While I’m in Aspen mainly for work, it also part vacation. I wouldn’t be doing my stay here justice if I wasn’t taking time out to have fun. But work has been going really well and so far I haven’t had any second thoughts on not continuing in the planning profession. I guess the thing with planning and is that while there may be time when you are not liking what you are doing or are fed up with the plans you work on never coming into the light, planning is so interdisciplinary that you are always finding something interesting to work on or learn about. The past two weeks at work I have had to look into Aspen’s green building portfolio and put together a document and description of all the green programs that Aspen has in place… which is quite a substantial and sometimes dizzying list. I feel that they need to consolidate their efforts into a more streamlined approach that everyone can easily get information on and participate in. Aspen is very progressive with their green movement and I believe they are heading in the right direction… but maybe the biggest problem is the unique nature of the town and the personal values that come with it. It’s not often you come across a city where you have such profound tourism located in a small mountain city that’s a celebrity getaway but also with a mix of regular working class people. It also means there is a lot of leeway since almost no matter what kind of new regulations you implement in Aspen, people will still come to visit and live here since it’s such a desirable place to be whether there is a blizzard outside or it’s 80 degrees and sunny. People will bend but not break. I understand why people think planners are communist or socialists or whatever; because it seems that we are trying to interfere in people’s everyday lives as we stuff our agenda “down people’s throats” and make them conform to our values/codes/standards. That’s the more extreme end of things but as planners know, there is always an opposition, no matter how small, to any plan and it becomes a witch hunt due to the loudest person being the person with the most attention paid to in the media. But I digress. Work is good, and right I’m putting together a list of communities, whether they are big cities or ski towns in other countries, to contact for information on their green initiatives. So I’ll surely update my progress as things move along.
Now on to the more fun stuff. This weekend I went on another hike, this time to the Frying Pan (that’s what it’s called) which is just a specific part of the Rocky Mountain range. The drive in was spectacular. We weaved through a national forest filled with pine trees, towering mountains, and a rapid river. There was even a smattering of rock formations more reminiscent of Utah or Arizona… but Colorado has them to. We also passed this huge reservoir in the middle of the valley which I’ll talk about in a bit. The original plan was to hike this specific trail up to a mountain lake, but as things have seemingly been going with the weather, we came across a stream in the beginning of the hike that turned into a river due to the enormous amounts of snowmelt that has been taking place. Pretty much, the fast flowing river was a sign that things would be much worse nearer the top, so we abandoned our efforts there and switched our efforts to an easier trail in a different part of the range. The subsequent hike we took was an easy hike and led through the forest to a different lily pond mountain lake. It was a nice and quiet lake but neither the weather nor the fish were cooperating.
Since this hike didn’t take as long as the other one would, we had some extra time to do some different activities. We decided to head back to the aforementioned reservoir (Reudi Reservoir). I’ll let the pictures do it justice but it was almost like an American version of a fjord. Everyone was out on the banks of reservoir relaxing, barbequing, sailing, water skiing, and swimming. It’s times like those that I wish I owned a kayak. So even though the initial hike didn’t work out, it turned out to be a great time.
Plain and simple… July 4th was amazing! So here are some details haha. In the late morning, I headed down to Aspen with my cousin to catch the 4th of July parade. Half the county must have been there because it was packed and the parade was no joke either. It went for well over an hour and that’s with my cousin and I walking against the parade. As the legend Mitch Hedberg would say, “If you walk the opposite way through the parade, it’s like watching the parade in fast forward!” It was actually quite an impressive parade with a wide array of things to see and of course it had a lot of patriotism. “IF YOU DON’T LIKE AMERICA THEN YOU CAN GEEEEET OUT!” After the parade we met up with some of my cousin’s friends for some free food, beer, and music at the Aspen Art Museum’s annual 4th of July BBQ. After getting our fill, we all headed out to Stillwater which is a bridge that goes over this river/creek. It’s one of the local hotspots, mainly because you can jump off the bridge into the water below. Bathing suits you say? Who needs bathing suits? Yup, we jumped right in. It was a solid 10-15 foot drop into some icy cold water. Totally worth the rush from jumping down though. After a bit of air drying we headed back into town to check out some of the activities going on. After getting some dinner (and I must admit I had chicken wings outside of Buffalo and feel somewhat ashamed of it even though the wings were pretty decent) we killed some time around town going into random shops, including one place to get myself some new shorts due to a mishap with the pair of shorts I was wearing that had an excessive amount of skin showing haha.
So in Aspen, it pays to know people with money in the bank. Thanks to some solid friend making by my cousin the year prior, we had some friends who invited us up to their timeshare in Aspen. Those not from the Aspen area won’t recognize the name The Residences at Little Nell, but all the locals know that it’s where people with money and celebrities stay at this hotel. Anyways my cousin’s two friends (from Louisiana) let us into the hotel and up to the rooftop to watch the fireworks. It was straight pimp on top of this place. Huge comfy chairs, open fire pits with s’mores ingredients (and other assortments of food and drinks), heated towels and robes, and rooftop hot tubs and pools populated the rooftop. Let’s just say I will probably never have enough money to afford a timeshare at this place. Luckily these friend’s parents did and by the sound of their own charter flight to take them to and from Aspen and Louisiana, I’d say they were doing just fine. I got to meet some cool little kids from Australia too and it made me want to have my own Australian kid. They definitely have some of the coolest accents. Jimmie Johnson from NASCAR was up there too. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the fireworks from a hot tub on top of roof that had a front row seat view to the mountain on which the fireworks were being launched from. PIMP!
After the fireworks we went back into town to check out some more of the activities… mainly live music and other street activities. Aspen definitely has cool scene and I’m even starting to enjoy some folk and bluegrass type music. After that, we went back to Little Nell to check out the room our friends were staying in. Well, room is the correct term… suite better suits it. It was definitely the biggest hotel room I had ever been in, with a huge kitchen with top of line equipment, a fully decked out living room, and some really nice bedrooms and bathrooms. And one of their family friends bought a ton of top shelf liquor that was up for grabs, so I helped myself to some Crown Royal Reserve. It was delicious! Even more delicious enjoying it up at the rooftop hot tub and pool later that night. So yeah, it was a pretty solid night haha, and I believe you have to enjoy Aspen as a high roller to really appreciate what the city has to offer… if you have money that is. Well, there is actually a lot to do even if you don’t have millions of dollars but it’s definitely nice living the high life every now and again.
On a parting note, Christopher Titus just had his new special, Neverlution, aired on Comedy Central. Definitely check it out if you have the opportunity. He is one of the best comedians out there. Also speaking of television, some of the shows I’m watching this summer are the new episodes of Futurama (Comedy Central), Louie (FX – Louis C.K. is another one of the best comedians out there), and Wilfred (FX – Starring Elijah Wood as a man who sees a dog as an actual man in a dog suit).
Peace out!
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