Colorado trip photos – finally. September 29th, 2011
In June (I know, it’s been 3 months) we went out to Colorado to visit Chelsea and Ryan. It seems like forever since we’d seen them, which was at our wedding, so it was awesome to see their house and have some real catch up time. Old friends are the best.
We spent our first nights staying at The Curtis hotel in downtown Denver. We started the trip like we always do – wandering around to get our bearings. We ended up at the Wynkoop Brewery for beer and lunch, then walked along the 16th Street Mall and then over around in the Coors Field area. When Chelsea got off work that day, she met us and took us to dinner at The Cheeky Monk on E Colfax. Delicious belgian beer and frites! Later we went to another hotel restaurant that had a spectacular view of the whole city (from whatever high up floor we were on). It’s always amazing to see the lights of the city from a high vantage point.
The next day, we rode B-cycles around the city and stopped at the Denver Art Museum, library, and all the Civic Center buildings around it. Quite a little complex of things to do and see. Then we rode over to the Santa Fe Arts District, which was my favorite part of the trip. There were all sorts of cool little artist shops and galleries, and we poked our heads into most of them, which was a good thing because it kept raining on and off. We talked to a sculpture guy (sculpturist?) for awhile about his work — he showed us some templates he was making for some large scale metal works, then some twisted red installations that he made out of carpet padding, and then some modular paintings that he created to be rearrangeable. It was quite the range of stuff, and he had a really cool studio space. I wish we had bought something there, but some artwork is just always out of the budget 
After that, we found this amazingly cute tiny little courtyard surrounded by art shops. We had grilled sandwiches and smoothies there. Chelsea and Ryan came down again that evening to have dinner downtown with us at this delicious Mexican restaurant. We then had some drinks at our hotel bar (which had awesome bathrooms that had little post-It notes you could leave on the wall!) and planned our big hike for the following morning. Our bike hike was that indeed. Ryan led the way up the Flatirons in Boulder Mountain Park, which was closer to Boulder as the name suggests. It was a nice hike, though we did get a little winded in the mile-high mountain air. The view at the top was so worth it – and there was a cool natural bridge rock formation to stand underneath. We got lunch and ice cream afterwards in Boulder and then walked around the main town area.
That afternoon, we went back to the Thomas household and relaxed for a bit. Ryan made us his famous margaritas and we sat on their back porch and played with their dog, Ernie. Ernie is huge and awesome. For dinner, they took us to this amazing Indian restaurant in a strip shopping mall — we got the feast for 4 and it had a little bit of everything including the most delicious Chai tea and rice pudding at the end. Talk about a perfect day!
But the trip didn’t end there–the next day we went back to downtown Denver to check out the gay pride parade. It was the best people watching event I think I’ve ever been to. Wish we had taken more photos! In the afternoon, we went to the city park to listen to the Sunday evening jazz concert. It looked like it was going to rain any second, but luckily it held out. Our friend Erin, who took our engagement photos back in DC, met us there for awhile. She had just moved out to Denver and so it was nice to catch up with her and hear all about her new house and moving of her business.
On Monday morning, Chelsea had to go back to work, so we went with her and spent the morning in Golden. Cute little streets there – we got some coffee and tea and read for awhile at the coffee shop, then I poked around some thrift stores where I bought a cool angel wings necklace. If I’d had more room in my suitcase, I’m sure I would have come home with more. Chelsea drove us to the airport around lunchtime. Aww parting is such sweet sorrow. Can’t wait to go back out there already!
breakfast. burrito.
had to do it.
at the top of the Flatirons, sweaty of course
ice cream!
pride parade!
a banana walks into a bar…
tea and muffins for breakfast in Golden
our favorite little courtyard in the Santa Fe arts district
good advice, from a wall in the arts district.
grilled panini for lunch!
love those colors
lots of choices at Wynkoop Brewery
tags: travel
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