Denver 2024

A couple of months ago, we got an email from Southwest essentially stating that we needed to purchase a flight and travel before the end of May in order to keep our status. We chose the dates and starting looking at which destinations had the cheapest fares and were places we wanted to visit for a very quick weekend trip, and decided Denver was the winner. We both love Denver and since we've been there multiple times before, there was no pressure to run around trying to sightsee or anything; we could just have a short getaway with no particular itinerary while we were there.

We flew to Denver early on Saturday morning and when we got to our hotel at 9:00 am, our room was available, so we were able to drop of our bags before heading out for breakfast. We knew Saturday was going to be rainy and on the chilly side, but we weren't expecting to see snow, so that was a fun surprise! None of it stuck to the ground, but it was so pretty to look at!

Since the weather on Saturday was less than ideal, we relaxed at the hotel for much of it. We did head over to the Ball Arena to go to the Colorado Avalanche team store and found a cute little bakery to get a reprieve from the rain, but other than that, it was a quiet and restful day! When we were looking for a place to get dinner, we were thrilled to find a Giordano's which was always one of our favorite places when we lived in Chicago!

As I have shared before, C's second favorite hockey team - his American hockey team - is the Colorado Avalanche. When we'd been without a dog for 14 months after losing Ginny and I was perusing shelter websites, I took it as a sign that we were meant to adopt Avalanche just because of his name (his very handsome profile picture didn't hurt, either!)! We each bought a few things at the team store that have "Avalanche" on them, even though I am an honorary fan of the team versus C's unwavering devotion as a fan!

On Sunday, we went out to breakfast and then packed up and checked out of the hotel before spending the rest of our time wandering around the city. Sunday was a gorgeous, perfect day in terms of weather and we found a restaurant that was showing the afternoon Avalanche-Jets game (we were not about to spend a small fortune on tickets, even if we'd been able to find some!), after which time we went back to the hotel to take a lyft to the airport.

A fun weekend thanks to a Southwest email!

we haven't flown out of Dulles in a while,
so we were happy to finally see the Lego model they have!

our hotel was beautiful!

snow!

a perfect hat for C bc he and Avalanche are inseparable!

my sweatshirt that will forevermore be covered in Avalanche's fur

we saw this statue and it reminded us of a certain judgy friend at home

look up "disdain" in the dictionary
and you might find this photo

Happy Tails to you!

WDW April 2024

Our April trip to WDW a few weeks ago was wonderful! 

We lucked out with beautiful weather the entire time; we rented DVC points and stayed at Saratoga Springs. Years ago, we didn't think much of Saratoga Springs, but it has really grown on us and we enjoy staying there. It's so convenient to be able to walk to Disney Springs, and overall, it has a very tranquil vibe to it. Our room happened to be on the end of one of the furthest buildings, so it was extremely quiet and our balcony looked onto a pond and a golf course. Honestly, such a great location! One of the downsides of it being a DVC resort is that it has a pretty lackluster food court, but other than that, no complaints! The huge portraits of Disney horses in the lobby are adorable and the cast members were friendly and helpful throughout our trip!

the art on the inside of the murphy bed

the view from our balcony

it was fun to see St. Mark's Square
at Epcot in a new light after having
visited Venice two weeks earlier!

Angus

Destiny

Pegasus

Maximus

Philippe

Frou Frou

spotted this guy at the resort

finally made it to Gideon's and
it really did live up to the hype

tried a new place for lunch and we were
pretty impressed with the vegetarian options!

as you can see, the theming
inside the restaurant is amazing!

when you are being seated, you are invited to "ride"
one of these ponies to your table -
we saw kids and adults doing so!

this cookie was so delish!

Meeko is one of my favorite characters and it is almost
impossible to find him most of the time,
but he was in one of the parades at MK!

I love him!!!

these have been our Magic Bands for almost four years,
but we finally decided to upgrade them because
the newer bands will work at Disneyland and on
Disney Cruise Line, and we have trips already booked for both!

our new Magic Bands are Star Wars themed!

It's crazy to me that we only have two more monthly trips to WDW before the school year is over!

Happy Tails to you!