I had eight vacation days remaining for the year and because my company has a use it or lose it policy on vacation days, I decided to take the last two weeks of the year off.  Now that vacation is over and I’m back at the grindstone. I’m dragging trying to get back into the groove.  Boy I wish I had another two weeks off again.  I had an enjoyable time the last two weeks, and because I have been suffering from writer’s block I will share my vacation adventures with you. Aren’t you so glad you decided to read this post?

I saw several movies during the two weeks.  In fact I was at movie theater more during those two weeks than I have been over the last several months.  I saw the new Star Wars movie (LOVED IT), I also saw the new Peanuts movies (enjoyed it) The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway (the trailer leads you to believe it is a pure comedy film, it is not) and finally the latest Mad Max although I did get that from RedBox using a free night rental code.

The first week of the vacation had beautiful weather so I was able to hike around Garden of the Gods, and I also tried the Mt Cutler trail in CO Springs, but there was still too much ice on that trail that I was not able to get far.  I really enjoy Garden of the Gods, it is close to my house and has many trails to take plus the scenery is fantastic.  It is a nice place to spend a few hours to get away from everything.

I spent part of a day in Denver, ice skating at an outdoor rink off of the 16th Mall area in Denver.  Visited the Christkindl market, it is a German Christmas market that is set up every year in Denver.  On the way back to the Springs from Denver, I drove through a Christmas light display.

The day after Christmas, I packed the car and headed east to St. Louis to visit family.  I battled high winds along Interstate 70 all the way to Topeka KS only to drive through heavy rain from Topeka to St. Louis.  I luckly left St. Louis before the heavy flooding occurred, although I did have to deal with part of Interstate 70 closing down outside of St. Louis in St. Charles MO.

New Years eve was a quiet one for me, no big parties or anything.  I didn’t even make it to midnight but you know what, when I woke up on January 1st, it didn’t feel any different than December 31st.

I watched a few of the college bowl games involving teams that I was interested in (the SEC is back), watched some NFL games on the last weekend of the season (Go Broncos).

Now the vacation has ended and I am back to work.  No holidays until Memorial Day, man I am going to have to schedule some vacation time between now and Memorial Day.