Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Madrid 2023

To be completely honest, Madrid hadn't been on our must-see list. I know, don't hate me and I know every European city has it's own vibe, but we've been to Barcelona (loved!) and Madrid was on the list, but so are so many other cities! The end goal for this trip was Portugal.

Yet, since I wanted to make this trip happen using points for flights, I started getting creative in my searches when I couldn't find flights from Denver to Lisbon for the point price I was willing to pay. Thus, Madrid came on my radar as a major city we haven't been to and that is relatively close and easy to get to Lisbon.

We flew Lufthansa from Denver through Frankfurt to get to Madrid. I thought I'd found the perfect flight, a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt, enough to give us a cushion of time for delays as well as initial customs. Of course, our flight from FRA-MAD ended up getting pushed back, so we had a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt instead. Not ideal IMO (I'd planned on us using the sleeping pods at FRA that I'd found online, but in reality they would have required us to go through two more security lines and we decided it wasn't worth it). But hey! We survived!

We arrived at Madrid airport around 8:00p local time Monday, 5/22. Knowing that we were going to be arriving this late and jetlagged, I had prearranged a private transfer from the airport to our airbnb through our airbnb. While I'm glad we didn't have to think, only to look for someone holding a sign with our name, we TOTALLY got ripped off. The ride cost us $60eu and an Uber would have been $30 or less. Oh well.

We booked this airbnb about 2 months ahead of time. We chose it based on location, private outdoor patio, air conditioning, and honestly the elevator as a positive too - again knowing it was 5 floors up and we were travelling with two young kids.  The airbnb was fine... but I don't know that either of us would recommend it? The layout is a bit funky. Both kids were a bit scared to share a room away from ours as we originally planned, so I ended up sleeping with Parker upstairs with the low slanted ceiling and Ben/Grayson on the main floor. The first night, the main floor bedroom smelled overwhelming of airfreshner and the next night we realized that was probably to cover up a mildew small. Anyways, on to the city!

How We Spent 3 Nights/2.5 Days in Madrid

Night 1
That first night it was late and we were all starving by the time we checked into the airbnb. We were right off of Plaza De Sol, so a well populated location. The downside of not having researched too much was that we had no idea where we wanted to eat and it was 10p, so places were closing. We ended up eating at Tapa Cafe Madrid, which as you can guess from the google reviews, was so-so. 

Day 2
The next day we all slept in until 11am. I had debated booking a tuktuk tour for us, but ultimately decided against it, not knowing how we'd all be feeling. We decided to go with the back-up plan: Madrid City Tour hop on/off bus. Once we were all awake and ready to go, we opted for a coffee shop breakfast. Feliz Coffee was perfect for the job. Once fueled, we continued walking to Museo Nacional del Prado to buy tickets (which we could have done online) and hop on the bus.
San Jeronimo el Real
We've never done a hop on/off bus before, but I have to say, it actually worked out quiet well! Kids under 6 are free. A one day pass was $25eu and two-day was $30eu, so we opted for two-days. We rode around the city for several stops, until inevitably someone wanted water and someone needed to go to the bathroom. We got off at Plaza de Espana and hopped in a Faborit for a drink and bathroom (which also had some delicious light-meal food. The kids got smoothies). We wandered over to the plaza and found the most amazing playground by happenchance, Parque infantil Plaza Espana. I would say this is a must visit if you have kids toddler age or older. My kids were beyond excited for a playground (and this was the favorite of our entire trip).
From there we wandered more, looking at the Real Palace (from the outside), finding gelato, and then hopping into Taproom Madrid to avoid some rain. We were all feeling pretty good at this point that we decided to go to an "early" flamenco show. 

I had researched flamenco show options ahead of time. Knowing Madrid is a late night city, I had bookmarked a show I found via Airbnb experiences that started at 6:00p. I also got lucky that I had found the same show via Viator. Airbnb wanted to charge for the kids, whereas Viator listed kids under 6 were free. On top of that, Viator sent me a $25 off $50 booking. So in the end, we all 4 went to Essential Flamenco for $50, including a drink for everyone.

