It's Been Way Too Long...Big Recap!

Aaaand it's been five months since I've blogged. Oopsies! Admittedly, Billy and I have been traveling a LOT less since I got my new job. It's actually been really nice to do a lot of local exploring, so even though we haven't gone very far we've still done some fun stuff.

October

October was super busy for us, but we got a lot of family time in which was so wonderful! My parents were here at the beginning of the month. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we spent an afternoon at Staunton State Park their first day here.

We followed that up with a day trip to Colorado Springs, where we had a VERY warm day at Garden of the Gods, plus we took a trip to the Air Force Academy since Billy could get us on base. After that whirlwind of the weekend, we spent the rest of the time hanging out around Denver. 

Then, I headed home about a week later (poor planning on our part, huh?) for some time to recharge. I jokingly call my parents house the Spa at Ogden Road because coming home is always so relaxing. I was pretty exhausted after a busy start to my new job, so I went home and spent the entire long weekend either on my horse or on the couch. It was glorious.

Missed this face!! No place like home. #corgi #maryland #homesweethome #dogsofinsta #welcomehome #dogs

A photo posted by Laura Cardon (@lauracardon) on Oct 10, 2014 at 3:43pm PDT

Once I came home, our friend Leah (our wonderful Key West host!) was in Colorado visiting family, so we went back to Staunton to spend the day with her. I know we took a group photo, but I think Leah is holding it hostage so I'll have to get it from her!

Mia, Billy's little sister came to visit at the end of the month. She was here over fall break and got to spend the entire time with us, which was a blast. We had a really fun girls night and visited a ton of Colorado landmarks. Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver Botanic Gardens, plus Billy took her to Boulder for the day. 

Goofing off in the I Heart Denver store

November

Billy and I spent Thanksgiving in Denver because...well have you seen fares for flying around that holiday?! Good lord. We did Friendsgiving at a friend's house in Aurora and did some hiking.

Taking ourselves really seriously

December
The highlight of the month, besides Christmas of course, was getting to petsit for a dog that I helped get adopted from the Denver Animal Shelter. He was a wonderful dog, but very fearful and shy so it took a long time to get him approved for adoption. That was all worth it though when the most wonderful family EVER decided to take him home, and then took me up on my petsitting offer! 

Then, we started our Christmas travels! We went to Maryland first before going to Indiana for Christmas and Chicago for New Years, then back to Indiana. We ended up getting plenty of downtime (and by that I mean naptime), so it wasn't nearly as exhausting as it sounds. Plus, going to Chicago meant we got to finally meet Laura, Matt's now fiance! Matt is one of Billy's best friends from high school, and we hadn't seen him in so long that we had never even met Laura. They got engaged a few weeks later, and we couldn't be happier for them! I took no pictures this entire trip except for when I was at the barn. My bad.

January
In January, I met my cousin Morgan for the first time while he was visiting Denver with his business partner. He is Megan's brother, so another one of my Aunt Marty's grandchildren. The way we are actually related is a little convoluted and very boring, but it was so fun to get to meet more of my extended family!

A big part of January was finding Lizzie's new home in Colorado! That's right, this summer she will officially become a Colorado girl. I'll be leasing her to the Air Force Academy and am so excited to finally have her close by!!

February
Billy and I got to spend Valentine's Day together for the first time ever, which was really fun. We don't take Valentine's Day too seriously, but it was still great to be able to actually have a little mini celebration of the day instead of being on opposite sides of the country!

Billy's dad, Mia, and Uncle John and Aunt Lisa came to Colorado for a long weekend of skiing this month too. Again, I took no pictures but the trip was an absolute blast. I also now consider myself a Real Coloradoan since I drove back home from Breckenridge in the snow by myself!

March
Black Hawk is like a very small Coloradoan version of Las Vegas, so when I got a free hotel room there thanks to a work conference, I took Billy along for a night at the casinos. While it won't be something I'll be making a habit of, playing craps and the slot machines was a really fun night out. Plus, we got to stay at an awesome hotel!

