Our first guests of this year were Melissa’s family. They arrived on January 5th and were able to stay with us for a week. We did a lot of things in Colorado that I had never done before.

Melissa’s parents and sister stayed in the house above us. Saahil and Josie (SaJo) were in India for a wedding, and they offered their guest bedrooms for Melissa’s family. This was extremely nice of them, and it made the logistics of their stay much more manageable. Melissa was able to take the whole week her family was here off from work. I could only take Thursday and Friday off, but this still allowed me to do a lot of exploring with them. My two favorite things that we did were visit Golden and Colorado Springs. These are two places I had yet to go to but were on my bucket list.

Thursday, we visited Golden. We spent a lot of time exploring all the shops on the main street. They had some neat shops, full of outdoor gear, local artisan products, a tea house, and a card/paper store. I didn’t buy anything on that visit, but I could probably do all my present shopping on that street. I will most certainly be returning. After shopping, we drove up to lookout mountain, where, fun fact, Buffalo Bill is buried. As well as housing a museum and gravesite of the famous cowboy, lookout mountain has the most stunning views of the surrounding area. I want to go back and do some of the hikes in that area on that mountain

Saturday, we visited Colorado Springs. Garden of the Gods was our first stop. At the park, we watched a video explaining how all the rock formations were created. The park itself was stunning. I think I could go back a million times and never get bored. After Garden of the Gods, we visited Old Colorado City and the Cliff Dwellers museum in Manitou Springs. We ate lunch in Old Colorado City at a little coffee shop called Jives. This place is what I imagine my future bakery to look like. It had a little stage for music or open mike nights, and the decor was eclectic but well-loved. After eating, we visited many more shops before heading home.

I enjoyed the adventures we went on with our first guests of the year, and I am excited for the many other guests we have lined up for the rest of the year!