The Colorado Pause

In exactly two weeks, Karthika and I are getting married. If you've ever planned a wedding, you know the final countdown is usually a chaotic blur of logistics, last-minute vendor emails, and answering questions about formatting.

So, naturally, we left town.

We flew to Colorado to celebrate a friend's wedding, but the long weekend quickly evolved into something else: a nostalgia tour of my old stomping grounds, and a much-needed forced pause for the two of us. It was a perfectly timed reminder that sometimes, you just need to step away from the to-do lists and exist.

Old Haunts and Bird Geeks

We spent our first day exploring Boulder before heading over to Lafayette. I used to live here, so bringing Karthika along felt like merging past and present. We walked around one of my favorite old spots, Lake Waneka.

It was a beautifully warm, sunny day, and we spent an embarrassing amount of time just birdwatching. And when I say we enjoyed it, I mean we thoroughly enjoyed it. We spotted red-winged blackbirds, sparrows, cowbirds, and geese, with a dozen other calls echoing across the water. We are officially that couple now, and honestly? No regrets.

Alpine Vibes

You can't go to Colorado and not head into the mountains. We drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and took a walk around Bear Lake. The contrast of the sunny weather with the lingering snow on the ground gave the whole area these incredibly crisp, alpine vibes.

Because it's still early in the season, a lot of the higher roads were closed. We made it as far up as Rainbow Curve—the highest accessible point right now—and the views were breathtaking. Just endless ridges of rock and pine stretching out below us. A perfectly relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

The Art of Doing Nothing

Between the wedding festivities, we had a lot of downtime, which turned out to be the hidden highlight of the trip. We stayed at a friend's beautiful house. They were out of town—which was a bummer, as we'd have loved to see them—but it gave us a quiet, relaxing space to decompress.

One night, we skipped the restaurants, picked up some cheese, crackers, and meat from the grocery store, and built our own little charcuterie board. We sat on the couch, ate salami, and watched British comedians do ridiculous things on Taskmaster. It was simple, low-key, and exactly what we needed.

The Main Event

Of course, the whole catalyst for the trip was our friend's wedding. It was a blast getting to celebrate them and introduce Karthika to some of my longer-term friends. The high social energy of a wedding was the perfect counterweight to our quiet mornings.

Reflections

Looking back, the dominant feeling of this trip wasn't excitement or adventure—it was gratitude. Gratitude because every day I spend with Karthika, we just grow closer. Going on a trip like this, right before we officially tie the knot, validated just how much we genuinely enjoy each other's company.

It's so easy to lose track of downtime when life gets busy. This weekend was a brilliant re-learning of a simple truth: it's important to take time just to exist.