February 17-24, 2018
At UBC we get a week long Spring Break during term 2 and I’ve been lucky enough to escape the city every year. I’ve gone to Maryland, L.A., Banff, Portland, and for my fifth and final year: DENVER!
After a bit of debate, Emma and I planned a trip to Denver to visit her cousin and do some skiing! My friend from home, Karen, had been dying to go to Colorado since the summer so we invited her to join us. Karen and Emma had only met once before but it was perfect for me because I got to spend a weekend with my two of my best friends!!
Emma and I flew in from Seattle and worked on picking up the rental car (ugh, it was a mess) and drove back to the airport to meet Karen at the gate. We all drove into Denver together and made it to Emma’s cousin’s place in the Central district. We walked around Cheesman Park a little and headed over to Capitol Hill for drinks and dinner.
We woke up early the next morning to go to Rocky Mountain National Park!! We made a couple quick stops for coffee in the neighborhood and for doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnuts.
My name was on the car rental, so I drove the three of us and Catherine to the park with a stop in Boulder for snacks and a stop at Estes Park Mountain Shop for cheap snowshoe rentals! It was the off season so we had a bit of trouble finding a place to buy a park pass.
We were lucky enough to find a parking spot at the trail head and set off with our snowshoes. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground which made the trail hard to follow. We went the wrong way a few times which resulted in Catherine getting very stuck in deep snow. We made it to a couple frozen lakes we could walk over which ended with Emma falling as she dragged me by my ankles across the ice. We eventually made it to Emerald Lake and sat in the sun as we ate lunch and enjoyed the views. The weather was absolutely beautiful that day though!! It was sunny and pretty warm for February.
On our way out of the park we saw elk!!!! Just standing around in a herd on the side of the road!!! I was mostly worried about hitting one with the car.
We picked up groceries for dinner and made our way back to Catherine’s for dinner. We watched some of the ice dancing Olympic coverage where I was first introduced to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (evidence that I am not as Canadian as I think I am). We were very invested in the ice dancing.
The next morning we woke up to more snow!! The weather was pretty awful and the roads were bad. Catherine had to work that day so Emma, Karen, and I went off alone to Garden of the Gods park. We made it there with some very slow and cautious driving but the weather was just getting worse. We decided to drive around the park to save ourselves from the cold. We picked a couple spots to get out and take a look around. It was disappointing the visibility was so awful but we were some of the few to see the park blanketed in snow.
While driving out we saw a car that had gotten stuck in a ditch after slipping off the road. I was getting super nervous about the roads and contemplated heading back to Denver, but we decided to go to Manitou Springs for lunch! It was the cutest little town ever, we got falafel for lunch and window shopped around the boutique stores. We bought some ornaments from a Christmas store and I picked up some essential oils. We stopped for some coffee before driving back to Denver.
We picked up Catherine and went to do some serious thrift shopping!!! Emma and Catherine both found some awesome stuff but Karen and I were pretty limited by our carry-on suitcases. The snow was still coming down hard so I was driving verrrry slow around Denver. We grabbed ramen for dinner which was so so tasty.
The snow finally slowed down after dinner so we walked to a the Denver Central Market and had a drink before going home. The city was so sleepy and quiet after all the snow!
We packed up a bit that evening, Karen was supposed to fly out the next morning but got news that her flight was delayed. She spent time exploring downtown Denver solo because Emma, Catherine, and I had plans to ski!! The roads were still awful but luckily Catherine drove us most of the way to Arapahoe Basin! I could barely get out of the driveway.
It was a little sketchy coming down the pass to the resort but we made it in one piece. The snow was AWESOME but it was freezing cold the whole time we were there!! We were frozen stiff by lunch time but I was pretty excited to be on dry powder.
We said goodbye to Catherine after she drove us back to Denver and I took Emma to the airport in the rental car. Emma didn’t have time to change so she went on her flight in ski pants hehe. Karen’s flight still hadn’t left so I had a quick meal with her at the airport before she had to go through security. I was staying in Denver for the rest of the week because my dad was flying in for a conference the next day! I returned the rental car and took the train back to the city.
I had an evening to myself at the Hotel Indigo downtown! I mostly had a lot of work to catch up on from school and it was still freezing out so I stayed indoors for the next two days. My dad and I got to have dinner together in the evenings and catch up!
Our final day in Denver we got to explore the city. We went to the art museum which turned out to be a little underwhelming.
Afterwards we walked around downtown and saw the state capitol building. It was honestly too cold to be outdoors though.
That was our last evening together before we boarded our separate flights the next day! Thanks for having us, Denver!!
