I have woken up bright and early every day I’ve been in Colorado, between 8am and 9am Florida time, but I feel certain somehow that it will be a great effort upon my return to Florida to rise at the same time. Maybe it’s the difference between waking up on vacation and waking up for work though. One is infinitely more fun to rise early for so I can understand that to some extent. Today I was awake around 6am Colorado time, 8am Florida time, but I had no reason to actually get up and going so I just laid in bed relaxing until 8am when I threw some shoes on and trotted down for breakfast. I live for free breakfasts. They’re the joy of my life, the pride of my mornings, the very best part of a hotel. There’s something so I’m On Vacation about going down to a free breakfast. It’s a bright, welcoming experience that one simply can’t capture anywhere else. The breakfast spread was similar to the one the Hampton I work at offers but they had some differences. The bread they had for the toast was a nice, wide loaf and toasted exceptionally well, and they had some kind of pancake roll-up with fruit inside that I had to try. I also got myself some orange juice and two strawberry yogurts, one for me and one for Jess when she came to pick me up so she’d have some iota of fruit in her body for the day ahead.
It wasn’t busy at breakfast, either because it was only 8am and breakfast runs until 10am and if this hotel is anything like mine everyone rushes down at 9:55am to load up, or because it’s just not a busy day. I saw maybe four people total, maybe five in the seating area as I got my food and headed back upstairs. I briefly checked the tea and coffee station to see if they had any of the Lemon Lift tea Jess likes so much or hot chocolate. They had neither. Pft. Back in the room I got myself situated at the desk area and checked what was on TV for a fun program to watch while I returned some messages and phone calls and did some writing. I was delighted to discover PBS had just started an episode of my absolute favourite children’s program ‘Molly of Denali’! I decided to hold off on the calls and messages and whatnot and just ate my toast while I watched. I felt rather like a child waking up on the weekend to watch their morning cartoons! After that finished I found an HBO channel showing ‘Mel Brook’s Men In Tights’ and threw that on as I continued to eat and enjoy all the fine amenities of my hotel room. In the meantime, Jess and Frank had gone to meet Frank’s friend Caddie for an early morning rock climbing session before Catie had to go to work. They were up and out the door by 8am to pick up Catie at her place. They passed by a house that definitely had a wild party the night before with beer cans and beer boxes all over the yard. Godspeed good partiers. At the gym, The Spot, they had a box of free stickers so Jess snagged on for our waterbottle (giving us two Colorado-themed stickers on it) and they did some bouldering. There was only bouldering at this gym so Jess didn't have to deal with the harness or anything and just scrambled up as she pleased. They had this intesive wall called The Beach that Jess managed to do one of so she was quite pleased with herself!
Around 10am Jess and Frank called me to say they were on their way as Catie had had to get to her lab. Frank asked what the plan was. Jess and I once again told him we had none and he tried to game out an idea for the day in his mind. Jess had suggested the hotel pool but when I went down to check it it was out of order for maintenance so bang went that plan. Frank bounced around a couple ideas but didn’t settle on anything so Jess and I decided we’d figure it out at the hotel and left it at that. I got myself organized to prepare for their arrival, actually got out of my pajamas and made sure my stuff was in order. I didn’t unpack at all really, I usually don’t, so I only needed to pack up my tablet, phones, pajamas, and my book. Jess and Frank ended up dawdling for a while and arrived at the hotel at 11am, which was fine with me as I was happily eating my breakfast and watching my movie. We left the hotel and headed back to Frank’s place, after one quick stop to pick up some groceries and a Starbucks inside the King Supers, where Frank made chicken tikka masala, which was super delicious, Frank really is quite the chef.In
Food finished we hung about Frank’s place for a hot second, though I used the time mostly to see about repacking and reorganizing our suitcases to see about making sure everything fit for the flight home. As long as we kept our purchases in the brown bag they were currently in and put Jessica’s purse in there before boarding then we would be all set for our two free carry-ons. Frank still hadn’t decided what he wanted to do so Jess checked online to see what was cool in the area. She discovered a tea house, the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, and said we should go. We had tried to avoid picking things to do ourself as the point of this trip was for Frank (and Dave) to simply show us what they pleased, but as Frank had no ideas Jess made an executive decision. Frank wanted us to take the bus but the walk to the bus stop wasn’t much farther than the walk to the tea house so we just elected to drive it in case we wanted to go anywhere else after. Frank decided to do pay-per street parking but he overshot his mark and we still had to walk a few blocks only to discover free parking at the tea house. Not sure why he didn’t check there to park first, but he had only been once before in winter a year ago so he didn’t seem familiar with the place.
Jess and I had asked Frank if we needed a reservation before we left and he said no, it might be a little busy but it should be fine. Well, we saw a line out the door and realized Frank may have been incorrect on that front. Turns out it was only a 25 minute wait for indoor seating, which we wanted because it looked so pretty inside, so that wasn’t bad. It also turns out there the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, or BMoCA, was right next door and $2 per person so off we went to have a nice half hour at the museum! Inside Jess and I searched for a sticker to purchase for our waterbottle, which now had two stickers and we wanted a third or forth if possible. They had some stickers but nothing that said BMoCA on it so we asked the desk. They said they just had a little ones they give away for free at events and we were like Yes, Please! And they gave it to us for free! How cool! That handled we walked around the museum. Most of the art was created by indigenous artists discussing the earth and our use of it. I love the exhibit with the sound machine making forest noises. Very immersive!
