It was so lovely to see Laurie again, in the car journey from Denver to Boulder we were catching up on what had happened since. We were saying how brill it had worked out in regards been so close to Denver so it was absolutely no trouble adding it to the diary :)
We saw a couple of fun things on the way, these being a theme park and Colorado Broncos stadium which was cool :)
Girls chairlift! We had such an amazing time at the top of Copper Mountain, the scenery was lovely and Nat's surprise worked out perfectly!! :) good secret!
We saw a couple of fun things on the way, these being a theme park and Colorado Broncos stadium which was cool :)
Laurie wanted to nip to a sale which we were up for definitely, we like bargains! We had a quick look around there at all the brand new products at cheap prices before heading off on the final part of our journey.
We then arrived at their house! Oh my lord, the first thought I had was....crikey them dogs are so cute!!!! They have two dogs called Eden and Kima and they are the cutest dogs and such good girls! They gave us an amazing fuss and I instantly fell in love! hehe, I'm very much a dog girl!
We then met their other pet, a cat called Cookie. She was such a sweet cat but we would laugh as she had moments of craziness (sprinting around) and she went for me feet once which gave me a little shock! haha! We ended on good terms :)
ALERT: Crazy cute pictures below!
Oh god!!!!
After a few jobs were done, one of them being unpacking, we headed out to a local lake that was so lovely. Eden was off for a swim!!
She loved it bless her! She's 15 and doing ever so well for her age. The dog above was a story, Eden would be in and out of the lake loving it and this labradoodle was scared to go in. It had never swam once ever, the poor thing it was so worried. It got its feet wet though :)
We then got back to the house and settled down for a few hours, catching up with Laurie and Brodie, meeting Laurie's husband and daughter and getting to know them too :) Then we headed out on a walk with the doggies with Brody. We went to see the world famous Celestrial Seasonings Tea Factory and then the train track which was very scenic with the sunset in the background.
We were glad this cat got off the tracks...
Fun times :)
I then went to the gym, sit and reach which for some reason was called seated reach! I am such a child when I see monkey bars...
I DID IT :D
Then Nat joined me in the child area! haha
After our lovely walk and activities we headed back to the house and chilled down for the night. Fussing the dogs for most of it haha! We love them so much already :)
Day Two
Today we headed up...to a ski resort...Copper Mountain. We were so excited to go and couldn't wait! The day started with the dogs coming downstairs and giving a lovely morning welcome which was so cute. We spent most of the day relaxing, taking Eden for a swim and temporarily getting lost and then figuring out the place we had to go was so close to where we were driving around. But it was an adventure!
When we got back everyone was at work so we watched some Netflix, to be specific the final episode of Prison Break. I always have cried at the episode, and always will, and on this occasion I did too!! And Nat joined me so it wasn't just me.
(We didn't get any pictures today sorry!)
We had some lunch and then helped Andy pack the van for our weekend away (on a 6 month trip away...). We then got going, picking up their daughter on the journey from camp, grabbing a subway on the way and then started seeing the most amazing (one of them!) scenery, beautiful mountains. It was obviously not covered in snow as it was July meaning you saw the ski tracks which was weird to see them all green!
We arrived and settled into the condo, it was Nat's birthday tomorrow and we would be heading up the mountain on the chairlift. ALSO in regards to cards, I'd bought one and had one from me but I had a little secret. In New Zealand, Mum and Dad had given me some cards to give her from them, Grandma, and of course her long-term boyfriend, Chris.
Day Three
Today was a good day, it was Nat's 26th birthday!! :) We woke up and because we were in the living room we got up to get out of the way basically :) But before we got up I grabbed my camera and gave Nat my card. Said it's a shame there's none from anybody else but think of mine as being from then also! I would surprise her later when the moment was right :)
After getting up, sorting the bed and having breakfast we headed towards the shopping area to purchase a ticket for the chairlift. We were told if we spent $10 in the shop we would get a ticket (worth $10 by itself!). A great deal!
As we buy patches, and Nat magnets we decided to buy just these. However in replacement of a magnet on this occasion we bought a chocolate cookie dough brownie and a muffin... Too tempting and also it added up to $10 so method in the eating!
We got our ticket and headed towards to the chairlift, I had somehow got all the birthday cards in my handbag and ready to reveal. Me, Nat and Laurie were together on a chairlift and it took a good 10 minutes to get up there. It goes nice and slow so you can take in the scenery and also due to it being quieter they are able to do this.
