Colorado Fun

Last weekend (as in May 20th), Steve and I headed to Colorado. We left Friday immediately following work (my last day as a teacher) and drove about 6 hours to Columbia, MO. The main purpose of our trip was to return Steve's brother's car. We had been borrowing it since Labor Day while he was away at college. Steve and I are so thankful that we were able to borrow the car (allowing us to save up and buy a new car, post to come!).

On Saturday, we stopped for lunch at Cabela's, a crazy outdoors/sporting goods store. It had a bunch of stuffed deer, moose, bears, foxes, etc, located all around the store. It even had a little museum about the different kinds of deer and an aquarium (with huge catfish and turtles). There was a little food court with different kinds of food you could eat, like bison burgers and Elk sandwiches. Steve tried the Elk and loved it. I being the unadventurous type, just stick with a basic burger. It was a nice little pit stop in between our 10 hour drive on Saturday.

We got to Steve's parents' house a little ahead of schedule. It was nice to be out of the car and able to stretch out and relax. Sunday was spent with his family at home. We had a little cookout in the evening, followed by a time of rearranging furniture. Our visit corresponded with the Ackermans getting the main floor redone. They were having carpet torn up, hardwood laid, and existing hardwood sanded in order to be stained along with the new.

With all the floor construction work being done during the day, we decided to spend Monday and Tuesday afternoons out and about. On Monday, Trish, Ian, Steve and I went to Celestial Tea factory. While there, we got to sample teas and take a tour of the factory. I am not a tea person; however, I really enjoyed the experience! It was neat to learn the differences between herbal teas (no tea plant present), green teas (tea plant harvested early), and black teas (tea plant harvested later). Learning the differences between the teas helped me to figure out why I can tolerate some teas(herbal) while not liking others.

After tea testing, we headed out for a nice little walk and lunch on Pearl Street. It was a nice little area where people are just able to hang out, spend time, relax, etc.

Tuesday afternoon was spent at the Denver museum. We saw a special exhibit about pirates. It was interesting to learn about pirate ships, how they operated, and what the life of a pirate looked like from beginning to end. After the pirate exhibit, we went to an exhibit formerly called the Hall of Life. Ian and Steve were reliving their childhood in this exhibit. They explained to me several times how they loved coming to the museum just for this exhibit. When you entered, you were given a little credit card that you inserted into a computer to create your profile. Then you went from station to station, inserting your card and collecting different health data. At the end of the exhibit, you inserted your card into another computer and got to print out all the data you collected. Apparently, when they were younger, you not only got data from the stations, but got points for doing the different things. They would always try to see who would get the most points; however, this is no longer the case. Regardless of the lack of points, the exhibit was still a lot of fun (especially watching Ian & Steve go crazy and act like little kids).

I feel like our trip really flew by. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Steve's family. Despite the 17 hours in a car to get there, we really enjoyed our little vacation. Steve was able to rest up and "stockpile" some sleep. We flew back on Wednesday and landed in Nashville. We rented a car from there to drive to Jackson. We had to wait an hour at the airport for an available car (which was kind of ridiculous) and the drive was about two hours until we got home. We were about to drive leave to return the rental car when I discovered that our car had a flat tire (making #3 for us in 3 months). Steve is now truly a flat tire expert and had the tire changed really quickly. We got the rental car returned and was finally able to relax after a stressful travel day. Steve only had 2 more days of work before a 3 day weekend. Our trip was not only wonderful, but wonderfully timed! His two days of work were sandwiched in between a vacation and long weekend giving us a lot of time to enjoy each other's company.