We wanted to get out for a _real_ Colorado mountain hike before the wedding, and in our minds that means doing a 14er (a 14,000+ ft peak).  There are many options, few within close-ish proximity to Denver, but one of them is Grays Peak–on that note I wanted to give a shoutout to a great website, 14ers.com, that has more information than you can shake a stick at around hiking in Colorado mountains.  This trip is a 8 mile round-trip in which you can actually hit TWO 14ers, Grays and Torreys.  We planned on doing both, but by the time we hit Grays we were DONE.

Perhaps the best tip about hiking a 14er is Start early!  This means boots on the trail around 5am.  The main reason is to avoid summer lightning storms, which frequently occurs without warning in summer afternoons.  You don’t want to be stuck above the tree line during one of these.  Not to mention the sun can be brutally hot during the day.  Note that even at 5am you are going to be in the middle of pack of people–I believe there were literally a thousand people hiking by the time we finished at 10am.

We drove to the basecamp on Saturday night to sleep and make the early start.  There were so many campsites and vehicles by the time we got there, but the next day there were hundreds.  We did stop for dinner on our way to Grays at Georgetown, CO at a delicious Mexican restaurant that was started by who else but a Minnesotan.  Cute little town.

Evening sunset

Grays Trailhead marker

Grays trail map

Grays trailhead… The peak in the WAY back

We slept in the Forester and it was not so much sleeping, but moving around uncomfortably all night waiting for 4:30am so we could start hiking.  We heard cars rolling in as early as 3:30am.  The start of the hike is through beautiful mountain meadows, with wildflowers and rolling streams, flanked on both sides by tall, granite peaks.  Absolutely picture-perfect Colorado mountain valley.

Sound of music, anyone?

So pretty!

Beth and Snickers were doing great on the way up, but I am pretty sensitive to the altitude; I was feeling pretty green- nauseous, light-headed, and oh so wore out.  It was GRUELING!  Check out our Grays Peak Garmin tracks–we did 2,880 ft of gain, most of it during the last half of the uphill portion of the hike.  There were plenty of people in the same boat as me, we passed quite a few, then quite a few others passed us.  It was like a highway out there.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/embed/1251459528

The relief we felt when we hit the top was palpable.  The thing that kept me going was thinking of going down!  🙂  However, the vista at the top was fantastic.  See the pics below, but everyone seemed to be in the same place as us.  As warm as it was hiking in the sun, the top was cold and windy!

Grays Facing West?

Grays Facing East?

Rocky and snowy in July.

See the mountain goats in the background??

We really made up time heading back down the mountain.  That’s not to say it was easy- it seemed so much longer going down.  Gotta say, the down is when trekking poles really earn their keep.  A few miles down my legs get wobbly and the rocks give more often beneath my feet.  By 10am we were back at the car, a 25 min drive 3 miles down the car-lined (yes a 3 mile line of cars!!) and we were back on I-70.  The Forester handled it well, but it’s worth noting that we saw some car with less clearance had hit a rock hard and was leaking SOMETHING all the way down–not sure if they even knew it since we didn’t see them on the side of the road.  We were back home before noon and eating pizza and breadsticks as a reward not more than 30 min later.  It was a well-deserved afternoon nap.

Disclaimer: this is wordy 

Looking through this blog, you would think that all we do is hike and drink beer. While those tend to be the most highly documented activities because…well…they’re fun!, there is a lot of logistical planning that goes into this nomadic lifestyle. Here we’ll attempt to lay out how we chose living arrangements while traveling for an extended period of time and landed on a method that worked best for us.

One important thing that has really helped us stay sane throughout this whole process has been to set realistic expectations in regards to budget. We are paying more to rent than we would for our mortgage in Louisville, but we have also been able to set a budget that enables us to not only live where we want but also continue to save money while doing so. We are viewing this year as an extended vacation, and know that we are paying a premium to do what we are doing. Rather than paying for vacations every month or so, we have budgeted that money towards our monthly living expenses. It’s all about perspective and being reasonable and realistic.