The show was an hour long, which was close to too long for the kids, but it held their attention. I'm glad we went (and also glad we didn't do a full-on production with dinner and show)! From there we walked over to Las Bravas, a spot I had bookmarked in my research, for dinner. But it was completely closed. Instead we ended up at Bandida Tapas. We got there at 7p and the restaurant was fairly empty, but the time we left it was full.  It didn't seem the most welcoming of kids; but the food was good and we managed just fine! We stopped at mas que cervezas on the way home, which is an excellent beer and wine shop.

Day 3
With no major plans for the day, we started with a walk to a coffee shop for breakfast to see what the day had in store. Alchemy Coffee was incredibly quaint, but also delicious (my best iced latte of the trip). The clerk was so friendly; he chatted with the kids and made them little chocolate milks on the house - plus gave them a cookie to share when we left. From there we walked up to Plaza Mayor to look around and over to Mercado de San Miguel.

It was a beautiful building, but inside was a bit intense and chaotic for us. Ben doesn't do well in crowds in America, let alone a foreign country with a different language and wrangling two kids. We weren't all that hungry, but there was no where to sit either. We grabbed a few pastries and found a spot outside to eat.

We continued to walk around the city and explore, but decided we should get to Takos for lunch. Ben's friend had visited Madrid in recent years and Takos was the only food recommendation he offered. He was right. There was a line when we got there (waiting for it to open) and a line when we left. They have delicious street tacos if you're in the mood!

After lunch, since we had the bus passes, we decided to hop on the bus again to Retiro Park. This was another highlight of Madrid for our family. We explored some of the gardens and statues, got a drink by the pond, and then waited inline to rent a paddleboat. It was a picturesque afternoon!  We got back on the bus, found some empanadas (not really memorable), and walked to Oso Brew Co (to be honest their beer Ben bought in cans the night before was better than what they had on tap!)

We went to Brew Wild Pizza Bar for dinner. This was a spot Ben had found in his beer research and they had the coolest/yummiest "volcano pizza"; almost like a calzone, that they sent on fire. I would recommend giving it a try to break up all of the croquettes!

Day 4
Departure day already! We had enough time before our check out to grab breakfast. We walked over to a different part of town we hadn't been to and got a real sit down breakfast at Nomad Cafe. It was as delicious as it was adorable. I would definitely recommend!

Remember how I said above that we got ripped over paying $60eu for our transfer from the airport to our airbnb? Yea, we ordered an Uber to pick us up and take us to Madrid airport.... it cost $19. Sigh.

On to Lisbon!






Thursday, June 8, 2023

Europe 2023: Madrid, Lisbon, and Algarve

 I don't have a great history of blogging consistently anymore... but there are some things that are worth documenting, and our recent trip to Europe is one. We returned from a 15-day stay in Europe a few days ago with the kids (newly 4 and 5.75) and I'm attempting to capture while items are fresh in my mind. As you probably recognize by now, I'm a wordy talker and writer, so I'm trying my best to keep this succinct.

Trip Itinerary

  • Sunday 5/21: Depart from Denver (we flew Lufthansa, booked on points through United), and flew through Frankfurt to get to Madrid)
  • Monday 5/22 - Thursday 5/23: Madrid (3 nights)
  • Thursday 5/23: Fly 1.5 hours to Lisbon
  • Thursday 5/23 - Monday 5/29: Lisbon (4 nights)
  • Monday 5/29: Pick up rental car at Lisbon Airport and drive 3 hours south to the Algarve region of southern Portugal
  • Monday 5/29 - Saturday 6/3: Carvoiero (5 nights)
  • Saturday, 6/3: Fly 3 hours to Munich
  • Saturday 6/3: Stay in Munich (1 night)
  • Sunday 6/4: Fly back to Denver

We booked the trip this way for a few reasons. The biggest driver was that we wanted to go to Portugal for the majority of the trip, but we wanted to fly using Chase Ultimate Rewards points (see old post here and happy to talk points with anyone, anytime!). Denver has somewhat limited options of where to fly into for Europe. I looked at "positioning" flights, ie. flying to a large US hub airport and then directly to our destination, but even then, I didn't find many "good" options for the points I was willing to spend to get to Lisbon. Thus, when I found decent flights to Madrid from Denver (with a Frankfurt layover), and knew that we could easily (and cheaply) get from Madrid to Lisbon; it seemed like a worthwhile option.

