A Magical Birthday

Hello all!

Happy October! We have officially survived one whole month away from the East Coast- we are handling it like champs. For Peter’s birthday, we got to spend five glorious days with our dearest friends, Kyle and Aleece!

We flew to LA last Wednesday and began our adventure with me seeing the Pacific Ocean for the very first time. Bucket List item checked off. Then, we went to the Dodgers game to enjoy front row seats behind the dugout, courtesy of Kyle and his work. I do enjoy a good baseball game, solely because the food is delicious. This adventure did not disappoint… we got to eat a catered meal of cheese steaks, pasta, salad bar, AND A DESSERT BAR. We also got free peanuts, nachos, and soft pretzels while in the stands. The food was the best part. J

On Thursday (Peter’s Birthday!), we woke up and went to the beach in Santa Monica. Peter tried surfing for the first time with Kyle while I ran along the beach. Then, the four of us began our road trip to Yosemite! Peter and Kyle’s 10 year dream of visiting Yo-Se-Mite came to fruition. We drove for about 5 hours before arriving at our cabin for the weekend in June Lake. June Lake is about 1.5 hours from Yosemite. It is a beautiful town full of lakes and mountain peaks. We went grocery shopping and then had pizza on the deck that night, telling stories of old times.

On Friday, we headed to Yosemite! We did some light hiking and took beautiful photos in the sunshine. I did not realize Yosemite is such a humongous National Park… 1,169 square miles to be exact. We shared our lunch with a squirrel, swam in a small river, and even had a drink on the lawn of the Ahwahnee Hotel. We took our time wandering back and stopped for dinner at the Mobil Gas Station. Aleece described this glorious restaurant at the gas station and it led up to its reputation! After we devoured some chili, meatloaf, carnitas tacos, and a burger (can you guess which one of us ate what?) we drove back and played a wicked game of Harry Potter Clue! Aleece and I made the boys a chocolate pudding birthday cake with Hershey’s icing and they blew out their candles together… celebrating a friendship of 30 years. J

Saturday was a joyously relaxing day spent on the lake, taking naps, dinner at the Tiger Bar, drinks at the June Lake Brewing Company, and a night time stroll to see the stars. 

We got up Sunday and drove back to LA- having just enough time to eat DELICIOUS burgers at Plan Check (Kyle and Aleece’s go-to place), see the Santa Monica Pier and enjoy some Rita’s together before Petey and I flew home.

We are so thankful for the time we got to spend with Kyle and Aleece last weekend- friends are certainly those extra family members we choose for ourselves and I am so glad I have been witness to the love that Peter and Kyle share. I am also so thankful for Aleece’s friendship and her love of adventure, board games, and good food! Cheers to many more years of journeys together!

Now, Peter is 30! We have spent 14 of his birthdays together. I couldn’t ask for a more amazing partner in this constant change we call life. I love you Bub!

Happy Weekend to you all!

Love,

Katie and Peter

This week in Colorado…

We accomplished two quintessential Colorado adventures about a week ago. On Wednesday, Petey surprised me with tickets to see the Counting Crows at Red Rocks. For background on this glorious venue, please see below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rocks_Amphitheatre

When we arrived at Red Rocks, we had to walk up approximately one bazillion stairs to reach our seats. In the high altitude, it was quite a work out! Vendors passed out free peanut bars and sweet potato chips. The seats there are awesome because they are long benches with numbers etched on them. It is true stadium seating like at a high school football game. All of the seats look down on to the stage and you are wedged between two giant red rocks that provide delightful acoustics. 

The opening acts for the Crows were a group called Hollis Brown and Citizen Cope. Both were great.

The Counting Crows are a delight always. Listening to them and watching the sun set over the entire skyline of Denver made for a beautiful night. I can’t wait to go back next season for another show.

A few days later, we decided to venture up Mount Evans. Mount Evans is a mountain peak over 14,000 feet and the Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America. We picked up sandwiches on the way and began the ascent. This road is quite dicey as it weaves up the mountain. There are virtually no guardrails. It is quite terrifying. At the top though, I saw a posse of mountain goats. It was so awesome! We also took in the sunset… this sunset was quite possibly the most beautiful I have ever seen. There were so many colors above the mountain peaks.

Both of these adventures live up to the reputation that precedes them! I highly recommend both to any who come here.

Love,

Katie and Peter

The First Mountain Adventure Weekend

Hello Friends,

This past weekend was a glorious introduction into relaxation and everything Colorado has to offer. I suffered some minor depression this past weekend because it was the Greek Festival back home and all I wanted to do was eat a chicken souvlaki pita with some tiropita. So… Petey made big plans.

On Friday afternoon, we began by visiting the DENVER CAT COMPANY! See website below:

http://www.denvercatco.com/

This amazing gem of a café has eight cats available to play with for an unlimited amount of time. They provide a basket full of cat toys to lure the little kitties over and they are ADORABLE! I bought this baller shirt there and I really feel like opening a cat café is my true calling. What else is there?