We’ve tried three different arrangements:

1. AirBNB/HomeAway
2. Extended stay  hotels
3. Short-term apartment rentals

We went into this year without much of a plan, assuming we’d stay for a month here, a month or two there, and move as much as we desired. All three options have pros and cons, and after trying them all out we’ve finally settled on a method that works best for us and our needs.

AirBNB/HomeAway

There are many pros to using AirBNB; we’ve used it many times on vacations and have enjoyed the feel of home it provides. When we started out, we assumed we would go this route since they are all fully furnished and typically have a stocked kitchen.

We quickly learned why they are used for week/end rentals rather than monthly leases – the price goes up quick! We work within the constraints of a budget and AirBNB/HomeAway options blew that budget to shreds. When units are rented as vacation rentals, we’ve found that the owners  tend to increase the price to maximize their income. I can’t blame them, but when you’re staying somewhere for a month+, it’s not economical to spend upwards of $100/night.

Another downside for us was that, while you have your own space, you are still a guest in someone else’s home. The rentals we used were listed as “guest houses,” which were separate from the main house, but still shared either a yard or a wall. And, while the owners were nice, we often felt like we didn’t have total privacy (kind of the nosy neighbor vibe).

We actually only used this method for a week and a half, during the very first part of our trip in Santa Cruz. We stayed in one house for the first week and rented a second house for the next two weeks. The second house turned us off from renting this way. It was further outside of town than listed, smelled like smoke (even though it was listed as non-smoking), and the owner had left all sorts of personal belongings including half-eaten food in the fridge.

Extended Stay Hotel

After AirBNB, we turned to extended stay hotels. We stayed for a week and a half at a Staybridge just outside of Napa. This method has all the luxuries of a hotel and with an extended stay hotel you also have a kitchen.

We found the hotels to be along the same expense as the AirBNB, which is why we opted for them. The bonus to a hotel is multi-fold. First, you don’t have to make your bed or clean your room! The extended hotels typically offer breakfast as well as a complimentary happy hour/dinner in the evenings. Not having to factor in the expense or hassle of cooking breakfast was a plus, although the options are pretty limited and not nearly as healthy as we typically eat. Also, while we didn’t really utilize the dinner options, we did go for a couple of beers and enjoyed having the option. We also had complimentary wi-fi, and our room happened to be a two room suite, which allowed me to work in one room while Matt did whatever unemployed people do during the day. The kitchen was another huge plus for us. We really enjoy cooking and, although it was a little more difficult to cook on a single cooktop, we were able to make some very tasty meals.

The biggest con for us was that the hotel was in a business district, which didn’t have a lot going on around it. This may have been due to the area, and there are surely better options, but we didn’t really love having to drive to get dinner. The plus was that we were right across the street from a grocery store so we were able to easily get supplies. The other main con, was that it was loud and we could hear people upstairs. This was only truly bothersome one night when there was a large group partying all night, but it is still a common occurrence in hotels. We also found that traveling with a dog often meant staying in the pet-approved suites; not altogether terrible, but they are typically on lower floors which contributes to the aforementioned noise.

Short-term, unfurnished apartment rentals

We used short-term apartment rentals in Portland and now in Denver, and have found it to be what works best for us and our needs.

When we went to Portland, we knew we’d likely stay longer than a month. The reason for this was due to Matt’s travel schedule for work and only having the weekends to explore and eat our way through the city. After comparing costs and the above pros and cons, we decided to look into short-term apartment rentals. Admittedly, going this route takes a little more planning, but it’s been well worth it.

The hardest part has been finding apartments that are pet-friendly as well as offer short-term rentals. We’ve found that while the majority of complexes are very pet-friendly, the majority of them DO NOT offer short-term leases. Or the shortest lease term is 6 months. That being said, when we did find rentals that offered short-term (3-4 month) rents, we paid a premium. This has ranged from $600-$300 additional a month, and we’ve seen some as high as $1000. That’s insane!

