We have given notice to our places of business that we are moving on. We have the time and date set to go shopping….SAILBOAT SHOPPING. Once we’ve bought the boat ((to be named Sailing Vessel (SV) Bosco)), we will put our house in Boulder on the market in just a few short weeks. Then it will be a VERY short countdown from the time we leave Colorado to the time we move to our new home…on our boat. From there our lives will be a whirlwind of travel, boat-work, adventure, boat work, practice, boat work and who knows what else…except more boat work.

I am sure you all have many questions and we will try to provide answers for those questions (feel free to email us at any time). We plan on sharing this adventure with everyone who wants to hear about it…and the story begins here and now.

We have also decided to retire THIS BLOG as we are now going OUT TO SEA! And so, a very fitting replacement will be Jake & Jill Went Out To Sea (.com) OR you can simply go to Jake & Jill Adventures, as that is our new company and hopefully a new business. Both addresses go to the same place (Jake & Jill Adventures), and we hope that you avid readers will continue to follow us on our new journey through life! We want to share in this adventure with you and hope to inspire acts of bravery and courage along the way.

As we move though this transistion we will try our best to keep everyone well-informed on just how the heck we’re making these crazy next steps happen, and even how we got here in the first place. And we look forward to sharing our adventures with you all!

JOIN US AND VISIT OUR NEW BLOG ›
 

It was a glorious and sunny february day ripe for being outdoors! We had the best breakfast (pancakes and hash browns), while just sitting around relaxing and watching the sun come out for the day (which as of late has been EXTREMELY rare for us).

We headed out around 11 this morning to an old favorite crag, the sport park. Normally this place is PACKED every day all day all week. But we pulled around the last bend before the parking lot and were shocked to see no cars…woo hoo we were all alone at the greatest crag in Boulder Canyon!

We assumed the river crossing would be pretty easy since its so early in the year and usually its either frozen over or dried up, but we were wrong. It wasn’t horrible but sadly we both lost our footing and splashed in the freezing cold water…oh well perks of the climbing world. We had to bushwhack a bit through the mud and trees to avoid the ice on the trail, but soon enough we were up to some of the greatest climbing in Boulder.

It was an amazing day climbing some old favorites, leading tons of stuff, taking TONS AND TONS of photos, which we almost never do when we climb because its kind of a pain and usually we just want to focus on climbing and nothing else.

Since this will probably be one of our last (or our last) time climbing up in Boulder Canyon before we vacate Colorado, we wanted to take note and capture the memory of everything. Plus the universe was so great because it was super warm and sunny and totally empty except us, which we love love love. Yay love Day!

After climbing for about 4 hours, we were both pretty worked and decided to head back down to the car to get ready for our sushi dinner. We trudged through the ice and cold water (again), and got back to the car to hang out, drink some hot tea and change into normal clothes. The drive back down the canyon was a little bittersweet because we would drive by all our old climbing “stomping grounds” to appreciate and take in that we may never climb here again…at least not anytime soon!

Dinner was a really tasty affair of tons of sushi and handrolls, seaweed salad, Nebeyaki Udon (my favorite) and Teriyaki Salmon…oh and tempura cheesecake for dessert. YUMMMMMM. We both left stuffed and satisfied.

The evening commenced with a nice relaxing evening watching some old classic sitcom TV (Seinfeld) and cuddling on the couch before passing out due to pure joy and exhaustion- all-in-all a really wonderful Love Day (and our last) one in Colorado!

It has been quite a busy couple of months, and both Jilly and I have been MAJOR slackers when it comes to posting about our life’s happenings. Really there isn’t that much going on. We’ve both been working a ton and trying to work out before the holiday set in. We were really going stir-crazy in Colorado, so our New Years trip to Arizona was just the thing we needed!

We celebrated Christmas in true J-squad fashion with lots of presents, food and fun. We spent X-mas eve and day with our dear friends, Patty and Rob. It was really wonderful (as it always is) to hang out with them because they are like our family, so it made up for the fact that we couldn’t make it to Chicago to Jill’s family X-mas party (which usually involves around 30+ people).

Then two days later, we headed out to Tucson, AZ for a week of fun in the sun, or so we hoped! Quite a few members’ of Jilly’s family were headed that way as well, so we knew we would be in for a wild week of activity. We flew in to Phoenix on Saturday morning around 7AM, but were pretty tired by the time we got to Tucson in the early afternoon. It was nice hanging out with Jill’s parents for the day. We had our mini X-mas celebration with them and a quiet dinner at home, just settling in, nothing fancy.

