PHAN-TASTIC!

Four concerts, a Mike sighting, a lingering hangover, a seven hour drive later... and it's back to reality. This just means I'll have more time to post pictures on facebook and blog about my incredible trip to Crested Butte and Telluride! Lucky you! (Robin especially LOVES it when I post pictures of the Phish light show....she CANNOT get enough of it). It alllll started on a....pretty standard Friday morning.

Stop #1 on the way to Crested Butte...Buena Vista so Patrick could get his Kayak on.

They had the most incredible hand-painted ceramic furniture set up right outside of the park.

Cottonwood Pass.

Our campsite "Dinner Station" was GORGEOUS. Beautiful clear river running through it, plenty of space, and a sweet old couple who ran the place and drove by in a golf cart each night to check on things.

The campsite was about 5 miles from Taylor Res. which is one of the coolest reservoirs I've ever seen. Bright blue water with sand banks that jutted out into the middle that you could drive out on, in your car.

We hiked Saturday morning...

Then headed into Crested Butte to have some drinks and do this...?

The coolest thing happened the next morning as we were packing up the car. I had my back tailgate open and a hummingbird flew right in! I'm sure the old man staying a couple campsietes over who was hanging hummingbird feeders in the trees around his RV was pretty jealous.

Next Stop....TELLURIDE. Quick side note regarding Phish Telluride. Phish had not played in Telluride since 91'. Only 9000 tickets were sold for this show aka it was near impossible to get tickets. The town of Telluride knew crazy hippie phish phans were about to take over their town so they announced that they were putting a barricade up at the entrance to town at 5pm on Sunday to keep the thousands of people without tickets from descending on their tiny town. We made it just in time!

Telluride is my new favorite town in CO. Incredibly beautiful, nice people, gorgeous waterfalls, great music venues. Love it.

I ran into the bass player from Phish, Mike Gordon, on the street when I was getting coffee on Monday morning. I literally ran into him (wasn't paying attention, looking at cell phone). He was telling a story to his daughter about the first time he ate a hotdog...it was hilarious.

I'll make this next part quick and let the pictures speak for themselves. Patrick and I did not have tickets to either night of the show, nor did our friends Jocelyn and Scott. None of us were willing to pay $1000 for a two day pass. We decided to try to sneak into the venue. We hiked up behind Town Park and Scott took one for the team and hiked down a VERY steep hill to the back of the stage. He called us half an hour later standing right outside of the fence in the campground area...plan 1 - FAIL. Then our friend Blake came to the rescue and told us his wrist band was loose enough to slip off. SO he and his friend Josh passed their wrist bands back and got us in both nights...plan 2 - SUCCESS. We were about 20 ft from the stage both nights. It was magical.

This is Scramble Campbell. He is an awesome painter who goes to a ton of shows (Phish, String Cheese, Further, etc.) and paints the "scene" around him. He does one painting per set...starts when the band starts, finishes by the end of first set, and he noodles around the whole time. His art goes for about $4000/painting. I chatted him up for a few minutes...very phriendly! He is my idol. Phish + painting + free tickets + dancing...yes please.

The whole week could not have been more perfect!

Sigh...back to reality. Well at least for another 8 hours until I go to the Rose Hill Drive concert in Denver! Can someone pleasssse hook me up with a job in the music industry already!