While there are some furnished options, we chose to go the unfurnished route. Furnished rentals tend to run an additional $1000+ a month on top of the short-term premium. For us, it was more economical – though more logistically taxing – to rent unfurnished, rent furniture through a third party, and purchase any linens and cookware we needed. We’ve got a whole record of all the prices and options, but I won’t bore you with that here. Suffice to say, going that route has saved us hundreds of dollars a month while still keeping us within the bounds of our budget.

The pros to this route have been mutli-fold. We have our own dedicated space to do with as we please. While we have to clean it ourselves, we don’t have to worry about invasion of privacy and the floors/ceilings in the complexes we’ve stayed in have been very thick. We rarely hear our neighbors. We have also been able to stay in areas that we enjoy. In Portland we were right downtown and close to everything!

One method we didn’t try, and probably won’t, has been the short-term, furnished rental. We’ve just found this to be too costly for our budget, but it would be a great option if you don’t want to worry about coordinating furniture rentals and utilities.

[UPDATE: We’re using a short-term, furnished rental in Minneapolis!]

Short-term, furnished apartment rental

We ended up using short-term, furnished rentals in Minneapolis for one main reason: no apartments would do a 2 month lease. We were literally scrambling the week before we were set to move to find a place to stay. Worst case scenario: stay with Matt’s parents in Thorp until the apartment we found on Craigslist opened up in mid-September (perfect location, good price point, fully furnished). But, because of our travel schedule this wasn’t ideal. We ended up finding a corporate rental that didn’t cost any more than we had been paying in Portland and Denver for the apartment + utilities + furniture and jumped on it. 

This arrangement has worked out well for us so far. In addition to not having to worry about the logistics of renting the furniture and making sure it’s set up by the time you arrive, it’s fully stocked with linens and most kitchen tools you would need (we’re a little particular so we were glad to have our own things as well, but we definitely wouldn’t need them to get by). We would definitely consider going this route again if the price was right because of the convenience but also because you need fewer things – we’d really like to downsize the amount of STUFF we have.

Whew! If you made it this far, you are a champ! For that, you will be rewarded with a cute puppy picture 🙂

Who doesn’t love a long weekend?! We’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but that didn’t stop us from cramming in a lot of fun over Memorial Day.

Since we got to Denver, taking in a concert at Red Rocks has been on the top of our list. After looking over the concert schedule as well as our incredibly busy summer schedule (bachelor parties, Disneyland, wedding, yadda yadda yadda) we settled on the Friday before Memorial Day, and it did not disappoint! The day of the concert ended up being rainy and cold! Luckily, the rain ended right before the concert lending to a beautiful rainbow backdrop behind the red rocks. Driving up, we couldn’t stop commenting on how beautiful it was. It was stunning. I seriously can’t get over the mountains here.

The bands playing that night were the Wood Brothers, Shakey Graves, and The Devil Makes Three. After grabbing some local brews (Coors Banquet 🙂 ), we found our seats and got ready for some great music. We were pretty high up, but there wasn’t a bad seat in the house; the acoustics in the amphitheater are stellar. All of the bands put on a great show, but The Devil Makes Three blew us away! It was their first time playing Red Rocks and I think they would’ve payed all night if the venue let them. All the dancing around almost made us forget how cold it was. It was one of the best and most fun concerts we’ve been too, and we highly recommend catching a show here if you’re in town and have time! For those of you coming out in July, check out the calendar. It was a late night for us – we didn’t get home until after 1am! – but it was completely worth it.

The next day we had planned a camping trip with some folks from Matt’s company who happen to live in Denver. There were 8 of us total and we had a great time – except for Snickers who is crazy protective of me and wasn’t too fond of the the two other dogs. After 5 months of not hanging out with anyone other than Matt and Snickers, this was a much-needed social outing.

