Denver!

Dear me, oh my!

I haven't mentioned that I went to Denver for Thanksgiving!

I blame it on the crazy amount of final projects I had.

Sawyer + Sarah

So, yes. My final trip of 2014 was to Denver, Colorado. It was a short trip--I left Phoenix Wednesday night at 10:40 pm, and arrived back in Phoenix Saturday morning at 9 am. However, the brevity of the trip did not detract from the adventure.

This was my third (fourth?) and final year spending Thanksgiving in a different state than my parents. I initially was going to go to Tucson with them (to stay at the Hotel Congress and watch the ASU vs U of A game) but they stalled in making hotel reservations.

I found out in September that two of my friends, Sarah and Sawyer, would be unable to return to Phoenix for neither Thanksgiving nor Christmas, so I booked a plane ticket to Denver.

Life lesson: Consider checking your savings account before you book a plane ticket on a whim when you're in college. It may take months to recover. Not to say that happened to me.

As the weeks passed and as Thanskgiving drew nearer, I became increasingly excited to leave my homework behind for a while and head out to a new territory.

I've visited Denver once before, but this was my first time flying into Denver and spending time in the southern side, and my first time going in the winter.

It was basically freezing when I arrived. I'm so glad I bought a coat for this trip. When my flight landed, I took a moment to enjoy the art in the Denver airport (there are a lot of conspiracy theories about it) before getting in Sarah and Sawyer's car and going home and to bed.

I slept soundly on the most. comfortable.  air mattress ever. created. As soon as I awoke, we began drinking coffee and cooking food. I made my favorite dish, green bean casserole with fresh green beans. It was heavenly.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner picnic-style and discussed what we are most thankful for this year.

My list included my parents' house, Sarah + Sawyer, my boyfriend Adam, the ability to travel, and my education.

Because we ate so early, we had a full afternoon of time to kill. We sat around. We watched tv. We ate pie. We drank wine. We went shopping at 6 pm on Thanksgiving day.

Yeah, I just said that.

It was my first Black Friday experience, and it wasn't even on Black Friday. It was also incredibly tame--the line to enter Target had dismantled by the time we got there, and there were still piles of large televisions for people to purchase.

I bought two pairs of gloves and that was it.

We went to World of Beer afterwards and enjoyed the potluck there (our second Thanksgiving dinner) and local pumpkin ale. It was a very peaceful, low-key holiday, and I loved it.

Friday was spent crafting and watching the ASU vs U of A game on the air mattress.

Sarah has picked up watercolors as a hobby, and she's really good at it. Like, Etsy-good.

I, on the other hand, created glamorous stockings for Adam and I. They are argyle and metallic and shiny and spectacular.

Unfortunately, I awoke incredibly early Saturday morning to head home to Phoenix. It was a rough early morning, but the sunrise was beautiful from the Southwest gate and the view of snowcapped mountains under my airplane's wing really made for a gorgeous end to my trip.

I arrived back in Phoenix well rested and ready to finish the semester off.

Cali: Take 2

I can hardly believe it was only two nights ago when I was loading Jess and Dave's bags into the back of my car for my second weekend in California. I can confidently say, though, that it will be the first and last time I ever do an overnight road trip. Leaving Phoenix at midnight was brutal, but it was what we needed to do to make it in time. Not only did we make it in time, but we also made great time, and got to see a nice sunrise when we arrived at Jess' dad's house in California.

The mountain behind the house gave us a great viewing spot.

After our sunrise hike, we headed out to Venice Beach where I completely zonked out on a beach towel for an hour or so (I only slept an hour and a half on the car ride) and only got lightly sunburned. I think Dave used the term "splotchy." By the time I woke up, everyone else was disenchanted with the beach (which is a sentiment I completely do not understand) and wanted to sleep. All I wanted was coffee.

The crew.

Everyone was a good sport when we piled back into the car and I drove to Intelligentsia on Abbott Kinney. Intelligentisa is the first third wave coffee shop I ever learned about, so it was really nice to pay a visit and drink a cold brew.

Once we got home, we all rested, ate lunch, watched a movie and then headed out for second lunch. Because apparently we're a bunch of Hobbits who like to eat multiple meals.

Jess stayed home but we (it was her sister Sarah's birthday weekend, too, and her friends spent the whole time hanging out with us as well) drove into downtown Los Angeles to eat at Syrup, a coffee/breakfast cafe.

I was really hoping it was an old school soda fountain, but I was completely and pleasantly surprised when I saw it was a coffee shop similar to Samba Latte and Caffe Medici, narrow with multiple stories. I had a crepe that rivaled Jobot's, and we all played Jenga and enjoyed the air conditioning.

Bendix building. I have no clue what it is.

With time to kill and food to walk off, we jaunted down to the fashion district on a hunt for gym shorts and a suit for Dave. All we really found were overpriced USB drives and gangsta' basketball shorts. And a lot of fabric. And a lot of crowds. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but the old buildings, populated alleyways and general skyscrapers pleased my eye.

Once we returned home, I did homework and napped a sweet, sweet nap, bringing the total amount of time I slept up to approximately four hours.

Our evening was spent preparing to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for Sarah's sweet 16th. The show started at midnight (a short 24 hours after we first left Phoenix) and the movie didn't actually start until 1 am, leaving us leaving the theater at 2:45 am.

I fell asleep as soon as I got home (and washed the red lipstick off my face--apparently it's normal to draw on people who are seeing the show for the first time) and then woke up at 10 am this morning, a short hour before we planned on leaving to return to Phoenix.

Oh, right. The other point of this trip was to move Jess home to Phoenix. It took a grand total of twenty minutes to load all her stuff in my car, and she did most if it while I was still asleep this morning.

Los Angeles, I love you so.

And so, we left after a fun/amazing/crammed/spectacular weekend in Los Angeles, and returned to Phoenix with a rat, a bike and a few boxes of other things Jess owns. And a lot of stinking great photos on my phone.

I honestly feel like I've done more living in the past 48 hours than I did from Monday through Friday, which makes me wonder how much living I'll be doing in Portland over fall break. Now, excuse me as I go take my laundry out of the dryer and finish packing. I leave again in three days.