Denver Sister Weekend

For my birthday my mom bought me a plan ticket to visit my sister in Denver.  We were so excited!!  I had Friday off from work, so I flew up Thursday night.  {That was one of the worst flights I have been on in a long time... there seemed to be no A/C in the terminal.  Right when you walked up to security you felt a wall of warm air.  The terminal was very crowded, which didn't help.  Finally we boarded our flight and I happened to be sitting in front of a woman and her 3 children.  I have a toddler, and I have flown with a grumpy one before, so I really do feel empathy for people who fly with children.  But these children were terrible.  I was shocked.  None of them listened to their mother, and not only were they not listening but they were jumping on the seats, pushing and kicking our seats, screaming, screaming, screaming and yelling and crying.  I had headphones and watched a movie, but it was still pretty miserable.  To make matters worse, right when we were all seated, it started pouring and they informed us we couldn't get off the plane and the plane couldn't go anywhere.  We waited about an hour to finally take off - I think the line was about 37 planes deep to leave Intercontinental.}  Amanda and her boyfriend Wilson played in a bocce ball league (I know! What a life!) then came to pick me up from the airport with their dogs Riley and Bela.  We were all exhausted so Amanda showed me around her place and we went to bed.  She is renting a condo in downtown Denver (on the 16th Street Mall) from a coworker and it's so cool!  It's a converted department store, so it's very loft-y and open.

Friday morning, Amanda worked her normal 4 hour Friday, so I got to sleep in, shower and hang out with Riley.  Her office is about 6 blocks from her apartment, so I just walked to meet her.  (Apparently Amanda always takes a free shuttle bus... but it's very walk-able!)  I hung out at her office for a bit, met some coworkers and then Amanda, Wilson and another coworker went to lunch downtown at a great Tex-Mex place called Rio.  They said it's the best they have found in Colorado, and it was very good!  It would have been better if I'd remembered by ID so I could have enjoyed a margarita, but Amanda shared a few sips.  After lunch, since it was a pretty day, Amanda, Wilson and I decided to take bikes around to a few breweries near downtown.  Wilson rode an old bike of his (I think his new fancy one was in the bike shop), and Amanda rode her cute new cruiser she got for her birthday, and they rented me a B-Cycle.  I was pretty nervous - I haven't ridden a bike (beyond spin class) in years and years.  We started riding down the Cherry Creek bike path and it was so fun!  It's a really wide, paved sidewalk along a pretty little creek.  There were a few hills, but it was pretty easy, even for me.  We stopped at Denver Beer Co. first and shared a flight and some pretzels and played Yahtzee!  Then we rode into downtown, past Coors Field, to Great Divide Brewery.  By then we had worked our way back around and were only a few blocks from Amanda's apartment.  We rode back, dropped off my B-Cycle and got changed for dinner.

My girl, Riley

My B-cycle

Amanda's new bike!

Cruising the Cherry Creek bike path

with the iconic blue bear at the convention center

For dinner we took a cab to the Pearl Street area and had dinner at Black Pearl.  Amanda had taken my mom and brother in March when they visited and my mom raved about it, so I wanted to go, too.  It's the cutest restaurant in the cutest area, and the food was great.  We started off with oysters that were delicious - after our Seattle trip I was excited to try some more! We split the cinnamon-carrot tart with peanut butter ice cream and fried sage for dessert - delicious!  We caught a cab back home and went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up, grabbed Starbucks and Einstein bagels, and headed out to Red Rocks.  Amanda has been going to a lot of concerts there lately, and I had never been before.  It was amazing!  I was shocked at how many people were working out there - Wilson went to run some stairs while Amanda and I just strolled around and took pictures.  We drove into the nearest town, Morrison, for lunch at the Blue Cow, then decided to drive on the Peak to Peak Highway from I-70 into Boulder.  We drove through this crazy town of Indian casinos - it was like a mini-Vegas - and stopped in Nederland for an ice cream cone and a beer flight at a local brewery, Very Nice Brewing Co.  We drove through Boulder and stopped at Upslope, another local brewery, for a flight and we played Bananagrams, Apples to Apples, and Uno.  It just so happens Boulder has a nice outdoor shopping area, so we ran into Sephora for some quick shopping, then had dinner at Fate Brewing Co.  It was mediocre at best, but it was nice to sit on the patio and relax (without sweating!).  We were pretty tired by the time we got back to Denver, so we called it an early night again.

Sunday morning I got all packed, and we had brunch a few blocks away from Amanda's apartment, Rialto.  It was pretty good.  They had a mimosa bar, so they bring you a glass of champagne and you can go to bar and add all different kinds of juices to it.  Amanda went with mostly orange and a little prickly pear, and I did all watermelon juice.  It was so good!  We got my things, then stopped at the Lamb Shoppe, a yarn shop, on our way to the airport so Amanda could track down an old Christmas gift card and I bought her a birthday present (she chose a yarn winder!).  Amanda got me to the airport in plenty of time and luckily it was a very uneventful flight home.  Then I couldn't get home fast enough to see my boys!

I had the best time visiting - Amanda and Wilson have a pretty cool life up there.  And I can't wait to go back because my BFF Adrienne just moved up there this week!