Last month, I went with another Tucson-based friend to visit some friends near Denver, Colorado. Here’s a quick recap of our trip!
Getting there
Compared to my other recent travels, getting there was a breeze. Instead of 24+ hours of travel, the trip from Tucson to Denver requires just one 2-hour flight. Nice! Annie and I left Tucson on a Friday afternoon, after I finished teaching.
Look how close Denver is!
It’s a 45-minute drive to Littleton, where our Airbnb was, and it was close to dinner time by the time we got settled in our basement room. We immediately headed to our friend/former teammate Carley’s house to say hi and have dinner. I also got to meet Carley’s lovely cat Jasper.
With Annie and Carley.
We called it a day after dinner, but not before Annie and I bought a dozen donuts for $1.78. Yummmm.
Craig Hospital and Wilderness on Wheels
Annie and I slept in the next morning – I guess both of us needed to catch up on some rest. Plus, it helped that our basement room was pitch black. After a few donuts, we decided to walk to Carley’s house rather than get an Uber. It was about 3 miles, but via some lovely trails, and it was nice to be outdoors in the sun.
Carley took us on a tour of Craig Hospital, one of the best spinal cord hospitals in the world. It was really cool to see the place Carley has spent so much of her time in the last year, and to meet some of the friends she’s made there. Once we had seen everything and met everyone, a few more friends met us for a late lunch at nearby Cochino Taco. I was unimpressed with everything but the queso, which was delicious.
One of those friends was another former Arizona Wildcat swimming teammate, Caitlin. She was 8 months pregnant, and it was exciting to see her in her last few weeks before becoming a mother.
After lunch, the whole gang headed out of the city to Wilderness on Wheels in Grant, Colorado. Since Carley’s in a wheelchair, she hasn’t had much opportunity lately to enjoy Colorado’s beautiful outdoors. However, Wilderness on Wheels includes a mile-long wheelchair-accessible boardwalk all the way up past 9000 feet elevation. It was the perfect opportunity for all of us to get some outdoors time and breathe in some (thin) mountain air. Those of us who helped push the chair uphill also got a decent workout!
The view from one of the Wilderness on Wheels overlooks.
Taking a break halfway up the mountain.
On the way back, we stopped at Mad Jack’s Mountain Brewery in Bailey, Colorado. I wasn’t having anything to drink, but it was a nice outdoors atmosphere with some live music, so it was a good place to regroup before driving the rest of the way back to Denver.
Teammates reunited!
We were exhausted by the time we got back to Carley’s house, so we spent the evening eating take-out Thai food and watching terrible movies.
Heading home
Annie and I had an early flight back to Tucson Sunday morning, and we completely misjudged the ease (or difficulty) of getting an Uber at that time. I just recently got TSA Pre-Check and made it through security just in time to catch the flight. Unfortunately, Annie wasn’t so lucky. I felt bad leaving her, but there was only one open seat on the next flight so it didn’t really make sense not to. Anyway, the next flight was just a few hours later and she got back just fine.
It’s hard to believe I don’t go to Colorado more often given how close it is, how many friends I have there, and how beautiful it is. After this trip, I’ve decided to make an effort to go more often!
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