This past week, we found ourselves back at Heidrun Meadery. The last time we were there was almost a year ago, in August celebrating my birthday, with Cocoa. It's one of our favorite places to spend a quiet afternoon, tucked beneath the trees with a glass of mead and our very own DIY charcuterie board. I wasn't sure how it would feel to go back without her. We brought her leash and tags with us and took a photo beneath the same tree where we had taken one with her last year. There was a quiet sadness to being there without her. It's impossible not to notice the space she was once in. We tried not to focus on her missing, but instead tried to remember that afternoon. How peaceful it was. How happy she was just to be there with us. Lately, LC and I have been revisiting places where we last visited with Cocoa. There’s TONS of them. We bring her tag and leash with us, and we take a photo where she once stood, sat, or rode along beside us. It doesn't change the fact that she's gone, or make it hurt any less (at all!), but somehow it makes us feel a little closer to her. Like a small part of her is still woven into these places we loved and visited together. We even still talk to her, hoping that she can somehow hear us. Maybe that's why we've found ourselves returning to familiar places. Not because we're trying to relive the past, but because those places still carry pieces of the memories we made with her. I wonder if anybody else does this too. Return to places that now hold a different kind of meaning because someone they loved was once there. If it evokes happiness, sadness or regret. Some of the places we've taken Cocoa so far the past few days. The location of Cocoa's last Fuerza Run event, Cocoa's loop in Mount Tam, and one of our favorite ice cream shops. We will carry you wherever we go, Cocoa bear. We miss you so very much.