Denver, Colorado

One of my friends from college, Taylor, decided to move to Colorado when she graduated. When is there a better time to pick up and move halfway across the country to a city with new people, history and adventure than straight out of college. It probably helped that her boyfriend, Josh, had moved to Denver when he graduated and had been working for a couple years. I had never been out west, and we always talked about vacationing there and me coming to visit them. She moved in October and hasn't looked back, (except maybe the first week she was there and it was -30 degrees). Not long after she got settled out there, I picked a weekend and bought a plane ticket to go visit. I thought it would never get here, and now I can't believe it's already come and gone.

They picked me up from the airport Thursday night in a snowstorm. Friday we went to Josh's work for them to unload his new inventory of drill bits, he owns an oil agency-which is both impressive and fascinating. We went downtown Denver to a place called Wynkoop Brewery for dinner, if you're ever in Denver and like beer and good food, try it. It was so good and such a fun atmosphere. Saturday we shopped and some of Taylor and Josh's friends came over and grilled Elk burgers. I had my mind made up that I wanted to ski, no I've never been and I'm pretty sure I got more negative advice than positive before I went, but I didn't want to go to Colorado in the winter and not ski. So on Sunday, ski we did!

It was honestly the best 'first ski trip' I could have asked for. We went to Arapahoe Basin. Everyone was so nice, nobody skied us over, we didn't get hurt and it was perfect weather. By the end of the day we had mastered the Molly Hogan (beginner slope). Don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect or easy by any means. When we got there, everyone but us had skis, boots & helmets already on, it was so intimidating, until we saw a guy with tennis shoes and we knew we would be fine. We had to ask how to put our skis on, but nobody told us how to get them off, which made getting up from falls almost impossible. The first run I did down the hill, I not only fell getting off the lift (I mean had to stop the lift because we were laughing so hard I couldn't get up), but I fell TWICE on the way down and lost a ski both times. After that, I only fell a couple of times, and Taylor only fell standing still laughing at me, one word-karma. We were both exhausted and got BeauJos for dinner on the way home, pizza is the best after-ski food there is obviously, that place was packed. I flew back home Monday, but I honestly had the best time and I am so grateful for their friendship and hospitality. I'm ready to go back already!