T Minus 2 Days and Counting

Well, U.S.A., it's been real. I'm leaving you on Monday. I think we should see other people/countries. Don't take it personally. It's not you, it's me.

I was kinda freaking out for a while about this whole moving across the world thing. Those feelings have substantially diminished, thank Glob. Now, I'm just ready and raring to go!

Disclaimer: This post has a bunch of pictures. Deal with it.

These past few days, I've been spending in Colorado in the company of my fantastic family. My sister lives in Denver, so I thought I'd spend some time with her before I left. Turns out my dad was in CO for a bit after a conference he ran in Estes Park, so he was the one who picked me up from the airport. We took a three hour drive through the mountains to stay at a yurt our family partially owns (a yurt is a round platform tent first used by Central Asian nomads, and a pretty cool place to sleep).

I was part of the construction crew for this bad boy. We put it together (along with clearing some trails) about seven years ago. And this was the first time I'd stayed there. Yes, I agree. That's not fair. But now I finally got to stay there. And it was awesome!
Dad and I took a little morning hike. It was pretty neat. Here's some pics.

  

After that, we drove to Aspen. We went through Independence pass, which is also one of the highest points in the Rocky Mountains. I took this snap.

A family friend owns a (really nice) cabin in Aspen. We slept on the couches cuz we didn't want to pay the $375 cleaning fee. It had an alright view...

The rest of the day, we went hiking at Maroon Bells (one of the most photographed locations in the U.S.). Despite me being in hiking gear and my dad wearing business casual (and loafters), he kept up pretty well! The hike was gorgeous!

Later, we got some delicious pizza in town, had a few beers in the hot tub, then watched the Democratic debate. It was pretty great.

Kat (sister person) told us she had to work til 10am that morning, so Dad and I started driving to Denver around 6:30am. She was going to meet us at a cool brunch spot afterward. Turns out she wasn't working at all that day. She was getting our mom from the airport. Best surprise I've gotten! 

We had brunch together then spent a good portion of the day at the Denver Botanical Gardens. Dinner at an AMAZING spot in the city, then we said goodbye. It was pretty teary, but it was so fantastic to have our family all together in one place before I go halfway across the globe (something that doesn't happen too often).

Time to spend some more time with the sis. Woo!