Fort Collins, Part 3

Sadly, tonight is my last night in Fort Collins with the 'rents. It has been a long trip in some ways, but in other ways it has gone by in a blink of an eye. Who knows, perhaps I'll see some Fort Collins time in my future...

We had a lovely Christmas here. Of course I had some riding Christmas Eve but I got that out of the way nice and early so I could enjoy the family. We kept our traditional Christmas Eve ritual with church, Christmas light-looking, turkey chili, and present opening from each other (Santa's presents are saved for Christmas day). We probably made a pretty funny sight since we all knew most of our presents beforehand because we went shopping together for them and we were quite sarcastic guessing what each present was :-) I am very grateful that we have the opportunity to do that and I am very grateful for my family.

Christmas day was full of fun. We woke up early and I made breakfast while my dad made coffees and we opened "Santa's presents." Later we planned on going shoe-shoeing but the winds were over 20mph and it was below freezing so we passed. I cooked most of the food for our Christmas feast and I must say most of it turned out pretty fantastic. I love cooking for people but especially when it turns out good haha.

I was supposed to have a solid four hours of riding (on the trainer) Saturday but I just couldn't bring myself to suffer that long on the trainer. After a good 2.5 hours with plenty of intervals and Harry Potter #5, I called it quits and went shoe-snowing with the parents for an hour and a half up in Lory Park. It was really fun! It was like hiking except with a marching-like gait. Typical Whitney managed to fall plenty of course :-) The day concluded with a beer sampler from Odell's Brewery.

Sunday was our final day out and about. After church we went out to brunch at possibly my favorite place, vegetarian restaurant, Rainbow Cafe. We journeyed back to Boulder so my dad could exchange a Patagonia shirt he got from Santa. A little pit stop at Celestial Seasonings was made so we could go on the tour- it was quite interesting! They make over half a million boxes of tea a day!

Today was a good final day, although it started ridiculously early. I woke up at 5am so I could do my LT intervals and ride two hours before my 8:30am massage (a gift from Santa). It was very hard not to go back to sleep, but I am so so glad I sucked it up and rode. For the massage, I went to GTS Therapeutics. I was extremely impressed with Gary the masseuse. Even though I had my first LT intervals of the off-season, my legs feel like a million bucks right now. Later, Brenna and I went out to Alley Cat cafe downtown, famous for their Chait Tea and we played a couple rounds of Battleship. The shop was fantastic and artsy with murals painted on every inch of the ceiling. The evening was nice and chill with my family and packing, packing, packing.

I am ready to roll tomorrow morning. With the increased security, we have to leave the house by 5:30am tomorrow so it looks like another early morning. I'm definitely going to miss my parents big time, but it looks like they'll be busy with all their racing they are doing these days! Endurance mountain bike events, time trials, half marathons, duathlons, etc. Only a few more hours of vacation are left now- once I get back to Austin, work will start up, training camp is just around the corner and there is plenty left for me to do with that, not to mention job searching, and training! I am looking forward to getting home and tackling those projects and I am looking forward to seeing Peter and friends of course!

Pictures to come soon!