In appreciation of this great month, I will have to try these new BlueBell flavors:
Also in appreciation of this month, this has been my first time to blog in over one year...
What could possibly have taken me away from my blogging you ask?! Well, I have no excuses really....but....I did get to spend a year in the beautiful Denver, Colorado.
Little did I realize how much there is to do in Denver...each neighborhood is very unique. And, there is a park in just about every one of these neighborhoods. So, there is definitely not a paucity of places to run, walk the dogs, have picnics, etc.. Did I also mention that the sun shines 300+ days per year?...I will give you a small highlight of my Denver experience.
Wash Park is my favorite place to run.
There are many neat restaurants in the Highlands...such as...one of my favorites, an old mortuary that was previously called Olinger's, now renamed 'Linger' and is now considered an 'eatuary'...part of the restaurant is open to the outdoors looking out at downtown, as seen below..
Beer is a big deal in Denver.....a few random facts....
The drive to Aspen was beautiful in the Fall. I was in awe of the beauty.
Another beautiful drive was up to Mt. Evans (the highest paved road in North America)...and we even got pretty close to a few of these mountain goats...
Another beautiful place was Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. My boyfriend and I were planning on doing the 10-mile Garden of the Gods run; however, I found out I was on call in the hospital that day, so on my day off, we had a running adventure through parts of this park...it was a beautiful day.
Chautauqua Park in Boulder has a beautiful look-out at the top, and my boyfriend and I drove up and watched the sunrise one morning...we even met up with a friendly little fox :)
Another awesome thing about Denver are the farmers' markets...I had a chance to go to the Cherry Creek Farmers' Market, the Pearl Street Farmers' Market, and the Wednesday farmers' market in Boulder.
My favorite park in Denver..Cranmer Park...I drove by this park every day that I worked at the VA Hospital..and I took a picture almost every time I passed it :)
It was beautiful after the snow storms..
....and without the snow..
Festivals! There are festivals galore in Denver....I was able to make it to the ones below, which are only a few of the many:
**City Park Jazz Festival happens every Sunday evening in the summer (good music, food trucks, picnics/grilling..)**
The Cherry Creek Arts Festival (shown above) is in July - this festival showcases hundreds of the nations top visual artists' work, along with good food, drinks, etc.
A Taste of Colorado is in September and is located downtown. More than 50 local restaurants are present with live music.
Old South Pearl Street Blues and Brews Festival takes place in July and showcases bluegrass music along with several of the local microbreweries in Denver.
I cannot fail to mention Red Rocks....what a beautiful place to hike and enjoy concerts. The first time I went to Red Rocks last summer, I went with my Dad on a hike and then to an Abba concert. Red Rocks is the only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheatre in the
world. My boyfriend and I had a chance to go to the Bon Iver concert at Red Rocks later in the year.
I must mention white water rafting..we went white water rafting in Idaho Springs a couple of times, about 30 miles west of Denver...it was so much fun!
A few evenings were spent listening to the Colorado Symphony at Boettcher concert hall....
You may ask, did I get to go ski last year? I am disappointed to say 'no'....and why? Well, I went to Colorado for work. I did my intern year in Internal Medicine at University of Colorado, so my work life kept me very busy. Although I learned tons this past year, I am very happy to be done with Internal Medicine. I do have to say my interest grew towards the end of the year. If I had to do it over again, I would approach it with more enthusiasm and motivation and with less of "I just have to get through this year before Radiology".
Well, I am back in Houston now and have officially started the 4-year (+ 1 year of fellowship) Radiology residency journey....this is what I get to do every day, and I am constantly learning something new :)
Many more blog posts to come.