The rest of the time was a whirlwind of eating, playing games, hanging out with the entire family (the Fletcher family — John, Kristy, Will and DJ, Aunt Pat, Renee and Mike, and Jill’s parents and us). The weather was fairly nice the first several days we were there, so Jilly and I always made sure to do some sort of exercise. We hiked one day with Jill’s dad which was really nice (especially with all the commotion and people) and swam laps a couple of days before the cold set in.

New Years brought a bit of a mega snowstorm that we weren’t really expecting, but it did make for an entertaining evening. The rest of the trip was full of shopping (For Jill, her mom and Renee), and playing video games and watching football (for me, Will, Mike and Jill’s Dad). We spent just about every single day with everyone, so it felt like one long week of craziness! Even though it was really cold, we had a really awesome time with everyone.

 
The last few days warmed up a lot so we did get to lay out in the sun a tad bit longer, but it definitely wasn’t enough time! We flew home the following Saturday afternoon around 5PM, but because of the crazy snow, and freezing temps all week, our car was frozen shut and it took us until after 10PM to get home.

All-in-all it was a really fun trip, even though action-packed. It was a little bitter sweet because neither of us really wanted to come back home, though we have A LOT to do in the next few months to get ourselves ready for some new adventures, which many of you are already privy to. We will keep you all posted as the time gets nearer and until then, we hope you have a wonderful (and warm) January!

So with all of this Boulder climbing, we decided we wanted to get at least one more camping hoorah out of the van before its too cold to be enjoyable. We decided that Shelf Road would be the perfect destination. It is located about 3 hours south of Boulder, about 50 miles outside of Colorado Springs in a tiny town called Canon City.

We have been to Shelf about a dozen times over the past decade of life in Colorado, so we knew the climbing would be good. It can get pretty crowded down there, mostly from fellow Boulderite climbers. We also thought it would be a really fun trip to spend with a long time old friend and his wife.

Tim was in my infantry unit when I was in the military back in ’09. We stayed pretty good friends until life took us in different directions, although its funny in retrospect how truly close we were geographically, but had no idea until the modern-age of internet, and more importantly, social media brought us back together. Tim and his wife, Brit moved to Colorado last year when a devastating tornado destroyed their house in Washington, Illinois (just outside of Peoria). They had always wanted to move to Colorado, so when their insurance check came, they decided to make the move and start a new life out here.

So, we decided to reconnect after all these years while camping and climbing at Shelf Road. Brit had never camped before, so this would be her first venture to ‘outdoor liven’. They were also going to bring their dog, Missy, who is a puggle. We planned to go out on a Friday afternoon and climb all day Saturday and then leave on Sunday.

Jilly and I headed out with all of our camping gear in tow on friday afternoon. We pulled in to the campground around 4:30PM, just as the sun was setting over the mountains. It was pretty spectacular sights. The campground was not super crowded yet (as we had hoped), so we got a pretty large campsite and setup shop…namely our cook tent. As the sun dipped lower and lower, the temperatures followed suit, so we were getting REALLY cold REALLY fast. More and more campers were showing up with their dogs or significant others or friends. Everyone was super friendly which was kind of interesting, and super chatty and outgoing. I think we talked to half the campground, though mostly because those folks needed something from us (extra propane, water, a ride, climbing parter, etc).

So we got our warm clothes on and set out to build a nice gigantic fire to set the stage for our evening camping. That night we ended up cooking veggies and cous cous in the fire and it was DELICIOUS. Our friends were not set to arrive until after 7PM, so we figured we would get the “eating” out of the way so we could just enjoy the rest of the night.

And when they pulled in around 7:30PM, we had an awesome time reminiscing about the past and getting to know our new friends and their adorable pup while trying to stay warm. Before we knew it, the rest of the campground was quiet and we decided to turn in so we could get a good start in the morning.

At around 3AM, Brit had to go to the bathroom and accidentally set off their car alarm, which may have woken everyone in camp. We were barely conscious though Jilly remembers hearing a weak sounding “sorry” from Tim – that made us all laugh in the morning when reminiscing. Brit said she was so embarrassed and thought the other campers would come at her with pitchforks…but it happens…its just the nature of camping.

Saturday rolled around and I got up early to start hot water for coffee and tea. We had a lazy morning, cooked a huge breakfast of pancakes and sausage and hung around camp until the sun warmed the land. At around 9 or 10 in the morning, we packed our gear and headed up to the climbing wall, Menses Prow, which has some of the most classic, easier routes in the area. Since Tim and Brit had only climbed outside twice, we figured it’d be a great place to test their skills and have a great day. AND IT WAS!

