DropKnees.com Blog

This was the beginning to the best week ever. Totem Josh and I flew into Seattle on Aug 2 and Wendt and Schirmang picked us up in Gaffney’s car. We drove straight to Eatonville, Wa. The Uberaga family basecamp is located in Eatonville. We got the necessary gear to scale Rainier from RMI and enjoyed a night of fantastic Uberuaga hospitality. Sunday morning 15 of us began our journey to Camp Muir as the Zanoni-Uberuaga wedding party scaled a 14,000 foot peak.

It was an emotional hike as the the father of the bride is the Super Intendant of Rainier National Park, Dave. Michelle, the bride, and her brother and sister were all apart of the team.

We took the day to get to Camp Muir, from about 5,000 feet at Paradise Valley to about 10,000 feet. We spent the next day acclimatizing and getting used to the gear (crampons and ice axes) on the Cowlitz glacier. That night we woke up at about 11:30 pm and began to ascend to the top at 1 am. The weather could not have been better, especially since Washington typically is cluttered with moisture and clouds. It took several hours and we were able to see the sun rise to the east. We reached the summit at about 6:30 am. Some tears were shed as words were spoken. The descent was a scorcher. We had to get back to Muir and take down our camp and descend to Paradise. The sun was not exactly friendly to us. All 15 of our party reached the top. It was a spectacular day and I was so happy for Billy and Michelle.

A few pics:

This year, I had to shorten my stay for Lollapalooza to only one night.  Katelin and Alex were in town, so took them to Grant Park to “Lolla.”  The highlight of the day was certainly Radiohead.  That band basically certified that they are true bad asses.  Also, I had never been apart of a crowd that big, 75,000+.  It was actually a little unsettling.  The other acts that we attended that day were The Black Keys, last year’s favorite, and Cat Power.  Both performances were amazing.  The day ended with a throw down dance off at Danny’s.

The next morning it was off to Seattle for Rainier and Bill’s wedding.

My parents came to visit for the weekend. It was their second time coming to visit me, although the first time we were just moving stuff. This time we were able to enjoy the wonders of Chicago. A list of the fun things that we did: Dinner at the Signature room on top of the Hancock Building, a game at Wrigley field, the play Wicked, and the art museum. A few pictures are below.

This weekend was actually about a month ago, I have been on wedding tour and unable to post lately.

For the past two months, on every Wednesday, I have left work a little early and ventured up to Lincoln Park for some serious coed softball games. We never won, but it was a lot of fun. The team consists of some Google and DoublelClicker blokes. 16 inch softball, http://www.16inchsoftballhof.com/history.asp, has been known to hurt the fingers because of the lack of gloves in the game. But it is also known for bringing people together (cheesy line) for a good time. Salutes go out to the team, thank you.

After every game, I then venture to Second City to make funnies with the comedy troupe. Since January 2008, I have been spending three hours every Wednesday night in a room with nothing on the walls and no flare. Yet, every week I laugh my butt off at the scenarios that we put ourselves into. Our crew comes from all sorts of backgrounds and we always make for a laugh.

Most people dread the humpday, Wednesday…I thoroughly enjoy it.

16′’ screwballs:

16 screwballs:

The fourth fell on a weekend this year and it was great. I was able to cruise to to sides of Lake Michigan. The fourth of July was spent in Indiana on the shores. The Ryan family put me up and we had a great time on the beach all day (fireworks were a must at night). The next day, I drove all the way to the otherside of the lake, to Racine. Racine is where Holleb acres is. Its like a family compound with tennis and a pool. We had family laughs and then threw down in a crazy game of Taboo. The next day was full of Tennis matches and a short jaunt to Whitewater. We mountain biked kettle moraine and I bought a bike from the backyard bike shop. It was a long weekend that involved 3 states, but it was well worth the travel.

I spent the weekend in LA. It allowed me the opportunity to check out the whole town. Residing in West Hollywood, we cruised to Venice on Saturday for a day with some kids from high school that I hadn’t seen in well over a decade. We got weird like most of the people on the beach. The next morning, I met up with a member of the Meyer (family) clan, Jeff Meyer, for a brief surf session in Santa Monica. Where the Sunset blvd. meets PCH (the Pacific Coast Hwy) and near the Baywatch lifeguard towers, there was a great long-board break. I was able to catch three waves and live up to my “bro-ness.”

Last weekend, I participated in my first bachelor party ever. Billy Zanoni, a good friend and old roommate from Utah, is from Chicago and all his local boys took part. We rented 3 fishing boats and cruised out on Lake Michigan. We were all dressed as Mike Ditkas (some with fake mustaches and some with real staches). The day was perfect and my boat was able to have everyone on the boat catch a fish. The captain and his first mate catered the entire day on the boat. It almost made me feel lazy, but it was great. I caught the biggest fish of my life, a Lake Michigan Salmon. It was almost three feet long and over 20 pounds. I still have a bruise on my hip from the 15 minute fight to bring that sucker aboard.

The middle part of the day was spent at my apartment. All 17 participants came back to our place for more beer and food. People were still coherent and speaking from that heart when we toasted at that point. Then, we moved to a Chicago favorite, Kingston Mines. This is where the night got more eventful and exhausting. The blues and tunes that K. Mines creates is great. The day was long, but fun.

The real reason for being in DC was for Chris & Christian’s wedding (friends from Wyoming and Park City).  Their wedding was at Gonzaga High School’s church (near where I had played lacrosse when I was in High School) and the reception was at the Four Seasons in Georgetown.  The wedding was great and it was a pleasure to romp around a place that I used to live.  I went to Flint Hill Elementary School for three years when I was growing up.  During that time, I routed for the Washington Bullets and saw Doug Williams pull home a Super Bowl.

The East Coast provided some serious humidity when I was there two weeks ago. I arrived on Thursday and went straight to the Nationals/Cardinals baseball game. The new stadium was amazing. Wrigley field has two dudes sweating it out in a sauna in center field, manually placing numbers in the scoreboard, like Vanna White on the Wheel of Fortune. National’s Stadium has the largest scoreboard in baseball, with a 4,000 square foot HD screen. Needless to say, it was an amazing stadium and the game went into extra innings and ended with a walkoff homerun.

After the game, I was escorted around DC’s newest attraction, National Harbor, by the developers, A&B Gault. It was amazing to see something that has been in the works for over a decade. We saw blueprints for the development when I was still in high school. I like seeing things come to fruition.

The next few days were spent roaming around DC and Georgetown. Some pictures are below.

We spent the night at Holleb Acres on Saturday night.  It is a unique family vacation compound with over 8 households on it.  The Holleb family was homesteaders at this Lake Michigan bluff.  It is always tough to get a kid from Boulder to represent where they are really from.  There are plenty of Boulder kids out there that just disown their homestead for the CO. license.  Josh Holleb, took the summer off from Bro-isms and is chillin with his family on the acreage just south of Milwaukee.  It is also a pleasure to meet the family that imbedded such zaniness into such a character.  We certainly enjoyed hanging with the Holleb on their estate.  It was like going back in time because you could tell that only about a handful of things have changed in such a place, for example, the furniture and art were quite dated.  Below are pics of the Hollebs and their view.  Thank you for the hospitality.