Oh, well hello there. It has been a while hasn’t it? It is my goal, as I said earlier to finish this thing, so here goes. Sarah and I have been back in Denver for a little over a year now. It has been great to be back with family and friends.
Colorado is a pretty awesome place as well. It is impossible to sum up a year in a post, so I will just throw out a couple of high points.
Oh, look at the puppies!
We got back to Denver on November 1, 2013. We spent thirteen months on the road, visited six continents and thirty-two countries, and met countless new friends during our time away. Now we were home. We moved back into our condo in Uptown and I started work ten days later. Sarah’s parent’s got us a puppy and we named her Darnelle. She is the one on the right.
We enjoyed the first ski season back and did a lot of backcountry skiing with good friends. The season lasted well into the Spring and before too long, it was wedding season.
I think we went to six weddings with the first wedding being the wedding of our friends Colleen and Mick that we met in Peru.
With the parents of the bride, Mark and Anne.
We travelled to Dublin for the third time in about a year. Their wedding was gorgeous and it was great to see everyone again.
Before the wedding we rented a car and went to the North.
We had a scenic trip up to Port Rush and then walked to Giant’s Causeway and the town of Bushmills.
I would highly recommend the walk along the North Coast of Ireland. We stayed at a lovely little hostel called the Mill Rest Hostel in Bushmills. We went to the chipper in town and had a delicious post hiking fish and chip meal.
From Ireland, Sarah had to go home and go back to work while I went on to Frankfurt and then to Istanbul.
The trip to Frankfurt was short, but it was a nice twelve-hour layover to wander around the city. It was odd to be back on the Europe travel scene again and for it to be a short, two-week vacation instead of a long-term journey.
I took the train into the city and wandered around Frankfurt for the afternoon. I found a nice street market next to the train station and stopped for a wild boar sausage that was delicious.
After a day in Frankfurt, I hopped the train back to the airport and hung out in the Diner’s Club Lounge before the evening flight to Istanbul.
Istanbul. Where East meets West – or West meets East. Whatever suits your fancy.
My first night in Istanbul, I was able to use some points and stay at the Grand Hyatt in Istanbul.
It was incredibly nice after spending the night before in the Istanbul Airport and the night before that in the Dublin Airport. I made it through that marathon 36 hours in transit, but I quickly found out that I was not used to the epic travel days like I was during 2013.
I was very excited to be back in Istanbul. The first time I was in Istanbul was in 2004 on a post-college backpacking trip with my buddy Shannon.
We spent the summer going to weddings and hiking as much as we could. A highlight trip of the year was a trip to Southwest Colorado near Lake City.
Along with the Adams, we camped and climbed Uncompahgre Peak (14,309ft), Wetterhorn Peak (14,015ft), Redcloud Peak (14,034ft), and Sunshine Peak (14,001ft).
The blonde marmot!
The dog grew up and gained 55 pounds. We took her on a few hikes this summer including Quandary and Redcloud.
Summer turned to Fall and it was interesting to reflect on being home for a year.
We were lucky to have so many weddings and other gatherings where we were able to catch up with lots of family and friends.
We spent Christmas back in Kansas City and went skiing, skiing, skiing after that.
It’s good to be back.
Sitting at the Kids' Table 