It was pretty crowded up at the crag, and after the 45-minute or so hike in, we were all sweaty messes. We had to wait to get on the first route of the day, since there were other climbers already there, but it didn’t take terribly long, and it was nice to take our time (not something Jake and I do when we climb, usually we do as much as we can as fast as we can). Our first route was a nice 5.8 warmup and we all took our turns climbing.

Because it was crowded, another group setup a top rope on a climb that we all wanted to try, so we climbed on each other’s routes which was nice because it allowed us to get more climbs in. The second climb was a 5.9 and it was really cool. It was a little more challenging but also way more fun AND long. Jilly did this route twice, and Tim and I did it once each. Brit worked on the other route 3 or 4 times so she was feeling worked by the end of the day.

After 6 or so hours in the sun, the crowds started to thin. We got on a bit of a harder climb, a 5.10B, which is up a classic tower that Jill and I have done probably 6 or so times. I setup the top rope on lead, and Jill followed and then Tim decided he wanted to give it a go. This would be his hardest climb attempt ever, so he worked his butt off and did pretty remarkable. He got about halfway up and then took a break and did it again, making it a little further. I’m sure that if we had more time there, he would have been able to work it out all the way to the top. But the sun was setting fast and the temps were also dropping quickly again.

Through all of this climbing, Missy hung out with us and seemed to have a good time. She met a few other crag puppies, most of which she got along with very well. As this was her first time “climbing” she was a real sport and kept spirits up the entire day!

We decided to hike back down to camp to get a fire going and prep dinner. The hike back was uneventful, although Brit fell on a cactus and I think Tim grabbed a cactus at some point during the day, so they were both hurting a little bit more than Jilly or I. But then again, we have been all over this place before many times, so we knew what to expect.

At camp we setup for a super yummy meal of hot dogs and baked beans and corn. Tim and Brit went all out with grilled veggies and HUGE steaks. We also had a ton of food for smores, but we never got to them after all the other food. Missy the dog was super adorable and pretty worked after the long day of hiking on her little legs, so she cuddled up in Brit’s lap and passed out (which is not normal for her apparently!). All-in-all another wonderful evening with friends.

Sunday rolled around and everyone was moving a little slower today. It was a much warmer night so we all slept a lot better, but still knew we had a long drive home. We took our time this morning cooking another large breakfast and hanging out. Then we packed up all our gear and took off around 11AM to head back home. It was a really great way to spend the last warm weekend, because as soon as we got home, the snow started to fall. PERFECT TIMING!

Yesterday for example I spent about 3 hours; I rode to work (50’ish minutes), after work I rode to the gym (30 mins), did endurance climbing specific training for 1 hr 30 mins, then spent another 25/30’isn mins riding my bike home) the time spent training really gets away from me, about 20 hours a week are spent climbing/training for me. My wife will even comment that I spent TOO MUCH TIME, one thing she doesn’t complain about is the muscles it produces ha-ha.

That leads me to the idea of time, how we perceive it/use it, the rush of modern life, we want everything HERE AND NOW for the most part. But, the one thing we have that still takes time and energy is getting fit (and staying fit).

How do we see time? My argument is that we don’t see it at all; that everyone stays so connected all the time that many of us don’t even TAKE the time to notice that Life is passing by. While we stay connected to screens, between smart phones, tablets, desktop computers, laptop computers, TV’s….TV’s in every house, every room, some people even have them ON the refrigerator just in case your angle in the kitchen doesn’t give you a view of that 60 inch TV in the living room that is on for 5 hours a day. People don’t even take the time to eat dinner and it’s not uncommon to see four people (true with all ages) sitting at a restaurant, not talking to each other all with phone screens lighting up their faces. This UN-natural tie to our ‘online lives’ is what makes time pass without anyone taking notice, we don’t take our eyes off screen long enough to see that the world is out there waiting for us and it’s passing us by…

Oddly enough, even though we have unlimited access to all the worlds information in our front pocket (which funny enough we only use to play games) within seconds we still find ourselves in a constant rush. There seems to be a go-go-go/never enough time attitude with nearly every person I come in contact with. We eat “FAST FOOD” because we don’t have time to cook real food and we know it’s shit food but we don’t care because WE DONT HAVE TIME. We need our lives to be totally mobile, banking, phone/text combined with never sleeping enough hours, we take work home with us, work from the side of our kids basketball courts; we are a people that are always trying to play catch up, which will never happen because our reference to time is somehow off.

