TiKi'sphotoBar & Blog

Boy time has been flying, I can’t believe I am already home, safe and sound back on US grounds. It feels great to be back, I have had so much fun in DURANGO Colorado here so far, and it’s been just over a week!
There is so much to do here in the summer, at least during the day time, such as hiking, biking, swimming, frisbee golf, ultimate frisbee, rafting, tubing, skateboarding, hockey, etc! This will be my first summer in Colorado and I can tell that it’s going to be a good one! I have been on the job hunt since I’ve been back, and it’s been pretty difficult locking down a job. I had an interview with the General Palmer hotel as a Bellman and will find out if I land that job today! I also have been talking to this guy cameron, who is starting up the FullBlast Adventure center, which includes water sports, paintball course, zipline course, atv and hummer rentals, and more. I will be working with him thru next week, digging trails and help set up the paintball course! The weather here in Colorado has been amazing, it has been so nice and sunny, I have been getting my “man-tan” and sunburnt on! I am off to play soem Frowlth (FrisbeeGolf) up on campus, so I got to run. I will update more as I find time and hear more from jobs, etc. Below I created a slideshow of photos of my 3 week backpacking trip thru the EU, the quailty isn’t the best, but it is ok for now. Check it Out! Thanks, BEAR

So its been yet another week in beautiful Durango and I’ve been soaking in the sun and having fun!
Last week I started work with Full Blast Adventures, where I am currently building this guys business from the ground up with him. He has a proposed zipline and paintball course that we will be working on in the next weeks after the city approves all of his radical plans. As for the work I’ve been digging trails with Cameron (the developer) up to the future Zipline course and have been working my butt off for him. There is so much work to be done and he said he will be keeping me busy all summer. My typical day starts at 6 am where I slowly wake to get out of bed, head to the kitchen for some breakfast, and back to my room to get dressed and tie my boots on for the 7am start. We start at 7am and digg walking trails up the side of this mountain all morning and end of having to stop before it gets too hot around 12 or 1pm. This weekend was the first weekend I had 2 days off, I worked every single day last week for Cam. I enjoy the manual labor and being outdoors, sure beats sitting inside a cubicle. I start work again monday and will be developing this adventure center for Cam all summer. Check out the “adventure center up for approval” article which made the headlines of the durango herald. http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2010/06/11/Adventure_center_up_for_approval/

Its been nice getting up so early and getting my work day started, as I would probably sleeping in all morning and going out all night, which isn’t the case anymore, thank god. The weather here in Durango has been sunny and warm and is a stark contrast from what I lived with in Ireland. I started hockey last night and am signing up for an adult inline tournament this summer thru the local ‘chapman hill’ rink. I’ve also been able to get out and go rafting a bunch, thanks to my roommate who has a nice 12foot raft of her own. Yesterday we had a blast as we celebrated the Animas River Days weekend, where we dressed up in crazy costumes and floated down the river probably with 100 other boaters. After the river days we went to a after party at Ska Brewing Company, where there were a bunch of happy and drunk folk meandering around talking about the crazy thunder storm weather that we had, which ended up in blue sunny skies. My buddy Taco and I ended up meeting one of the co-owners of Ska Brewing, while we were poking our heads through a window to their manufacturing area. Matt vincent, the owner, walked up to us out of no where and was like “what are you guys looking at?” I said we were just checking out how it all works, and he then led us on through a brew tour of the back and how it all works. It was pretty cool to be behind the scenes of how gods water gets into our hands, beer that is. I told him about the future beer business with the family and he said stop on by with a resume because they may be hiring pretty soon in the manufacturing department, supposedly where you start at, which would be perfect! So tomorrow I am going back to the SKa Brewing headquarters and will be dropping off a resume and hopefully talk to Matt again, a real friendly guy.

Other than that, all is great, work is kicking my butt, but I am learning and gaining so much great experience building this business from the ground up with Cameron and he is really taking me under his wing and showing me how it all works and what you have to do to open a business of you’re own. I couldn’t have landed a better job. That is all for now, will update with future projects plans and stories!