It was a brilliant view and we got plenty of pictures as you can see. We are such picture people!
When we got off we headed up towards a huge collection of big rocks, big enough that you kind of had to clamber across them. The family were explaining about the nature and wildlife that lived up here and we saw lots and even a fox!!
Can you see it, good camouflage!
Absolutely brilliant views, mountains, trees, gorgeous!
After enjoying the wondering scenery, we headed back towards the chairlift. I was running out of time, I had told Laurie and she said we'd head down to a collection of chairs that we could sit at. As we approached the chairlift, Nat took this picture thinking she was heading down!
We headed down and everyone was very confused. I then surprised her!! She opened the cards and they had also bought some earrings and a card which was absolutely lovely of them. She loved it :)
We then headed down to ground level, well mountain level.
On the way down we came across the snowboarding trick hill that looked so fun! I did do snowboarding lessons a few years ago and really want to do that again sometime.
After we jumped off the chairlift we bumped into a race finish line. We wanted to get a picture but when we got back to it, it's gone. There was an event going on, an altitude marathon, and I completely admire the athletes who took part due to this altitude really taking it out of you.
There was a sign wth my initials on...
We then visited the gift shop with their daughter and saw this cool sign. I wanted to buy it but my habit of picking up big souvenirs has been getting pretty crazy so I held back. Haha!
Then, after nipping back to the condo for some lovely and well needed lunch we headed out to go karting! You got 7 minutes per go but they could cut off your engine if you went too fast, or basically were too good! Me and a guy I was next to were contesting for the higher placing, when suddenly both our engines cut off! Only ours, just because we were good. Ha!
It was such great fun and went so fast. Next was crazy golf!! :) Andy headed back to take the dogs back, but he was really on a secret mission, to bake the cake! Unbeknown to Nat!
We did 18 crazy gold holes which were great fun and we all loved it!
After we finished, Laurie had to nip to a furniture shop so we went along to have a look and a sit down :D such comfy chairs in them shops!
After a good look around the furniture we set off back to the condo. As we walked in we smelt the amazing smell...freshly baked cake!
We had dinner and then they revealed the cake, she was absolutely stunned! Bless her she was so surprised and was so chuffed at it all.
Then we all shared a cheeky Hershey's bag of chocolate drops!
Day Four
We had such a fun day yesterday and the fun was going to carry on due to the plan of doing a short hike this morning. It was called Lilypond Trail and it was a nice short but extremely scenic one :)
After getting dressed, eating some breakfast and having a morning chat we headed out with the whole family and Kima to the start of the hike. Eden stayed back and had a rest bless her. We saw something very strange on the way there, a house (a very small one) on the back of a pick up truck. What made us laugh though was that on the door there was a sign saying, 'NOT a restroom, PRIVATE PROPERTY!'. Very funny yet if you think about it extremely necessary!
Kima was having a great time having a neck massage as we made our way there :)
We parked up and the scenery was lovely, the trail led through the trees through a couple of lakes, over wooden bridges and finally led to a big pond absolutely covered in lily pads, hence the name! There were lots of photo opportunities with the wooden track against the green background, it was a nice flat walk and as we went we both took in the beautiful greenery and furthermore learning about the beetle tree issues which still is ravishing the forests slowly.
We maybe took 20 minutes and then we came out onto some flat ground to the side of this lily pond. The flowers were fantastic, the colours lovely and the weather beautiful. It really was such a perfect day :)
Then Kima nipped in for a dip :)
We had some chips (crisps for UK) where were shaped like fish so this one made Nat laugh, due to the fact it's got an eye!
When we got the ending point, we took time to take in the lovely view and to absorb and listen to the peace and quiet of the surrounding area. Then after a while we headed back, back on the same path we took to get out there, so we saw the same scenery but it's amazing as to all the different things you see simply going the opposite way around,
It wasn't long and then we got back to the condo, Eden needed the toilet so me and Nat took her our for a wee which she appreciated :) Bless her she is 15 and doing so well, she honestly storms ahead making us go faster! hehe.
We saw this which made us laugh :)
After we got back, Andy had some aerobies (similar to Frisbee but flies much better)...and we had an amazingly fun time with Brody showing off his climbing skills. I was sad to finish as we had lots of fun :)
We then made our way back. It was then time to leave Copper Mountain :( We packed up all the things we'd brought into coolers and bags, then headed off. Me and Nat had an amazing time so we'd like to thank the whole family soooo much for bringing us along and we loved it!!
