventure started with white water rafting on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, CO. We were on a raft with four other people and a guide from Blue Sky tours. We started out with two miles in class three rapids and had a great time getting soaked. Then, we had a twelve mile stretch of minimal rapids that was relaxing. We only have one picture from rafting, since we didn’t want our cameras to get wet on the raft. We’ll have a better image when we get back and can scan it instead of taking a picture of the picture.

After rafting, we hit the road for Cortez, CO. The fastest route to Cortez took us through eastern Utah and right by the entrance to Arches National Park, so we took a detour through the park for most of the afternoon.

Inside the park, we were greeted by beautiful rock formations of many colors under the sweltering heat. The temperature was near 100 degrees the entire time we were in the park. Because of the heat, we didn’t do as many hikes off the road in the park as we would have liked.

The most famous sight that we saw in the park was Delicate Arch. The hike up to the base of the arch was 1.5 miles each way and a 480 foot increase in elevation, so we settled for the shorter hike to see Delicate Arch from across a valley. The best sight that we saw was Sandstone Arch, which we were able to hike up to, mostly in shade with a red sand covered ground. Every turn in the park had a scenic view.

 
Tonight, we’re staying in Cortez. Tomorrow, we’ll visit Mesa Verde early before it gets hot (we’re still in the desert, so temperatures are cold overnight and scorching during the day), then move on to our hotel on a hot spring.

Today, we took a 40 mile scenic drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw many scenic overlooks, and traveled on the highest road in the US. We enjoyed seeing how fast the rocks and vegetation changes with elevation. We saw more snow on the ground today, several people on skis, and were able to go out on a snowfield. I took the opportunity to get Laura with a snow ball. We also saw mountain sheep and a marmot while in the park. On the last leg of the scenic road, we stopped at the continental divide. The continental divide is the point in the country where on one side water flows into the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side water flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Tonight, we’re staying at the Cedar Ridge Lodge in Glenwood Springs, CO. Tomorrow, we’re going white water rafting bright and early, then traveling to Arches National Park in Utah before ending up in Cortez, CO.

A correction to yesterday’s post: the small rodents we saw were golden mantle squirrels, not pika.

Click on an image to enlarge.

Today, we landed just after 8am local time in Denver after a nice flight. We rented a Chevy Impala with leather seats and XM satellite radio (both given to us at no extra cost), and drove to Estes Park. We checked into the Twin Owl Motor Lodge, then headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.

In Rocky Mountain National Park, we hiked around Bear Lake. While not a difficult hike and only 0.6 of a mile, we took it easy to make sure that the altitude didn’t get to us.  The highlight of Bear Lake was seeing trout swim upstream on one of the creeks that feeds the lake. While hiking, we also found snow drifts to the side of the path. Pretty impressive, considering it was about 82 degrees.

 
From Bear Lake, we hiked a mile to Alberta Falls. The hike was up and down, but we crossed streams several times and saw many breathtaking views along the way. The hike was worth the view, and we were able to hike back to a shuttle stop going mostly down hill.

 
After Alberta Falls, we drove to Sprague Lake, which was the home of a resort from 1910 until 1940. We hiked the flat trail around this 13 acre lake, enjoying up close views of fish and a mother duck as we walked.

 
During our entire time in the park, we saw blue birds with black crowns (I’m not sure what they’re called) and also pika, a chipmunk-like rodent. As we were driving out of the park, we saw about ten cars stopped on the side of the road looking at something. We couldn’t see what it was, but we decided to stop. It turns out that three elk were laying in a meadow very close to the road. Easily worth the stop.

 
For dinner, we ate at a rooftop Mexican restaurant in Estes Park. The food was good, and the view even better. I ended the day with a dip in the hotel’s hot tub (the pool was too cold) while my parents shopped the boutiques in downtown Estes Park.

Tomorrow, we’re doing a five hour drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, which includes many famous sights and will take us above the tree line. After that, we’ll head for Glenwood.

As usual, click on any picture to enlarge.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.  A lot has happened–Laura’s high school graduation, finishing up my summer work at Digital Sandbox, and being there for people.