A few weekends ago, we were trapped in a room with a zombie. This is a thing now haha I promise! You and a big group of friends are locked in a room that contains a series of riddles and puzzles to find the key that unlocks the door. You're timed, which usually adds enough pressure, but we went to a zombie edition that also has a zombie in the room with you that can get closer and closer to you every ten minutes. It turned out to be one of the most fun things I've ever done, so thank you Maggi for inviting me and Billy!

Whew I think that covers everything! We're still loving Denver and having a great time, so feel free to visit any time you want to. Hopefully we'll have a bigger place soon with a second bedroom :)

Besides apartment shopping, we'll also be hosting my Dad in April, welcoming Lizzie to Colorado in May, and going back East for Tony's (Billy's business partner) wedding this summer! Lots of exciting adventures coming up, as always!

Weekend in San Francisco

We only had three days, but we made the most of them in California to visit my Aunt Marty (dad's oldest sister) and Uncle David. As usual, they were absolutely fantastic hosts and gave us the grand tour of the San Francisco area even with our short time frame.

After getting in late Friday night (I feel like everywhere we go, we always get in at some incredibly inconvenient time), we were up bright and early for an adventure in wine country. My cousin Megan (not totally positive how we're related, so cousin is what I'm going with) works at one of the vineyards in Napa, and arranged for us to go on a tour of the winery. 

The only time I'll follow strangers into a cave

I have to confess, my wine palate is not very well developed (I prefer anything that tastes like juice) and I was a little nervous about trying all of these California reds, but I figured that I couldn't NOT try all the wine. Not surprisingly, it was all delicious. 

After lunch with Megan and my aunt and uncle, we said goodbye to Megan and continued our grand tour of the Napa Valley, including the town my uncle was born in. We saw downtown Napa, tons of vineyards and other landmarks, plus the beautiful California countryside. 

We swapped the country for the city on Sunday, spending the entire day in San Francisco. We stumbled upon a gorgeous national cemetery in the Presidio and enjoyed some great views of the bay before meeting up with Simon, our first friend in Denver. He has since moved to San Francisco, but he was the person who opened his house up to us when we first moved here. Simon and Billy had a lot of fun catching up while Simon gave us a tour of the city.

If you think their smiles looked forced, it's because I forced them to take this picture to commemorate our time together. Great scenery I captured...a creepy H&M mannequin.

We parted ways with Simon mid-day so we could get our tourist on. We hopped on a cable car and rode up and over one of San Fran's GIANT hills and got dropped off right at Fisherman's Wharf, the ultimate tourist trap. It was fun to walk through it, but we were glad we didn't make it a major part of the day. We caught the ferry back to Tiburon, which was the perfect end to our city trip.

It was a liiiiitle windy on the ferry.

We wrapped up our last night by gorging ourselves on seafood and more amazing wine with my aunt and uncle before calling it a night. We were lucky to have a late flight out of San Francisco on Monday, so we went on a great tour of the area with my aunt the next morning before heading to Battery Spencer (an old military area) for some spectacular views of the Golden Gate.

After taking in the incredible coastal scenery, we made our final stop in Sausolito to have lunch with my uncle before saying goodbye. I can't do the trip justice in a blog post as much as I try - it was such a phenomenal visit and I can't thank my Aunt Mary and Uncle David enough for having us! 

Saying goodbye all too quickly

Catching Up On Summer

WOW how has it been three months since I updated this blog last?! The last time I blogged was when my parents came to visit, and now they're already going to be back in a month (which is totally awesome!). Our first summer in Denver has been a blast, and we've had so much fun visiting a few other places, too!). Let me try to catch you up on summer as best I can.

June
In June, we headed out to Indy and the lake to visit Billy's parents and attend the wedding of one of Billy's best friends from high school. Jack and Beth got married just outside of Chicago, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit all of our favorite people out in the Midwest.

