In Bloom

Hi there. Finally dusting off the old blogging keys again for a spring update! Boulder is officially in bloom. I took a walk after work on Friday around one of the many gorgeous neighborhoods in the area and couldn't resist snapping a few photos.













































































































































































Had to throw this last one in there, I found it absolutely charming. And since this house is perched on a hill, the backside looks out over the town of Boulder and the Flatirons. Gorgeous.

There are so many picturesque homesteads around here, I could never capture them all but I love to try : )

So, I've been staying pretty busy these days trying to soak up my last weeks of Colorado glory. I've been spending a lot of time with my co-workers hiking, exploring, and enjoying the springtime. And I've started making jewelry! I'm pretty excited about it, there are some killer bead stores around here and I think I just might be getting addicted to it all. So don't be surprised if you start getting homemade jewelry gifts! I might post some pictures of my work up here eventually, or I might keep it to myself since most of it will probably be given away, hehe.

So the Boulder Creek Festival is this weekend-- followed on Memorial Day by the Bolder Boulder, a 10k race that is a HUGE deal around here, drawing runners from all over the country. I'm pretty stoked because the route goes right by my apartment and, instead of spending $40 to actually run in the race, I'm going to drink mimosas with Melanie and watch everyone run by from my balcony. Oh yeah. The festival is pretty awesome too- there are dozens of food and craft vendors, carnival rides, and lots of free stuff giveaways which tightly-budgeted gals like myself just love. I guess this is the unofficial kickoff of my festival season!

Speaking of festivals, not only is Telluride a mere 3.5 weeks away, today Mel and Heidi and I are headed up to Lyons, Colorado which is the home of Rockygrass-- a festival that I have yet to attend but that has quite the reputation of pure loveliness. We're planning on exploring the town and getting some freshly baked cinnamon rolls from a cute cafe called The Stone Cup which doubles as a gallery for local artists. Love.

To balance out the luxury of that rich cinnamon roll, I'll leave you with a couple pictures from last week's after work hike up Mount Sanitas-- quite the steep climb!







































I love how the shadow of the mountain is creeping over the town.

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend y'all.

The Not-So-Rainy City

I'm back from my fabulous trip to Seattle! It came at a time when a vacation was greatly needed, and it was exciting to journey westward from Boulder instead of back east. I left last Thursday morning and arrived in Seattle around 2pm, to be greeted by my lovely cousin Vicki at the airport. We had a few hours of afternoon to explore, so after we checked out her luxurious apartment, we hit the streets.














































Pretty nice eh? Anyway, the first thing we did was hit up Pike Place Market, a Seattle legend and my folks' strong recommendation as a must-see.


























































There were so many gorgeous flowers I could hardly stand it. Not to mention samples galore of local honey (Mountain Raspberry is where it's at), the famous fish throwers, and dozens of cool local artisans displaying their handiwork. Quite a place! We walked around town bit more, saw the original Starbucks, ate some truffles, and met Mike for dinner at the top of the Space Needle! Oh yes. Complete with rotating floor and 360 views of Seattle at sunset. Loved it.
























































The food was delicious and our dessert was quite spectacular.

























The next day, Vicki and I took off on an adventure to the western coast of Washington to visit the Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach. Vicki was quite a trooper, as she took on a total of 8+ hours of driving in one day but it was well worth it. It was a day of firsts for me- first visit to a rainforest, first sighting of an elk, and first time to the Pacific Ocean!

















































































We got lucky and it wasn't actually raining in the rainforest when we got there, so we got to see the green in all its glory! Pretty unique habitat with moss covering every surface and trees growing at more than twice the rate of those in other areas.

After we got our fill of moss, we headed to Ruby Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean! Pretty exciting stuff, puppy Max and I were ready to dip our toes in the water.
























































Isn't he just the cutest?


On the way back from our voyage, we had a delicious seafood dinner in Port Angeles and returned home as two tired travelers. But not before Vicki ever so subtly snuck Max onto the ferry deck from Bainbridge Island.
Cute : )




























Saturday was Seattle day and Vicki and Mike patiently showed me all of the various tourist attractions I needed to see. These included the troll, city locks, Gas Works Park, Pioneer Square and the underground city tour. Did you know that the original city of Seattle was built at sea level and would flood at high tide every day? The city leaders finally decided this wasn't too fun and built the streets 15 feet higher than they had been, even after the buildings were already up. So the original Seattle storefronts can now be found underground. Pretty awesome!

For dinner, we headed to West Seattle's Alki Beach. It felt like a completely different town, bonfires on the beach, funky little beach houses and lots of people out roaming around. I loved it. We ate at a seafood restaurant called Salty's where I had some fresh Pacific salmon that was some of the tastiest fish I've ever put in my mouth. Plus the restaurant boasted a lovely view of the Seattle skyline across the water.












































Oh my! Overall, it was a great trip with extremely generous and enjoyable hosts : ) I hope to come back soon. And that just might be possible because, as I volunteered to take a later flight back home on Sunday, I got a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the US! Oh yeah, icing on the cake.

In the planning stages of the big move back to VA, there are quite a few details to handle but I enjoy a good bout of researching and organizing. The folks will be out here in about 7 weeks and then it's time for TELLURIDE. Seriously excited. Bluegrass in the San Juans will heal what ails you, and me.

