Weekend Warrior: Denver Part 2
There’s nothing better than getting a text from a friend that says,
“Denver. My birthday weekend. Let’s go.”
Shortly after having planned the weekend trip with Dominic to Denver, which you can read here, my travel bestie Kristin and I were talking about how we are always constantly going places each month. Or at least we make it a point to be somewhere different once a month. She wanted to go somewhere for her birthday which is in February and when she found out Denver was in the works with Dominic she decided that was the place she wanted to go. Especially to see the snow covered mountains. So, three weeks after my initial trip to Denver, I was darkening Kyle’s doorstep once more, along with Dominic to accompany Kristin for her birthday.
After seeing photos and snaps from my previous trip to Denver, Kristin became more and more excited about seeing the “snow covered mountains.” So a thought crossed my mind; let’s just rent a cabin for a night. Between Dominic’s “oohs” and “ahhs” the last time around, I figured we could all just use a mountain escape. So after consulting with Kyle, our Denver expert, we decided on a place to rent for the Saturday night of our trip. Since we were only going to have the one night there I thought it would be fun to just bond, play games, have a few drinks, and just enjoy being in the mountains. Kyle, obviously, would take care of the sight seeing aspect since he did such a good job the last time around.
During one of our planning phone calls Kyle and I were trying to decide if Kristin’s reactions to the scenery would beat Dominic’s…. well… while Kristin was as equally excited she was NOT hanging out of windows to get photos and wasn’t as surprised by mountain wildlife. Therefore, Dominic definitely can keep his “Such a Tourist” award safe and sound. Lmao.
And the weekend arrives…
Kristin and I planned our flights to arrive pretty much at the same time to make it convenient for Kyle to pick us up together. Although we made it easier for Kyle, I ended up having to wait for her for almost an hour due to delays. Side note: at some point in this blog of mine I’ll have to dedicate a post to how much “bad juju” Kristin (and I) have had in the past 8 months with flights. Once she arrived our gracious host picked us up and took us to enjoy a much needed dinner. Where did we go you my ask? Fat Burger. Knowing my penchant for burger ending up at a burger place is not too far of a stretch. It was decent, had nothing on In-and-Out or even my favorite burger place in the UK - which you can read about here. After dinner we headed back to the house where we stayed up talking and catching up until Kyle, like the old man that he is, went to bed.
The next morning we got up, went a grabbed some much needed coffee, and picked up Dominic at the airport. My initial thought once Dominic was in the car was… YES! now Kristin can be my witness to the bromance between the guys. It was so nice to have another female around. Especially during the moments where the guys were being guys and checking out their “views” — cue eye roll. We then headed to breakfast at the Moonlight Diner, where I can’t remember what I ordered but I sure do remember how much Kristin enjoyed her blueberry pancakes. Once breakfast was done Kyle, Kristin, and I headed back to the house for a little while as Dominic met up with a friend. To kill time we revisited our pre-teen/teen years and enjoyed some rounds of Mario Kart. Which proved to be entertaining as the level of competitiveness began to rise. Mainly between Kyle and Kristin… much to Kyle’s dismay Kristin proved a challenge, though he won’t admit it. After an hour or two we finally headed out to pick up Dominic… once again…. and head towards to the cabin. We made a pit stop at Apple Jacks and the grocery store to pick up alcohol and food for the night. By this time, we were all a little hungry so Kyle readjusted our route and made the decision to stop at Tommyknockers for a few beers and appetizers. The drive there gave Kristin a taste of the mountain range, which was pretty still as impressive as it was the first time we drove through there. With her sweet DJing skills and hilarious conversation with everyone the ride to Tommyknocker didn’t see that long. Obviously though our stop just for a “few” beers turned into actual meals. So by the time we made it to the cabin food was the furthest thing from our minds. I was kind of bummed we missed the views on the drive to the cabin, since it was already dark. But it was still nice, in a “this could have been a horror film” kind of way. Driving on unpaved roads in the middle of trees, thank the Lord for GPS. Once we got to the cabin we unloaded the car, which gave us flat landers a taste of the elevation difference. Going up and down the steps from the deck to the guest cabin made us all — except Kyle — feel out of shape. Comfy clothes called our names once we recovered and then we spent the night laughing, drinking, playing card games [aka everyone gang up on Kristin and make the birthday girl drunk], and getting serenaded by each other as the music playing brought us back to our high school days.
Being the eve of Kristin’s birthday, making it to midnight was key. However, we barely managed to do that. The guys passed out prior to, so Kristin and I stayed up talking until one… I think then went to bed because we had all talked about getting up early to watch the sun rise from the deck of our cabin.
Before Kristin has her coffee.
After Kristin has her coffee.
I’m actually proud of us, we got up and enjoyed the sunrise. Well… us meaning everyone but Kyle. Then grill master Dominic whipped up the food we had intended to use for dinner, as breakfast. I can honestly say that burgers (seasoned to perfection by moi), brats, eggs, and bacon never tasted so good.
After we packed up and drove back down the mountain, we took detours for different views — or as Kyle calls it, not getting lost. But that made the drive that much more interesting. The Colorado mountains are majestic. We were also got suckered into hiking. Not that I don’t love hiking, but I wasn’t prepared and then you have to factor in the elevation change. For us low landers (although El Paso does have some elevation) it can be a trek uphill as our lungs aren’t used to it. Plus it was cold. Plus it was windy. But, we got to meet many dogs along the way.
Monday while Kyle was at work the three of us ventured to Snooze for breakfast followed by a venture to the zoo. Which, I’m sure would have been great if it wasn’t freezing and half of the animal exhibits were closed for construction. The saving grace of the trip though was spending time with the gorillas. I was having a total Dian Fossey moment with one of the male gorillas until the larger, more dominate male showed up. Then the two just antagonized each other.
This is Jim, he was my buddy.
He was not anybody’s buddy.
After the Zoo we hit a Korean BBQ place that I had wanted to try since the last visit (Korean food is probably in my top 3 kinds of food). It was Kristin’s first time eating Korean food and I’m pretty sure we converted her — at least for the grilled meats and the buchimgae (pancake). Regrettably after lunch we had to head back to the house as Dominic and I had to catch our flights.
This trip was all about relaxing and just enjoying each others company. I’m happy to have friends who are always down to an adventure. Friends that are down for you inviting yourself and adding to the fun. I would call this birthday trip a success and I hope Kristin enjoyed her weekend just as much as I did! Love you friend!!