Photo by the Ekelof's wedding photographer, Laura Meyer

I got to meet a bunch of Billy's high school friends that I hadn't met yet (shout out to Jack and Beth for seating us with a bunch of people Billy knew!) and had an absolute blast at the wedding. Beth looked beautiful, and it was so nice meeting her (although awkward, I've gotten used to meeting friends of Billy's on their wedding day) and great seeing Jack again.

While we were in Chicago, I was lucky enough to get to meet Billy's paternal grandparents, who still live outside of the city. All of the men on Billy's dad's side of the family have an uncanny resemblance to each other, so it was not too surprising that his granddad looked just like him, just with a few more wrinkles! I was so happy to meet both of them, although it did make me wish that my grandparents were still around for Billy to meet.

After a lovely afternoon with grandparents, we headed out to Lake Mattoon, where despite dreary weather we had a great time (we need to stop visiting in June...I'm starting to think it's bad luck!). We did have to wear wetsuits to ski a few times and the rain kept us inside one day, but it gave Jan, Dave, and Billy the opportunity to teach me how to play Yuker (or at least attempt to teach me!).

Thank you Jan for the wetsuit!!

Our final destination was Indianapolis before heading home. We got to see Chris and Emily's new house (unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures that entire evening) and had a really fun night of cooking out and enjoying some adult beverages with great friends.


Mia was in the middle of tennis camp and summer bible school, but we did get lucky enough to squeeze in some time with her as well. Despite driving to the wrong spot to pick her up from tennis (oops), we had a great day in Broadripple and at the Indianapolis Zoo. I always love getting to spend time with her!

July
While I was in Vermont again for most of July, we snuck in our first concert at Red Rocks right before I left. Without a doubt, seeing a concert there is worthy of all the hype! We saw the ultimate 90s line-up for the Fourth of July and I'm happy to say that Mark McGrath (lead singer of Sugar Ray) puts on a heck of a good show. The evening started out with Uncle Kracker, followed by Smashmouth (yes they played All Star and yes it was AWESOME), Sugar Ray, and wrapping up with headliner Blues Traveler.

The crowd at Red Rocks

The biggest excitement in July was that I got a new job! This means I'm bidding adieu to the horse show world and will be enjoying more time in Denver (and less time traveling to shows). It's been a big change but I'm loving my new job. I'm still in the same line of work (public relations) but now work for Great Outdoors Colorado, a non-profit that invests Colorado's lottery revenue into parks and other outdoorsy things. 


Fortunately, I got to spend my last horse show in Vermont, which is one of my favorite shows to go to. I love working with everyone there, and I have the added bonus of getting to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins that all live in New England. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of my trip to Connecticut, but I did get lucky that my cousin Karen happened to be visiting the same weekend as me so I got to spend plenty of quality cousin time with her in addition to seeing my aunt and uncle.

My other cousin, Sarah, lives in Boston with her family, and I was thrilled to get to meet my new baby cousin Sam! Of course, I also spent plenty of time with big brother Jack and really enjoyed getting to hang out with him (especially because it gave me an excuse to act silly and go to a trampoline park!)

Starting a love for horses early...I like it.

August
Billy's mom and step-dad treated us to a visit just in time for Billy's mom's birthday. They had never been to Denver before, so it was really fun showing them all of our favorite places and helping them check off things on their Colorado "to do" list. After a lifetime of insisting she would never go white-water rafting, Jan had a change of heart and had put rafting at the top of her list, so we headed out on our whitewater adventure last weekend! 

It was my first time ever going, and I'm happy to report that it's not nearly as intimidating looking when you're drifting down the newbie rapids! We had a great time and made sure to stop at Smokin Yard BBQ while we were in Idaho Springs.

After taming Clear Creek and stuffing ourselves full at Smokin Yard, our next adventure was Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday morning. Unlike when my parents visited, there were no surprise snow storms in August and we enjoyed picture perfect weather for our hike!

For Jan and Dave's last evening in Denver, we visited the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens (the highlight of the weekend for me!) before going out to our favorite Italian place in Denver.

Just one of the AMAZING Chihuly pieces
at the Denver Botanic Garden

We've obviously managed to keep busy this summer, and I am still wondering where the time has gone. I have to confess, I am looking forward to cooler weather this fall! It's been a hot one in Denver...