Posting should be more consistent the next week, as I will be in Colorado on vacation.  I will be journaling on here when I have internet access and on paper when I do not.  I’ll also be taking lots of pictures.  But now, it’s time for me to finish breakfast, since my flight leaves out of Dulles in two hours.  Today’s plans include hiking in Estes Park.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God\’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Read the rest of Romans 8

Look at what The Washington Post had to say about it

WASHINGTON — President Bush was the host of the annual congressional picnic Thursday at the White House, but it was his chief of staff’s band that came close to stealing the show. (more)

A little over a week ago, my dad gets a call from Tabetha Mueller, a family friend of ours that I taught Vacation Bible School music with one year and my dad played in a band with for several years. She said that she was playing in a band and they needed a rhythym guitarist to help fill out their sound for an upcoming event at the White House. She explained that she was playing in a band called The Compassionates with Josh Bolten (the president’s current chief of staff, the president’s former economic advisor, and her father (the president’s former chief of staff). The set was three classic rock songs, and she could probably get my family in to the congressional picnic. He accepted.

My mom, sister, and I took the metro downtown and walked to the White House. We enjoyed the beautiful house, appetizers, dinner, The Compassionates in concert, and dessert, interrupted by a photo shoot and autograph signing with the president. It was a beautiful evening for a picnic. It was originally scheduled for yesterday, but pushed back because of a chance of rain. The only downside of the date change was that we missed Laura’s high school baccalaureate service and Tabetha’s dad was unable to join the band. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening, and everyone that we interacted with at the White House was extremely nice.

Bush is much better with people than I realized. He may not be my favorite president (or even close), but it was amazing to spend an evening at an official event thrown by the president of the world’s super power nation. It’s also too bad that the rumors of Bill and Hillary attending proved to be untrue. Meeting two presidents in one night would have been ridiculous.

UPDATE: it appears a clip of me holding my camera from this event appeared on MSNBC around noon yesterday.

It’s data security. Digital Sandbox style. Hey, we couldn’t get the hard drive to load, but we wanted to make sure that the user’s personal data was gone. This is what happens when engineers put their heads together. And have access to fire.

I’ve been busy the last few days. We’re getting a lot of new people at work, and I’m on a project in addition to doing IT, so I’ve been keeping busy. I’ve also been doing a lot of cooking in the evenings. Tonight, it was my oat fudge bars recipe. We’ll see how they came out in the morning. Also, if there is no rain, I will have a cool post for you (hopefully with pictures) tomorrow night.

UPDATE: they’ve picked the rain date, so the adventure is Thursday.

This weekend, I tried a new recipe. I decided to be brave and cook a steak indoors. I’ve had previous problems with cooking steaks inside. I tried to fry a ribeye about two years ago, and it was so disgusting that I couldn’t finish it. Thanks to some tips from my coworkers, especially Mike, I was able to create a masterpiece completely using a typical kitchen range.

Indoor Steaks

1 or more ribeye steaks (I actually used NY strip this time, but prefer ribeye)
Olive oil
California style garlic salt (garilc salt with parsley in it)
Oregano (optional)
1 tsp. real butter per steak
Oven safe frying pan

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Preheat the frying pan over medium high heat. Salt the steaks well. If desired, add a little oregano or other spices to the steaks. Pour a little olive oil on the side of the steaks that you will sear first. Place steaks in the frying pan and sear the first side until just before it starts to burn (no more than two minutes). Flip and sear the other side of the steak using the same procedure. Once both sides are seared, remove frying pan from the burner and place in the oven. Cook steak for about 10 minutes more for a medium steak. Once cooked to desired temperature and coloration, remove pan from heat. Place butter on top of steak. Let steak sit for five minutes before eating.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: remember to use hot mits while handling the frying pan after it has been in the oven. The handle will still be hot enough to burn you after sitting on the counter for five minutes.

GRILLING NOTE: I use approximately the same recipe when grilling steaks, except I omit the olive oil and do all the cooking time in a closed grill over medium to high heat.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 ESV)

So often, it’s easy to get discouraged. At times, I’ve even found this text to be discouraging. There’s such a huge disconnect between what happened in Jesus’ day and how most believers live. It’s one of those problems that’s made worse by the fact that most Christians don’t even see a problem. They’re comfortable, and they don’t want to leave the Holy Huddle. What if we chose to believe that God can work through us in powerful ways? What if we chose to live lives so sold out to God that people couldn’t help but notice? What if we committed to lift up this generation in prayer? Let’s stop wondering and start believing.