Colorado

Last week, Chris and I took a short trip to Colorado to attend my brother-in-law's graduation from University of Colorado Boulder. This was my first time in Colorado, another state to add to the list! Chris lived in Colorado before, so it wasn't new to him, but he was equally excited to go back.

*I did not include states I've simply traveled through. Only states I was an actual tourist in.

Day 1

We caught an early morning flight from Orlando to Denver and arrived in Denver at about eight o'clock Mountain Time. We met up with Chris' parents at the airport, their flight from Virginia had just arrived, as well. After we collected our luggage we went our separate ways to acquire our rental cars. This was a process, our rental car company was super busy, with lots of people in town for various graduations.

After we finally got our rental car all situated, we took off towards Downtown Denver where our hotel was located. First impressions of Denver:

1. More traffic than I imagined.

2. No parking.

3. Pedestrians, everywhere.

4. Hipsters.

5. Mountains!

6. There's no overweight people.

We were looking for a restaurant, we hadn't ate since dinner the night before and really weren't in the mood to park faraway and walk to a restaurant. Luckily, right on the edge of downtown we found the Denver Diner, which had it's own parking lot and yummy food! I love diners and we don't really have them here in Orlando.

B.O.B Burger- Blue Cheese, Onion, Bacon.

After lunch we got checked into our hotel. We weren't huge fans of the location. It was in an industrial area outside of downtown and the outside of the hotel wasn't very attractive. However, the inside had recently been remodeled and looked really nice! Our room was impressive. Very clean and the bed was very soft and comfy. I appreciated that the blanket was white (I like white bedrooms) and similar to what we have at home. It also wasn't the standard itchy hotel blanket, I hate those, bleh!

We tried to take a brief nap (didn't happen) and then we went to the town of Arvada, about 15 minutes away, where my brother-in-law and his family reside. I like Arvada better than Denver, it seemed more family-friendly and suburdan (though still crowded, nonetheless). Arvada is also closer to the mountains, so it was nice to get a closer view.

It was nice catching up with family. My brother-in-law has four young children, including a son only 6 months older than Abby. It was fun seeing her interact with someone her own size! After catching up, we went out to dinner back in Downtown called El Chingon.

This restaurant was authentic Mexican and seemed to be located in a hip neighborhood. Lots of young people and hipsters walking around. My brother-in-law reserved a table on the back patio for us, which was a private area. It was a unique experience eating outside and not sweating or getting bit by mosquitoes.

Day 2

A super early day, we had to be in Boulder for my brother-in-law's graduation at 8:30am. We got back in Arvada to rendezvous with everyone at about 7:30am. Even though, it was early, this short trip to Boulder was a real treat. There was an amazing view of the mountains, which we drove alongside, almost all the way there. During one point, there was a train on the side of the mountain, and I promise you, it looked like an old-timey train set that came to life. It was one of the most quaint, cozy images I've ever seen.

Shortly afterward, we reached The University of Colorado Boulder campus. What a beautiful campus! Let me tell you, though, that altitude... the lack of oxygen hit me right about here. I'm in no way in shape, but I spent most of my life not having a car and if I can do anything, it's walk. The lack of oxygen though, it had me huffing and puffing during the walk from the parking garage to the stadium. I felt like I needed a motorized scooter or an oxygen tank... or both. I've lived below sea level my whole life! Oxygen a-plenty! This wasn't no short walk either, we basically had a campus tour on this walk. I felt like I was walking from one part of town to the next.

Anyways, we finally made it to the stadium. By this time, I was pretty sure I was already dead. To make it worse, my sister-in-law (very understandably) got a seat way down near the front, so with low oxygen and already having been murdered on the way to the stadium, I then had to walk down a gigantic flight of stairs. Now, I don't know why I was surprised to see stairs, but a person like myself doesn't spend much time at stadiums or arenas. I really don't know how I made it down these damn stairs... or back up again... but I was so dizzy, I just had to keep looking down at my feet and no where else. Also, women like myself with big boobs, we can't see below the boobs, so stairs really aren't our forte, since we can't see where we're stepping in the first place.

So, we made it to our seat. I feel really sick... and my gums were sticking to the rest of my mouth, and my tongue is sticking to the roof of my mouth and nothing is making sense to me anymore, and for some reason looking at the stadium and how tall it is, was making me feel really ill and there was a lot going on. I felt really disassociated from reality. My daughter seemed like she was having a tantrum, so I kept telling my husband I'm going to die and the baby is freaking out needing milk (which he forgot to bring) and let's go back to the car and try to find somewhere to get her milk. Chris kept telling me Abby is not crying, but to me it seems like she is, so Chris agrees to go back with me to the car to locate water, milk, and a coffin for me.

Then, we got lost on campus. I was so busy trying to breath that I forgot to check to see where we parked and it was an underground parking lot. We could not find the entrance to it and everyone kept pointing us in different directions.

