Oh The Places You Will Go...: Denver!

Hi Friends,

Once again it's been way too long since I have blogged and I feel like I have so much to fill you in on! It is hard to believe how quickly this summer has flown by, I feel like it just started. I'd love to tell you about everything I have done this summer, but I'll keep this post dedicated to my Denver trip for fear if I don't limit myself I will write a short book!

In mid June Emily and I flew to Denver to spend a few days with Megan. It was such a fun trip! Plus, it was great to spend some time with Megan again. We got in on Thursday and of course went out for Mexican food and margaritas. I don't think we will ever find a Mexican restaurant like El Azteca, but it's still fun trying. Friday we spent shopping and walking around downtown. Denver is a gorgeous city, it was really fun walking around and exploring the city. One of my favorite parts of downtown were all these random pianos along the street. They were all painted differently and they were out for anyone to play. I absolutely loved them, and it was really cool when you walked by and people were playing music.

This man played the whole time we were eating lunch on Sunday.

Saturday was my favorite day in Denver. We drove about three hours west to the mountains and spent the day in Glenwood Springs. I absolutely loved driving through the mountains and as we got closer to Glendwood, the drive reminded me so much of New Zealand. It was gorgeous driving along the Colorado River and looking up at the mountains. We spend the morning as a small amusement park at the top of the mountains. Megan found it on Groupon and it was a fun way to spend the day. After riding rides for a few hours we went whitewater rafting and oh my goodness it was amazing! We spent about three hours on the river and it was a blast! Because there has been such little rain this year there weren't very many big rapids. The biggest rapids were done about a half hour into our trip, but we had a great tour guide who made the whole time a lot of fun. One of the most fun parts was 'riding the bull.' Alex, our tour guide, had us sit on the front of the raft and try to hold on to the rope as we went over rapids. Of course I volunteered to go first and didn't take into account how slippery the wet raft was. The second I tried to sit on the front, I fell off before even getting into the rapids! It was a little embarrassing, but I made up for it by being the only one to make it through a whole set of rapids without falling off and only holding on with one hand, YAY!

On Sunday the girls and I spent the morning downtown again at the Gay Pride Fest. We went to the parade for a while and it was super fun! There were so many fun floats and people in the parade.

This was my favorite group, a bunch of people with signs about the various family members they supported or whom supported them.

After the parade we walked abound and checked out other parts of the festival, however it was extremely hot and crowded so we headed for cooler air and mimosas! After lunch and a couple hours of relaxing we headed out to City Park for Jazz in the Park, which was yet another super fun night! I think about every person in Denver was at the park enjoying the music and nice weather. Everyone brought lots of food and many people were playing various games outside. We were rookies we didn't have the spread that many people surrounding us did, however there were quite a few yummy food vendors, including a really good cupcake place!

I was less then ready for Monday morning to come! I didn't want to go home and I definitely didn't want to say goodbye to one of my favorite people, Megan. It was a sobfest when she dropped us off at the airport and I said my last goodbye. Thank goodness for Skype, I will miss Meggie while I'm in Vietnam!!

Well it may have taken me a month, but now you know all about my fabulous trip to Denver! So I will sign off and leave you with a few more pictures from my great trip!