My Colorado Bucket List Strikes Back

Remember my Colorado bucket list from last year? Last December I moved back to New York when my internship ended and therefore slapped a "done" stamp on that list. A month later I was back in Colorado, but never got around to creating a new Colorado bucket list -- I was a little bit preoccupied with all things Sochi 2014. And then weeks turned into months turned into almost a full year later... and I finally think it's time to get round two going.

The only thing is that I still don't know how long I'm going to be here. Will I still be living here when the weather warms up again? Don't know! So this'll be a baby-sized bucket list, just of things I can do in winter weather. (I'm certainly not visiting Cave of the Winds or hiking Pike's Peak or going to the zoo while it's below freezing outside.) Hopefully there'll be another Colorado bucket list created for the warm-weather seasons, but for now, I'm using this as motivation to hold myself accountable and get my butt out of my apartment this winter!

1. Go on a walking tour in Denver. I did five walking tours in five different cities while I was in Europe, but I've never done one in an American city. It's high time to change that! Unfortunately most of the walking tours I've found are self-guided or aren't running during the winter, so I'll either have to wait a bit or suck it up and guide myself. We'll see. Either way, I've spent some time in Denver (the botanic gardens and LoDo), but not nearly enough. It seems like such a cool city, and I definitely need a good chunk of time to walk around and explore a bit!

2. GO TO AN AVALANCHE GAME. The caps lock is extremely necessary, because at this point I've been in Colorado Springs for parts of THREE NHL seasons and have not yet been to a game. And after a year and a half of being a Colorado resident, I have fully adopted the Avs as my team. So it's absolutely required to get myself some merch and get my butt to a game. I really wish Denver wasn't an hour away, 'cause that's kind of a schlep for a game, but I WILL make it happen.

3. Go to a Colorado College hockey game. I got to experience every other major college sport while I was at Miami, but I (obviously) never got the Division I hockey experience (though we did have a pretty decent club team!) I went to a CC game last year with some friends and it was super fun! And if I complain about the Avs playing too far away to be convenient... well, CC plays at the World Arena right in Colorado Springs. If I want to see a hockey game, it doesn't get any more convenient than that.

4. Tour Glen Eyrie castle. Did you know there's a castle in Colorado Springs? Because there's a castle in Colorado Springs. I think it's more of a mansion than an actual castle in the strictest sense, but it's called Glen Eyrie Castle and it's right by Garden of the Gods and I MUST GO SEE IT. I haven't seen a castle since 2012. Let's fix that.

I think I like the concept of a bite-sized bucket list: short, sweet, and totally doable in the next few months! Now I just need to wrangle some friends into doing things with me. Any takers? :)

The Master List Of Olympic Trips

I found out the other day that the Olympic Stadium that hosted the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games has hosted its final sporting event and is being torn down to make room for the new 2020 Olympic Stadium. Maybe I hadn't been reading about the 2020 stadium enough, because this is the first I've heard of the 1964 stadium being torn down. And I'm SO SAD! I like that stadium! And it's no secret that it's my goal to visit all Olympic sites, so the fact that this one will soon no longer exist is just flat out depressing. I've been all worried about places like Sarajevo and Athens and Sochi, but Tokyo?! Not so much. Sigh.

The fact that a perfectly good Olympic stadium is being demolished was a good, albeit harsh, reminder that I have a crap ton of Olympic cities I still need to visit, and that those venues won't all be around forever. It's kind of hard to plan big trips, let alone take them, when you're not sure where (or if) you'll be employed in a month's time... but nevertheless, I've started planning my (dream) Olympic trips!

Back in the good ol' days, when backpacking through Europe was a thing I did. Berlin, you're fab.

I did a kind of hilarious amount of research for this, what with finding all the cities and Google mapping things and such. Do you realize just how many Olympic cities there are? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't. I'd be trucking along just fine, and then realize CRAP I FORGOT ABOUT ALBERTVILLE and have to go back and tweak things. Why is it always the French cities I'm forgetting?! (Maybe it's because France has hosted the Olympics five freaking times and still doesn't have much sports legacy to speak of. I mean, uh, what?)

Ahem. Getting out of France... Let's begin! (And if you would like to be a travel companion or host me in any of the following cities, please form an orderly line and express your interest in the comments. Thank you.)

 Sydney, Australia | Melbourne, Australia

Yeah, there's not really much else I could do with these two, is there? :P But I'm down for some exploring in Australia, so no complaints here.

