On August 8th, Lauren and I loaded up the trusty Subaru Outback (side note: Please buy all of your Subarus at Nitti's Subaru, so my family can eat again. Now with two convenient locations!!) and started the 30-hour trek back to Aspen, Colorado.
The trickiest part of the packing process was convincing Maci to leave her comfy new digs atop her grandparent's front porch. She spent the better part of the summer surveying the world from this vantage point, and she was in no hurry to abandon it.
As you can probably imagine, saying goodbye proved a bit more difficult this summer than in years past. I never thought my parents would be called upon to care for me in this manner again, but they sure haven't lost their touch. They literally nursed me back to health, and I am forever in their debt. Lauren and I discussed it, and we've decided that if they should ever need us to return the favor and care for them in their advancing years, we'll gladly discuss possibly putting the deposit down on a nice full-care facility somewhere.
Shortly before our departure, in an elaborate ceremony befitting the Beijing games, I awarded Angelo and Mary their well-deserved "Parents of the Year" medals. Sadly, my father had to return his a week later when he failed the mandatory drug test.
Thirty hours of driving and seventeen McDonalds' Chipotle wraps later, we pulled into our home in Aspen completely spent. Upon arriving, we noticed that for the first time since last Thanksgiving, the entire valley wasn't under 30 feet of snow. So there's that.Here's two exhausted members of the Nitti family, trying to adjust after not getting our requisite 17 hours of sleep per day we'd averaged over the summer.
Our first week back was spent reacclimating, both physically and mentally. I returned to full-time work for the first time since surgery, which wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Lauren took care of some workshops, prepped her classroom, and caught up with some old friends. Together we kept up our every-other-day running schedule, and slowly got used to the 8,000 foot altitude difference between Aspen and Long Beach Island.This past weekend, we let our proverbial hair down a bit and reminded ourselves why we live in a place where gas is five bucks a gallon. Saturday morning, we hiked the Ute Trail, which while gaining only 1,050 feet of elevation, involved roughly 1,050 feet more climbing than we'd done all summer. So needless to say, we suffered a bit. But as usual, the views were expansive and beautiful. Here's a view of Mt. Sopris, still holding some snow, but not nearly as much as it was on this day.
Lauren and Maci at the top of the Ute Trail. It's hard to imagine that I was skiing this route just five months ago. Maci, as you can see, was finally asked to pull her weight. With her dad still recovering, she's going to have the play the role of Sherpa this fall.
Lauren atop Ute Rock. Previous photos of this same location can be found here and here.
Once we'd descended the Ute, we decided it was only fair to allow our porter some recreation time. So we headed over to the fountain on the Mill Street pedestrian mall, and let Maci loose to do her thing.That evening, we scrapped some camping plans due to ominous weather and opted instead for a block party at my buddy Jeff's house, complete with bad cover band, moon bounce, badminton, and numerous sporadically-manned barbecues. A good time was had by all, though I'm fairly sure more than a few people went home with a food borne illness. Word of advice? Pork loin at a block party is never a good idea.
Midway trough the evening, the skies opening up with a brief storm, but as the weather passed, the colors came out to play.
It's good to be back.
