Farewell and Thanks to Steamboat Springs, CO.

Well friends, this will be my final blog for the Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus. Sorry for the delay but with school, packing, graduation, travelling, and settling back in to Minnesota life, I haven't had much time to blog. However, to close out an amazing two years in Steamboat, I thought I'd write about all those things that have kept me busy finishing out the year, with a few pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure.

Being that this was my last semester before graduation, I only needed a few credits to finish, so lucky for me, I had a super easy finals week. My public speaking class actually ended early with an easy make-up introduction speech. The last Legal Environment of Business class was canceled since all we had was one last online test due on the final Thursday of school, so I got that done early. To be perfectly honest, my hardest "final" was for piano class. I had to learn 6 songs and a solo piece for a recital the class put on. In my opinion, playing piano by yourself in front of a bunch of people who are way better than you are is way harder than an online test.

So when all was said and done school-wise, it was time to pack. Luckily for me, since I was graduating, it was easy to get an extension to stay in the dorms so I had more time to pack. Normally, everyone has to be out by 10am on Friday morning, but I got to check out at 2pm on Saturday after the ceremony. Perks.

My parents and grandparents were able to make it to town Friday morning despite the crazy snow we had been getting. We grabbed some grub at Shack Restaurant on Lincoln Ave. I had actually never been here my whole two years in Steamboat, so it was great to go someplace new before leaving town. Also, they had great breakfast food, so I'd highly recommend it.

From there it was packing time. My parents and I headed back to the room to put my stupid amount of clothes and junk into boxes to bring home. Even though he was already checked out, Bacon was kind enough to come back and help clean. So once everything was good to go, we chilled at the hotel for a bit, and then headed to a delicious dinner at Cugino's on 8th St. If you've never been, GO. It is a crazy delicious Italian food place with tons of choices. I got an olive oil pizza with sausage that was most excellent. It was awesome too because Bacon, his girlfriend Leydon, and friends from Michigan who were driving him home came with, so are crew was rolling deep. Afterward was some more goodbyes, which always suck, but I'll be living with Bacon again next year in SLC, so that goodbye wasn't too bad.

The next day was graduation time. The day started at 9am with the Honors Graduate Reception breakfast, which was nice because there myself and all the other Phi Theta Kappa and Honors graduates received their special tassels and stoles. From there was the ceremony which was really nice. There were some great speakers, both faculty and students, as well as a musical performance from and choir group. My mom was kind enough to film the following footage, so here's a taste of breakfast and the ceremony.



Following the ceremony was a delicious meal in the cafeteria, better than anything we've had all year, then it was time to finally check out of the dorms. As much as I thought I wouldn't really care, it was kind of surreal knowing that I'd never be back there. After saying another goodbye to my buddy and RA Bagel, Crip and I went out for one last afternoon chilling in downtown Steamboat. From there it was a delicious family dinner for my grandma's birthday at 8th Street Steakhouse. Unfortunately, it wasn't $5 steak night like I blogged about awhile back, but still crazy delicious. That night unfortunately was more goodbyes. I headed over to Crips new place (which is actually fellow blogger Bobbie Jo's since they're rooming together next year) where a few of us watched The Men Who Stare At Goats, which is great by the way. After a tough goodbye with Crip Nasty since he might not make it to Minnesota this summer, it was time to crash and get ready for the epic road trip the next day.

Sunday morning started around 8am with a surprising amount of snow. We were a little worried about the driving conditions since there was around 5 in. on the top of the car, which meant much more fell on Rabbit Ears Pass. So we said goodbye to my grandparents who were leaving later and hit the road. Thankfully the road was nice to us and we made it over Rabbit Ears. From there the road trip for me gets a little hazy considering I slept around 7 out the 16 hours. Thanks to my parents for driving a ton of the way. It was until a lot later in Iowa where it was my turn so they could sleep, but thanks to my dad for staying awake and keeping me company.

It was kind of crazy for me when the clock hit midnight and I turned 21 driving into Minnesota. As fun as it would have been to celebrate with my Steamboat friends, I was happy to getting home for my birthday. So we finally rolled up to my house at 1:30am and this crazy wild blur of a 2-year adventure was over.

So now I have the summer to save some money, reconnect with all the MN friends, and try to remember everything from The Boat. Before I go I would like thank a few people however. First off, to my parents and grandparents. Without their support (and money) I never would have made it to Steamboat or CMC> Thanks to Mike Martin and Tim Widmer for the Ski and Snowboard Business Program. I had a great time getting this degree and will never forget all the opportunities, especially the tradeshows. A big thank you to my blog boss, Sara Fowler, for giving me this job and allowing me to keep doing this for two years. And finally HUGE thank you to all of you. Without you actually reading these things, I'm sure Sara would've gotten rid of me awhile ago! So thank you again, I hope you enjoyed reading about my life in The Boat.

Since this year Sara hooked all us bloggers up with video cameras and I proceeded to use it to make snowboarding edits, I figured it would be appropriate to end my final blog with the end-of-the-year riding edit I put together with all the footage. I hope you all enjoy since it took me a VERY long time to put this all together (Sara if you're wondering why my time sheet is so high on hours, this video would be to blame!) Also, the only editing software I have is Windows Movie Maker, which is easy to use but not exactly the highest quality video editor, plus for some reason I couldn't save the movie as one movie so the following is the intro then I split the rest into two parts. But anyway, I had a great time making it and blogging for you, so without further ado, here is As The Crow Flies, my first attempt at a snowboard video. Thank you all again. Peace.