We got a late start to the day, but were able to pack up and head to the campsite by early afternoon. Nate was able to go out early and snag a great campsite just outside Boulder in the Roosevelt National Forest near Gross Reservoir. We had to drive up a pretty primitive dirt road to get there, which made us extra glad for AWD on the Subaru. After setting up camp we payed frisbee, drank beer, and went on a short hike. It was still cool, so we spent a lot of time chasing the sun and sitting around the camp fire. We grilled corn and brats over the fire for dinner and ended the night with s’mores (of course).

Aside from being insanely cold that night, we slept relatively well and woke up ready for a nice, long hike. A couple of the guys were running a 10K the next day and wanted an easier hike and some others had to take the puppy home, so it was just Matt and me for the hike. We found a 6.5 mile hike up to Twin Sisters Peak. The trail was pretty empty – we actually didn’t see anyone else until we were descending from the peak – and it was a really great hike. The first part was on dirt roads, which sounded pretty easy until we realized we were over 8,000 ft and a sight incline left us breathing heavily. The very last part involved scrambling up rocks, which Snickers loved! I’m convinced she’s part mountain goat. We got to the peak and took in the spectacular 360 degree views. After a little mountain yoga we headed back down to start the drive home.

Scrambling up the rocks to get to Twin Sisters Peak

Twin Sisters Peak

Gross Reservoir from Twin Sisters Peak

Twin Sisters Peak

That Monday, we took it easy and spent some time poolside. Overall, it was a great weekend and perfectly busy and relaxing.

We’ve finished our first month in Denver! I’m sure the burning question is: how do you like it? In short: we don’t.

I really wanted to love Denver. It has mountains, it has beer…what’s not to love? We’re giving it a fair shake, but it falls short of both Portland and Louisville in many things that matter most to us. So far we’d say it’s a good place to visit, but not a place we’d want to live.

It’s very sprawling which means you have to drive everywhere. The biggest problem with such a car-centric city is that everyone else in the city is also driving, so going as little as 5 miles might take upwards of 30 minutes. Strike one. The food scene is also lacking. That’s not to say that we haven’t had some great meals, we certainly have, but coming from two amazing food cities we haven’t been very wowed with Denver’s options. If you’re looking for some American fare, they’ve got plenty of options, but these two ethnic food lovers haven’t found our place yet. Strike two. Believe it or not, we actually enjoy going to the gym and doing yoga. This is another area where we’ve yet to find our niche. Sure, there are plenty of yoga studios – there’s one literally across the street – but they’re either a.) too expensive ($20 for a class?!) or b.) not our style of yoga. In Louisville we went to a great yoga class at our gym on Mondays and a free class on Fridays; in Portland we found an awesome donation-based studio within walking distance of our apartment that had plenty of power yoga options. But here? Nada. Matt did find a good gym for weight lifting that he liked, but going back to the car-centricity, it took him 20 minutes to get there and 40 minutes to get home. Strike three.

That’s not to say Denver doesn’t have its charms. The mountains are amazing. There’s just something about seeing the Rocky Mountain front range when you look down the street. We’ve taken full advantage of the proximity and have hiked Table Mountain in Golden, Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Salinas Mountain in Boulder, and Twin Sisters peak in Roosevelt National Forest. You truly can’t beat the views.

Golden Gate Canyon

Twin Sisters Peak

Table Mountain

The weather here is amazing. Even on the days it rains (which isn’t very often), the sun usually pops out. Snickers has really been enjoying our balcony for soaking up the afternoon rays. We usually lay out there or poolside ourselves to get a daily dose of Vitamin D. I’m convinced that the higher altitude makes the sun that much warmer; the forecast might say 65, but when the sun’s out you can find most people in shorts and tank tops. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the low humidity! We definitely don’t miss Kentucky this time of year.

