When I was a little girl, my mom and I would go on adventures together. She didn’t have a lot of money, or a lot of time off work but we’d go find adventures close by and have wonderful time. When I was little, we lived in California. She would get us in the car and we would just drive. We would drive through the hills up to Wine Country or down the coast to the beach and boardwalks. Some of my fondest memories are just driving around with her, getting lost, and finding a new adventure. We would go to Napa Valley and we would go through the beautiful green hills. We would go down the back roads and see the grape trees all lined up in neat rows. There would be hardly any other cars out there where we were. It was just me and my mom, adventuring together. She would take us down south a ways to go to the beach. I remember on the boardwalk, a giant mural of Poseidon beside a carousel with a ring toss. When I was little, I was too scared to grab a ring from the dispenser, no matter how much my mom tried to get me to do it. We had so much fun together, her and I. When my mom and dad got married, we continued to have adventures together. We would go up to San Francisco to Pier 39 and see the seals and have lunch. We went camping several times every single summer that we lived in California. When we moved out here to Colorado, the fun did not stop. It was a new state and there were many new places to get lost to find. I remember my mom and I going to the Denver Zoo for the first time. We got utterly lost, but we persevered and found it and had a great time. It became I kind of zoo trip tradition to get lost on the way. My mom was never afraid of getting lost and finding a new way to get to a place. Adventures were a big part of my life growing up, and we had them all close to home. Day adventures, if you will.
Now that I am grown, I integrate the adventure life into my adult life as much as I can. The lack of time off work and money will never stop me from having a day adventure. Jarrett and I love to go to new places here in Colorado. Just recently, we went to Lyons, CO and ate at Oskar Blues and walked around town for a bit. It is such a great little mountain town. It is definitely a place that once found, we will keep returning to. We like to take a day off that we have together and just go somewhere. We like to go to Estes Park sometimes, Boulder sometimes, and of course we go camping in the Summer. Adventures give life meaning to me. To see new places and faces, eat new food, discover interesting landmarks, it’s all a big part of my life and always has been.
Jarrett and I also love to travel. I more than him to be quite honest. However, he’s always up for an adventure. Together we have a lot of fun traveling and seeing new sights. We love to travel back to California every year or so. We went back to Santa Cruz, up to Sacramento, all the way up to Covelo where Jarrett’s family is from. We went to Laguna Beach and got to see a Woody Festival while we were there! That was a lot of fun! We went down to Roswell, New Mexico to visit my mom before she moved back to Colorado. She showed us her “old stompin’ grounds” as she said. She brought us out to the bottomless lakes where we played in one of the lakes and she showed us one in particular called the “devil’s inkwell” She told us how the bottomless lakes were connected by underground rivers. It was a lot of fun. Jarrett was amazed by all the nothingness down there in the desert.
We don’t have to go far to find adventure. Sometimes we go as far as Loveland. We created our own adventure while I was taking photos of a friend downtown and at the park area by the library there. We made an adventure out of going to Centerra in Loveland, the Chapungu Sculpture Park. We go to music festivals, particularly Arise which is located in Loveland, CO as well. We go to concerts at Red Rocks, and walk around downtown Ft. Collins.
Adventure is out there for those who seek it. You don’t have to travel far to find it either! Just open your eyes and your heart and there it is.