Our Denver Ski trip is official! We bought our flight tickets last weekend (for mid February) and visited the Columbia Outlet Store today to get our jackets and pants.
I’m getting more and more excited as the details get squared away. It will be fun to try skiing, and possibly, some other winter sports. I wonder if we’ll get hooked on skiing and it will become an annual activity?
It will also be fun to spend time with friends! We are going with one of Steven’s high school friends and his wife. And we are staying with the friend’s parents, who live in the foothills of the mountains just outside of Denver.
All of my memories of these friends and the parents are of good conversation and good times. They’re the kind of intellectual people who listen, have a lot to add to the conversation, but know when it’s time to have fun and not be serious.
We had lunch with the friends today before going to the store. We were telling them about our fitness goals and half marathon training. Sometimes people brush this off or make a joke about how inactive they were, but they listened to us, and showed enthusiasm for our goals, and shared a few of their own. It turns out Steven’s friend is training for a half marathon as well! We all even talked about running the Disney World half marathon next January. After reading Laura’s Disney Marathon Race Report, I really think that half (or full?!) marathon would be loads of fun.
It’s too bad we don’t see these friends more often. They also live in the suburbs, but… the Chicago suburbs can be very far apart. And ours are. Add in all of our busy schedules, and it’s not often the four of us can meet up. Even more reason to look forward to the trip!
Health + Fitness, Travel
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Colorado, Denver, Disney Half Marathon, friends, friendship, half-marathon, marathon, Running, skiing, Travel
I guess I am an even bigger snob that I thought!
Steven and I simultaneously decided we need a vacation yesterday. But I started spurting out places like Australia, Austria, and Egypt. And I even said “Maybe we should go to the library and look at books about England, Scotland and Ireland!”
Then he said, “Why don’t we stick to the US?”
Hmm… none of my fantasy vacations have taken place in the US! I don’t even know where to begin! I did pull out my copy of 1000 Places to See Before You Die – US & Canada for ideas, but it’s so specific. I’m not sure if that’s the best place to start.
So, it’s time for your suggestions! We don’t want the trip to be 100% educational (so no Washington D.C.), but more recreational (I guess) and relaxing. I already asked, and Walt Disney World is out of the question. We’re both especially interested in California or the New England area, but not anywhere super hot and humid (so maybe we should go to Canada!). Any tips or ideas?
Notice a similarity in the two books I just added to my amazon wishlist?
It’s a fantasy I can’t give up. Although before, it was fueled more by my desire to travel and experience new cultures, than by my frustration with our country’s… politics.
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Today’s Idiom: to throw cold water – to discourage a plan or idea
Kim kept talking to Steven about traveling over the summer, but he threw cold water on the idea by asking “and how are we going to pay for that?”
Who am I kidding, putting books like 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and the Eyewitness Travel Guide Austria on my holiday wish list?
Apparently, I am kidding my in-laws, who were nice enough to get me a few of the travel books off of my list. So I can devour them and plan and dream about traveling and seeing the world…
But really, I am kidding myself. Moneywise, student loans are kicking my butt. I don’t have a plethora of “paid holidays.” And after this last weekend, I am starting to hate air travel.
Steven and I are going to have to work out a very specific financial saving plan if we want to travel the way we do.
You know how some people are interested in things that totally disinterest you? Maybe sports, or knitting, or animals, or cars, or scrap-booking, or whatever… well, I think “travel” is my thing that I love to talk about, and may disinterest a lot of people. It is also my “I don’t understand why you don’t like this!” thing. I just love seeing new parts of the world and learning about other cultures. And it’s especially fun now that I have Steven as my travel companion!
“I’m gray… inside the suitcase it’s gray… they’ll never know I’m here!”
Truthfully, I took this picture yesterday before Steven and I left for the airport, but planned on posting it today, as sort of a filler while Steven and I are on vacation in Kansas City.
But we never made it. And here is one of those “wow, I am happy it didn’t happen to me” stories for you.
I was paranoid all week about our 3:30 pm flight to Kansas City. I worried about the weather, about the long lines through security, about us getting there on time. So I made sure we left the house early. Check-in and security turned out to be a breeze – maybe 10 minutes total! Wow!
Our flight already had a 45 minute delay when we got there. Then it was 35 minute more. Then an hour. Then another hour. Until it was finally set to leave at 7:15. Then it was canceled and they told us there are no other flights until Monday because of bad weather.
We fought for a refund on our flight (“we don’t give refunds for flights canceled due to weather”). We had to run around the airport to retrieve our check-in luggage (they said it was probably on its way to Kansas City – uh, if we can’t get there, how can our luggage?!). We tried to figure out if we could rent a car and drive there.
We came home, defeated, 11 hours later. Steven had the crappiest birthday ever, and this will probably be the crappiest Christmas ever. We still don’t know what we are going to do. We both feel very sad. We were really looking forward to seeing his family.
Does a love for travel and a love for maps go together hand in hand?
I could waste so much time looking at maps – political maps, geographical maps, even fictional maps. Something about them fascinates me. It’s kind of surprising, because I remember finding Geography Class so boring in high school. Maybe it means more to me now that I actually have money to travel?
Last December, I bought Steven a map of the world for his birthday. We finally got around to getting a frame made for it last month, and hanging it in our office this morning. I have been really excited to put my little “travel pins” on the map. Based on the image below though, I think I may have exhausted Italy! Any suggestions for my next trip?
I’m going to sneak in and post some photos from our Aruba trip before Steven and I begin our very busy day of unpacking, washing clothes, preparing for Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast, shopping, and finally… picking up Data from the Kitty Resort!
A couple of things first though:
1. Thanks to Christina, who blogged while I was gone! I second kapgar in thinking she should start her own blog. Thanksgiving break is the perfect time to get it all set up! I really enjoyed reading all of her posts and am happy I asked her to write here. Thanks again sister!
2. It was really weird for me to take an “actual vacation.” Sure, I have been away, traveling for a week before, but usually my days are jam packed with sightseeing and I don’t get a break. In Aruba, we were L-A-Z-Y. We slept in, meandered over to the beach, ate late lunches and big dinners, sometimes didn’t even wear a watch… it felt strange at first, but now I can say I really enjoyed it! I need to take more relaxing vacations like this, instead of my usual chock full travel schedule.
And I won’t even get started on how weird it was not to blog while I was there!
And now onto the photos, in a VERY LONG extended entry…
Continue reading 'Aruba'»
For the next week, I will be spending the majority of my time here –
– which doesn’t appear to have an outlet for my laptop! I will probably sign in from time to time, but I have handed the reign of ilaxSTUDIO.com over to my sister, Christina. She will be posting while I am gone!
I will miss you all, and be eager to tell you about my trip when I return!
(Extra credit to the first person who can tell me what “te aworo” means!)
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