Morning!! It’s a beautiful Sunday here in Louisiana! It’s 90 degrees outside, but the wind is blowing and the humidity is down so its been a great day so far. I woke up around 7am and took the motorcycle for a cruise this morning. It’s been about 4 weeks since I’ve actually ridden it (the heats been unbearable!). I’ve cranked it up a few times to let it run, but I haven’t had much time to do more than that with all the running around I’ve been doing lately. So, after 4 weeks it felt amazing to hop on and enjoy the nice weather.
Right now it’s a little past 12 and at this very moment I’m at my house relaxing and enjoying the beauty of being home with nothing to do on a Sunday! Its GLORIOUS! haha! It’s been so long since I’ve been home and able to just relax and be. I feel like I’m constantly doing! GoGoGo! But not today! It’s a Rachel just BE Day!
With some of my free time I thought it would be nice to catch up on filling you in on my recent Colorado trip. It’s been exactly a week since I’ve returned home so I need to get the experience out of my head before I forget too many details… But, really, how could I forget this?!
IMPOSSIBLE!
This year for my 26th birthday I was surprised with plane tickets to take a trip to Fort Collins, CO to go visit my brother, Daniel, and his girlfriend, Paula, and check out their new home. Paula is attending grad school at the college in town so both her and Daniel moved there about 2 months back. I had always wanted to visit Colorado, so I was super stoked about my birthday trip! Daniel A. was sweet enough to set up everything with my work to allow me to take the trip on such short notice, as he only gave me a 2 week heads up! What a nice birthday gift, eh?! Round trip to AmazingThisTownWasMadeJustForRachel Town! 
We had tickets to head out of New Orleans for a 7:30am flight. The day before we had the Red Dress Run shenanigans in New Orleans and rather than taking the trip back home, Daniel’s brother, Ryan, was nice enough to let us stay at his place and drop us off at the airport the following morning.
Flight took off at 7:40am and it was a 2 hour and 45 minute flight. We had fun! It was the first time Daniel and I had ever taken a plane together (or any vacation at all, really!) so it was nice to just have the two of us there. Usually on a plane I don’t have someone sitting next to me that doesn’t mind that I’m sitting Indian-style in my seat and bumping knees and elbows every few moments, so I enjoyed the experiience. 
We arrived in Denver in no time at all (or so it seemed). Paula and Daniel were there waiting for us and the moment we stepped of the plane we could feel the “amazing” that is CO weather! Fresh, crisp, clean, cool air! Aaaaaaaamazing!
This picture to the left is the first photo I took of my new found love. Colorado! Oh how I’ve come to adore you in such short time… ::sigh::
This photo to the right is of one of the many “Kum & Go” gas stations that seem to be all over the state! Daniel and Paula made sure to point it out to us for good for a giggle. 
When we finally arrived in Fort Collins the 4 of us were starving!!! Daniel and Paula were so awesome, they brought us to this (VERY!) vegan friendly restaurant a few blocks from their home, called Rainbow. Everything on the menu was either healthy, organic, vegetarian, or easily made vegetarian, with many vegan options as well! I was so impressed! 1st experience in Fort Collins and I was already falling in love.
The building was actually an older home redone as a cozy little café type restaurant. There were many open windows allowing in the fresh air and sunshine. Hey! Did you kinwo that most homes in Colorado don’t have central air conditioning?! Yep! No need!! you can just keep the windows open for fresh air flow and the weather out side never gets hot enough were its uncomfortable! I’ll bet you the people here benefit mentally and physically because of this! Nothing like breathing in fresh air! Aaaaaahhh! Love it!
I wound up ordering a tofu and veggie scramble with the potato wedge hash browns. I’m not sure what they did but that tofu was really good! I have attempted a few times before to do a tofu scramble but I could never get mine to come out anywhere near as good as theirs did. The seasoning on the tofu was super flavorful. I really enjoyed it.
We had a lot of fun here and we had the best hosts!! hehe! I love my family (Paula included!)!
After getting some food in our tummies we drove a few blocks down to the apartment. Daniel and Paula’s place is in the perfect location!! Literally 2 blocks from the college, shops, grocery stores, and down town!! 
The first day was a lot of fun, but we wound up crashing pretty early (from what I remember). I don’t think we did much more on this first day, besides walking the streets a bit and seeing many many adorable little houses every where! I’ll show you how lovely and cute everything is there in my next post. I took tons of photos!!
So, yes! We crashed early so we could have a fresh start the next day!
See you tomorrow for part 2! Hope you come back, because that’s when it starts getting good! Beautiful pictures to come!
Happy Sunday, Everyone!
And look at the bread pudding!! Best I’ve ever had! 
I had completely forgotten that the same day we arrived in CO was the same day that the Bohemian Festival was happening and being that it was Sunday, it was the last chance to check it out. It was only a couple blocks away from the apartment and completely free to the public, so the 4 of us took a stroll to check out the goods. Here are some lovely shots of the happenings from later that first day. 
