After our crazy couple of weeks in Denver wrapping up at our jobs, spending some time with family with a quick trip to Texas, packing everything in our house, and several send-offs from our amazing friends…we needed some serious relaxing time. Thank you to everyone who wished us well on our journey in the past few weeks. I can speak for both of us when we say that we were completely overwhelmed (in the best way possible) and feel so loved. Thankfully we didn’t move to Mars so it is easy to keep in touch and we will be back living in Denver soon enough. There are so many things I could say about how hard it was to leave and our complicated thoughts on leaving, but words fail me. Instead, I will tell you all about our first week on the road!

USA Road Trippin’

We have officially started our journey around the world with a bit of road tripping through the United States. Since I had sold my trusty Corolla just before leaving, we were left with Scott’s CRV to get us across the country. After two days, several states, and a lot of cornfields we made it from Denver all the way to Cleveland, Ohio to spend a week with my parents. We chose to drive a less direct route to stop along the way in Kansas City to get some BBQ at the original Oklahoma Joe’s, which is also called Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, located in a gas station. The BBQ was so good that we weren’t even mad they were out of burnt ends and that we tacked on an extra hour or two of drive time. It was absolutely worth the stop!

Cleveland

My parents did an excellent job spoiling us in Cleveland. Most of our time was spent eating their food, drinking their beer, sleeping-in late, swimming, and knocking off some items off our to-do list. It was a great change of pace to the chaos that comes with moving! We also had to check out some of Cleveland’s finest dining options, such as the all-you-can-eat Alaskan Snow Crab feast, and some trendy areas (The Flats & East 4th Street) throughout the week.

Niagara Falls

The highlight of the week with my parents was out quick trip to Niagara Falls is actually a collective of three waterfalls: Bridal Veil Falls, the American Falls, and the Horseshoe Falls. The falls straddle the international border between the USA and Canada so naturally we had to go to both sides. We made it to our first country (besides the USA) in our trip! The American side has more to do in terms of observation decks, waterfalls, and activities and is widely considered the more beautiful side of the falls. For this reason we decided to stay on the Canadian side so we could view the “prettier” side of the falls. I would highly recommend checking out both sides, but staying the night in Canada to get those killer views! We stayed in a hotel with an impressive view of all three falls…again, we were very spoiled and soon our expectations have to be knocked down about 10 levels for the rest of this trip!

We split our two days in Niagara Falls with one day on the US side and the other on the Canadian side. On the American side we decided to check out the falls from below on the Maid of the Mist, the 20-minute boat ride that takes you right to the bottom of the falls. It was really crowded with tourists, we all got wet, and we all thought it was awesome! 🙂 On the Canadian side of the falls we explored the observation deck to see the falls from the top, checked out the Canadian casinos, had lunch with a view, and then said our goodbyes to my parents before getting in the car again to head east another 7 hours to Connecticut. We had the best time this week hanging with my parents and we cannot wait to spend out last week in the States (for a while at least) seeing more family, visiting friends, and packing our bags for the trip!