The weather may cool down (hopefully), but we'll be keeping plenty busy even as summer is ending. The new Base Directory website launches towards the end of September (what Billy has been slaving away on all summer!) and we'll be heading to California to visit my Aunt Marty and Uncle David next month too. My parents are coming to visit us at the end of September, which will be the perfect end to an exciting month! From there, it's back home to Maryland for me before Mia comes to visit Denver for an ENTIRE WEEK! I promise I'll be better about updates then...

Until then, enjoy the end of summer! We love and miss all of our friends and family that aren't in Denver and hope to see you all again soon! Our door is always open...as long as you don't mind sleeping on an aero bed :)

The Cardons Come To Denver!

When my parents first asked what time of the year would be nice to visit Denver, I immediately said May. This could have been me jumping to think of the first possible month they could visit (Me? Impatient? What?) Denver, but I like to think I was just completely oblivious of how truly unpredictable "spring" in Denver could be. I thought May would be perfect - not too hot, not too cold, and all you need is a light jacket (although I guess that would be in April...Miss Congeniality reference anyone?). 

In Maryland, spring could also be unpredictable, with a few temperature fluctuations here and there. "Unpredictable spring weather" brought on a whole new meaning this May in Denver, however. A winter storm watch was issued for the weekend my parents arrived, which means yes, it was SNOWING for the first two days they were here. 

Ahh, May in Denver.

Fortunately the tornado and hail storms didn't arrive until after they left (I'm not kidding, that actually happened for about a week straight in the afternoon.) Even with the snow and chilly temperatures, we had a blast enjoying the museums of Denver, although at the Science & Nature Museum we were joined by two to three hundred small children with no concept of personal space.

Denver Art Museum

Parking a spaceship at the Denver Science & Nature Museum

By Tuesday, the sun had finally come out and we spent the day exploring downtown Denver and enjoying the Colorado sunshine I had spent months preaching about to my parents ("It's always sunny here! It's rarely cloudy for more than a day!"). Because the Denver weather looked like this:

...I planned a fun day hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park for the next day. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Bear Lake it was a little more like this: 

Even though it was covered in snow and still frozen over, Bear Lake was a fun visit after a gorgeous drive through Lyons and Estes Park. While it would have been great to be doing hiking in more spring-like weather, it was fun to give my parents a taste of Colorado winter! On the way home, we stopped at Lily Lake outside of Estes. It was snowy, but not frozen, plus we saw a ton of elk playing/fighting/frolicking on the side of the road as we drove up.

Once we got back to Denver, the weather improved enormously. Billy was on the way to New York on Thursday for this year's Techstars Conference, which is where he first heard about gSchool (where the Denver adventure began!). The best part about having my parents here has been showing them around the city I've come to love so much. It's crazy to think that just over a year ago, I was telling Billy I wasn't so sure about Denver. Sharing it with my parents, who haven't been to Colorado in a LONG time, was really special and I think I got them hooked as well!

My parents' trip to Denver was also their first foray into the world of AirBnb, which turned out wonderfully. The house they stayed in was super cute and served as a great place to hang out/nap when we were worn out from sightseeing. After dropping Billy off at the airport, we headed out to Red Rocks and made one last stop at the Botanic Gardens on Friday before we had to say goodbye. 

Mom & Dad in the jungle at the Botanic Gardens

Now I just have to convince them to move out here once they retire.... :)

Omaha - Not As Flat As You Think!

The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting has long been on Billy's bucket list, so now that we're within driving range of Omaha (where it is held every year) we decided to make the trek. If you're wondering what the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting is, then you're on the same page as me. Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffett's company and the annual shareholder's meeting is a must-do for any finance enthusiast, so it goes without saying that Billy has been dying to go.

If you're wondering, "Why in the world would you willingly go to Nebraska for a finance meeting that you know absolutely nothing about?!", then you are in the same frame of mind I was when Billy asked me to go in the first place. Three things: free things, lots of shopping, and a 5K. The last may not be as compelling to some people, but I've been determined to do another one, so between that and the prospect of lots of free stuff, I agreed to make the pilgrimage to Omaha.