Salt Lake City, Utah | Squaw Valley, California | Los Angeles, California

True story: America is very inconveniently large. This is either a beast of a road trip or a couple of extremely short flights. Or three separate trips. Y'know what the funny thing is? I have flown into or through LAX, SLC and Reno-Tahoe, but never done Olympic things. Actually, I'm pretty sure I flew through SLC while going to Reno-Tahoe. So next time I just need to leave the airport (or, uh, not be working).

Vancouver, Canada | Calgary, Canada

The only Canadian city I've ever been to is Toronto, so some Canadian quality time is definitely in order! Vancouver and Calgary were a couple of awesome Games, too. Might have to pick myself up a pair of those awesome Canadian mittens!

Montreal, Canada | Lake Placid, New York

Okay, so, I've been to Lake Placid before, but I did it wrong. It needs a redo. And I didn't know until now just how close it is to Montreal! (Fun fact: these Games were also held in back to back quads, in 1976 and 1980. What I wouldn't give to have lived nearby back then!)

Sapporo, Japan | Tokyo, Japan | Nagano, Japan | PyeongChang, South Korea | Seoul, South Korea | Beijing, China

These little countries sure have a high concentration of Olympic cities! I'm down with a whirlwind tour through Asia, especially one ending with the Bird's Nest and the Great Wall of China. Uh, yes please!

Lillehammer, Norway | Oslo, Norway | Stockholm, Sweden | Helsinki, Finland

I love Scandinavia. My trip to Copenhagen was only about a lifetime in the making. And the prospect of this trip excites me greatly. Like, I don't think you understand.

London, England | Paris, France | Antwerp, Belgium | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Rome, Italy | Barcelona, Spain

Want to see the great European capital cities? Well, the Olympics sounds like a perfectly valid excuse to me! (Also, yes, I've been to London. And Paris. Aaaand Rome. But I didn't do anything Olympic in Paris or Rome, and only went to one of London's Olympic stadiums. Pretty sure this was me subconsciously giving myself a concrete reason to go back, besides that gaping hold in my heart that's been present since I left.)

Grenoble, France | Albertville, France | Chamonix, France | Torino, Italy | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany | Innsbruck, Austria | Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy

Alright, eight Olympic cities all within a couple of hours of each other? Yes. Just lots of yes. All of the yes. Albertville and Chamonix are about 20 minutes away from each other. How epic is that?! You could do three cities in one day! Basically, this trip needs to happen, and pronto.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Moscow, Russia | Sochi, Russia

Technically Yugoslavia was never in the USSR and was only an ally of it until 1948... but sshhh. Sarajevo's venues are abandoned and crumbling (and destroyed by war), and I wouldn't be surprised if Sochi followed suit (except maybe not the war thing), so I should probably start practicing my Russian and get my butt over there before there's nothing left! Ugh, that's so sad to even think about.

Olympia, Greece | Athens, Greece

Ah, Greece. It's been on my "must visit" list since 2004... which is when Athens' now crumbling and abandoned venues were brand spankin' new. It's also kind of where this whole Olympic thing began, so it's kind of a big deal. Kind of.

Atlanta, Georgia | Mexico City, Mexico | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

These are the cities that, try as I might, just did NOT fit anywhere else. However, for someone that hasn't already been to St. Louis, that could be worked into a trip with Atlanta. But since I have been to St. Louis, Atlanta is a floater. And there's really nothing to do with Mexico City and Rio. Sorry kids. Those are solos.

(Please note: I left off Munich and Berlin because I have already been there and frolicked in those Olympic stadiums. But for anyone actually reading this for legitimate trip planning ideas, Munich and Berlin is easily it's own trip. Take an overnight train between the two and you're good to go!)

So basically, now my wanderlust is acting up and my bank account is cowering in fear. I'll probably be working on this list for the rest of my life. Here's hoping some cities are awarded future Games for the second and third times, 'cause the prospect of this list getting longer is mildly frightening.

However, earlier today, Kara and I promised each other that we're both going to Rio 2016, whether it be for work or as spectators. We pinky swore, too, so this is legit. Two-plus years and counting! Let's see if I can make anything else happen before then!

Of Torches, Medals and Bucket Lists

Yesterday morning, I woke up eagerly like a kid on Christmas with the promise of a tour through the U.S. Olympic Committee archives waiting under the tree.

(Quick shout-out to the fall 2013 intern class! We're a pretty proactive bunch, re-starting the intern blog [more info to come!] and the Intern Games, and getting this tour to happen. Good work, folks!)

