Aspen, April 2010, Day 2

The unadventurous adventure begins today. Aspen during the off season with no movie, comedy, food or wine festival going on.

Good morning condo. Nice to see you in the daylight.

Today's agenda: breakfast, market, and then work and workout.

Leaving the St. Regis there is no denying that bronze statues are an Aspen "thing." The little bit of history I can give you on Aspen is that it was founded in 1879 by silver miners, and named Aspen in 1880 because of the abundance of Aspen trees in the area. (Before that it was named Ute, Colorado after the local Native American tribe. I am sure that we can all imagine how it went from being a rugged mining town of saloons and brothels to a high end ski resort with expensive restaurants and Picasso's for sale in shop windows.

One should always be friendly towards the locals.

Did I infer that Aspen is going to be dead this trip? I did. I mean, when you do not live in a "seasonal" town it is difficult to grasp what "off season" truly means.

Aspen, where the food is organic and the buses are hybrids. True to concept.

Seriously. When we have come here for the Comedy Festival or the Food & Wine Festival, this Cooper Avenue Mall is filled with people.

Breakfast of champions. We walked to Poppycock's, our favorite Aspen breakfast-only restaurant, but there was a sign in the window that said they closed early during off season. So... today's breakfast looks eerily similar to my daily breakfast in Madrid, Spain. European Capital or Colorado mountain resort, you can rely on a little piece of Seattle, Washington to be there for you.

Yet another large bronze statue. I know that is supposed to look like a ski slope, but does it not look like a rocket?

After Starbucks we walked over to the City Market and stocked up for the week. I consciously did not take a picture inside the market, because, well, it is a market and not even I am willing to allow the Waste to get that Colossal.

We returned from the market and shifted into productivity mode, Barbie of course being far more productive than me but I did my best. After all, I have two scripts to work my way through. Well, maybe one of them can get by as an outline or treatment. Still, we are not on "vacation," we are simply, "in Aspen."

Eventually, I had had enough and it was time to hit the gym. After all, nothing beats going to the gym without leaving the building.

A first-time experiment with the elliptical crop. Ironic, because I sincerely did not like the elliptical machines in the hotel gym. That said, the keen eyed will see a tremendous piece of manly sexiness in a sleeveless shirt reflected in that mirror.

We will soon lose count of the bronze statues. For now, I think we are at three.

After the gym, we zipped down to the jacuzzi. It was a beautiful night out there, and when Barbie decided to head in before me, she agreed to grab my iPhone and take a picture of me from our room. Always planning ahead, we decided that she would take pics of me in the jacuzzi and then I would switch to the main pool for a potentially better shot.

Better shot, indeed.

Time... for room service.

Dinner is served.

She gets the Citrus Poached Lobster Cobb Salad.

He gets the Grilled Salmon Mignon with roasted root vegetables.

Dinner was excellent and healthy. Soon it was time to blog the Waste, which happily went along with my watching the feature film "Jackass Number Two." This meant that Barbie got to hear incessant laughter from the next room, as I switched to the bedroom to watch it so as to not subject her to such cruelty. But, seriously, that movie is genius.

Good night.