Down dog on the balcony

And the beer. There’s a lot of it, and finding the good stuff has taken a lot of tasting. One thing we’ve noticed is that, while there are a lot of breweries, many of them do things on a large scale. You’ve probably seen Great Divide and Avery in bars and stores across the country. But there are some great smaller breweries here too. Lost Highway was a favorite (and right in our backyard) as well as Grandma’s House, and we can’t wait to head to the RiNo neighborhood and imbibe some Epic and Ratio brews.

We haven’t given up on Denver completely and have plenty more to explore, but for now it’s ranking below both Portland and Louisville in our list of favorite cities. Still above every place we visited in California, though.

After nearly 5 months on the road we finally had our first visitors! My parents swung by Denver for a long weekend and we walked, ate, and drank our way through the city. Since Matt and I had only been in Colorado for three weeks at that point, we were doing a lot of exploring of our own.

We started the weekend off with a visit to The Health Center for some lollipops before heading to the Five Points Jazz Festival. The festival was held in the Five Points neighborhood, which was a prominent performance location for many Jazz greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Nat King Cole. The music was great, but Jan’s favorite part was probably the dancing woman in a crop top. We downed some bratwurst and pulled pork, washed it down with beer and a hurricane, and called it a morning. That officially checked off everything Ralph wanted to do during his time here and it was only 11am!

The weather was amazing (it is Colorado, after all), so after a brief nap poolside, we walked miles around the city. Our first stop was at Great Divide for a couple of flights and a brewery tour. The winners were the Titan IPA, Old Ruffian (a barleywine), and the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti (an imperial stout). The brewery was impressively large; their tank farm is outdoors and you can see if driving or walking by. We walked by Coors Field on our way to dinner, but unfortunately there wasn’t a game that weekend 😦 Dinner was at Park and Co. where the burgers were nice, but the Brussels sprouts were lacking.

Great Divide tank farm

We ventured up to Boulder on Sunday for some hiking and general exploring. Boulder is a quick 40 minute (30 mile) drive from Denver, and very worth the trip. We headed to Settler’s Park to hike the Red Rocks trail; a 2 mile loop that meanders up to some red rocks which are perfect for scrambling and offer some spectacular views. The trail starts out through a valley before climbing up to the rocks. Matt, Jan, and I did some scrambling while Ralph and Snickers hung back and served as our photography crew.

The 2 mile loop was a great intro, but Mount Salinas had us wanting more. Luckily everyone was game, so we began the climb. Despite what Ralph and Jan say, we weren’t actually trying to kill them with the hike…altitude just really takes a toll. This trail was very busy and we passed (or rather were passed) by many people going up and down. The views from the top were well worth the climb, and I think that Ralph may have found his new favorite spot. After the hike, we stopped for some lunch and beers at Twisted Pine Brewery (I hear they have a Ghost Face Killah beer made with ghost chiles that will melt your face off) before wandering around Pearl Street.

The rest of the trip was much more low-key since Matt and I both had to work, but we still managed to squeeze in some fun. Jan and Ralph hit up the zoo, which we’ll have to add to our list of things to do before we leave. We walked to Cheesman Park – one of our favorite places to walk/run, ate tacos at Dos Santos, and gorged ourselves on desserts at D Bar. Seriously, if you like sweets, you should definitely try this place out. We split the prix fixe and the chocolate cake got 8 thumbs up. We couldn’t end the trip without some beer, so we walked down to Colfax and got some suds at Lost Highway Brewing. They’ve got some really neat 32 oz. “crowlers” (cans) that they’ll fill up for you to go. The bartender also made us a chocolate banana brew that was a mix of the Longest, Wickedest Wit and Fourth Estate (a Belgian chocolate stout). The Fourth Estate was like drinking chocolate, but all the beers we had were equally tasty.

Before we sent them off, we sent Ralph and Jan to Voodoo Donuts. Since they didn’t make it out to visit us – and the original shop – in Portland this was the next best thing. We didn’t get anything crazy, but the apple fritter, glazed, and custard filled hit the spot.

Thanks again for visiting us, parents! We really enjoyed having you in town.