Hiking

Sunday evening, Em and I decided to go on a small hike at Chitaqua park - a big hiking park near our house. There were dozens of trails and it was pretty packed with people. We hiked for about an hour and loved it. It was really pretty and there were some great views of Boulder.

Monday morning we went back to Chitaqua park and had breakfast at this famous music house. It is an old house with a restaurant on the main floor and you can sit out on the wrap-around porch and eat. It has a great view of the park and food was awesome.

Because we didn't have a car, we spent the rest of the day biking around Boulder. We first went down to Pearl Street - a really cool outdoor mall with cobblestone streets and some unique stores. We found some shoes for Em for Europe and then spent a couple hours at a local bookstore. We are currently planning our trip to Europe and since we are going with another couple, we split up assignments (between couples) on certain countries and cities to do research on. We have already made up our itinerary so we know where we are going but it is kind of overwhelming with all the information available on the places we are going to visit. Em and I are responsible for London, Salzburg, Cinque Terra, and the Swiss Alps. Mike and Tiffany are responsible for Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris. So at the bookstore we spent a lot of time reading books about these countries and different travel guides in order to hopefully find sites and places that we want to see.

Later in the day we rode our bikes to NCAR so I could get a couple hours in and show Em where I work. While I worked she continued to make some additional plans for Europe. In the evening John and Sarah made dinner for us and their son and his girlfriend. It was really fun, we visited for a couple hours and got to know each other better. I have been really grateful for John and Sarah, they have been kind and very giving while I have been here. At the end of dinner, everyone wanted Emily to come back this upcoming weekend.