The dogs soon settled down in the back, so cute. They were very well behaved, as they always are, due to being right next to food and not being tempted whatsoever!
Day Five
Today was a nice relaxed day with the main focus being visiting Pearl Street Mall, where similar to 16th Street Mall there are no cars or vehicle going down the road. We parked up and walked the short distance onto Pearl Street. Some of it was on a normal street format but some was a none-car format.
There were lots and lots of shops ranging from knick knacks (boutique style independent shops) to Starbucks to Cheesecake Factory!! My favourite...sadly I couldn't decide so I didn't get a slice. A brill event is coming up, we noticed that on the 29th and 30th of July the slices are all half price...yes cheesecake half price. The annoying thing was that for a day and a half me and Nat will be sat on a greyhound bus on our way to Michigan in the north. So I got in touch with Jenna, who we are staying with to see if there is one close! How obsessed can you get really Rach!!
At night times all down the mall there are street singers, magicians and general street artists really. The street has a really lovely feel and atmosphere to it, it all felt so friendly and such a lovely place to visit!
We then headed to pick Calissa their daughter from camp and then headed back for dinner. We then had another lovely night adventuring the local area, fussing the animals, playing games of cards (a few new ones are on the list!) of course and sorting what was going to happen tomorrow. We also booked our greyhound for Michigan and so we'd be leaving at midnight tomorrow night, so we spent a bit of tonight packing also!
We have had such a fun time with Laurie's family and this week has absolutely flashed by! We consoled ourselves at the fact we had up until 8pm tomorrow to enjoy yet!
Day Six
All week we had been planning to do something and we had left it till the last day, thankfully we did it! Nat was so pleased, I didn't mind too much due to not even not liking it. It was the local world renowned tea company, Celestrial Seasonings! Honestly it's known everywhere and every single teabag from the company is prepared, packaged and tested on the Boulder factory.
I was excited to see it!
Here's a pine comb!
And some flamingos!
We went into the entrance and to the desk to book in, the tour was free so I was all up for it! Hehe. Seriously though it would be interesting to see all the machines and processes in create such a petite yet big thing as a teabag!
We were given our ticket, which was a bag of teabags...of course!! Such an ingenious idea!
It was a bag of peppermint tea and I looked at the ingredients and there was only the one single ingredient, peppermint! So simple yet amazing!
Nat couldn't wait for the tour as she's a big tea drinker! We were also excited to wear the hairnets, due to it being a factory of course!
Here are the hairnets...love them! It also was a lovely reminder of our month in New Zealand with our mum and dad. (See New Zealand blogs prior to this blog!). Whilst in Dunedin in the South Island, we visited Cadbury World (wow, childhood dream for us chocolate lovers!) and we had to wear hairnets. Also Dad had to wear a beard cover so he looked dapper bless him!!
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the factory for health and safety reasons, so sadly we have no pictures but this proof that we took the tea tour! ...tongue twister that!!
With the tea samples, or the air probably, we were hyper. After all these weeks spent in America, we hadn't got one picture of the iconic mailbox! So we took our chance whilst no one was looking, to avoid the embarassment! Other countries are fascinated by our red telephone boxes (one over the road from our house!!), well we are fascinated by your mailboxes!
We then told the family all about our visit to the tea factory and got all packed. We managed to have one final dinner which was so lovely as we got a chance to tell the whole family what a brilliant time we'd had and how much we appreciated their pull out sofa bed!
We set off about 8.30pm for the bus station and we on our way...the 34 hour one way journey had started!
We grabbed the bus from Boulder bus transit as the Greyhound station was in the middle of Denver so we jumped on the bargain of a bus ($5 for an hour bus journey!) and got on our way to Denver.
We were talked to by some interesting characters, let's just say that, as our massive backpacks cause us to attract some attention. Nothing bad, just interesting hehe! Oh buses we love you!
We arrived at our destination, we only had to catch the free mall bus down 16th Street Mall and we were at the bus station ready to catch the Greyhound!
Before we set off down the Mall we sat down for a little rest. Recently we have been extremely lucky in terms of not having to carry our backpacks far distances, and along with the crazy souvenir buying and collecting, they'd gotten pretty heavy!! Like really heavy!
We thankfully managed to get up to the bus station and jumped on our bus in plenty of time. Here comes Michigan!! But before that, the 34 hour journey had to be completed...including a 12am-5am transfer wait at Indianapolis! That's be fun!
Thank you so much for reading, and hope you enjoyed the post! By all means comment and let us know what you think.
See you next time,
Rach xxxx
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