Denver

Our cutie little house for the weekend

This past weekend was a whirlwind. One I wouldn’t particularly like to live again. Am I being dramatic? Yes. But who isn’t? Let me give you some context. My friends and I decided to get this flight pass. This pass lets you fly an “unlimited” amount of times but there are some catches. Number 1, you can’t purchase the ticket until 24 hours before the flight departs, Number 2, you still have to pay taxes and fees which usually range from $30-$50, and you can only bring a personal item with you.

These restrictions leave little time to plan a trip. However, they sometimes allow early booking and that is what my friends and I have done. We booked this flight out to Denver around June. We are college students and we knew we wanted to travel but couldn’t afford everything that went along with it so we had to find a way around that. I found a business that enables you to watch someone’s pets/house while they’re gone in exchange for staying in their house for free. We ended up getting a sit which allowed us to have free accommodation.

I got into Denver Thursday night and stayed with my aunt while my friends didn’t get there until Friday. I hung out with my aunt and my nephew for the day until I headed over to the house.

I got there around 7 p.m. and had around 5 hours to burn until my friends would land. I decided to go shopping. I ubered to a mall, and then to a grocery store, and then back home. There were many fears overcome that night: being in a house in a strange place all alone, ubering by myself, and again being in a house all along at dark.

If money were no object I would be wearing this dress as I was writing this.

The bad part of the trip started on Friday morning when I woke up to find out I got a 55 on my first finance exam. I knew I couldn’t do anything about it until the next week and tried to push it to the back of my mind but the feeling of failure kept rising to the surface. I decided to busy myself until the thoughts slowly faded.

The second bad thing to happen was Saturday morning after my friends arrived. We ubered to the middle of downtown to first see the farmer’s market and then meander around, but when we showed up the farmer’s market was non-existent. There wasn’t anything on their Facebook group or website about it being canceled. Keep in mind our flight was at 9 am the next morning so we had around 24 hours to really do anything. We were bummed but slowly made our way to this International Fair. We stopped at a coffee shop and a boba spot on the way.

Gorgeous coffee shop but not the best coffee.

However, whenever we arrived at the park guess what, it was also non-existent. We walked all around that park wondering if we were in the wrong place or if it was in a specific part of the park we weren’t seeing. It took us about 25 minutes to find out that it really was canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

We went to Larimer Square where I got a new fanny pack and one of the best ice creams I have had in my life and then headed over to a Korean Festival.

Van Leeuwen Earl Grey Ice Cream

From there we decided to take the plunge and pay for an Uber to Red Rocks. Red Rocks Amphitheater was about an hour round trip there and back so we were hesitant to spend a lot of our money on it. We got there and they had closed 30 minutes before. Tough luck huh?

Luckily my friends are great and they weren’t too bummed, but for me, I was devastated. I felt like it was all my fault. I should have planned better, I should have not dragged them to the Korean Festival and we might have gotten there in enough time to see the amphitheater. But luckily there was still one thing left that we had looked forward to. In-n-out.

We ubered to in-n-out and then walked around that area for a while until we were finally ready to go home. We went home, watched Bridesmaids, and then flew back in the morning.

Although our time was short and disappointing I was glad it happened. I would have loved it if everything went our way but that doesn’t always happen. I had a great time with my friends and I get to see them again in a month which is very exciting. This trip was a growing experience for sure. Not having things my way was not great but it was great that they happened with this group of friends. They are very go-with-the-flow people and they are great examples of how if things don’t happen the way you want doesn’t mean that it is going to be a bad day.

See you soon,

Emma :)