a girl in her element

I wrote awhile back about my love affair for Denver… my mysterious love for Denver.  Once in awhile, I have the rare moment where my decisions are not misguided because after spending five days there (one of which I ran around the city), I have decided I do indeed love Denver, and I have my reasons.

Setting out on foot to see the sights of Denver.

Whoa, that’s a tall building!

And two very shiny buildings!

The state capitol – I have a bit of an obsession with state capitols, so true to character, I proceeded to take 9,827 photos of it… and I was the only one out there with a camera!  Boy, did I feel out of place.  But hey, what’s new?

10,973 shots later.   Hey, be happy I only made you look at a few of them.

Aww man, I’m starting to get hungry out here.

And I’m a little lost.  Where am I?  Why do I have no sense of direction?  Where are my pants?!

Maybe this dude knows… Nope, he didn’t.

Wahhhh, I’m getting so famished that I’m starting to pace up and down the street, and the world is looking topsy-turvy.

Aha!  The tall building is back.   I must be getting close.

Woohoo!  The hotel!  I’m no longer lost.  I do have a sense of direction… but I still can’t find my pants.

And of course, the reasons for going to Denver in the first place -

BEFORE

AFTER

Looking put-together and classy after a half marathon is not one of my strengths.  Actually I’m not sure looking put-together and classy is EVER one of my strengths, but alas, that’s a story for another day.

The last day in San Diego was spent at Balboa Park and Ikea… two very contrasting destinations (but equally fun and entertaining!).  Turns out, the last day of the Body Works exhibit was that day, so we took advantage of it and wandered around the Natural History Museum for a good part of the morning.  By ‘wandered’ I think I really mean ‘got super lost but didn’t care and still had a huge grin plastered to my face.’  I’m sometimes a huge nerd but always a museum fanatic.

Balboa Park

Ikea!

It was my first time there.  Three hours and $100.00 later, all I wanted to do was crawl into one of their beds in the showroom and take a nap.

Day 2 in San Diego was busy, but I’m always amazed that no matter how much stuff you pack into one day, it’s still always relaxing!  It felt like I walked 500 miles, but it was probably closer to 400…

Seaport Village

Midway

Point Loma

I took about 5,082,085 pictures, but those are some of my favorites.  Later on, we drove over to Coronado and ate dinner at the Coronado Brewing Company.  I couldn’t have dreamt up a more perfect day if I tried.

So for our impromptu weekend getaway, we ended up in San Diego, undoubtedly one of my favorite cities ever.  Here are some snapshots for the first day.

The view from the hotel, overlooking downtown San Diego and Petco Park

Sunset before heading out to dinner, so gorgeous and serene

Ahh, I love the clouds looming above

Fire pit outside of the hotel which I was very tempted to warm my 115 degree weather acclimated body in front of.

We ate at Rei de Gado’s, a Brazilian steakhouse downtown.  I heard “all you can eat” and “meat” and I was instantly on board.   The neatest thing is that each table gets a double sided marker.  One side is green and the other is red.  If you want them to continue dropping off meat at your table, you leave the green side showing.  If you’re done eating or if you want to take a break, you leave the red side showing until you’re ready for more meat.  The food was absolutely amazing, and they had the BEST cheese bread EVER.

I was dead set on trying all 16 cuts of meat (my food motto is “I’ll try anything at least once.”), even if that meant eating chicken hearts.  And ya know… they weren’t so bad!

The view from our dinner table.  It was the perfect night to dine outside and watch the bustle of the city unfold.

A funny frog statue outside of a storefront for sale.  It’s a good thing I was too full to do anything besides groan and hold my belly.  Going into a store and seeing how much a frog statue cost sounds like something I would do under normal circumstances.

There’s day 1 in a nutshell.  Stay tuned for day 2!

Spur of the moment, we decided to get away for the weekend…

Snapping photos and singing at the top of my lungs… it’s what I do best on road trips.