The one thing you cannot have without a great deal of effort and sacrifice is TRUE health and fitness; or at least the level of fitness people desire (ie think triathlon/iron-man bodies). Everyone wants the ‘smok’in bod’ for themselves and their partners, but not without loads of work and time and commitment.

On climbing message boards I will often see “how can I improve my climbing/how do I climb 5.12/what should I eat” this opens up two important questions to me 1, we are a society that is afraid to make decisions and why should we need to when you can just ‘google the solution.” and 2 everyone thinks there is a quick a one solution fix and more importantly this one step shopping Amazon idea shouldn’t be uncomfortable or gasp…it certainly shouldn’t be hard.

It has taken me nearly 8 years from the time I first climbed a 5.12. For reference 5.12 is climbing’s ‘magic grade’. The grade which most climbers shoot for/dream about but more or less don’t have the motivation (or ‘time’) to ever get there. During those 8 years I trained, revised the training regime over and over and fought through countless injuries, revised my diet AND work schedule countless times; I was always working and all of that is to just to stay in shape to climb 5.12..let alone trying to surpass it.

To reach that first fitness goal took years of climbing and adventures, summers living in the van, living cheap and climbing as much as possible. Then it took a full 6-months of winter training to make my first breakthough. A winter where I rode my bike everywhere (nearly 30 miles round trip from my office at the time), regardless of weather. After that I would get home and I would go into the garage for hours of campus training/finger board training/core work more cycling on a trainer, it was cold/dusty and miserable but it worked come spring I sent my first 5.12 route.

There is no pill, no app, no easy solution to reach these types of levels in fitness that so many people want but few have the dedication to achieve. Hard work and dedication and time, that is what it takes and you need to make sacrifices. I for one LOVE THIS and I love the process, so many things come too easy in the world so I crave the extra effort. Besides you get the most out of the situations that required that hard effort…not the ones that are cake-walks.

When someone tells me they don’t have the time to do (fill in the blank), I just think they have poor time-management (hint: the average American watches 5 hours of TV a day, stop watching TV and you’ve gained 5 hours of time, we got rid of this distraction 6 years ago). So stop making that classic list of excuses, turn off all your screens regardless of what type and spend time with love ones, pursing activities that are creative & challenging, get out of your comfort zone and try living in the moment for a change; you might just find yourself happy and fulfilled.

Start simple: Take one day a week (we choose Sunday) and decide to unplug – EVERYTHING. No screens on Sundays. That will be a day for you to spend time with your family, friends, kids, even yourself. Read books, go outside, play games, do things outside of your technological bubble, and just see how you feel.

We actually planned this trip over 9 months ago when we were sailing in Annapolis, MD. I have been so curious to go to a boat show since we started sailing, and learned that the Newport, RI show is the most famous one of all. So we bought our tickets almost a year in advance (since it fills up fast), and made a little vacation out of it.

If you don’t remember, we were just on Colorado Photo Safari for the previous 5 days, so we barely got home in time to drop off our stuff from one trip, repack and head out for our 6:45AM flight departure the very next morning. Since there are no direct flights we had to fly to Chicago, Midway, and then to RI, all in crummy rainy weather! But on both of our flights we sat next to some very friendly and chatty people, so it actually made them go by very fast. There were many other people traveling to RI with us so we made some new friends during these airport excursions.

We finally got to RI around 3:30pm and caught a shuttle to our B&B, which got us in around 5pm. Our entire day was spent traveling, so we were really tired when we got there. But, we decided to take in some sights and go down to the wharf, aka ‘town center of Newport’. We hit up The Lobster Bar for our first meal and DEVOURED lobster claws, Fish & Chip sammie’s and a lobster roll…oh and of course some local brew. It was an awesome first meal to welcome us to Newport. We decided at that point that all of our dining would be centralized around lobster and all things lobster for the next few days.

 
After dinner we walked through some shops then headed back to our B&B around 8pm to sit on the back porch and soak in the beautiful sights and sounds of nature while enjoying hot tea. Our B&B was located about 5 blocks from downtown Newport so we planned to walk everywhere. Dubbed the Marshall Slocum Inn, is a converted historic mansion (as are all the buildings in Newport) so it charming historic and east coast essence were perfect. The king size bed was ridiculously comfortable, so we pretty much passed out as soon as we laid down on that first night.

Thursday morning we awoke super refreshed and ready to take in the New England air. We went down to the porch where we enjoyed a fantastic homemade breakfast. Jilly had stuffed portuguese blueberry French toast with fruit and I had a Greek omelet. We chatted with the inn keeper a bit as well as some of the other guests and then hit the streets for our first full boat show day. 

