Guest Post! Hot springs, camping and Utah.

So, this is Michelle here. I have a very good reason for writing this post. You see, Dima had written and very long, lovely post full of pictures and his silly jokes, but, unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in  cyberspace. He was very disappointed about it, because he worked so hard and re-writing was so daunting. So, he suggested that I write a guest post. Since he's been working so hard making sure you all are updated on our adventures here and doing such a great job, I thought I'd help him out :)

We had a great time in Denver. I made challah french toast with the leftover challah bread from the Shabbat dinner the night before, then our first stop was... an oil change for my car! But that's okay, Dima used the time to plan out our day and research some options for food and activities.

Our first (real) stop was Falling Rocks Tap House, which was fantastic. 92 beers on tap, enough said! I had a delicious sour red, and dima loved a pear cider aged in tequila barrels.

"No Crap on Tap"

Next, we wandered for a bit looking for lunch and found the big bear statue called "I Know What You Mean," and I found some fellow Bruins fans, turns out the guy also grew up in Milton MA! Small world.

We then met up with dima's friend Jaeda at Snarf's Sandwiches, which was super delicious, and I appreciated the choice of white or wheat bread :) Jaeda brought us to a couple different breweries, first The Denver Beer Company, then Wynkoop, and finally Breckenridge. It was nice wandering the city, even with the sporadic rain, and Jaeda was excellent company. I made a friend at Wynkoop because I liked his tie, and he bought us a round of "Grasshopp-ah," a delicious cider with hops and lemongrass. At Breckenridge we sampled flights of beer, and had some French Onion soup- yum! Anyone who knows me -at all- knows how much I love the stuff.

Dima and Jaeda at Denver Beer Co.

After all that beer, our next logical step was- Pizza! Ian's Pizza was really good, I'd never had Mac n' Cheese pizza so of course I had to try it. Then we went to 1Up which I LOVED. Dima was a good sport, he was tired but put up with me because I was getting really excited about all the old school videogames. I got to play Super Mario Bros, Paperboy, Donkey Kong, House of the Dead II, and of course, Buck Hunter. Oh, and South Park Pinball! That one's the best. It was so fun.

(Yes, I get to write more than Dima because I'm on a computer, and he's been writing the whole thing on his phone. So, sorry!)

The next day, we (I) decided we'd spend an extra day in Colorado instead of heading straight to Utah. We went to Red Rocks, which was fun to see, a bunch of people have played there from the Beatles to Bob Marley to Jimi Hendrix. On our way West we stopped in Evergreen, a small town that my mom said she remembered being really nice, which it was! Thanks, Mom! The best part was a woman named Joanne that I met in a glassworks gallery, she was making glass art in the corner as we walked in. She was really cool, and told us about a festival in Oregon that we need to visit in July. I bought a glass hair noodle for my hair. What's a hair noodle you ask? Ask away, I can't explain, but I can show you when I see you next.

Red Rocks Ampiteatre

The lovely town of Evergreen, CO

After driving through the Rockies, which was amazing, we finally stopped in Glenwood Springs CO, where we made camp at Ami's Campground and then went to visit the Hot Springs. These springs and bathouse have been around since 1888!!! You could tell, the pools were all made of slate, it was very awesome and relaxing. Back at the campsite we heated up some soup over our small propane stove and got to have a small fire and some wine. We sliced up some potatoes and folded them into foil packets and put them in the embers, which we covered with rocks so we could have them for breakfast :)

"I want to see mountains, Gandalf! Mountains!!"

In the morning we broke camp in record time, and it was on to Utah! We stopped first at Arches National Park, which was breathtakingly gorgeous. It was very fun, we hopped around rocks and took a lot of pictures. We got a room at The Lazy Lizard Hostel, and after all our adventuring, we were pretty tired, so we decided to just get lunch and hang around Moab instead of continuing onto the Canyonlands. I know, it would have been amazing, but we are going to be seeing some amazing things in the next few days, and we needed a rest! So that's where we are now, and this is where I leave you. Dima has made some chicken in the kitchen here at the hostel, and I have a nice cold cider next to me that needs drinking. So, goodbye friends! For now.