Travel: A Trip to Denver

30 mars 20214 min de lecture

During our ski break in February in France, my family and I took a trip to visit our cousins in Denver, Colorado. We drove to the Frankfurt airport about 2 hours away from Strasbourg and then took a direct flight into Denver from there. Prior to our trip, we had been COVID tested once and had to have all the tests ready to present at the gate. The flight was pretty straightforward-and empty! We flew Lufthansa and had lots of space to stretch out and relax. We landed in the afternoon in Denver and my brother and I were so excited to finally be back in the U.S. after almost two years! We got settled in at our Airbnb and immediately went over to see our cousins and grandparents (with masks on). It was amazing to see them all again after so long and we stayed for dinner and caught up with everyone.

The first few days were full of shopping, which I’m really not complaining about. We went to the beautiful Target (the land where dreams are made) twice and did some clothes shopping at American Eagle as well. My cousin and I love to bake together so we made lemonade and cherry cookies. A lot of our time was spent around the house, simply enjoying the time we had to be with our cousins and grandparents.

Around the fourth day of our arrival, we were tested again to see if we could take our masks off around our family. The testing in America compared to France is so different! In France, they stick it so much farther up your nose and the pain is ten times worse. My brother and I were delighted to find out that it barely even hurts in the U.S. We all tested negative and it was nice to finally be able to be a bit more free around our family.

Around the house there were many things to do with my cousins. The older one has a hoverboard, so I learned how to do that, and they also enjoyed going on the trampoline in the snow, which was pretty hilarious until a snow fight broke out. Since they live in Colorado and have a huge backyard, we spotted several deer throughout our visit.

We also began to slowly cross things off our list. These included simple things, like getting a root beer float from A&W (which was soooo delicious!) and raiding the candy aisle at Target for anything and everything we can’t get in France (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Heath Bars, etc.). We had so much fun! One night we even bought a BeanBoozled set and had a hilarious time eating the horrible tasting jelly beans (although we all agreed that the toothpaste ones kind of tasted good).

All week, my cousins did have school, so I was able to spend some time with my grandparents as well. My grandma and I baked her famous recipe for toffee-chocolate candy bark (it was delicious!) and I helped my grandpa with some handyman jobs around the house. We watched lots of cooking shows like Chopped and the Kids Baking Championship and played too many rounds of Three Thirteen (a card game.). In the middle of the week, my cousin’s blue hair dye arrived in the mail and we decided it would be a fun, spur of the moment cousin activity, so we all dyed our hair blue! I did my cousin’s, she did the tips of mine, and we both screwed up my poor brother’s forehead!

The next day we geared up to go sledding at a hill near their house that was insanely steep. We spent a good two hours screaming and sliding down and making snowballs. When we got back to the house, we dyed our hair again to make sure the color was really set in. My cousin and I had a girl’s night and did some face masks while painting our nails, too. The next day, we met up with them for dinner at my Dad’s old favorite restaurant, Brother’s Barbeque. We also got Target slushies at some point, which reminded me of when we used to get them after school in California.

One of our last days, my cousins took the day off school and we all drove up into the mountains to go tubing! We suited up in our ski gear, rode a gondola, and made our way up to the designated slopes. My cousin and I shared a double tube and the guys were spinning us before they sent us down. We had a blast and our time was over before we knew it!

Soon, my brother and I found ourselves on our last day (after getting tested on the way back from the tubing for the plane ride). We woke up early after having said our goodbyes the night before and did the Castle Rock hike, a famous landmark in Castle Rock. On the way back, we crossed the last thing off of my brother and I’s list: DONUTS! They were so delicious and are honestly one of the foods I miss most from the States. They just can’t seem to do a good donut here. The plane ride back went smoothly as well.

That was pretty much it for our trip-the main thing was to spend time with family, even if it meant sticking around the house all day. I'll share some more photos below with some captions in case anyone's interested!