A Coloradical Spring

This year, spring in Colorado means many things for me; graduation, new adventures, new friends, and renewed excitement for spending the next phase of my life in this incredible state. Here's how Colorado has demonstrated its radicalness in recent weeks:

Grad Night Out at the Rockies' Game

A few weeks ago, I scored a free ticket to the Colorado Rockies' "College Night" baseball game against the San Francisco Giants. I hadn't seen a Rockies game since I first moved to Denver, so it was high time for another one (especially since the ticket was free ;) )! The Rockies wound up winning, and it was a blast to hang out with many friends from DU, both old and new, and enjoy America's sport on a luscious spring evening.

Spring also means increasingly frequent Happy Hours and patio hangs with friends. Nice weather means more reasons to be outside, and enjoying a tasty beverage in the company of good friends is one of the prime ways to do so. Cheers!

Yes, Ron Burgundy, Washington wine IS classy! :)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

This weekend, my gentleman friend kindly invited me to join himself and a group of his good friends to explore the Great Sand Dunes National Park (the largest sand dunes in the USA!) and camp overnight nearby. While most of the group had arrived on Friday night, four of us caravanned our way south early on Saturday morning, arriving at the campground just after noon. We pitched our tents, re-organized all of our gear and food, and headed to the Park to connect with the rest of the crew. We were able to scramble around on the dunes for about an hour before a foul weather system moved in and we dashed back to camp to avoid the lightning and rain on the hills.

The sand dunes are breathtaking, and I very much enjoyed running around in them, albeit for only a short amount of time. Some of the tallest dunes are nearly 1,000 feet high, and it's incredible to see so much sand shoved by the winds of time up against the natural bowl created by the surrounding mountains. I would love to go back there and spend a full day or more hiking up and running back down all of the slopes and ridges!

By the time we made our way back to the camp sites, snow had begun to fall. What ensued was a veritable spring blizzard, Colorado-style, but we didn't let that deter us at all from enjoying our camping experience! The whole group was ready to power through the cold and driving snow, and we attempted to make shelter, bar-b-q'd up some delicious hot dogs and sausages, stayed warm with delicious drinks, and told stories and played games. Since the storm started early in the day and we were all outside in the elements for over seven hours, everyone went to bed pretty early, but I think we were all feeling very good about sticking out the storm. Plus, the calm, snowy landscape upon waking was more than worth the minor annoyance of the previous day's gale!

Our view upon waking

Our rad, snow-covered camp site

The Sand Dunes, covered in snow.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend exploring a new part of Colorado and hanging out with some most excellent and adventurous people! I'm very much looking forward to more hiking and exploring with different combinations of this crew and with my DU friends over the summer!

Speaking of this summer, I have established a temporary housing situation for June and July! And in wonderful and related news, I have two interviews this week! One is for a job in Denver, and the other is with a company in Boulder. I'm hoping that a third job option might be in the works as well (fingers crossed!)... Things are looking up for my long-term residence in Colorful Colorado! Now, I just have to survive three more weeks of grad school and finish all of my final papers (!!!)... Focus will be the word of the day for the coming weeks, that's for certain.

Finally, I just registered today for the BolderBOULDER 10k Memorial Day run! I'm so excited to do that! That will be my first big run, and step two in my goal of running a half marathon before the end of September this year. 6.2 miles at over 5,300ft of elevation - let's do this!!

I must say, the more time I spend here, the more I love this Colorado life. Here's to the next round of adventures!