We met up with Terry, the archivist, and her intern Cassandra and were immediately led into an office area where all historical photos are kept. Man, if I had a few hours to browse through there! Terry told us a little bit about her classification system for all the images she has and pulled out some photos from the Athens 1896 Opening Ceremony. So cool!

But after that came the really, really cool stuff. Terry took us down into the basement of the building that houses USA Shooting to where all the things are kept; uniforms, torches, medals, pins, merchandise, posters, film, etc. It's a magical land that sort of looks like prison.

 

Los Angeles 1984 and 1932-themed display for one of the Team USA Houses in Sochi.

Participation medals from Los Angeles 1932 (left) and Barcelona 1992 (right).

U.S. Olympic team poster for Nagano 1998. I'm OBSESSED!

From that little area where we saw the stuff pictured above, Terry led us back into the rows and rows of metal shelving where things are stored. Somehow I ended up right up at the front of the procession, so I was next to Terry as she was sorting through boxes and pulling stuff out for us. Conveniently, this meant I was one of the first people to get to hold everything. :)

Salt Lake City 2002 gold medal for women's curling.

Guys, I checked an item off my Olympic bucket list (and my Colorado bucket list, actually); I got to hold an Olympic medal! :D However, one of the negatives of being right at the front meant that this medal was well past me when Terry told us we could wear it as long as the metal didn't touch our skin. But I was okay with that, since this medal really wasn't the one I had come to see.

The torches came out next!

From left to right; Beijing 2008, Torino 2006, London 2012.

Terry brought out another medal next, and this time, I was prepared.

Bronze medal from Atlanta 1996.

It was around this time that some of us started looking around at the shelves closest to us, and we noticed some pretty interesting stuff.

I was basically in Olympic nerd heaven, which was only exacerbated by the emergence of...

A pin from the Tokyo 1940 Olympics that were cancelled due to World War II.

But by now, I was getting a little antsy. It didn't look like Terry was going to be showing us any more medals, and as much as I felt bad about making a request, I knew this would be my only shot. So I went for it.

"Terry, do you have any medals from 1980?"

"I don't have any from Moscow, but Lake Placid I do."

"Oh, uh, yeah, that's -- I mean, Lake Placid. That's what I was -- yeah."

And after a brief period of rooting around in boxes, during which I got kind of sweaty and jittery and had to restrain myself from watching over her shoulder while she searched... I had a Lake Placid 1980 Olympic gold medal hung around my neck. (No, seriously, Terry actually hung the medal around my neck as if I won it.)

Just to put things in perspective? During the Lake Placid Olympics, the only Americans to have these babies hung around their necks were Eric Heiden and the Miracle on Ice hockey team. Holy. Freaking. History. I'm still not over it. Pretty sure I'll be emotional about this for a good chunk of forever. *sniffle*

However, that wasn't the end of our tour, as Terry showed us a photo album one of the American athletes kept during Stockholm 1912.

Somehow, at the end of the tour, the 1980 medal made its way back into my possession and I got to cradle it like it was my child hang onto it for an extra few minutes before we left. That medal and I connected on a very spiritual level.

We left the archives and had the pizza Terry ordered for us (as if helping me check an item off my bucket lists wasn't enough, she fed me too!), and that was it.

So, y'know. It was a pretty okay way to spend a couple hours.

My Colorado Bucket List

It's kind of a bummer when the blog post you've been mentally planning suddenly becomes a moot point.

But you know what's NOT a bummer? When that post you were mentally planning was going to be titled, "Things To Do While I'm Unemployed."

:)

Now that I have about four more months in Colorado (side note: seven consecutive months in the same bed is the most permanent living situation I've had since high school), I decided it was high time to plan out my Colorado bucket list. Because in the almost three months I've been here, I haven't done nearly enough! Granted, this is largely due to the fact that I make minimum wage and spend $27.08 per day to live at the Olympic Training Center (and then there's gas for my car...), but I've been majorly slacking on affordable outings too. That needs to change!

1. Go ice skating at the World Arena. It might not be the old Broadmoor World Arena, where Olympic skaters trained (and where tryouts for the 1980 Olympic hockey team were held!), but I'm going to pretend it is. Either way, when Olympic skaters/hockey players do happen to be in town, this is where they train. So it may not be Peggy Fleming's ice, but I guess Evan Lysacek's ice will do. :) (And apparently Badger Bob used to coach Colorado College, so Mark Johnson learned to play hockey at the Broadmoor? Okay, awesome.)

