4th of July

Andrea and I spent this Independence Day doing a number of fun activities.  We started the day by driving up Mount Evans to escape the heat in Denver.  And boy did we escape the heat!  When we left Denver around noon, the temperature was around 90.  By the time we hit the US Forest Service station at the base of Colorado 5, the temperature was in the 60’s.  We drove up to Summit Lake where we stopped and walked around in the cold.  It was probably in the low 40s there.  The wildflowers were blooming all over the mountain and the lake was still half frozen.  The clouds had descended making it a very cold, somewhat eerie scene as the summit was hidden in the clouds and the occasional rumble of thunder could be heard.  We then decided to attempt the summit anyway since neither of us had ever been up that far.  As we drove up the summit, the road disappeared into the fog and you could barely see the car ahead of you, and it began to rain lightly.  By the time we reached the parking lot at the summit, visibility was just a handful of yards and it was raining steadily, so we didn’t stop up there.  Just was we turned down the hill, the rain largely changed over to snow, completing the weather trifecta for the day.  

We then headed back down the mountain into Denver for the Rockies game.  It was a great game, harkening back to the old Coors Field days.  The Rockies beat the Mets 17-7 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, chasing El Duque from the game after over 100 pitches in 4 innings.  The light rain came in the 9th inning as everyone was wanting the game to be over except the one Met who insisted on fouling off 9 straight pitches to start the inning despite being down 11 at that point.  With the win, the Rockies became the first team to sweep two New York teams in the same season since the 1956 Milwaukee Braves swept the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, and also became the first team ever to sweep the Yankees and the Mets in the same season. 

Following the game, the Rockies stadium personnel took forever to move the people in the Rockpile and the left field bleachers to the field.  We used to have season tickets over in left field, and I believe that they have gotten noticably worse at moving people from the stands to the field to promptly start the fireworks show.  Once the show got started though, the Rockies put on one of their trademark incredible displays, capping a great day in the mountains and the ballpark.