Surprisingly (or maybe not to anyone with a good sense of geography), Eastern Colorado was the worst part to drive of this trip. Nebraska had its rough patches, but made up for it in having the most horribly awesome restaurant to stop at - Ole's Big Game Tavern.

Was it disturbing that the every wall was filled with stuffed animals that Ole had killed back in the day? Yes. Was it weird to have them watching me as I downed a burger that inevitably came from a feedlot in Nebraska? Extremely. But if there was ever one establishment to sum up rural Nebraska in one place, it is Ole's. Plus, I got to expand my novelty t-shirt collection.

Nebraska also had some seriously cool attractions, including our second stop on our road trip, Buffalo Bill's ranch in North Platte. It's right off the highway, so if you're ever driving through Nebraska, I definitely recommend it! It's super cheap and really cool, plus the tour is self-guided and I can't imagine it ever being crowded. It was a great opportunity to stretch our legs, learn some history, and enjoy the view.

Once we arrived in Omaha, my first impression was that it was 500% hillier than I was expecting. Suddenly, I remembered all the hill work I didn't do in Denver in preparation for this "easy, flat 5K" in Omaha. So much for that! The shareholder's meeting was the main event of the weekend, and we got up bright and early Saturday morning to ensure we got seats.

"Is there actually that much of a demand for good seats?" is what you are probably wondering. When people refer to this meeting as a "pilgrimage," they are in no way exaggerating. This is Mecca for finance geeks (I mean enthusiasts).

We got these seats after arriving an hour early! The meeting itself was actually quite interesting. I understood more than I thought I would, and particularly enjoyed Charlie Munger's commentary during the Q&A session. Billy described him as the "George Morris of the finance world" and I would have to say he's pretty spot on, although I'm now realizing the comparison is completely useless to any non-horse people. After the lunch break, I did have to take a break from the Q&A, so I left Billy to soak in the experience while I went to soak in the shopping.

Warren Buffett owns basically everything

We wrapped up Saturday evening with an incredible dinner at the Jackson Street Tavern, where I indulged in an Omaha steak (that's exactly what you're supposed to do before a race, right? Binge eat?). We were joined by one of Billy's friends from the Navy and his wife, which was a ton of fun. After a big day, we packed it in early to try to get some rest before the 5K. I tried to ignore the fact that my legs were already tired from the hills of Omaha.

The weather had been perfect all weekend, but naturally the morning of the race it was freezing. Both of us only brought shorts, so we sought refuge in the nearby Hilton with the hundreds of other people from out of town that did not pack the right clothing. Unfortunately, Warren did not join us for the race, but I still set a new personal record and didn't get my butt totally handed to me by the hills of Omaha (seriously, who knew Omaha was hilly?!).

We wrapped up our weekend with a quick trip to the Joslyn Art Museum downtown, a stalkerish stop at Warren Buffett's house, and a long drive back to Denver (punctuated by a stop at Dairy Queen and the state capital). Omaha exceeded all my expectations and was a really beautiful city to stay in. The only thing we missed was the zoo - I was THAT tired after the 5K.

Fountain at the Joslyn Art Museum 

Heyy Warren

State Capital in Lincoln

I know I've gone on long enough, but a few last things. While casually stalking Warren Buffett, a nerdy looking young guy was walking aimlessly around the neighborhood. Billy immediately pegged him as looking for Warren's house while I insisted he give him the benefit of the doubt and that many people can't really be stalking Warren Buffett. As soon as that thought left my mouth, the guy stopped in Warren's driveway to take a picture. 

As usual, I highly recommend all the places mentioned in this post! The art museum is huge and very impressive, plus Warren Buffett's daughter made a big donation so that everyone can go to the museum for free this year. If you're ever in Omaha and looking for somewhere to eat, go anywhere in Old Market. Actually, just walk around Old Market even if you're not hungry. It's a really cool neighborhood/downtown area. Omaha rocks.