It was a whirlwind of booths, clothes, miscellaneous boat gear, rigging, safety, and so on…mostly excessive things that aren’t really necessary, but make life more comfortable in the water. Then there were the boats themselves…wow! We spent about 6 hours of the day taking it all in. We explored around 50 boats from small-to-modest 33-footers to huge 76-and-up-footer sailboats and catamarans. We even spent some time looking at the powerboats that could rival a tiny kingdom…some of the boats were so top-of-the-line, you had to have an appointment to view them! We went on one boat by Princess (a top brand of high-end boats) that was going for about 5 million. It was hard to believe someone actually owned it. 

 
We took a small lunch break and feasted on lobster mac n cheese at The Red Parrot. It was so yummy and rich and even though we split an order, we were both BEYOND stuffed. I cant imagine one person able to eat that dish all by themselves. By mid afternoon we were pretty wiped out so we decided to head back to the room to relax and recharge. As we laid around, I did some research for other fun things to do while in Newport, and came upon the famous “Cliff Walk”. It spans the entire eastern and southern tip of the peninsula that is Newport. Though it stated a 7-mile round trip affair, which many people drive cars or ride bikes on, we decided to be adventurous and hoof it.

This was going to be our first trip to the other side of the city, so we were ready with our cameras in hand. Along the entire coast of the Cliff Walk were some spectacular mansions – some very old, some less old. We walked a few miles along the coast when we noticed the sky was growing dark and thick with rainclouds, and decided to bail on the rest of the walk since we didn’t have the best attire for rain. So we headed back through the lush green mansion-lined neighborhoods back to downtown.

 
Thankfully it didn’t rain so we decided to grab a bite right on the wharf for dinner; a light affair of salad, clam chowder and a BBQ sandwich. We were still really full from lunch so we didt overindulge tonight, and since we had our lobster for the day, we didn’t have to worry too much! After dinner we were both ready to call it a night, and went back “home” to hit the hay.

Friday came too fast as it can do, and started with a fantastic breakfast (Jill had the same thing every day, I had another super tasty omelet). Because we spent so much time at the boat show yesterday, we decided to only check out a few things that we missed. We met some very friendly folks along the way today (some of which we actually met at the airport when we got here) which was really cool.

After just a few hours, we decided to leave the boat show and walk down the harbor going the opposite direction. We wandered through shipping areas, a huge shipping yard, and tons of mooring and private boat docks. It was so pretty and surprisingly not crowded this way, so we hung out for a few hours just taking it all in. 

By lunch we were pretty hungry, but since we planned to do a big dinner for our last night, we ate a very light lunch at this cafe right in town. It was really cute place, with simple food but prepared very well (and actually very cheap compared to every other restaurant). We made our way back to our room around 1pm for some R & R. It was so nice to just hang out without a real schedule or plan for the day.

We booked a sunset sailing tour of the Bay for that evening, so we headed out a few hours before to look at the last items of the boat show that we missed, and then to our pier for the 2-hour sight-sailing tour. It was a perfect afternoon for sailing and viewing a majestic sunset. Our boat was a Gaff Rig 70-foot Pilot boat that could hold about 57 people. The tour left from the Newport Bay and travelled the Narragansett Bay area. We saw mansions, luxury yachts and sailboats all over. It was sort of a booze cruise type of deal so many of the fellow boat setters were pretty in the tank before long, which was pretty comical. All-in-all it was a fantastic way to take in the last of the day in Rhode Island.

 
We got back to shore and ended up right at The Lobster Bar again, where we had our final meal of the trip. Jake got a full boiled lobster and I had fish and chips…oh and we shared a lobster bisque that was super amazing. It was soooooooooooooooo gooooooood. We were stuffed as we walked back to our room, though we enjoyed a cup of hot tea on the porch before going to bed that night. 

Morning came far too soon, and we had to head back home. We ate our last breakfast at the lovely B&B before we caught the airport shuttle to commence our long journey back home to Boulder. We left around 8:30AM for this multi-flight excursion, which in true form, was delayed about 6 hours, so we didn’t get home until midnight (instead of 5pm as we were supposed to). We were completely jet lagged for about 3 days but it was totally worth it for a supremely excellent vacation.

It was a beautiful place and we hope to come back next year with our whole family in tow….Joe and Julie, Nana & Papa…we are talking about you!!! until next time…stay classy blog readers.