Discovering Denver....And Durham!

{Hooray, I got a new USB cable, so my photos aren't being held hostage on my jump drive any longer. Back to the regularly scheduled blogging!}

I feel like it's been a bit too long since our Denver trip a month ago to go into too much detail, but I DO have some pictures of how pretty the area is. So I decided to do a condensed sharing of both of our recent trips in one post.

First up, Denver!

We flew in early Friday morning, and it was a clear day, so I was able to get a great first view of the Rocky mountains from the plane.

Our first stop of the day was in Golden, CO, about 20 minutes outside of Denver, and home of Coors Brewing Company. There we walked around by the river a bit and ate at the oldest saloon in Colorado for lunch.

Then we took a scenic drive on the Lariat Loop, up in the mountains, ending up at Red Rock Amphitheater for a hike.

And we saw deer and bunnies on our hike! :)

After driving around some more and taking care of a few things, it was time to check into our hotel in downtown Denver. Downtown Denver was really cool, tons of restaurants and shopping, lots of nightlife, and we loved that they had a free bus running from one end to the other until about 1:30am. We spent some time checking out the downtown area the next day too, including taking a historical walking tour, which was really cool.

On our two and a half day trip, we also had a chance to check out Boulder, CO, which is about 30 miles from Denver. It was a cute college town, with beautiful scenery. We even took another drive up into the mountains to check out the view from up there.

Our other recent trip was to the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina. My husband's brother and sister in law live out there, so we had a free place to stay, and willing tour guides.

This trip was a little longer, we had three and a half days in NC, plus travel time. And they showed us a really good time while we were there, starting by taking us out to dinner our first night, showing us Raleigh and taking us for a gorgeous hike on Friday, followed by a party at their house that evening (which was also the hub's birthday). Just look how gorgeous this hike was, with all the fall colors that we don't get to see living in California!

We were also exposed to some new foods while we were in North Carolina, including Moon Pies, hush puppies (apparently they're not just a brand of shoes, they're also deep fried cornbread!), and grits. I actually thought the grits were a little bland, so I put some salsa on them, which I thought made them pretty good, but my SIL said she'd never seen anyone do that before.

On the Saturday we were in town, we had lunch with some of these lovely Weddingbee ladies (photo from Mrs. Lamb).

Followed by touring Durham, driving by Duke University, and getting to see the lake near my in laws house.

Saturday night we went bar hopping in BIL and SIL's old stomping ground, Chapel Hill. They met at UNC, and so had to show us all their old favorite bars. Then, on Sunday it was time to see Chapel Hill in daylight, go on another gorgeous hike along a creek, ending the day with an ice cream stop at a cute little dairy.

Sadly, we had to fly home on Monday, which was probably the worst flight of my life. I'd started coming down with a cold on Sunday, and so took some Nyquil and tried to sleep on the plane. Well, I ended up restlessly sleeping for a few hours on the first leg, but woke up as we were approaching San Francisco on our second flight, with my head about to explode. I was in some serious pain from being so congested in my ears, and still, over a week later, my ears haven't completely popped and are still giving me headaches. Stupid pressure changes!

Anyway, that's my summary of our two recent trips, to two very, very fun and gorgeous cities. These trips mark my 8th and 9th states I've been to now. And I can finally stop having to admit that the Grand Canyon is the furthest east I've been, which was true up until our Denver trip!

How many states have you been to? And does anyone have any good tips for getting my ears to pop all the way after my painful flight?