Just as we reached the last exhibit the phone dinged and our reservations as ready so off we popped to the tea house! We got a really nice table right by the window and our server, Ari, was amazing! She let us look at the menus for a bit and brought us water then went over what she would recommend. There were technically three menus for the place, a brief food menu, a short tea cocktail and tea-based drink menu, and a book of teas. Jess had already decided what she thought sounded best, as the resident tea expert of our crew, but Frank and I were undecided and listened to Ari as she talked. She said if she could order any tea it would be the Blue Moon black tea, which funny enough was the one Jess had selected but I guess Jess know’s her teas well enough to know what’s best, and then recommended the Full Moon Spice tea, which Frank decided to order. On the tea cocktail and tea-based drink menu she recommended the Golden Milk, a tea latte with turmeric, which I elected to order. We put in for a small food order of two bao and two samosas, but she had to return to tell us they were out of bao so we just got three samosas! The tea came first and it was a whole experience to drink it! The restaurant brings you the tea pot, or tea pots in our case, and the tea leaves separate in their diffuser to add at your leisure. Once the diffuser is placed you flip a timer they brought and let the tea steep for the perfect amount of time before removing the diffusers to their original plate. From there you pour your own tea and can add milk or honey which is also brought to the table. Jess really enjoyed her Full Moon, while Frank and I agreed the Golden Milk was excellent, if just a touch strong on the cinnamon for my taste.
For a last minute idea the tea house excursion was one of my favourites of the trip, it was such an aesthetic dream. The whole building is beautiful and was actually fully imported to Boulder from Dushanbe and it was just lovely to sit in there and drink tea! Wish we had something like that in Deland, it was such an experience. After sitting there for some time we headed back to Frank’s place and Frank, once more, tried to decide what to do next as we had almost six hours left before our flight, so four hours before we wanted to be at the airport, which was about an hour away. Frank finally decided to take us the Flagstaff Hill Lookout on our way to the airport. So we finalized our bags, got everything loaded into the car, and began the drive. The drive up Flagstaff was insane, so windy and the views were insane! We saw two deer on the way up also, which was cool! The first lookout spot seemed to be the more popular with plenty of cars but Frank drove us to the second which had, like, 5 cars. From the parking spot it was a short walk to this rocky lookout with an amazing view! You could see everything! Mountains, forest, everything! We tottered around there for some time, creeping closer and closer to the edge as we got more daring. The wind up there wasn’t bad but it did feel very nice and cooling as you stand and bask in the scenery. After a while of climbing around and posing and enjoying ourselves we returned to the car and began the hour drive to the airport.
Frank didn’t have whatever Colorado’s version of an EZ-Pass was but the route you could take with it was less than an hour rather that the hour plus of the regular route, so he took a bit to try and figure out how to purchase that as we drove. He did, eventually, figure it out and we took a shorter route but still arrived at the airport around 5:30pm. From Terminal C we said our good-byes to Frank and headed off to try and navigate this place which has gotten us so lost on arrival. We actually didn’t get lost at all and found our way to C37 in no time so we hit McDonalds and got ourself a little something to fill our stomachs and purchased another sticker for our bottle bringing us up to four total water bottle stickers! We sat in the food court area first to eat, then moved to a window sitting area in C39, as that gate was empty, then moved to a charging station seat in C37 when the people leaving for Boston all took off. We sat there for longer than expected as the flight was meant to take off at 8:20pm but didn’t start loading until then because the flight prior had to refuel or something. No matter to us really, but it put us almost an hour behind our original flight time. Jess and I got seats together when we boarded which was nice and we settled in for our 3 1/2 hour flight. The flight was excellent, very smooth, got our drinks and snacks about halfway through, and we were both well rested and relaxed when we landed in Orlando.
We had left our car at WallyPark so we needed to get to Terminal A’s bus pickup then text WallyPark that we were there, but as we arrived at the bus pickup a WallyPark bus was already there! Score! Not that texting and waiting is such a hardship, but at 3am it was nice to save even 15 minutes off our estimated time. We arrived at our car and were so delighted to see it and load up and I readjusted to driving my own vehicle. It’s amazing how fast one can get unfamiliar with a thing one does usually twice a day. All set to go we put on our tunes and Jess navigated us home for a 4am arrival at our lovely, wonderful, magnificent, sweet, little house. We unpacked our suitcases, putting dirty laundry aside to be washed the following day, and finally laid down in our own rooms, in our own beds, under our own covers.
This trip was not what I expected but that makes sense as I don’t think I had any expectations. We’ve done so much in the past 8 days and it’s surprised us how much energy we’ve had. Through trains, planes, subways, buses, automobiles, and a whole lotta walking we’ve visited four friends across three states and managed to do so much I sometimes couldn’t write all of it. As I read my first post outloud to Dave and Jessica they both kept adding things to the stories I told, the little details or extra moments that I just couldn’t fit in. I could, I supposed, but I would be writing forever and the three people who read this (Hi mom!) would be reading forever. But I think I got the gist of it and I’m glad I did this again. Looking back at my past posts I’m always glad I kept the logs I did of the places we visited and things we did because it’s so easy to forget. Perhaps you’ll never get all the context or jokes or moments from every post, but as I reread my own writing it all comes back easier. The moments I thought were long forgotten are jogged and I see it all so much clearer than I could if I had just taken pictures. This blog is a labour, but a labour of love and I’m glad to have shared it with you and with the version of me ten years from now who’s reading these very words and smiling.
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