Monday
May282012
Digging for Dinosaurs in Denver, Colorado
Zak Erving
I don’t plan on making too many posts about overt childhood nostalgia, but this occasion deserves a mention: the other day, my buddy Josh and I set out in search of dinosaurs in Denver, Colorado.
Don’t get the wrong idea: our respective degrees from our respective alma maters render us in no way whatsoever qualified for a true archeological dig—I, for one, would probably shatter a rare fossil feature whilst scrubbing it with a dentist-approved toothbrush—but we were bound and determined to prove our savvy and see how much we could uncover in a half-day’s work.
When I’m at the cusp of a new summer and the threshold of upcoming travels, I get a little introspective. I’ll consult old journals and skip through photo albums and try to recapture a little bit of the spirit of that time, but I’m also looking for something I can carry forward, like a lesson or a motto. Here’s what came from my journal last year, after I had touched down after a tour of Europe:
When Kay at Ocean Sports Waikoloa Village offered me a spot on her company’s sunset dinner cruise, however, I gladly obliged—and though I wasn’t expecting it, I had a powerful learning experience that is sure to expand my view of travel from this day forward.
I climbed into the Soviet-made Mi-8 and immediately busied myself with reading the cyrillic labels and fumbling with my “photographer pass” lanyard, an overstatement at best, and a mockery at worst: I wound my silly little disposable camera tzt-tzt-tzt-click! as we ascended through the cloud cover, and I snapped shots of the cabin, the jumpers, and the sky in the porthole behind me.
Starting today, I’ll be using Sparkpunk to highlight people who inspire me to write better and travel more. Mittie is one of them—in fact, she was the first person to contact me when travel blogging/writing was blossoming into a full-blown career choice. So, you know, she’s special. And she’s got some great travel ideas of her own…
Alaskans love celebrating their hardiness, and if the previous winter wasn’t cold or snowy enough, a few brave athletes decided to throw one last giant middle finger to Father Winter and try to skim their way across a two-tiered swimming pool on skis and snowboards.
I’m excited to celebrate this tiny milestone of 30 days at my new “job,” and while I have yet to see any real form of income, I’ve already met with little successes distinctly my own…
The first time I went abroad with a budget in mind (read: I wasn’t a kid on a family trip anymore), I got kicked in the teeth by exchange-rate sticker shock. I’d never been to Europe before and had never handled European currency. Frankly, spending it felt like playing a board game without real consequences, and I had a marked reaction when I checked my bank account later in the month.
