I am posting this the next morning, because I was far too exhausted last night to do so. The first day of my Colorado trip went extremely well. It was, however, an obscenely long day overall.
The day started at 3:45am, when my alarm went off to tell me to drag my ass out of bed and get ready for my flight, which was scheduled to leave the runway at 6:30 in the morning. Seriously, who flies that early?! I had stayed at my parents’ house, and my mom was going to take me to the airport (you’ve got to love free shuttle service ;) ). We got to the airport just fine, and I made it through security without much complication. Note to self: that belt has enough metal to set off the detectors.
After getting through security, I waited for my plane in relative peace. I went to buy batteries for my digital camera, but they were $25 for a pack of two, so I decided not to participate in the robbery that is airport commerce and waited until after I got to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. My flight was pretty uneventful — thank god it wasn’t full. I flew Cattle Car Air Southwest Airlines, and their seats are obscenely close together. Lucky for me and the other guy in my row, the seat between us was unoccupied. I took the window seat, because it’s more fun that way. I was able to get some nice pictures during the flight, which will be posted (the pics, not the flight) when I get home next week.
Fast forward to the airport and my bus ride into Boulder… by the way, at this point, it is 8:30am local time. Yeah… that’s what I was thinking, too (that is, if you were thinking that already having done that much by shortly after 8am is crazy). The bus got me to the station in Boulder right around 10am, and my Aunt Delyn came and picked me up. I was going to be staying with them for the day, then driving up to Estes Park sometime on Thursday.
The next few hours went by somewhat uneventfully. My cousin Tas and I went out to lunch, I got some basic items that I forgot to pack (that’s how it always goes, right?), and I took a bit of a nap after playing some Guitar Hero with Tas. Last night, my Aunt, Uncle, Tas and I all went to a farmers’ market they have here in Boulder for dinner. It was a lot of fun! There were dozens of different booths with various produce, flowers and other locally made items, and there were at least another dozen serving hot, fresh, locally made food. I got some of the best corn tamales I think I have ever had. Quite yummy.
After dinner, we walked around for an hour or two (I lost track) and watched the street performers at the Pearl Street Mall, which is a really cool walking mall in the center of Boulder. I got some good pictures of a few of them, and even took an ~11 minute video of one of the guys. Unfortunately, my memory card filled up just before his finale, but I was able to snap some still photos of the finale.
Not long after we got back to the house, I turned in for the evening. It was a very long, but very fun, day. I hope the rest of my vacation goes as well.