A few highlights from the weekend!

Friday

• Finishing work and knowing I was done for a week+!
• A surprise package of goodies in the mail from an Instagram follower.
• Time with the cats before our trip.

Saturday

• Getting a strength workout in before we left.
• Ned being super cuddly before we left.
• Stopping for vegan donuts at Stan’s. Gah, we got up to the counter and they said they didn’t have any and I was oddly emotional and felt like I was going to cry. Then as we were checking out Steven asked if any more were coming in and they said three had just arrived on a truck. Morning saved, ha.
• Making good progress on the trip. The drive through Illinois and Iowa is kind of extremely boring but the weather was great. We kept knocking on wood each time we talked about how great the weather was for December!
• Seeing a gorgeous sunset.
• Checking out the Haymarket area in Lincoln, NE.
• Dinner at a vegetarian restaurant – Rutabagas. The food was so so, but it was really great to be able to order off the entire menu.
• Walking to the state capitol building. I’m always excited when we randomly end up being in a capital city of a state (and still regret not seeing the capitol in Atlanta).

Sunday

• Getting a good night’s rest in a hotel. That doesn’t happen often!
• Running and hiding rocks and seeing an absolutely stunning sunrise! I ran to the capitol, through downtown, and on campus. We were only staying in Lincoln for a short time and running let me see more of it!
• Getting a Nebraska Starbucks mug (and having a lovely conversation with the barista).
• Walking to a cafe with Steven and planning out some more of our trip while there.
• Stopping at the capitol one more time for an usie.
• Steven driving the entire rest of the way. Yay! We split the first day 50/50 but I was so glad he wanted to drive all of Sunday – it was so windy! So many tumbleweed going across the highway (which was really novel and entertaining to us).
• Seeing Nebraska on I-80. It was my first time in the state as an adult (or maybe ever?).
• Getting into Colorado.
• Dinner at Beau Jo’s pizza. They had a lot of vegan options and their pizza has thick crust – my favorite! Steven thought the nachos we got there were the best thing we ate on the entire trip. It was great to have so many vegan options in Colorado, but nothing was absolutely AMAZING, if you know what I mean.
• Getting into the AirBnb hot tub after dinner. We chose a suburban AirBnb over this super cool modern one in downtown Longmont due to how many nights we were saying (and somewhat, cost and cancellation). The suburban one was nice and met our needs, but in my head I was comparing it to the cool modern one. Long story long, having a hot tub was an awesome perk.

Monday

• Seeing the mountains when I left the house for our run. It was dark when we came in so we missed them, and seeing them in the morning made me so happy I felt like I could cry. Ha.
• A sunrise run at McIntosh Lake. So, long story – I received a bunch of rocks to hide from a rock painter who lives in California now. I told her I was headed to Colorado and she said she used to live there. Then it turned out she lived in the place where we stayed – Longmont! So she had awesome recommendations, including this lake. The sunrise was beautiful and I loved seeing the mountains light up as the sun rose. It was cold (19º F!) but such a great run. I did feel a bit out of breath due to the elevation, but stopping to hide rocks helped with that.
• Seeing a “mountain lion.” Ha, I saw a cat run across the path before I rounded a corner and legit thought it was a mountain lion, but it was a big house cat.
• Receiving adorable photos of the cats from our cat sitter.
• Seeing McIntosh Lake with Steven on our way out of Longmont.
• Taking the back road from Longmont to Boulder – we loved riding next to the mountains (well, foot hills).
• Seeing the Flatirons. This was another recommendation from my rock friend and I am so glad she told us to hike there! We did a long hike – just over 3 miles in just over 2 hours. Ha, we kept trying to go higher to get a better view of the Flatirons, then it turned out the best view was on the access road we took down! But it was a really neat (and challenging at times) hike. I’m so glad we could do it.
• Eating Chicago-style dogs and chili fries at Mustard’s Last Stand. We got to add a pin on a map to say where we were from in Chicagoland.
• Exploring the Pearl Street mall area. I found a few gifts and Steven got some art for the warehouse and our house.
• Going out to dinner in Longmont at Long Peak Pub & Taphouse. The fried cauliflower was AMAZING (but had so much grease I felt sick later).
• Chilling back at the AirBnb and watching Succession. Every day was extremely full on this trip – it was nice to sit on the couch and relax one night!

Lowlights

• Realizing on Saturday night that we left the hang-up bag with all of Steven’s shirts and some of mine at home. Oops. Luckily our rental had laundry!
• So many restaurants being closed on Monday, blah. Here is a not so fun fact about me – I HATE researching places to eat (and honestly, things to do) on my phone on the go. I just don’t enjoy doing research. So finding a bunch of places that have food options we like, then having them all be closed is really frustrating.