cycling in the mountains

I do not post often enough. This morning Mark and I rode from Bergen Park outside of Denver over Squaw Pass by Mount Evans and Echo Lake, then down to Idaho Springs and then back to Bergen Park. This was a 47.6 mile trip and we climbed about 4,000 ft. It was beautiful. We have been training for the Triple Bypass a 120 mile trip from Bergen Park to Avon, CO. This ride goes over Squaw Pass, Loveland Pass and then Vail Pass, hence Triple Bypass. You climb 10,000 feet and this trip is done in one day. This will be on July 11th. We have done this before and if the weather is good the trip is great. Later this summer we will ride the Courage Classic which is only 156 miles over three days. This is in the mountains and a fund raiser for The Children's Hospital in Denver.

Last night we had a dinner party at the house. Our dinner parties are for 8 total people as our round table in the dinning room easily sits that many. We do have 8 leaves to expand the table to 14 feet by 6 feet and can easily sit 22. It is harder to have an engaging conversation with that many people so we prefer the smaller group. I did most of the cooking as Mark was racing in his skull and crew races. He won one gold metal and two silver metals. A couple of his rowing club members came to the dinner a they one two golds and one silver each. Quite the accomplished group. One of my Livingston Fellows and his wife joined us. Adam and his wife Alissa. He is the director of Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and his wife is a professor of contemporary art.

Of course my blog would be incomplete if is left out the menu. I made what I call a SushimiTini which is a bed of cucumber with tuna sushimi that had been slightly marinated in grapefruit juice with Serrano peppers, white soy sauce and mint. I serve this in a martini glass with a grapefruit chip that I dehydrate. Everyone love this. We served this with Champagne.

The next morsel was an amuse buche of a lentil salad with truffle vinaigrette and topped with a bacon vinaigrette. Adam said he could make this bite an entire meal. We served this with a white boudoir.

The next course was saffron mussels with the same wine

The main course was a pork tenderloin marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic and red pepper flakes that Mark grilled, serve with a roasted red potato salad with dill gherkins, onion and mustard. We served this with a Pino Noir wine.

The desert was fresh strawberries, blue berries and raspberries with sweet creme fraise that we make with orange zest. We served this with Proseco.

The conversation and dinner was a delight. Adam and Alissa gave us a painting as a gift. It is 4x4 inches by and extraordinary artist.

The week before last I was in DC talking with Senators Udall, Bennet and Representative Degette's health care staffer about including mental health in the health care reform. All of these meetings went well. I was also elected as the first vice chair of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare which represents the mental health providers in our country. I was asked to testify for the FDA advisory committee concerning access to psychiatric medications for children.

The meeting on Friday of that week ended early so I went to the National Gallery. They have a director's choice audio tour of the museum. I did not have time to do the entire tour and when I told the African American woman in her mid 60s who was selling the audio tours that I only had and hour and a half to spend in the museum, she asked me what I wanted to see. I told her I wanted to see the more important works in the museum. She immediate pulled out a map and started circling the gallery numbers and adding the audio numbers to the map. The timing was great and I saw fantastic works of art. I thanked her profusely when I finished my time in the museum.