And just in case you think we abandoned the whole plastic dinosaur thing, here's me and Byron outside of a Sinclair gas station with one of Byron's relatives.

Come Sail Away

Billy's trip to Florida was capped off by a visit to see his mom and stepdad on the west coast of Florida. During the winter, they live on a sailboat in Punta Gorda, which is outside of Fort Meyers on the Gulf of Mexico. Last time we visited was for Thanksgiving, and since there were more of us and Thanksgiving is mostly centered around eating mass quantities of food, they rented a house for all of us to stay in. It also wasn't ideal sailing weather then, so we ended up not actually going anywhere on the boat.

When Billy told me we were "going sailing," I thought he meant a quick day outing around the bay before coming back to the marina for the evening. I realized I was mistaken when Billy looked at me like I had six heads when I started packing running shoes. "Don't you want to run around the marina while we're there?" I asked him. "We're going sailing...as in we will be anchored out in the water overnight," Billy responded.

OH. That's even more exciting! I had never gone out on a big sailboat beyond the half hour trip around the Elk River I experienced a few times at summer camp, so I was pretty pumped to be going on a true nautical adventure. I captured a few of the highlights on video, including me driving the boat, attempting to blow the conch shell at sunset, and kayaking with manatees.

As you can see, the manatees were much friskier than usual. The most I was expecting to see was a nose come up for air, since that was all I saw last time I was in Florida. And because I had only seen their noses, I grossly underestimated their size. Apparently, it is manatee mating season, so they were in a baby-making frenzy which made for some great nature-watching.

Until they started bumping the kayaks. Usually they are quite mindful of whatever is in the water, staying away from boats and generally being very shy. Not surprisingly, all bets are off during mating season. I was extremely nervous the entire time that I was going to get bumped, and was staying out of their way as best they could. I thought I was floating in a safe zone, until I saw a little nose pop out of the water right next to me.

"Aww hi buddy," I said with delight. Second later, I was much less delighted as I was riding the back of an especially amorous manatee. According to eye-witness reports (aka Billy, his mom, and his stepdad) I was almost two feet out of the water at one point as the manatee breached out of the water and took me for a ride. Suffice it to say, it was the most terrifying five to ten seconds of my life. Unfortunately this was not caught on camera, although I'm told my face was absolutely priceless (I was internally panicking about capsizing and getting stuck in some sort of manatee lovefest that I wanted no part of).

After that, I decided I'd had enough of the manatee lagoon, so we paddled back out to the boat, not before catching some dolphins nearby as well! One of the coolest parts of this trip was all the wildlife we saw up close, and while the manatee experience took a turn for the worse at the end, my (not-so-secret) inner animal nerd was thrilled.

Apologies for my atrocious videographer skills. I'm already unsteady enough without getting overly excited about NATURE. 

This trip was the perfect mini-vacation and I can't thank Jan and Dave enough for hosting us! I don't think I can come up with anything that would have made our trip better...we had perfect weather and had a wonderful time kicking back with family (and a few tropical drinks and beers). I came back feeling totally refreshed, although sad that it meant Billy was leaving.

Now, on to the last two weeks of the horse show! I think I can, I think I can...

Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

Billy hopped on a plane to Florida last week after finishing up school in Denver. Between his grueling school schedule and my hours at WEF, we were more than ready for a break, and we wasted no time taking off.  We set out for the Florida Keys to see Leah, who works with Billy on Base Directory. She lives on Summerland Key, which is about 30 minutes north of Key West, and was kind enough to host us for a few days. Leah was amazing and we could not have asked for a more generous hostess - or a better tour guide!

Escaping Wellington for our fill of island life!

We picked up Leah in Summerland and went in to Key West for lunch and a quick driving tour of Key West. Spring break was not quite in full swing yet, but there were still plenty of frat bros and people of all ages alarmingly intoxicated for mid-day. From Leah's description of Key West's festivities, most of them involve partial to full nudity, which isn't even illegal in the "Party Zone" on Duvall Street. Fortunately, we didn't run into any of that and instead fruity drinks and yummy food at Sunset Pier before heading over to the Key West Legal Rum Distillery. 

