So where have I been? The rest of 2012...
After my first trip to Colorado I spent quite a few more weekend in Denver and the area. I even tried to move there twice. One of my good friends Kristin moved to Denver in the summer and I went out for her birthday and we went on an adventure out to Aspen and to visit my sister in Glenwood Springs. We hiked around the area but my favorite was hiking out to Crater Lake at Maroon Bells.
(Photos)
I spent my summer up North quite a bit. I think I spent about 18 days total up North that summer. I went all over Northern Michigan and spent some time on Mackinac Island.
Later that fall I spent a weekend in New England at my Aunt and Uncles in Rhode Island with Amy. It was a perfect fall weekend with lots of color and cool nights and warm days. I have grown up going out to visit my family out East so it was a nice trip seeing things I love and showing Amy some great spots around the state. We tried to make it to Jack-o-lantern Spectacular but due to some miss printing on their part we missed it. (Photos)
We kept the tradition alive of going to a Michigan State Football away game each season. This year we went to the Wisconsin game up in Madison. It happened to be Halloween as well. The tailgating scene was interesting. Seems a lot more bar centric rather than set up tents. The game its self was fairy blah. Neither team played very well but in the end the Spartans pulled out victorious! I was fairly impressed with the Halloween scene in Madison where almost every person was dressed up. One thing I took away from that weekend was the Spicy Cheese Bread. I want to learn to make this!
In 2013 I ventured out West quite a bit more.
I started out the year by going to the X-Games with my sister. It was fun to be there but the weather was crappy and it might have been nicer to just watch them on TV. It was hard to see anything other than the last jump of slopestyle. I then went back out to Aspen with my friend Kristin and her friend Meghan for a weekend on the slopes. It was really fun to stay on the resort and just ski around everywhere! (Photos)
In the spring I went to Tulip Time in Holland, Mich with Amy. We started out by running a 5k and then Amy showed me around Holland. I have never spent much time in West Michigan so it was wonderful to see all that the area had to offer. I really liked going to Tunnel Park and just sitting in the sand along the shore.
I am on a quest to visit every state in the US. I have been to quite a few but I had never made it to Utah (outside the airport) but I ended up going twice in 2013. The first trip I went with my friend Lisa to her friend's wedding. I really liked the Salt Lake area. We went hiking in the mountains a couple times, hung out at Sundance for the wedding and visited the Great Salt Lake. One of my photos from this trip was apparently in a Salt Lake City tourist magazine but I never saw it.
The next month I went back to Utah. After finishing my second marathon I went on a family vacation with my sister. We went back to Utah to visit Arches (photos) and Canyonlands (photos). Thanks to the Utah State Government we were able to visit these National Parks as the US Government couldn't get their shit together and remained closed shuttering all the National Parks across the country. My sister acted as our guide and showed us around the area from scenic drives to the National Parks themselves. I am really impressed the Utah and I want to go back to explore the rest of the state.After Utah we drove to Durango and went on the Durango Narrow Guage Railroad. It was an awesome trip up to Silverton with some breathe taking views. The best seat in the train is certainly the outdoor car regardless of the chilly weather! It was a beautiful sunny day and I took so many photos! I think one of my favorite parts of Durango was the drive back to Glenwood Springs. We drove US-550 known as the Million Dollar Highway which is a mountain pass filled with lots of sharp switch backs and no guardrails. We traversed this route in the dark with a full moon to guide us.
Once we made it back to Glenwood we stayed in the Hotel Colorado. While my sister had to work I went hiking with my parents in the canyon along the Colorado River. We also took a dip in the Hot Springs once my sister was off work. We then spent a day down in Aspen and went back to Maroon Bells. This area is really becoming a familiar place for me and I love it! I still want to move here.
Once I made it back to Chicago I spent a fall afternoon in the near suburb of Oak Park and went on a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright house and studio and then walked around the area looking at the rest of the Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Oak Park. Amy also showed me around the sounding streets of Oak Park where she went to school and previously worked. If I had to live in a suburb Oak Park wouldn't be so bad.
2014 was a big year for me. I started out the New Year on a high note spending the holiday in Pasadena at the 100th Rose Bowl watching MSU play Stanford. It was an even sweeter highlight that MSU won! It was worth every penny, Go Green! Right after I got back from California I hopped in my sisters new Escape and started driving West. She bought the Escape in Michigan and needed a way to get it out to her so I offered to drive it in exchange for skiing! I stopped and spent the night at Meghan's place in Breckenridge before skiing with my sister at Beaver Creek. I had to go rescue her after a nice snow dumping get her trapped in the Glenwood. So if I have learned anything about myself while writing this out. I really like Colorado even though its the only time I made it out there in 2014!
In March I went on a Living Social deal through Chinatours.com. I went with my friend Carolyn on this adventure to my first truly foreign country. I do not really count Europe as foreign. While the US is very different from Europe the cultural difference are minimal and everywhere I have been in Europe English was very prevalent. China was a whole new world! I got off the plane and instantly knew I was someplace new. Everything from the people to the smells, sights and language both spoken and written letters it was all new to me. I am very glad we had a wonderful tour guide and I was with a friend otherwise I would have been very overwhelmed. I will make another post all about China because I did too much to just summarize.
Later in the spring once I made it back to Chicago I went on a work trip to Arkansas but I added a little personal vacation to the weekend. I stayed with my friend Nicole and went out in Fayetteville where it seemed everywhere had outside dining. The next day we went to visit my friend Jeff in Little Rock and went hiking on Pinnacle Mountain which was a really fun hike. Its not a big mountain so once you reach the top you can look out in every direction and take in all of the Little Rock area. On this trip I visited my first Presidential Library which has inspired me to try to visit more of them. Shouldn't be too hard considering there is on in my home State of Michigan. Over all I was really impressed with Arkansas. I had a lot of prejudgment going down there and I will be the first to admit I was way way wrong!Over the summer I went with Amy back to Michigan were we went on a Pure Michigan Tour (again this will get its own post too). We went to Sleeping Bear, Traverse City, Mackinac Island, Tahquamenon Falls, Pictured Rocks, Marquette, Fayette, and camping at Indian Lake. I ended up taking over 1,600 pictures of this trip but sadly I had a hard drive crash and I lost all by 380 :( Yeah, yeah I know I should have had them backed up. Worst part was I was trying to get them backed up 2 days before my hard drive crashed.
At the end of July I went to my friend Josh's Wedding out in California. I go to the LA area a lot for work but I had never been to San Francisco before. I took lots of recommendations from friends before I went and I was able to do so much! Some of the highlights would have to be Dinner with Tyler, biking the Golden Gate Bridge, Sunday Funday with my friend Mat, Wandering through Haight Asbury and Golden Gate Park.
In between my days in San Francisco I went down to Santa Cruz along California 1 which was an amazing drive along to coast. Josh's wedding was on the bluffs nears Santa Cruz over looking the Ocean. I went knowing only Josh but I made friends and it was a great 2 days down there. I walked through Henery Cowell Redwood State Park admiring the giant old growth Redwood Trees.
Somewhere through the year I decided I no longer wanted to pay rent any longer. While I was looking into moving to Colorado or the Pacific Northwest or just packing up all together and moving abroad I ended up buying my first Condo in Chicago. I am having mixed feeling on home ownership but I think that is just cause the first couple months were expensive getting things organized and made to reflect me and my personality. Overall I am incredibly happy with my choice and I know that it was the smart thing to do but damn do I miss having the ability to being able to pack up and move on a whim.