I love bridges, especially this one!

A few sprinkles… and an orange Element!

Now I’m back, well rested and still bursting at the seams from delicious food.  Stay tuned for more on where I went (though I’m willing to bet many of you can guess just by the photos) and what I did!

Continuing my quarter life crisis adventure…I was on the road for what seemed like forever.  Seriously, it did not look this far away on the map… not that the map stated anywhere that it was actually drawn to scale.  My lack of skills to correctly interpret a map have gotten me into more than a couple quandaries.

Oh well, it was too late to turn back.  It seemed like days later, but since I hadn’t gone through my entire playlist on my iPod, I concluded it had to be closer to a few hours (yes, my iPod is my measuring unit for time).  I finally arrived at my mystery destination.

Any guesses where I ended up?

How about now?

Now???

Ding, ding, ding!!!  I AM at the Grand Canyon! It doesn’t matter how many times I go there, I’m still speechless every time I get that first peak over the canyon.

I absolutely love this place.  It’s completely breathtaking and awe inspiring.

I even found me a pal.  Actually he’s kind of an old friend.  A couple years ago, we first met and now it’s sort of tradition that I have to visit him every time I return.

Cruising along in the Element, headed home.

Two days and a few hundred miles later, I landed back home.  My head was a little less foggy, and I could finally catch my breath.  It appeared I would be able to fight my way through my quarter life crisis.  If nothing else, I learned one very important lesson – everyone should take a little trip by themselves once in awhile.  It doesn’t have to be anywhere insanely exotic.  It doesn’t even have to be a faraway destination.  Just a little time to yourself, a little time to clear your head and a little vacation without someone perched next to you babbling away  and insisting you don’t know how to read a map or that you’re driving too fast.

Not too long after my 25th birthday back in July, I launched myself into a quarter life crisis.  Like shoot me out of a cannon kind of predicament.  I wasn’t really sure what else to do so I ran away.  Not permanently, though it was tempting.  Actually only for two days, but man, it was just what I needed to clear my head.

As I mentioned before, I have an immense love for Zion National Park.  So naturally, that was the perfect place to run away to.  I called Flanigan’s Inn, this great inn/spa, that I’d passed many times and had always wanted to stay at, got a reservation and was on my way.

The breathtaking view from the top of the hill next to the hotel

Overlooking the hotel – I absolutely love the scenery

The labryinth at the top of the hill.  Apparently walking through it is supposed to clear your head and bring you clarity.

My attempt at being creative.  I’m not sure the labryinth cleared my head, but it sure was fun to take photos of.

I have an odd attraction to taking photos of crazy looking trees.  This one was a great one to add to my collection.

The charming hotel room.  I loved it.  So earthy and warm, tranquil and peaceful.

I went up to the labrinyth a couple times (partially because I had high hopes that I would gain some clarity but mostly because that’s the only place I could get cell phone reception.  That’s sad, really sad.)  I swear this was not there the first time I was up there.

Later in the day, I got a marvelous massage,the kind where you want to sigh and exhale really loud.   Strolling back to my room feeling like jelly, I hopped into a bubble bath, inhaling the aroma of lavender essential oil.  Then I headed out to town to find something to fill my belly.  I found an Italian place that was busting at its seams with people.  How could I deny my love for Italian food?  I stuffed my face with chicken alfredo while watching Sex in the City reruns on TV.  What better way to spend a night?  If this is how I will spend future life crises, I think I can deal with it.

The next morning, I woke up early and headed on the road.  Please excuse the bug splatter on my windshield.

I had every intention of going to Zion and hiking the rest of the day, but at the last minute, I had a change of heart and decided to take a little detour…

Want to find out where I headed to?  Stay tuned for Part 2 of Element Girl’s Quarter Life Crisis!  (You know, I’m now realizing that this is only a quarter life crisis if I live until I’m 100.  I guess I’ll take that as a challenge.)