After that special visit, we went to a Greek restaurant called Yanni’s so I could participate in the Greek Festivial even across the country. The tiropita was ON POINT… hot out of the oven. The chicken souvlaki was delightful as well with true, homemade tzatziki sauce and a Greek salad with homemade dressing. Mmmmmmm. We ended Friday evening by going to a hole-in-the-wall bar called Grandma’s Kitchen. They have about a billion board games available and they served Petey’s brew in a cartoon glass. Cool.

Saturday morning, we arose at the crack of dawn so we could drive out to the plains and see the Hot Air Balloon Festival! It was awesome! The balloons came so close to the hill we sat on, that we could have talked to the Aeronaut. Pictures are below.

We then drove to a little diner in Bennett, famous for massive breakfast burritos and homemade sausage gravy. After a delicious breakfast, we returned home to clean up some. Later in the afternoon, we set out for Georgetown, a little mountain town. The town had a small main street with awesome views of the Rockies. There were two bakeries, A TEA ROOM, a homemade chocolate shop, several little bars, and lots of local artwork. There is also a huge lake to go fishing at. This is a great town, worth the stop.

On Sunday morning, we tried out a church. Most of the churches out here are HUGE- congregations of over 1,000 members! I loved the music. We will continue church shopping so we can make the best decision for us. Then, we decided to drive the Peak to Peak National Scenic Byway. This drive is glorious – we passed the hotel that prompted Steven King to write The Shining.  The hotel is actually named the Stanley Hotel and it is located in Estes Park. We drove the whole Byway Sunday afternoon in the sunshine. We ended the weekend by grilling kabobs and fresh corn on the cob at the grill by our pool. 

This next weekend, we have plans to see Vail- the leaves are supposed to be changing and it is Oktoberfest. I will keep you posted. :)

Love,

Katie and Peter

Welcome to the Wild, Wild West.

Greetings from Colorado!

As I sit here on our couch in our new apartment in Colorado, I am reflecting on the whirlwind these past few months have been. After months of preparation and help from our beloved family and friends, our house in Maryland is ready to rent and we made the trek across the beautiful United States with two ANGRY kitties only to arrive in the glorious (and different) state of Colorado.

We left early in the morning on Sunday, August 23^rd, in order to make good time but also because one cat wouldn’t stop patrolling the hotel room and crying out that he saw something (himself) in the mirrors. We watched the sun come up in Western Maryland that morning and I spent time thinking about the summers Petey and I have shared at Rocky Gap and now in the gem that is Berkeley Springs. Maryland is the ultimate state and I won’t forget that even if I take this extended vacation for awhile… J

We made our first stop in Morgantown only to find out one kitty threw up all over himself while the other kitty had a … poopsplosion in his crate. After a particularly hysterical low point, we ate breakfast and cleaned the cats up. I have yet to stop snickering about this situation even almost two weeks later… we drove a total of eight hours on day 1 and made it to our ambitious goal of Indianapolis by evening! The cats were furious by the end of day 1 and Sanka proceeded to hide under the only chair in the hotel room. Petey and I had dinner at Olive Garden and then passed out in the hotel at 7 pm. We awoke thankful that Sanka did not feel the need to patrol that particular hotel room (this could be due to the fact that we used blankets to cover all the mirrors).

On Day 2, we drove another eight hours and made it to Kansas City, MO. The cats cried the entire 8 hours… Petey eventually had to just put headphones in to drown them out. We stayed next to the Kansas City Royals stadium- and guess who was in town that night when we were? THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES! I was so happy that MD was following me. We had dinner at a great college dive bar called Minksy’s and then went to sleep early again.

On Day 3, we had a short journey of about 4 hours, stopping in a teeny, tiny town called WaKeeny, Kansas- population 1,000 people. You can drive the entire town in literally 5 minutes. It was awesome! We ate dinner at a Pizza Hut- one of about 4 restaurants open in the town and went swimming in the hotel pool. The next morning, we ate at a glorious little restaurant called Two Blondes Bakery. We had cinnamon roll French toast, hashbrowns, and bacon with the locals and talked to the ladies who owned the restaurant. We packed up the kitties then and drove the 4 hours in to Colorado with howling meows the entire end of the journey.

After 3 more nights in a hotel, we got our apartment keys and the awesome moving team unloaded all of our furniture and boxes. And here we are.

I am consumed with thankfulness and gratitude for our families and those we are so blessed to call our friends. While saying “See you later” to many of you in the past few weeks was not an easy task, I love you all and think about you every day. Start planning your trips out west because we have a guest room and bathroom that are both #killinit and ready for you.

Already, Petey and I are enjoying spending more time together than we have ever had. His commute is 15 minutes to work and he gets out earlier than back home. We have gone to the pool in our apartment community (BIG DEAL because we never went to the pool the entire time we lived in our house in MD) and taken evening drives all over Colorado to soak in the magnificent sunsets. Each weekend, we have big plans to head to the mountains and learn how to relax- a skill that both of us suck tremendously at.

Happy September to you and yours! J

Love,

The Wileys out West