Peggy Fleming at the Broadmoor! [x]

2. Go to a concert at Red Rocks. Technically this shouldn't even be on the list at all because it's going to be crossed off imminently, but I just want to brag that Ingrid and I are going to see OneRepublic and Sara Bareilles there THIS WEEK and I'm SO EXCITED!

Is this not the coolest venue EVER? [x]

3. Visit each Colorado Springs-based NGB. There are about two dozen sport national governing bodies in this city. Call me a nerd, but I really want to go to each one and take a picture in front of the sign. I don't even have a picture of myself and anything that says USA Volleyball yet! That needs to be remedied ASAP.

4. Visit Denver (and go to a Rockies and Avalanche game!). I've heard nothing but good things about Denver from other interns that've been there, and why not work in the pro sports teams while I'm at it? Hopefully I can squeeze in the Rockies before the baseball season ends! And I'm finding it kind of bizarre that I was in CO for the end of hockey season and I'll be in CO for the start of hockey season. But hey, I'll take it!

[x]

5. See the University of Wisconsin women's hockey team play in Vail. Okay, this one's kind of a stretch since Vail is almost three hours away, so it might have to become a weekend trip. But Mark Johnson coaches this team, which means that hoops will happily be jumped through to get myself there! I'll probably be the only person in the arena watching the coach more than the team. Oops? :P

It's okay, just leave me alone with my Miracle on Ice feelings. *sniffle* [x]

6. Hold an Olympic gold medal. I don't want to jinx anything, but suffice it to say that there's a particular gold medal displayed in a museum here that I would probably sob over if I got to hold it. And I have a friend who said she can hook me up. Stay tuned.

Your only hint. [x]

7. Go to a brewery. Honestly, I think beer is kind of disgusting. But there's no way I can live in Colorado for seven months and NOT go to a single brewery. I mean, Colorado is basically the Germany of America, and I suffered for the sake of experience when I was in Munich (and Copenhagen, for that matter) and choked down some whiskey in Edinburgh, so...

Look how excited I was to be drinking Danish beer!

8. Tour the Celestial Tea factory. This one is also kind of far away (damn Colorado, why do you have to be so big?), but if I'm touring a brewery, I'm also touring a place where I actually LIKE the drink they make! Talk about tea heaven!

[x]

Pretty sure that's everything that's super important. I'm determined not to let my first full winter in four years turn me into a hermit! I'm going to make these few months productive and awesome (so when I do have to write that "Things To Do While I'm Unemployed" post in December/January, I at least won't be mad at myself for not taking advantage of everything that's out here.) :)

If any Coloradans are reading this, is there anything fantastic that I'm leaving out?

My Olympics Bucket List

1. Attend an Opening Ceremony. If nothing else, this one HAS to happen. I think I will be able to die happy if/when it does. It's what I look forward to every two years, more so than the two and a half weeks of competition that follow. I don't care if I get the worst seats in the house and pay hundreds of dollars for them. I AM going to an Opening Ceremony one day.

2. Live to see the Olympics return to America. This is entirely beyond my control, of course. But the last time the Games were on US soil was in 2002. Before that, 1996. And before that, 1984 and 1980. So now it's been ten years, and the USOC just recently announced that they won't bid for the 2022 Games. Now the earliest we can hope for is 2024. I'll be well on my way to my mid-thirties and from where I'm sitting, that seems like a lifetime away. But if that's what we've got to work with, let's make it happen, people!

3. Work for another Olympics. I know I've been pretty focused on working for the USOC, but now that I've volunteered for London 2012, a whole new world has been opened up to me. While I love cheering for Team USA, there's something really great about coming together with a group of people and just rooting for the Olympics. The Italians would be rooting for the Italian team, the Americans for the American team, the Canadians for the Canadian team, and the Brits for Team GB, but when it came down to it we were prouder to wear London 2012 gear. And that was awesome. It'd be an absolute dream to get to travel to another country, live there for a year or so, and be a part of another Games. Hey, it's why I'm starting to teach myself Russian. Sochi 2014 or bust!

4. Work for the USOC. While this dream now has an alternative, it has in no way disappeared. I can't even imagine how proud I'd be to put on a Team USA shirt and know I'm a part of it.

5. Meet one of the figure skaters from back in the day. Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano, Michelle Kwan, Sarah Hughes... I'd take any of 'em. I had the typical little girl dream of being an Olympic figure skater, and I watched pro figure skating like there was no tomorrow. That crowd of pros had such a huge role in my life and it'd be amazing to tell them that!

6. Take a picture with Apolo Ohno. Because I really should be in a photo with my future husband before we get married.