Fun fact about Colorado: it's called the Centennial state because it joined the union in 1876. Fancy that! Now you know why there's a C in the middle of the flag! No, not just C for Colorado but C for Centennial*! Yay knowledge!
My main man, Tbot, grew up around Denver and still has family and friends there so we spent a weekend visiting the beautiful state and chatting with lots of fun folks.
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| We're so excited. |
We started in Castle Rock, CO (so named for the big hunk of rock atop a hill that legit looks like a castle. Nature is cool!) and stayed with his aunt and uncle and cousin. Such nice folks, they made us burgers at nearly 11PM since our flight had been delayed!
We woke early the next morning to start our day in Denver. We caroused around town and ventured through the zoo and the museum of nature and science. The weather was insanely perfect which helped distract me from the fact that my brain was gasping for air.
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| Lion! The reason the zoo doesn't open until 9AM: Mr. Man back there does his duty with his ladies at 8:30AM. Yes, sirree! Confirmed by TBot's brosef who worked there back in the day. |
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| Just saying hey. |
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| Really? Not human? That guy is the definition of chillin'. |
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| Maya exhibit! We made our own tile pattern *nerd alert*. |
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| Ok, really it was just the top portion because we ran out of white tiles. |
After getting our walking fill for the day, we checked in to our urban bed & breakfast. It was surprisingly adorable and quaint just north of downtown Denver and across the street from a park. Lovely! I was immediately itching to take a thousand pictures...so I kinda did.
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| Breakfast was written here the next morning. |
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| Foyer and baller art on the wall to the left. |
We spent a few minutes with our feet up after walking so much before heading out to pick up his friend, Dave, for dinner. We found a tasty burger joint and indulged in green chili cheese fries and some pretty fabulous burgers and drinks.
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| That drink was called something Donkey. Honey vodka and some other good stuff. Yeah, that was tasty. |
Before we could contemplate going out we both realized our eyes wanted to close so we decided to call it a night and headed to bed. The next morning dawned bright and early and beautiful and crisp and cool and clean and clear. It was a commercial world out there! I proceeded to photo attack the house and the grounds around it again. How could I not? Just look!
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| A specially crafted table for the B&B. |
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| I love this! |
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| Super precious, right? |
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| Foyer! I love foyer's. |
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| Entirely quaint. |
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| I love Victorian houses! |
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| It was a nice oasis in the heart of Downtown. |
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| Highly recommended! |
We sat around a specially designed table for the house with four other couples from different parts of the US and enjoyed a lovely chat throughout breakfast. I LOVE staying at places like this versus hotels...you just can't beat the camaraderie!
We gathered up our goods and hit the road for Broomfield, where Tanner-san grew up, but not before making a very important stop. Everybody sing it with me now...
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| CASA BONITA, CASA BONITA!!!! |
After that brief (very brief considering the sketch 'hood it's in) stop, we meandered down a Highway 6-esque road to Broomfield. We wove in and out of the residential streets, of which the entire city was comprised, and stopped at a few key places. One was a burrito place that was locally famous and we chatted with the owner whose son went to school with Tanner. I should mention the burrito was delicious. After that was a drive-by of his childhood home, elementary school, middle and high school and some of his friend's homes. One more pass through the neighborhood to chat with his mom's best friend (they are carbon copies of one another) and we vamoosed to Boulder.
Boulder is only over a hill from Broomfield, so you'd think it would take less than the 20 minutes to get there that it did. The landscape really is fascinating in Colorado. You can see for miles because of how flat it is but that's because you're on top of a rise that shows you said miles. Boulder is a college town with a mountain range as the backdrop and it's a great sized campus. We wandered around and it was really nice to note how all the buildings had similar architecture and texture except for the engineering school. Weirdos made a fortress. I expected to see flying monkeys and arrow slit windows around every turn.
After buying some CU goodies, we drove up to Chataqua (maybe that's how it's spelled?) Park to go hiking. I knew it would be tough but I really had no idea how out of shape I would feel. We walked ten feet up a slight incline and my muscles started straining and my breath quickened and I looked up the rest of the way to realize that it didn't stop rising for awhile. And that was only because there was a hill in my way up to the mountain so I couldn't even SEE how far it went. I powered through and was happy to do so as we took in the surroundings. Truly a beautiful hike.
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| This looks fake! |
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| Still looks like a green screen. |
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| Gettin' some sun and our steps in for the day! 17K+, whatwhat! |
Because walking 7.5 miles wasn't quite enough at this point, we drove to Golden, CO, home of the School of Mines and perhaps more famously, the Coors Brewery, the world's largest single-site brewery. We partook in the "long tour", all 20 self-guided minutes of it, before making our way to "Coors Lab" and getting our three free beers. Yep, all free. Please note, there's a "short tour". Can you guess what that entails? Yep, straight down to the taps.
Coors Light has NEVER tasted so good, ever, as it did from that nearly freezing tap. I will absolutely be taking the short tour the next time we visit. They had some seriously delicious beer! Also, did you know Coors owned Blue Moon? Mind = blown.
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| Blue Moon! You get three of these for free! Daily! |
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| In line for #2! |
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| Killian's, highly recommended. |
And because adding another 1K plus steps still wasn't enough, we drove down to Red Rocks Amphitheater and walked some more.
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| Look at that view!!!!! I was in awe imagining getting to see Mumford & Sons here. |
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| Ta-da! Tired but so happy. |
We motored our way back to Broomfield where we were hosted for dinner by Tanner's bestie, Adrian, and his girlfriend, Allison, who also hiked with us briefly earlier in the day. They treated us to a 3 course meal before we indulged in an episode of The Walking Dead. I'm still torn on whether I want to give that series a go considering zombies are kinda super scary. They are fast now because apparently everyone was bored with them wandering slowly thereby making them easier to kill! Um, please make them easier to kill again, thanks and bye.
With one more stop to the aunt and uncle's house for a big breakfast on Sunday, we made our way to the airport to say, "See you later, Colorado!" and hit the bumpy ride home. Seriously, clouds, cut it out.
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| Did I mention it dropped to 50* with wind blasts making it feel like freezing ice rain was pelting my legs as we bolted for the bus to the airport? It freaking snowed! Weird weather. |
Another great trip! Get ready, NYC, you're next!
*And also not cannabis, per my dad.