So, I guess somehow by this time I got a little more adjusted to the altitude and started feeling more like myself. We met back up with family for the graduation ceremony for the English Department, which my brother-in-law was graduating from. My sister-in-law had water, after having the water I felt sooo much better. To make it even better, the ceremony had cookies and lemonade. My first food and drinks for the day!

It was really hot outside and the graduation was held outside in a nice little enclave with an outdoor stage. We all got sunburned, but it was a nice ceremony! Very inspiring to someone like myself. My brother-in-law is older than me and has an additional child and still was able to earn his degree!

After, the ceremony we broke into separate groups and my husband and I did something that I've been wanting to do my whole life... 3 minutes outside of campus is the former home of Jonbenet Ramsey!!!!! Now, when Chris' cousin learned our plans to visit the home of Jonbenet, he called us macabre. Well, color me macabre, because I've been obsessed with this case since reading about the murder as child in my grandmother's National Enquirer. I read every article I could get my hands on and as an adult I got my husband into it and we've watched all the specials, interviews, and documentaries. I even listen to podcasts about the murder, even.

So, I saw her house in person. Honestly, I thought the neighborhood would have been nicer and more manicured, but the homes on her street, while older, were obviously quite expensive. I also imagined the home looking larger, since it's described as a five-story mansion. However, one thing Colorado taught me is looks are deceiving, since homes can be part underground. We didn't get out, because well, that's just tacky, but we drove by slowly... a few times. In case you're wondering, there's a name for what we did, and it's called tragedy tourism, or dark tourism, and yes, it's horrible. But, this is my thing! I've also been to Casey Anthony's house... but, that's mostly because I used to drop my dad off at his friend's house, which is on the same street as the Anthony home (and also that's another fantastic case, so I would have gone anyways).

So, after the Ramsey House (by the way, did you know, her father married Natalie Holloway's mother? Weird, right?) we were starving (a common theme of our vacation), so we stopped by a Wendy's. We usually have a rule that while on vacation we only eat at local spots, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think after this, we went back to our hotel for a small rest, showered, and headed back to Arvada for a barbeque, where my father-in-law grilled some of the juiciest chicken I personally have ever had.

Day 3

This day, we got to sleep in for a bit, which was nice. This was also our last day in Colorado and had to catch the Red Eye back to Florida past midnight. The third day I was tired, cranky, and hungry.

My brother-in-law had planned a Mother's Day brunch for us mothers. Now, I'm not trying to serve tea, but I didn't eat breakfast and this brunch happened at 3:00pm. You feel me? This wasn't anyone's fault, just coordinating a bunch of people and determining a place to eat can take a bit. However, when I hear brunch, I'm thinking a slightly later breakfast. A person like myself, doesn't have quite a large appetite (even if it may appear so), so if I ate breakfast, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy brunch, if brunch was eaten at actual brunch time.

Anyhow, prior to brunch we had quite an enjoyable experience at Red Rocks, though brief, since we had to rush to our reservation for what we're still referring to as "brunch". Red Rocks, was stunning. Being from Florida, I've never really seen anything like this before. However, this is another place where that lack of oxygen will get you. However, maybe because this was my third day, I wasn't quite as ill as the day before. We didn't have much time but we checked out the visitor center and a kind of music hall, displaying all the acts that have performed at Red Rocks. Of course, outdoors we enjoyed the lovely mountain views and nice view of Downtown Denver off in the distance.

So, onto brunch. Like most places in Denver, they didn't have a parking lot, so we had to drive around and park in a parking garage a distance away. The restaurant was upscale and trendy, so it was a nice place to have what by this time, is a late lunch.

After brunch, my mother-in-law wanted to walk around and explore downtown. I wasn't done with the mountains yet and still had half a tank of prepaid gas to use, so we bounced. I can see buildings anywhere, but not everywhere has mountains, especially Florida.

We decided to head back to Boulder, out of the three towns we visited, Boulder was by far my favorite. I wanted to get a close look at the mountains again, the lovely University campus, the Jonbenet Ramsey house (yes, we went again), and acquire some macarons. There was a cute little street near campus and the Ramsey House called Pearl Street. It was adorable, again street parking only, but this street was small, so not bad for walking.

We found macarons at the cutest chocolate shop I've ever seen called Piece, Love, and Chocolate. They weren't the best macarons I've had, but the shop was so whimsical, it was pleasure just being inside!

Two pistachio, birthday cake, and red velvet.

After acquiring macarons and checking out a historic home down the street, we went back to Arvada to wish our family farewell. The trip back to Orlando was exhausting on the Red Eye. The plane at night was disorienting and I kept thinking the plane was breaking down and I was seeing strange lights in the distance. I was probably over-exhausted and hungry again. We finally made it back to our own bed at about 7 a.m. the next morning.