Colorado: Part Two

Reese and I had not seen each other for over a month.

For some couples, a few days is too much distance for them. The last time I had seen him was in September before he left for his flight. I don't have a car so I couldn't take him to the airport, couldn't see him walk through the doors and disappear from sight. It breaks your soul a little more each time they leave, but the moment you see them again after such a long time, you're sewn back together. Every piece of you that left when they left is back in it's right place.

It melts away.

Reese wears the same scent for his deodorant, shampoo, body wash. I'm a strong believer in the power of scents and how our minds take those senses and interprets them into positive emotions. The whole car ride to Fort Collins, an hour drive from the Denver Airport, I got to absorb his smell again and breathe calmly (since flying alone and being in a state I'd never been in was quite terrifying to me). We talked and caught up on the ride to his extended stay where I promptly fell asleep without eating any of the pizza we got.

There is something magical about waking up knowing you're going to see something you've never seen before.

For me that Saturday, I was seeing snow for the first time.

We had breakfast at this cozy little hole-in-the-wall place around the corner, got some water and snacks, and got ready to drive to Estes Park to go see the Rocky Mountains.

As a girl from Florida, seeing mountains at all is other-worldly to me. I've been to the Carolinas and Tennessee and seen the Smokey's before, sure. But there's something magical about seeing white capped mountains for the first time.

I remember being on the edge of the seat as we drove through Loveland, looking out the window, wanting to scream from excitement. 

"There's white!"

"Yes, honey, that's snow." 

But again, I say, it's magical to lookout the window of the car and see something you'd previously thought you never would. I never imagined the Rocky Mountains being on my bucket list. I never thought that climbing and hiking them for hours would be what I wanted most to do with my free time. So when I looked out the window and saw these amazing mountains where the clouds seemed to kiss the tops, it took my breath away.

It seemed like we couldn't get there fast enough. We were both eager to hike and enjoy our day together exploring the mountains. Traffic sucked going into the park, so that didn't aid in our excitement induced impatience. But we finally made it in after a 45 minute wait. We learned that the majority of the Trail Ridge Road was closed due to early autumn snow and we worried about how that would affect our plans. After lots of map searching we learned that we could still hit Bear Lake (a place I had learned about on Pinterest) and went there as our first destination.

After parking the car, a bus ride that was mega cramped, and learning that I didn't bring gloves that I had packed, we made it to the area of the park where Bear Lake was a short, baby hike to get to. There was ice everywhere and I was grateful that I had at least worn leather boots.

And there it was: a giant patch of snow.

The dirty kind, but still, snow!

I fell in love with the way it sounded under my boots. Crunch crunch crunch. It was just so fun and new.

Bear Lake is something I'll never forget. It was stunning in every sense of the imagination.

The mountains in view. The trees. The lake itself. Freshly fallen show all around us from the night before. I was in awe the entire time we were there.

We walked around the entire lake and there was more snow in certain areas than others. I referred to it as a fairytale when I got home. 

There was no other way to phrase how this trip was. 

It was a fairytale.

To complete the fairytale, we ended up hiking another mile or so up the mountains to a place called Dream Lake. 

And it was everything that you could dream of. It was even more beautiful than Bear Lake. It made me sit and stare for about a half hour. I sat with Reese and talked about other journeys we'd want to take eventually; but oh, we were so happy that this was our first trip together. 

Dream Lake made me think about my aspirations with Reese. I wanted to make him proud, I wanted to show him how much I loved him, I wanted to show him that his job wouldn't cause strife between us. I'm lucky that I was able to go to such an amazing place for free. I got to experience this beauty and wonder because my boyfriend chose for me to meet him out there.

And that is something that I can ever repay. 

After we decided to leave Dream Lake (all due to not wanting to miss the last bus to get back to the car), we took the trail down a little faster than we hiked up. I felt better going down than going up in elevation since my lungs did end up hurting from the air being thinner. Ice is finicky, I learned, and not something to be trifled. We hiked down for about thirty minutes and took the bus back to the car where we warmed up a bit and hydrated.We explored around Rocky Mountain National Park for about two more hours before it got too dark to keep going. 

Reese made the drive back to Fort Collins very relaxing after our strenuous day of hiking. The bath bomb I brought from Orlando was used in warming us up before we went out to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. 

I got Reese to try chicken hearts.

He was totally grossed out, haha. 

After an exhausting yet exhilarating day, we cuddled in bed before we went to sleep.

Colorado: Part One

I went to Colorado to visit Reese last weekend. 

2 days and 3 nights was not nearly enough. 

I flew by myself for the first time. That was pretty terrifying since I'm very afraid of heights. One of my closest friends brought me to the airport after I treated him to lunch (though I barely ate due to nerves). I felt ill when we reached the airport and parked. I started thinking that I may have a panic attack the moment the plane was off the ground. What grown adult is afraid of flying when they've flown multiple times before? I'm certain now that my nerves were due to being alone. I'd always flown with a parent before (the last time being with my father to New York to meet up with my sister and stepmom). We got there earlier than planned so I asked him to stay with me before I had to go through security. The airport here is like a mall; so many stores with whatever you were looking for. 

Well, I found a Lush store.

I had been teasing Reese about getting a bath bomb for when I got there so baths could be taken to warm us up from the cold; me being from Florida my whole life, I'm prone to get colder faster. 

So we went into Lush and my nerves seemed to melt away. There is a power in scents that can calm your soul, your anxieties. We smelled some bath bombs, masks, soaps, everything, and I did end up buying a bath bomb. (They're TSA approved!) We saw that the line for security was getting quite long and parted our separate ways after telling him I would text him when I was on the plane. Security was long, but not tedious. I had flats, leggings, and a loose sweater on so it was quick and easy once I got to the scanners. I did get patted down on the legs cause my leggings bunched up but was quickly sent on my way. 

I found my gate easily after taking a tram and sat and waited until they let us board. 

The flight was pretty great. I watched most of Fear the Walking Dead since I hadn't finished it before. Barely any turbulence; and my flight was at night so I couldn't see how high we are. I think that, mentally, it helped me forget we were 30,000 feet in the air. I followed the tracker on my tablet; watched as we flew over Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and finally entered Colorado. I could barely stay in my seat I was bouncing so much to see the lights, and maybe the mountains, as we landed. 

Thankfully, I was in row 11 for my flight there, so getting off the plane was quite easy. I grabbed both my carry-ons and walked to the front of the plane. Remember, I'm wearing leggings, flats, and a loose sweater. I can feel the air get colder from the breeze creeping in between the open door and the jet-bridge. 

"Holy shit it's cold!" 

The pilot laughed at me. "Welcome to Colorado!"

Navigating a new airport by yourself is interesting. Thankfully, it was easy enough, but more trams than necessary made me nervous that I was heading in the wrong direction. Reese had told me he was in the "main lobby." I did not know what that meant. But I knew that I had something to look for at least. So, I took the tram, went up two escalators, and saw a very large, open area filled with a bunch of people. 

And I saw him.

And I hugged him so hard. 

And the past four weeks melted away.