What I Did On My End of Summer Vacation

Saturday: Spent seven hours in the car

Sunday: Went grocery shopping

Monday: Called into an all-hands at my full time job

Tuesday: Did half an hour of work for a freelance client

Wednesday: Got my oil changed

Thursday: Groomed the dog

Friday: Woke up to a 6:30 AM alarm

Saturday: Cleaned up the house

Sunday: Got stuck in a traffic jam (until I was crafty enough to find a way around it because I carry an atlas in my car since I often travel places where there is no cell service, as in this case)

Sounds terrible? Actually, it was amazing. I spent a week in a gorgeous rental home in southwestern Colorado with five friends. This was my fifth time visiting the pleasant city of Durango, which meant that I was taking a vacation in a place I didn’t feel compelled to do anything and was free to do absolutely everything. So those things that I listed above, well, those were the only chore-like things in my whole day. The rest of every day I slept, ate, drank, read, wrote, sunbathed, and conversed. Oh, and when I wasn’t being extravagantly lazy, I did all the following awesome things too!

Saturday: Sat by a campfire on BLM land with only my dog and the trees for company and wrote in my new journal

Sunday: Took a wild drive on the Alpine Loop, visited Animas Forks ghost town, and hiked a 14er (read more on that here)

Monday: Went for a final training trail run and celebrated a good friend’s birthday with an incredible meal cooked by one of our other friends and the most lavish cupcakes I’ve ever seen

Tuesday: Explored the wilds of Angel Peak Scenic Area, New Mexico and enjoyed the cocktails at Three Rivers Distillery in Farmington

Wednesday: Hiked Animas City Mountain and went out for a nice dinner in Durango

Thursday: Went on a steep hike with the whole crew along the dry Goulding Creek to a not-exactly-abandoned-but-super-creepy cabin and had another wonderful meal cooked by our resident not-a-professional-chef-but-easily-could-be friend

Friday: Ate the most ridiculously amazing breakfast burrito and explored the Colorado Trail along Molas Pass with a few of the girls

Saturday: Ran another crazy trail race (more on that here) and took off from Durango with one of my friends for a night of high-altitude camping at the most bootleg campsite I’ve ever created

Sunday: Explored the town of Bonanza and the abandoned mines in the surrounding Rio Grande National Forest, and did some off-roading that was even rowdier than what I did on the Alpine Loop

It was all so good. I love this state!