I made the fatal error of forgetting my ID during Spring Break season, so I did not get to partake in the rum tasting. Leah and Billy told me it was delicious though haha. The distillery made their own white rum as well as key lime flavored rum, which apparently was amazing. As a sidenote, I didn't realized that the "key" in "key lime" came from the Florida Keys. Apparently they have their own lime species here! Obviously, we had to indulge in authentic key lime pie, which Leah whipped up for us our first night. I quickly bonded with her boyfriend over his philosophy of pies being split into six slices, max.

Tuesday was our only full day in Key West, so we packed as much in as possible. We started off with a running tour of some Key West landmarks, beginning with the Southernmost Point in the United States.

Next stop was the Key West Cemetery, which I didn't take pictures of because that would be creepy. It had a really cool, eclectic assortment of memorials - everything from very modest to incredibly ornate. Then we turned back for the car before stopping at Ernest Hemingway's house, which was gorgeous. We were running out of time before snorkeling, so we snapped a quick picture courtesy of a friendly tourist and were on our way!

Leah recommended Looe Key, a protected coral reef off the coast of Summerland Key that takes people out snorkeling around the reef. In retrospect, after getting to know Leah a bit, I should've known that this would be a more adventurous snorkeling trip than I originally imagined. I didn't realize we were going out into the ocean, but as the shoreline quickly shrank behind us, it became more clear what I had gotten myself into. Coupled with the fact that our boat captain told us we would see "anything and everything" (read: sharks) out in the water, by the time we stopped at our first point on the coral reef I was pretty nervous.

I hopped in the water with only a slight death grip on Billy's hand. After seeing hundreds of tropical fish immediately upon looking underwater, I was having the time of my life. We saw a ton of very cool fish, including a goliath grouper (think a 200 pound brown bumpy giant) AND a blacktip shark. It was a very small shark and was not swimming towards me, so it was all fun and not terrifying! The grouper actually started swimming at me, so I was legitimately more scared of that than the shark.

The water was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We also had some great company on the boat ride out (not including the idiot spring breaker, who in a fantastic stroke of justice got incredibly sea sick). 

I highly recommended the Looe Key Dive Center for anyone visiting the Keys! The staff is great and super friendly. 

Since Billy and I hadn't been together for Valentine's Day, we had a belated celebration that evening in downtown Key West. We avoided the crazier/more Spring Break-y sections of Duvall Street and opted for dinner at BlackFin Bistro, again on Leah's recommendation. Since I was in the Keys, I decided to expand my seafood palate and try out grouper. Our food and wine was amazing, and the tropical patio behind the restaurant was the perfect setting for dinner.

Great wine and a beautiful tropical setting.

Even better company!

We ended the evening at yet another recommendation of Leah's (she's three for three!), a dessert and drinks restaurant called Better Then Sex. If that doesn't sum up Key West's overall persona, I'm not sure what does! Their signature is chocolate rims on different drink pairings, as well as fantastic home-made desserts. Between the chocolate rimmed drinks and the peanut butter pie we tried to take down, we didn't end up finish everything in fear of going into a diabetic coma, but that's not to say we didn't try! 

The pie tasted like Reese's Peanut Butter Cup filling...and the crust was cookie dough!

We packed as much into two days as we could, so while our trip went by way too quickly, we had a blast. It was great to meet Leah in person after hearing about all the great work she does for Base Directory with Billy and Tony. Her boyfriend is in the Navy and is stationed at Key West, so unfortunately we didn't get to see him too much, but their house was the perfect tropical oasis for us to unwind at.

I've gone on long enough for now, so stay tuned for details of our nautical adventure with Billy's mom and stepdad! Billy didn't quite tell me we'd be anchored offshore, so that was an exciting surprise when we headed out early this Monday! Unfortunately, Billy headed home Wednesday, but I'll be back to Denver soon enough :)