Getting to Know CO

How did it get to be mid April already? These last few weeks have definitely been long, but it sure is crazy to think that I've been in Boulder for almost 8 months now! But, I'll go ahead and drop the bomb now for those who haven't heard-- I'm moving back to the east coast in July. I'm taking advantage of Mom and Dad's summer visit and wrangling them into helping me move back when they'll already be out here. There are lots of reasons for the return, but I will say that I am so glad I decided to make the move out here-- I think it has helped me grow up a LOT and it's always nice to have a fresh perspective of the world after living in a new place. Boulder will always hold a special place in my heart : ) I'm so cheesy.

That said, I am trying to pack in everything that I've wanted to do in Colorado into these last few months. Luckily, my friends here Melanie and Heidi are totally game for tagging along, and we've already made a few fun trips around the state. A couple of weeks ago, we drove out to Idaho Springs, CO which was one of the first cities involved in the Gold Rush! Also, more the reason we went, the town houses some natural hot springs. Healing waters! We were in need. They had the springs feeding into an indoor swimming pool which, though festive, was not exactly relaxing with screaming children splashing us the whole time.























It was a fun experience though, and after about an hour of soaking in the minerals, we got to wandering the cute little downtown. And of course, we had to snap some pictures.
















































On the way back, we passed Golden, CO and couldn't resist exploring the hometown of Coors.


























And taking more pictures of ourselves. It was definitely a cute town with lots going on, we hope to come back and spend more time there since it's only 20 or 30 minutes out of Boulder. But the calendar is pretty full! So we'll have to see.

We checked another destination off the list last weekend when we drove down to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods. I had been dying to see this place and it just so happens that Melanie's parents live about 45 minutes away so we had a place to crash AND they ever so graciously hosted us for Easter dinner. It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal and a welcoming place to be for Easter Sunday : )

Garden of the Gods, though, was quite a place. We had a blast climbing all over the rocks and trailblazing around the park.





















































































































That last one is Balanced Rock. 700 tons of sandstone precariously balanced for hundreds of thousands of years! Pretty cool. I bet I could push it over.

Anyway, next up in my travels is Seattle! I'm leaving Thursday for a long weekend with my cousins Vicki and Mike. I've never been to the West Coast before so I'm super excited, and I've got my rain boots so bring it on Seattle!

Enjoy the spring time. Colorado is getting there, slowly.

Spring Fever

It seems I have finally emerged from my winter blog-less cave. I apologize to anyone who was seriously craving a fabulous update but I'm pretty sure nobody really cares that much. Either way! I basically had so much to blog about over Christmas break that I didn't really know where to start, so of course the logical solution was to...not start. But I did have a lovely, if not brief, Christmas vacation full of family and friends and lots of sitting in the airport on Christmas Eve until wee hours of the morning.

Needless to say, I'm glad to see that springtime is coming! Not that we had a harsh winter here by any means-- that last snow storm I talked about was pretty much that-- the last snow storm. Apparently the combination of being situated right on the edge of the foothills and the effects of the dreaded global warming weakened our snow-producing abilities out here. That's okay though, this taste of warm and gorgeous weather we've been having lately is getting me totally stoked for spring and summertime. Summer in Colorado! Basically what I've always dreamed of : )

So things have been going pretty well around here lately-- I've had a string of visitors that have kept me busy and happy! Dad ventured out west in search of snow, crashing at my place for a week and being a wonderful handyman around my apartment while I was at work and making me a HUGE pot of chicken soup that will keep my freezer stocked for months. We ate a few lovely meals out, including Laudisio Ristorante whose owners are the parents of one of the kids I look after at school. Awesome Italian family and delicious authentic Italian food. We also took a drive up to Estes Park to do some hiking. Probably the most beautiful hike I've taken so far.













































































The next day, we drove to Denver to catch the Ski Train which takes a beautifully windy and scenic route through 29 tunnels into Winter Park. I loved everything about it, especially the hot cocoa Dad bought me from the dining car : )





















We spent the whole day in Winter Park, neither of us skiied, we just explored and ate and took lots of pictures. It's how we roll. It was a beautiful day though, bright and sunny and upper 40's. I trust the skiiers had a great time, though I wish someone had warned us to wear sunscreen as Dad and I both suffered from some pretty awesome facial sunburn. We're such newbies. Anyway, here's some pics from our day.





























































































So there you have it! Thanks again for a lovely visit Pops.

Now I don't want to overwhelm you all with a ridiculously enormous first-post-back so I'll save Erin and Davis' awesome visits for another day.

In other news, I have begun to look for other jobs around here. I've applied to be a summer nanny at a few agencies but I've also recently applied for an office job at the Celestial Seasonings headquarters, which are less than 10 minutes away from my place. You know, the tea people. I've toured their factory twice and am basically obsessed with their teas and the way they run their company-- it's eco-friendly, fair trade, natural, basically all things good and healthy. So any in I can get there would be awesome and then I can hopefully work my way up. Wish me luck! My brain is craving a little more intellectual stimulation than 1 and 2 year-olds can give me.

Anyway, get psyched for Spring! It's almost here, folks.