Andre had to go to the Fine Arts Center on Tuesday for a project in his art class. We got in for free because we are students which was nice. This museum is very small but definitely has some interesting stuff. My favorite is the Orange Hornet Chandelier by Dale Chihuly, Andre really liked some of the paintings by Biss. Definitely worth a trip if you are in the area :)
Saturday Andre and I went scuba diving at the Denver Aquarium. Originally I was looking to go snorkeling at the aquarium, but I saw that if you were a certified diver you could go diving. Neither of us had ever gone diving, but I decided to call anyways to see if they would let us do that instead of snorkeling. I called A1 Scuba and they were very friendly, they were able to hook us up, and for some reason made a special exception for us so we could go diving.
We got to the aquarium right at 10:30 and we met our instructor at the "dive lounge", he was an older guy but was very nice. He took us up to where we would be diving and walked us through some basic diving info. After a short quiz we hopped into some wetsuits and got in the water.
There was a ledge at the top where we were supposed to sit and go through a couple of basic diving routines. There was a giant sea turtle opening and closing his mouth on the ledge and they had to move him, but he was really cool. I went first and I sat on the ledge underwater, I had to remove my regulator from my mouth then find it and put it back in, then I had to breath through the back up regulator, and he had me fill my mask with water and blow the water out with my nose. I did this all pretty quickly and didn't have any problems.
So I started floating around the tank and taking videos while he helped Andre. Andre had a few problems with his mask, but he got a new one and was good to go. We started diving, we had to pinch our noses and blow to regulate the pressure in our ears on the way down. It was kind of scary at first, breathing underwater isn't exactly natural, but we both got used to it within a few minutes.
We spent about 50 minutes underwater and we saw all sorts of amazing creatures, moray eels, stingrays, sharks, nurse sharks, a 300 pound Queensland grouper, sea turtles, etc. It was awesome, I got some great videos and pictures and we both had a really good time. We were both nervous about going and at some points even thought about canceling the trip, but we were so glad to have gone. It was really fun. Our instructor was really great, he was patient and helpful, he even helped us by taking some pictures and videos, I really recommend A1 scuba they were very friendly.
The pictures didn't all come out too good because of the light reflecting off of the particles but the video is amazing. It is probably my favorite video I've made so far and you can watch it below!
Rafting is something I’ve always enjoyed and I’ve probably been almost fifteen times. So I decided to get a group together and plan a trip. Andre had been once before with my dad and I, Cassie had been before, but Pierre and Andre’s cousin Marcus had never been. The water levels are always fairly low in July because the snow has been melted for quite some time, but there were still plenty of class IV rapids to get through.
We all rode up together in Pierres Jeep to Canon City, CO. and we barely made it in time for our 9AM Royal Gorge trip… We got our life vests and helmets on, and then hopped in the back of a bus that took us up the river. Here we met our guide, and got some brief instructions on how to raft. We were immediately complemented on our power and timing. Our guide was nice but I personally felt he was a bit annoying, he never once stopped talking which made me feel like he wasn’t always paying attention…but that’s just me.
Anyways, after the first rapid a whole bunch of people fell out of a raft behind us. Our crew had no problems whatsoever, and we got through everything easily. At about the third or fourth rapid the same people fell out of their raft again, we were right behind them at this point and our guide had us pull over to the shore while he and the safety kayaker went to help them. Andre was holding our raft so we didn’t float away and after about the first twenty minutes of sitting there we realized something was probably wrong.
One of the guys who had fallen out had his foot so tightly wedged into the raft that when he fell his foot stayed in, and he ended up tearing a ligament in his knee… So they helped him out, but they had to put him back in a raft in order to take him to a point where he could safely be picked up. They talked about taking one of us from our raft and having us paddle for the guy that was injured, but thankfully the safety kayaker just put his kayak in the raft and took the injured guys place.
So after about forty minutes of waiting for them to get everything figured out we were finally off again. At this point we all had been sunburned, and there were only a couple of rapids left. Our crew annihilated all of the remaining rapids and before you knew it we were done. The trip did seem a lot longer than a usual half-day trip, most likely because we spent so long waiting for the injured guy.
It was still a lot of fun and we were encouraged by our guide to come back during May when the water levels are higher and things are more difficult. I think everyone had a good time and that we might take a similar crew back next year when it’s more challenging. It is pretty expensive, we went through ARK and it was $65 a person which is kind of lame, then at the end they wanted $55 for a CD of photos (which I wanted but could not afford) and we tipped our guide $20.
I did bring my waterproof camera, and we got some good pictures but none of them are as a group, and none of the videos or pictures are of the actual rapids because I was too busy paddling to film…
The Sunrise For the fourth of July T-mobile was closed, but Andre still had to work. So I decided to go fishing with my dad and two younger brothers JJ and David. I really wanted to bring my canoe, which I found for free, and just finished patching up. I even tried borrowing Yancy and Cathy’s truck but we couldn’t get it to work :( … (Next time).
My dad wanted to leave extremely early; 4:00 AM, he was convinced that leaving this early would ensure that we caught something. I usually don’t get to bed until around 3:00 AM because of my work schedule. So I ended up just not going to bed. This was a bad idea, and JJ did the exact same thing.
We left my house right at four, headed up into the mountains towards Victor, CO and went to Skagaway reservoir. I had never been there but was excited; it was kind of busy but not too bad considering that it was the fourth of July. It is a smaller lake but very pretty, it is surrounded by hills/mountains, and it feels kind of like something from a postcard.
On the way there we saw a herd of elk hanging out with some horses, which was really neat. We also came to a roadblock of cows that had managed to get off of their property, but they eventually moved. We got to Skagaway at about 5:30 AM and immediately started fishing. I know that there were fish there, because they were literally jumping out of the water-eating bugs. We even had live bait, but they just weren’t interested.
JJ and I eventually lost interest and started hiking around the lake, we saw two adult ducks with a baby duck, some prairie dogs, and several chipmunks. Toward the end of the lake we noticed a whole bunch of cows hanging out and drinking, this made us want to pet them. So we tried to get closer, but getting to the other side of the lake proved too difficult and we turned back (although it would have been a breeze with a canoe).
By the time we got back to where my dad and David were fishing it was almost nine and we had already been there over for three hours. Neither David nor my dad had caught anything either, so we just decided to go. At this point I was a bit grumpy and had been up for more than 24 hours, so I desperately wanted a shower and my soft bed.
We stopped for breakfast burritos and I finally got to bed at around eleven. It was a long day, but the lake was nice and I really want to get my canoe out there. The best part about this lake is that it is free unlike some other reservoirs out in CO. I definitely recommend it and will probably go back with my canoe sometime this summer.
