You go and do something like this....and totally redeem yourself!" Oh yes, another ever famous line from Dumb & Dumber. Trav quotes this movie on a daily basis so naturally when we traveled to Colorado and were right there in front of Aspen, I heard the entire movie from start to finish straight from Trav's memory! =)
As a birthday present from Trav, a chance to visit a friend and explore Colorado, we headed out to Denver the first weekend of October. I love traveling with Trav. We've developed a routine at the airport from checking in, to going through security, and of course finding the right seats on the plane. When we landed in Denver it was dark but the airport was lit up, looking like white capped mountains scattered across the dark sky. We picked up our little, tiny rental car and headed to find Littleton, CO. Christie, my roommate from Azusa, lives in Littleton as well as her parents. Her parents were kind enough to open their home for us to stay in because they were in the mountains at that time. Christie and her boyfriend, Brandon, took us to one delicious authentic Mexican restaurant for dinner. We ate till we couldn't walk. After, we debated heading out to downtown Denver, but we are all old folks now and decided just to sight see it from the car. ;)
The next morning, Christie took us to the cutest lil restaurant for breakfast in downtown Littleton, Cafe Terracota. I loved how it was in an old, town style house...it felt very quaint! Afterwards, Trav and I set out on our own lil adventure. We had some things we wanted to see before heading to the mountains with Christie and Brandon for the night. We first visited the new Columbine Memorial. It was breathtaking. They did an incredible job of honoring those who were killed and remembering their greatness. I was in awe as I read the tablets on each individual. I was amazed at how strong they were, their courage, and their faith. Some families chose to put poems or journal entries their child had written before the shooting. God works in mysterious ways and what they wrote about just weeks before they lost their lives is living on to teach others about why we are really here and what the end goal really is. It was only minutes before I had tears streaming down my cheeks. I know I will never forget that day. Watching the tv with my parents and the way I felt. Running along the edge of the memorial was a wall with quotes engraved from what people said that day as well as the days after as they recalled the events and emotions. I can't get Trav to read a book, but he read that entire wall. I glanced over to see him sitting in front of it and even from a distance I saw the glistening on his cheeks and knew he was feeling what I was feeling.
We drove around the high school after. Thank we headed up the street a little further to find my old home. We even found our old church that was right down the street! We met back up with the others and took off for the mountains! What a drive! The scenery was breathtaking! The road to their cabin was decorated with colorful aspen trees and I realized what we miss out on in California....fall. The Brady's cabin is picturesque...you feel like you are in a movie yet you feel like you are at home! Her parents have a yellow lab, Rory, who immediately took to Trav. Shocking, right?! Her two lil cousins were there who I have always heard so much about but it was fun to meet and play with them. All of us headed to the "town" to grab a bite for dinner. It was a fun BBQ place, much like Heros here in Fullerton, where you throw your peanut shells on the floor. Later that night Trav, Christie, Brandon, and I sat in the jacuzzi, talking under the starlit sky. It was wonderful!
Before heading back down the next day, Christie showed us one of her favorite hikes. Probably the most breathtaking hike I have ever been on. Pictures couldn't even capture how beautiful it was. We spent the afternoon cheering on the Broncos and bbqing at their house. We feel pretty blessed and thankful for their hospitality. They treated us like family the whole weekend.
On our last night their, Trav and I got an ice cream craving so we drove to find a Dairy Queen. Along the way we stopped at the Super Target so Trav could check it out. Needless to say both of our jaws dropped when we went inside. This is unlike any Target you have seen. Lined across the front of the store was over 40 checkout lines. The grocery in this store was bigger than the Vons by my parents old house and I thought that was a big grocery! We walked the aisles in complete awe. There was even a self-serve candy section. How dangerous would that be if it was at Trav's store!?!?
On our last day in the great CO we did some touring of our own. We headed out early to see the different fields. Finding the stadiums in different cities we visit is a tradition/hobby of ours and I just love it! We stopped by the Broncos first....but Tim was not there ;) We drove by the Pepsi Center next and let me tell you, that is one awesome arena! Soon after we had an appt at the Denver Mint. We took the tour and learned alot about the production of coins here in the US. We walked to the Capital building as well and loved the architecture. On our way to 16th St we found Coors Field, another awesome stadium and than Mermaid Bakery where we had to grab a cupcake even if it was 10am! We finished off our downtown touring with a hamburger at Good Eats.
Before heading to the airport we drove out to Golden, CO to tour the Coors Factory. Golden was not what I expected. Instead, it was this little town that mimicked what and old town would have been like back in the wild west days...I loved it! I will say the Coors tour was pretty neat. And, you get to sample at the end which is always fun. We walked around the downtown a bit after and again, fell in love. On our drive to the airport, we talked about everything we had crammed in during our short visit and the fun we had. We both fell in love with Colorado...it's a whole different world in so many ways! There are so many places we want to visit in the US....and so much history to see. We are already planning our next adventure.
Now, you may think I am crazy for posting this song, but everytime we got in our car this song came on the radio and now whenever we hear it we think of Denver and our adventures.
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