The Mile High City
We are currently in Denver, CO hanging out at our friends’ house, Morgan and her fiancé Brad, sitting in their cozy living room with trail mix (of course, only eating the chocolate), our laptops, and all of our belongings for the next 5 months. We are unemployed and away from our pets. Yet, it still feels like we are going on a two week trip and will snuggle with our pets after we arrive home. I have been unemployed for a month now and thought it would feel real. It somehow only feels like a couple of weeks since my last day. We head to London in just four days to start our year of travel that we have dreamt about. My wish is to live and embrace everything we get to see and experience. My fear is that I will not capture everything on paper or document the wonders to share with others and relive it myself when reading about it years later. Whether or not we document our travels well, I believe this journey will stick with us and leave an imprint that we will always carry. I wonder how it will change us and where it may lead us. Where we live, work, put roots down, all may be influenced by our travels between now and next year.
It feels good to take a breather before we leave for London, and we are thankful that we are able to stay with friends in Denver. So far we got to hike with Morgan, snuggle with a mastiff, and exist in a dry, cool climate which I swear is a delicacy after living in Houston. It feels good to just relax and breathe after the move from Houston and getting everything settled. As I type this, I realize we’ll be relaxing for a long time :) Nearly everyday, Jeff and I have talked about how lucky we are to have friends and family who are supportive and helped us make this possible. As we get closer, the gratitude continues to grow even more. How we will squeeze all the souvenirs people deserve into our packs is beyond me, but we shall try!
Lilo who has an Instragram account @lilotheenglishmastiff
Sarah and Jeff on Herman Gulch Trail, west of Denver, CO
Sarah and Morgan on Lookout Mountain Trail, southwest of Golden, CO
Now writing this before leaving, we had an awesome visit as always and a wild day prior to leaving! During our stay, we got to take in mountain views, spend time with loved ones, and of course visit breweries and walk with a lovely, big mastiff (who is a gentle giant). We checked out Garden of the Gods with our friend Bobby and saw his new home. Within an hour drive from each other, it is really interesting to see the differences in vegetation and rock formations compared to the greater Denver and Colorado Springs areas. Colorado Springs has a more desert, southwest climate compared to Denver. We got to catch up with friends in the area over good beer and enjoy a home cooked meal with family (thank you Klassen family!). BTW - TRVE Brewery has one of the best brown ales that I have ever had. We hiked the Herman Gulch Trail which is a good, nearby out and back trail with streams and wildflowers. It was about an hour drive west of Denver and although the parking lot was overflowing, the trail wasn’t overwhelming with people. We learned that day that the state flower is the Colorado blue columbine since they were everywhere and a fellow hiker told us so :)
The unexpected part about our departure abroad was the flight change. Jeff came downstairs and said that the flight change wasn’t just delayed by an hour, it was moved up a day… just two hours before the flight was departing at that moment. The airport is about a 45 minute drive away and we had nothing packed. Needless to say, we will always triple check the date now when flight changes are emailed. We were on the phone for nearly two hours with the airline and other parties and luckily, we were able to fly out the next day (as originally planned) with more layovers which we obviously didn’t care about. One of the big reasons we needed to leave the same day is because we are housesitting for soon to be grandparents whose daughter is having a baby. During our time traveling, we are using TrustedHousesitters, a website that connects travelers and pet owners for them to watch their fur-babies at home while their parents are away. We were happy that the plans remained the same and that we were still able to watch their pup.
Next time we write, we will be in England enjoying tea and biscuits :) or more realistically, beer and fish and chips.
Till next time my loves,
Sarah and Jeff
