Christmas trip planning

After I got home from Tax Forum in Denver and we were finally able to take a little breather, we decided it was time to get serious about planning our Christmas trip. Obviously! ;)

After quite a bit of thought we decided on spending the time before and Christmas itself in Amsterdam (they don't celebrate like many places do so a lot of locations will still be open on the holiday which is a plus when traveling!) and New Year's Eve in London! We'll be stopping in Belgium and road-tripping around England during that time, too. 

We have a couple of small trips coming up before this one, but I'm always excited to get to Europe.

Happy Halloween!

I'm really behind on blogs. I have some of them formatted and just need to write them, but this whole working and traveling thing has been getting in the way of my blogging recently. It has not, however, slowed down my documenting how cute my dog is. Enjoy! ;)

Taking a little snooze

Fresh haircut

Lunchtime ballgames!

Puppysitting Ella

Adorable.

Tummy rubs!

Cute.

Acting as a nurse on a sick day

Checking the weather for a possible game of ball

Visiting a pumpkin patch

Enjoying some Fall foliage 

Wishing you a Happy Halloween!

Denver

I needed to be in Denver for a tax conference starting on a Sunday so we flew out on Friday morning to enjoy some time in one of our favorite cities before my work week began. Our flights was super early so we landed in Denver at breakfast time there. This meant a green chili breakfast burrito!

Breakfast!

From there we headed for the foothills to get a good hike in. The All Trails app in Denver is just insane with places to hike everywhere so you really cannot go wrong! We unseasonably warm weather and had just an ideal day for hiking. We ended up at Mt. Galbraith near Golden, Colorado.

Look! The sun!

I love the trees

Soaking in the sun

Views.

Petefish.

Why'd we move?!

I love an open trail

Each time we come to Denver I wonder why we ever left! We love being able to head out for a quick, gorgeous hike within an hour's drive. Siiiigh.

Luckily our schedules aligned with our dear friend Meg (whom I failed to snap a photo of somehow) at my favorite Chinese restaurant on the planet: Cherry Village Asian Grill.

CHERRY VILLAGE AWAITS

THE BEST WONTON SOUP ON THE PLANET.

Catching up with Meg was extra fun. Once dinner was over we kind of crashed since it was pretty late our time and we'd flown across the country, hiked and overeaten Chinese food. We stayed in our favorite Hyatt in our old neighborhood of the Denver Tech Center and it was as nice as ever. The weekend deals at business hotels are not to be missed. It was a good day!

The next morning we woke up to news that our home's appraisal was WAY off and the deal was all but dead. Not exactly ideal. Once Jackson recovered from that news, we headed out to try to salvage the day. We ended up at the Bluffs right in town for a walk and ran into two white miniature schnauzers. If you don't believe in fate you should now. They were lovely and just the brightness we needed added to a bummer of a day!

We met two white schnauzers!

Views for days

Taking a break

We hiked and hiked then went shopping for a bit. Since I was out for work we had to switch hotels to the conference hotel which was in downtown Denver. This meant we no longer needed a rental car so Jackson returned it to the airport and rode the train back to meet me at Cherry Creek (a fancy shopping district). This meant I had time to hit DryBar for a blowout (my favorite) and do additional shopping before meeting Jackson for dinner at another of our favorite haunts.

Cherry Cricket!

Sunday morning brought some SNOW to Denver. In mid-October. Ugh! Ok, that is why we moved! So we stayed close to the hotel for breakfast and then my conference began. Jackson stayed that evening and caught a flight back on Monday morning as he needed to work and I was pretty tied up in conference events. The conference was a good one and I came back Tuesday evening. Denver has a new train that goes from downtown to the airport which was so convenient and cheap. It all felt very European! The views included. Anyway, it was fun to add some days to a work trip and enjoy our former home. 

Florida with Kort

I'd originally planned to attend the Florida State vs. Louisville game with Kortnee, but my sister's wedding ended up being that weekend so I had to cancel. We decided to instead attend the Florida State vs. Miami game in Miami. It was amazing.

Let's go FSU!

Our seats were not close

The sunset was unreal, though

FSU almost won, but did not. It was still one of the most fun sporting events I've ever attended. The weather was amazing. Miami played really fun songs like turnover chain quite a bit (whoops!). 

We had a couple of days so we stayed in a hotel just outside of Fort Lauderdale and hopped up and down interstate 95 as we pleased. 

We hit the spa in West Palm Beach which was excellent. We then grabbed lunch and hit the beach for a bit before the red tide got to us and we had to go.

Hitting the spa

Tropical Smoothie is a requirement

Palm Beach is also a requirement

Trump's compound: Mar-A-Lago

I took Kort on my signature tour of Palm Beach. We even got to see President Trump's house. I'd heard it was pretty locked down, but since he was not in town we drove right by without issue. We also visited City Place to do some shopping before heading to Clematis street to have dinner.

Rocco's Tacos never disappoints! 

Legit!!

After dinner we went to Sloan's Ice Cream for dessert before heading back to Fort Lauderdale for the evening. I love Palm Beach so any chance I get to visit is a good one!

The next day we went down to Miami so Kort could see South Beach. We grabbed lunch and then headed for the beach. It was actually a nice day so we hung out for a few hours.

Lunch on the strip

quesadillas for days

Kort is obsessed with crime shows it seems and really wanted to see the Versace mansion on South Beach where a madman killed the famous fashion designer. We were close so we walked down to see it. The mansion is now a hotel.

Kort where Versace was killed

Realizing that smiling seemed odd

After we'd had enough of Miami we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale. We got a Greek dinner as Kort is obsessed with this type of cuisine. Mine was just OK, but she was happy so that's good!

All was well til the cinnamon dessert. EWW.

Our final day was a sunny one so we soaked in the sun and swam in the pool until we had to leave town. It was a fun girl's trip!

Puerto Rico!

Once the wedding fun was over, we switched to the Intercontinental in San Juan. We had some reward points so we decided to extend our trip until Tuesday afternoon.

Heading out in the Jeep

A room with a view

We'd stayed at this hotel before and loved it. We got a room with a great view and hit the pool almost immediately. We vacillated between the pool area and the beach and just enjoyed the sun.

Beach walking

The hotel is right on the beach so we enjoyed some strolls out there. While the hotel is not all inclusive, we kind of made it that way. Puerto Rico has not recovered from the hurricane as much as we'd expected so it was just easier to hang out in the small area around the hotel. We returned the Jeep early once we figured out that we'd be staying put and just soaked in the sun and sand. It was really nice to kick back after a busy couple of weeks.

A lovely local breakfast

One change is that our favorite part of this hotel was its breakfast and after the hurricane that restaurant was unable to reopen. The second morning we improvised and hit a small local cafe for an excellent breakfast. We stayed by the pool until we absolutely had to head to the airport then caught our flight back to the mainland. It was likely our last trip to Puerto Rico for a bit, but it was still nice to visit.