The One in Colorady

I was sadly in Ottawa for our 3rd wedding anniversary.  When I was registering for the SPP6 conference I wondered if that was going to be a big deal, but our anniversary fell on a Wed. so I didn't think it would be and went to Canada.  Bad idea.  We've had several anniversaries already (we've been together for 5 years!) and we've celebrated them all together.  Maybe once we have kids anniversaries won't be as big a deal but we've had a lot of fun on our trips and it was harder than I thought being apart on the actual day.  It was even harder almost missing it entirely!

This is a good (but long) story.  I flew home from the conference early on Friday morning and was supposed to land about 1pm Utah time.  The plan was for Justin to pick me up at the airport and drive straight to Vail, CO but I almost didn't make it!!  I woke up at 3:45am to catch my flight from Ottawa to D.C.  No problem getting back into the US although I had to wait about half an hour for customs to even open.  Tangent- I don't get why I had to go through customs when I landed in Canada but before I even left to come back to the US. Weird.  Anyway, I was supposed to fly from D.C. to Denver and then connect to Salt lake.  All the passengers were boarded and ready to go on the flight to Denver when the attendants announced we had no pilots.  NO pilots!!  The crew scheduled for our flight was stuck in Newark and the replacement crew was 45 minutes away.  I only had an hour layover in CO so I thought I was going to miss my connection and possibly our anniversary trip.  I was devastated and exhausted which made me super emotional.  I just wanted to get home to celebrate with my hubby :(  Thankfully the replacement crew got there quickly and we took off 20 minutes earlier than expected.  That was a rough flight.  I was super tired but worried about missing my next flight so I couldn't focus on my book or crocheting or sleeping.  I pretty much just stared out the window watching America pass by.  When we landed in Denver the flight crew asked if those with longer layovers would be willing to wait for the rest of the passengers to get off first.  Well, pretty much everyone had a connecting flight and since we landed almost an hour late more than half the plane really needed to get off quick.  I lucked out and sat by some really nice people though.  My carry-on was 4 rows behind me and I couldn't get back to it but this cute old man helped me out and got the others to hand it up to me.  My bag went crowd-surfing!  When I finally got to the terminal I ran to the nearest screen and couldn't find my flight so I ran back to the agent by my gate.  She took my boarding pass and said she'd re-booked me on a later flight.  A flight that left Denver at 3:30!  Not acceptable.  I rechecked the screen out of desperation and realized my flight was listed under 2 airlines (that's why I missed it the first time).  I was at gate 35-ish and needed to get to 75-ish.  So I took off running.  The night before I had asked Mark if he would be willing to take my poster home with him so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying the tube.  This was super funny because in order to make my poster tube fit in my bag I had to stuff my dirty clothes in it!  I was so glad I did that as I ran through the airport.  I might have taken out a few children/elderly people/wheelchairs with it!  I made it to my connecting gate just as the first boarding call was made.  I totally made it!  But I didn't have a boarding pass anymore, grrr.  Luckily, the customer service desk was right next to the gate so I got in line.  And it did. not. move.  As the final passengers were boarding my flight I took a chance and tried to use the boarding pass I had printed out the night before.  For some reason United does not accept these and reprints your pass for you.  My paper pass didn't work because I'd been re-booked!  But they hadn't given my seat away and let me on.  Glory be!!  There were at least 5 of us with the same problem which made it a little easier to convince them to let us on.  Once I got settled into my seat I almost cried!  I'd been trying to keep Justin updated all day and he must have gone crazy with all the "My flight is delayed!  We have no pilots!  I made it!" texts.  But I made it!!

And finally, pictures of our trip:

Justin surprised me with a train ride!!  Super cute and fun!  Justin LOOOOOVES trains.

We didn't ride this one but Justin liked it :)

 

 

 Finally on the train!!

Beautiful views.

It was chilly (obviously, we're wearing jackets) so I didn't even think about sunblock but the ride was about 2 hours long and my forehead and part burned!!

Had to get one with Justin's thumb :)

View up the canyon we rode up.

And back the other direction.

I love this picture!  So funny how enthralled Justin was the whole time :)

The end of the line.  I think this water tower looks like a teapot.  We got off and explored the mountainside and train a little bit.

