Labor Day Dogcation 2013 or What I Like About Denver - Brady

Kevin and I have a big group of friends who all live out in Denver, so we get out there pretty often to visit - at least twice a year for the last couple of years. (Sometimes I skip the wintertime trip, though, so I can travel to Siesta Key to visit my grandparents. Call me crazy, but I like 80 degree weather, palm trees, tropical sunsets, and reading on the beach better than I like picking my way slooooooowly down a snow-covered mountain in rented ski boots.) This summer, since our Denver friends all have super cool dogs, we decided to drive out rather than fly so we could take the Molly Monster with us to meet her Colorado cousins.

What did Ms. Molly do, you ask?

I'll tell you in pictures.

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She fetched tennis balls in the backyard with her buddies.

She hiked.

She camped.

She ran around off leash and swam in a mountain lake.

And she slept. 

We left Denver at 6 a.m. yesterday morning. It took us 16 hours to drive home. She was so tired from all of her adventures that she slept through the entire car ride. We got home at 11 p.m. and were in bed by 12. She slept from then until this morning at 6:30. When she came back from her walk, she slept again from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. with only one trip outside to break it up. And she's sleeping now. Think she had fun? 

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Kevin and I had quite a bit of fun ourselves. Denver is a really different city than Chicago, and it's neat to kind of step into a more relaxed, outdoorsy, R.E.I.-clad life for a few days. This trip in particular, mostly because of the dogs, probably, and because many of the couples we know have recently gotten settled into homes of their own, felt very comfortable and very easy. We knew our way around a little bit better. We made our own coffee. We walked to the 7-11 to buy toilet paper and to Sprouts to buy groceries. We sat in our friends' backyard, and I nursed an upset stomach from a long, hot run on their couch, watching Mad Men. We had a big family-style dinner on their deck and drank far more beer at home than we did out at bars. Like I said, comfortable and easy and certainly a place I look forward to visiting for years to come.