The next morning, we headed into LoDo to wander around and see the sights. Our first stop was a gorgeous old bookstore with several stories, tons of walled shelves and wood panelling almost everywhere. The kid's section was great, including its collection of Berenstein Bears books. They really have hit up every single issue in the Berenstein Bears series- including God and the Birds and the Bees. There was also a great collection of snarky cards. Which I would have bought if they weren't too expensive.
Yep, BB went there....
We wandered up and down the main thoroughfaire of downtown, going into Colorado tourist stores, shoe stores, Starbucks (there was an extra drink so I gave it to the man outside selling homeless newspapers and he gave me a newspaper in return- my good deed of the day), and whatever else struck our fancy. We tried to go into this gorgeous church but it hadthe most complicated system of hallways that we eventually gave up and went to the Capitol instead. At the Capitol we encountered a Tea Party. Yeah, they weren't crazy at all. One guy wanted to give us a flag. We declined. 
Other sites of the afternoon were the Denver Library, the Denver Art Museum and its gift shop, a huge preppy mall that we didn't go into and the train that we took all the way back to DU.
Youval had a couple of events in the afternoon so I chilled out in her dorm room, catching up on the Office and Community and Outsourced before being picked up by Kristen. We went downtown for dinner and went to a place called Paramount. The food was really good and we sat outside, which gave us a great view for people-watching but the waitress sucked. Blondie didn't let us participate in Happy Hour nor did she ever come by and see if we were doing OK. Luckily the food was yummy. That night, back at Kristen's, we proceeded to do our usual Friday night tradition and watch Ghost Adventures.
The next morning, we wandered around downtown Loveland, picking up some coffee on the way. I even got to frolick with the family in front of the the Loveland Museum. We spent the morning, early afternoon in Fort Collins, wandering around the cute little downtown area. I even got a belt for $1 at a thrift store that had a bra Christmas tree. Don't see that every day... There were some totally sweet little shops, including one that had everything arranged by color. So pretty in there. And a lot of really cute outfits. Since it was birthday weekend, we also decided to pick up some cupcakes which we ate before we delicious lunch of pizza at BeauJo's. The waiter was a LOT better there and the honey for the whole wheat crust was magnificent. It was a gorgeous day and we couldn't have asked for a nicer afternoon.
sooooo yummy...
Back in Loveland, we went to Lake Loveland and walked around for a little bit, taking some pictures and encountering another Tea Party- this time there was only one lady leading the protest and she did so by riding around on her little bike with a sign and having free tea that nobody could tax. You tell 'em, crazy lady. We went to some outlet malls and wandered about but eventually decided to just head home. The rest of the night was spent playing Idaho Monopoly (C of I colors represent with the houses and hotels!), watching Ghost Adventures, eating a lot of unhealthy food, drinking margaritas and pretending to be rich white men with our drinks and cigars. Total blast.
Yeah, she wasn't crazy at all...
The next morning was Kristen's birthday so of course we had to celebrate with Mimosas! We went to the Rialto Cafe downtown with Youval where there was an open buffet of pastries and fruit and bottomless mimosas. So delicious! From there we wandered down to Coor's Field to see the Rockie's take on the Cubs. Most of the game was spent tied 5-5 and only once we had left to catch the train to dinner with Kristen's parents did the Rockies decide to score four more runs. Awesome, thanks guys! Kristen and I had dinner with her folks by the University and then we headed to their house for a bit before heading home to relax before heading up to Estes on Monday morning. 
Of course we had to recreate our Old Men's pose from the night before!
And I got Kristen a free beer because it was her birthday. Because I'm a rockstar and know how to ask :)
We headed up to Estes for most of Monday, stopping of course at the Stanley Hotel on the way up because who doesn't love the Shining and think that Jack Nicholson is incapable of not being creepy. He totally deserved that baseball bat whack from Shelley Duvall. Redrum, Redrum, Redrum!
After walking around downtown Estes, we met up with Travis and he took our for a whirl tour of Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw some herds of elk, gorgeous views of the mountains (which would have been much better if it wasn't so cloudy), and fought the elements as we explored. Up at Bear Lake, the snow was coming down hard and windy and we were freezing as we took pictures. The same happened when we got to the top of the road before it shut down. More gorgeous views, more snow, more cheesy smiles because we were freezing. The only thing left to do was find a place to eat and we ended up at DiLeo's. Tom DiLeo, our cook, was a hoot in a handbasket. He yelled at customers, told you what to get, make funny comments and had a very interesting syntax and way of speaking. You could tell that he spent a lot of time along but he was hilarious and his sandwiches were delicious!
We headed back down to Denver where Kristen dropped me off so that Youval, her roomie Taylor, friend Maggie and Sophie and I could head over to the Hillel House for passover. It was obviously different than we had been used to at home but that's because nobody can throw a Pesach Seder like the Yadlins! The food was good, there was some singing and we went through the story of Moses and the Israelites, which is what's important. Of course there was a Supernatural episode afterwards and a late night. I slept really poorly and kept getting calls about the shuttle that picked me up at 5:15. Turns out later that I was on the wrong shuttle- I didnt' realize that I was that big of a commodity but I guess I was. The most difficutl part of that day was a tie between trying not to be tempted by Einstein's Bagles at 6:30 in the morning and subbing for the kids on only one cup of coffee...
Overall, awesome trip though! Thanks for the memories, Denver!
No comments:
Post a Comment