I took some snacks along just in case and we apparently were pretty high up in the mountains.  Check out what the low pressure did to my granola bar.

These next pictures crack me up!  Pretty sure Justin didn't realize he was taking them.  We usually have a few pics like this after a trip.

The second day we hiked around Vail a little bit.  It was still a little snowy/muddy so only a few trails were open but Vail is gorgeous!  We also walked around the ski resort a little bit and ate some amazing ice cream at Joe's Deli.

We like waterfalls.

We decided to get back to the hotel by way of this incredibly scenic road.  It took a little longer but was well worth the drive.  The summit was over 12,000 ft!  It was already June when we were here and we had to hike out over snow that was still at least a foot deep.

Normally I don't take pictures of port-a-potties but this door was really cool.

What a great final picture!

I can't believe 3 years have flown by so quickly!!  We must be having fun :)

The One at Lake Tahoe

One of my favorite things about Justin is that he plans most of our vacations.  At least where to go.  This totally works for us because he always comes up with great places to visit or camp at while I'm good at the preparatory details, making sure we have adequate food and clothing.  For our second anniversary we went to Lake Tahoe.  Brock and Carrie actually went there on their honeymoon and highly recommended it.  And for good reason.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  You hear people say how pretty it is there but it is always an understatement.  It is the most breathtakingly beautiful place I've ever seen, and we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon!

I love having a 3-day weekend for our anniversary every year.  And I'm glad that weekend is Memorial and not Labor Day so I don't have to worry about missing the first football game of the year :)  We went on multiple hikes and a dinner cruise around the lake.  It was super fun!!

Just some shots to show you the scenery.  We explored the Emerald Bay area.  It had multiple short hikes to peaks with great views.

We forgot to check the weather and it actually snowed on us our first day there.  Not enough to really stick but it made for some cool, creepy pictures.

That's Lake Tahoe in the background.

We found some neat things along the trail.  Like Simba.

And this red mushroom.  This was about 3" tall and all by itself.  The picture doesn't do justice to how vibrantly red it was.  And random.

This is one of the smaller mountain lakes we hiked to.  We're sitting on a boulder in the middle of a huge rock slide.

It was the perfect platform for another yoga pose.  I'm really not turning into a yoga-crazed hippie, I promise.  I just like the pictures :)

Justin tried a pose too.  Remember when I said he can't touch his toes?  Proof.

Justin is so good about doing research before we go places.  Not only does he pick a great location but he has a list of fun sights to see and restaurants to try.  I'd never heard of Vikingsholm but it was cool to see.  Apparently in the early 1900's a wealthy woman wanted to build a home on the shore of Lake Tahoe and she loved the look of houses in the Netherlands.  So she hired an architect and tons of construction workers and artisans to recreate a viking lodge in Tahoe.  The best part was Justin kept calling it "Viking-shlom."  I can't even remember if he actually thought that's how it was pronounced or if we just thought it was funny.  Because it was!

This house is approaching 100 years old!  It looks so nice because it's a museum now.  We didn't want to wait or pay for the next tour so we just walked around ourselves.

This cute little chipmunk obviously gets fed by the tourists.  At one point he almost crawled up my shoe!

This is Fannette Island.  Another rich lady built a house out there just for tea parties!  It was Hermit Island for a while because this one guy lived alone on it to take care of the house during the off season, which was most of the year.

I love this shot!  Doesn't it look creepy because of the snow falling?!

Here's our dinner cruise, the MS Dixie.  It was so fun!  We sadly didn't make any new friends, we just enjoyed dinner and live music with each other :)  It was cool to get farther from shore too because the water is so clear you can see the bottom of the lake forever!

The boat had a paddlewheel.  Justin liked it almost as much as trains.

Up on top of the boat.  I was chilly :)

See.  Gorgeous!!

The second day we went on a hike where the trail was still covered in snow.  Which was awesome because there were fewer people.

Justin thought this was funny.  I slid in the snow and left perfect handprints.

I want to print this picture on canvas and hang it on our wall.

Of course we got a picture of Justin's pose.

I think this will be my new pose.

Maybe not :)