Boulder, Colorado Travel Diary: Day One

What is up my dudes, it is yo girl emilia and I am writing a travel diary for y'all. While everyone is inside during this coronavirus pandemic, I wanted to post some blog posts so you can read and be entertained instead of being on Instagram for 47 hours. In case you are wondering about my cousin, she is safe at home now after her school decided to go online. I will leave another note at the end, but please enjoy this light-hearted blog post!

As someone who has been single their whole life, I thought what better way to spend Valentine's Day weekend with family. My older cousin is currently attending college in Colorado and I am visiting her for the weekend. The way that my school schedule looks like is that I have Monday, President's Day, off, so I get 3 full days in Colorado!

Saturday

My flight to Denver was on early Saturday morning, and I was groovin through Hobby Airport because I wasn't checking in any bags and security was pretty empty. I was traveling in my hiking/winter boots because they would've taken a bunch of room in my suitcase. I thought that putting on my shoes would be the only "issue" when going through security. Nope. I am standing at the conveyor belt that comes out of the x-ray machine waiting for my things when I notice that the TSA officer was analyzing something that maybe looked like my backpack.

"Ma'am is this your backpack?" A Southern voice turns to ask me.
"Yes."
"Is there some kind of tablet in here?" He asks with a furrowed eyebrow while starting to open my bag.
I was confused. I had taken out my laptop, there was no food, no water until I realized what it was.
"Oh! It's my calculator!" I reply to the man, and I could've sworn I got a weird look from a random guy standing next to me.
Listen, I am a busy woman. In the day I might be exploring mountain towns, but at night I am most definitely doing my AP Chemistry homework, do not judge my proficiency!
Anyways, I was surprised that my calculator caused a furrowed eyebrow, but the TSA agent just let it run through again. All good. I walked to my gate, looked around, realized that there was a Starbucks nearby and walked over to go get some coffee. Mmhm energy bean juice.

Made it onto the plane in the very far back with a window seat. My plane wasn't a full flight so there was no one sitting right next to me, whoopie! I don't necessarily have a fear of plane/flying. I think I can distract myself enough and/or sleep to not be bored or uncomfortable. My flight was a little bumpy at some parts, but it really made up for it when I saw the SNOW! ON THE GROUND, IN THE MOUNTAINS!!! AHHHH!!! I was just reading my AP US history textbook and I had to do a double-take to make sure that there was actual snow outside. It was a very wholesome feeling coming from someone who has lived in Texas and Arizona her whole life.

Anyways, I made it into Denver with a prime temperature of 18 degrees Fahrenheit, fun! My cousin came to the airport on a bus with the great public transportation they have in Denver/Boulder. We gave each other a big hug and took the next bus back to Boulder. It was a smooth ride where we caught up after not seeing each other for a year and I looked out at nature outside. Every time that I was on the bus, I saw these gophers/prairie dogs running around the snowy hills, which was so cute. I will admit, I dozed off a bit on the bus because I didn't get any sleep on the plane.

We made it to Boulder and we walked my suitcase to my cousin's dorm. The weather was brisk and sunny, and it was nice to walk around. Granted, I am layered with long sleeve shirts and a jacket, so take that with what you can. This was my second time staying in a college dorm and it was really interesting to see because I will be heading into college in about a year. I changed into new clothes because I didn't want to walk around in my sweaty, airport clothes and we started walking to the bus stop that would take us to downtown Boulder. We stopped at the street intersection, but then we noticed that our bus arrived early! It was waiting at the bus top and when the walking signal came on, we RAN! Thankfully, we made it and went vroom vroom to downtown Boulder.

Pearl Street in Downtown is really similar to Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica where a part of the street is paved to not allow cars. It is filled with restaurants, shops, and other little bookstores for you to walk around and admire the snow and mountains. My cousin and I walked into some shops, I picked up some souvenirs for my family, we looked at some jewelry in this hippie shop. Funny story: a couple of summers ago, my cousin and I were in Michigan and there was a sale section in this cool shop that had nice smelling incense sticks for really cheap prices. This shop had some of them and even the incense cones that have heavy smoke that look like thick liquid when flowing.

My cousin showed me her favorite bookstore/cafe that she likes to go to when she studies and we had some afternoon coffee there. It is called Trident and it is the oldest bookstore in downtown Boulder! They also this really yummy bagel that I ate. After talking and catching up there, one of my cousin's friends told her about this cookie shop that was really yummy and nearby where we were. We took a bus and went to the shop, called Crumbl Cookies. Let me tell you, this place was amazing. They have 4 cookies available every week to choose from and they are these rich, pretty decent sized cookies. We got a pack of the 4 and then head off for some more walking around and talking.

It was a Saturday afternoon and we were planning on going to Denver on Sunday, so we decided to go to evening mass for it not to be a worry when coming back from Denver. We went to mass and had a whole pew to ourselves, with our box of cookies being guarded carefully. Interestingly enough, everyone was asking about it. They saw the pale pink box and were interested in what it was, from people at church to the bus drivers.

It was a cold night when we were finished with mass and we took the bus back to the dorm to warm up and eat dinner. Before we went inside, we picked up some pizza, half cheese, and half supreme (all-out meat and veggies, my favorite). We made it back to the dorm, exhausted, and just ate in silence because we were so hungry.

Now, the one thing that I am pretty proud of myself with this day is that I conquered my weird fear about showering in a communal bathroom! Whoop whoop! Yes, there was no one in there when I went because a lot of people were out on the town on a Saturday night, BUT! I am still quite impressed with how it went. Should I be surprised about it? No, I am a swimmer and have been showering in a locker room for the past 3 years, but when American media (like movies and tv shows) make it look awkward and kinda dreadful, I am glad that I managed to do it.

Because I was used to a time zone that was an hour ahead and I had a long day of walking, I passed out pretty quickly. Like around 8pm-9pm I was out like a light. My cousin had some studying to do, but she was pretty tired too. So that was day one! In my next post, I will talk about going to downtown Denver and the card games we played nonstop.

On a more serious note, I would like to encourage all of my fellow Americans, and honestly everyone, to please stay at home and not go out. Even if you are young and healthy, you can risk spreading COVID-19 to someone who cannot fight it without realizing it. I understand that being cooped up at home and getting bored is annoying and frustrating, but it is necessary to help those who are at risk. One of my best friends in the whole world is immunocompromised, so I am trying to do as much as I can by practicing social distancing and telling everyone to follow it as well. I will be posting more blog posts within the next couple of days and weeks to try to not only entertain myself but also y'all.

stay safe, wash your hands, and have a cup of tea,
yo girl emilia