Labor Day Weekend

So, when Ben came to visit a week or two ago, we attempted to fit all of Colorado into one weekend. Now, if you have been to Colorado you know that this is impossible. But, if you have met Ben and I, you know this is maybe possible! I don't know if we fit everything into the few days we had together, but we sure came close.

We started by going to Ihop, as I am sure you all already guessed, with Hannah and her friend Josh. Josh actually had just arrived in Denver, on a bike! He is attempting to bike in all 50 states in about a years worth of time. Ben and I were very interested in his adventure, and continuously drilled him with questions as we devoured our pancakes.

Friday morning Ben and I brought donuts in for my office, and I worked on writing an article while Ben took my car to get the oil changed... Thank you Ben for that. I didn't realize how hard it is to maintain a car and have a "real" job; everything closes before I am off work! Friday evening, after a big dinner with the Gypeses at Texas Roadhouse, we went to a concert at Redrocks! We saw Jack Ingram, Pat Green, and previously known as Hoodie but now all country... Darius Rucker!! It was a great concert; not only did I know all the songs, but we had great seats and we kept easing our way down to the front. Even if the music was awful, I would have been content just sitting in our seats watching the sunset over the red rocks and the city of Denver. It was quite a place for a concert.

I was able to squeeze in a quick run Saturday morning before Ben and I took off to head up North to Estes Park. We left around 10 and took our time getting there, which is something I love about the way Ben and I travel. We stopped in random places, from a farmer's market to starbucks to wave at the hundreds of bikers we were passing. (Sidenote: we saw all these bikers in Boulder, which is apparently the most biker friendly city in the U.S.; there were more bikers than cars, no exaggeration.) We didn't get up to Rocky Mountain National Park until about 4, which ended up working out well because we got a camp site, and set our tent up with plenty of daylight to spare.

After the tent was pitched and we had set up our sleeping bags and piles and piles of blankets I brought along, we went on a hike! As you can see by the pictures, the scenery was gorgeous and Ben and I had a blast exploring a trail. It was nothing like the Wyoming hike, because there wasn't much of a climb, but it was great nonetheless. Once again (I must have some sort of magical luck or something), it started raining right when Ben and I got back in the car, so we opted to head to town for dinner. We walked around in some stores, and dashed through the rain when we had to go outside. We obviously dashed a little too much, because we got yelled at by a police officer for illegally crossing the street. I once again played the "tourist from Indiana" card and we kept running until we made it to another store to continue our browsing. It was a fun night; we ended up eating at a local pizza place. By the time it was done raining, we were done eating and we bought some firewood and headed back to our tent. After I attempted multiple times to get a fire started, Ben took over and had a huge fire blazing within seconds. You would think after all these years of camping, I would be able to start a fire...? I think we would have been cold sleeping, but I literally brought 4 blankets plus a sleeping bag for each of us, so we didn't freeze!

Sunday morning, we met up with my friend from Spain, Chris. You all remember, if you have read my previous blog posts, my running buddy? So of course, we went on a run in Boulder. And again, of course, we ate pancakes for breakfast. I feel so predictable these days. We said goodbye to Chris, who is also traveling to every state in the U.S., but in a car (which was actually just stolen, but that is another story....) We made out way south to Colorado Springs. My magic was lost and it started raining on our hike through Garden of the Gods, but we still had fun! We saw Pike's Peak from a distance, found a Dunkin Donuts (only one in CO), walked around downtown, and made our way back to Bob and Marge's'.

Labor Day morning we got up and went to the Taste of Denver festival downtown. We tried all sorts of things, from cupcakes to crocodile meat. Then Ben got to experience his first major league baseball game... go Rockies! Then I got to experience my first major human fight. We were sitting at the Cheesecake factory (and this is a true story), and these two wanted drug lords happened to walk past the undercover police her were searching for them. A few tables were knocked over, shattering plates and knocking into bystanders, as these two huge guys jumped the criminals. It was crazy to watch, I was so scared. I didn't think that we would get entertainment like that at dinner! They arrested them and we enjoyed the rest of our meal.
Saying goodbye to Ben was hard, as always. Saying goodbye is never fun. This is so much easier than Spain though. So I will admit, we didn't see everything Colorado has to offer, but wouldn't you say we saw a lot?