I also knew from my research that I wanted us to end our trip at the beach. I figured we would enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city for a few days and then enjoy the downtime of the beach following. This was the perfect approach for us.

We could have stayed one more night in Carvoeiro; but I figured flying back to Denver on a 10 hour direct flight from Munich was going to be long enough and I didn't want to add another flight to that day (which would have also been an early AM flight), instead we opted to fly Faro to Munich the day ahead of time and use credit card points for one night hotel. While we wish we would have had more time to explore Munich, this approach of a quick stopover worked well for us.

Because I have no shame and get excited about travelling on points, our international flights would have cost us $8,200 cash. Instead we paid 262,400 points + $629 cash (for taxes and fees). Wohoo!

While several aspects of this trip were heavily planned, the general daily itinerary was not. Our kids are used to shuffling around and keeping busy at home/in the mountains, but I wasn't sure how much any of us would be up for or what would keep their interest. I'm going to break each city up into it's own post to share what we ended up doing while there. Check for links below (once created)

Lisbon
Algarve
Munich

View from breakfast of our Lisbon airbnb street




Thursday, June 23, 2022

A Non-Winter Family Friendly Guide to Summit County, CO

We have been visiting Summit County for years; before we even moved to Colorado in 2013, thanks to Ben's parents family friends owning a condo there. It's absolutely one of our favorite places and lucky for us, it's about a 70 minute drive from our house (depending on traffic). I think most Coloradans are aware but those others, Summit County is made up of five primary towns, being Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, Keystone, and Silverthorne. Breckenridge and Keystone have Vail-Resort owned skiing. Copper Mountain is a close 10 minute drive and also a ski mountain (owned separately from Vail Resorts). Then there's Eagle County; which is about 30/45 minutes farther west which includes the towns of Vail, Eagle-Vail, Minturn, Beaver Creek, Avon, Edwards, and farther west Eagle.
Of course, now that we have kids, some of the activities we frequent have changed, ie less 14ers and daylong hikes and more playgrounds. But one thing remains the same - breweries. I've been meaning and asked to share those activities for some time now, and am finally doing it! 

This list is mostly geared towards kids and non-winter activities (at the time of writing this my kids are
newly turned 3, and almost 5; but we've done several of these items with them as toddlers as well as with our nephew who is now 9). Here are some of our favorite things to do when in town
 
Playgrounds 
Breckenridge:
  • Breckenridge Elementary School
  • Prospector Park at Main Street/Wellington St Park: more like climbing structures, usually busy*

  • High Line Railroad Park (not great for young kids; next to outside train museum and same parking lot as Troll Hike)


Dillon:

Frisco:
  • Frisco Marina Playground*/**

  • Frisco Elementary School

  • Walter Byron Park**  This newly rebuilt park (opened during covid) has a toddler and big kid play structure (limited parking, but also walkable from Frisco Main Street)
  • Meadow Creek Park** (super basic playground, has a walking path around small pond with a bridge and a block from Outer Range; note this doesn't have a permanent restroom, but has a portapotty in the summer)

Silverthorne:
  • Rainbow Park** (This is a fav! There’s a big kid playground to the west/off the parking lot with smaller kid area and if you keep walking back past the tennis courts (to the east) there’s an entirely separate smaller kid area too

         picnic tables but no restroom


Notes:

*Sunny (almost all of the playgrounds are straight sun and offer little shade)

** Has public restrooms (and generally most of these have a shaded pavilion with picnic tables and drinking fountain)

 

Water Activities

  • If you walk down the bike path at Dillon Marina Park, almost directly below the hill from the playground there’s water access/rocky beach to play
  • Frisco Marina has a beach area just northeast of the playground. It gets super busy, recommend going early on weekends or during week days . There are public bathrooms and the marinara restaurant has limited food; but you can bring your own. You can also launch paddleboards from this location. Parking is available with an overflow lot.

  • Access to sandy/rocky area water area off Dillon Dam road, park at parking on the road, right before Giberson Day Use area (which has a fee, parking on Dillon Dam is free)

  • Rent a pontoon boat from Frisco Marina or Dillon Marina for 2hrs; life jackets included in rental. Book online in advance (typically they sell out); rental is $200ish (depending on size) and includes life jackets, even for young kids and infants

Breweries 
Breckenridge:

Dillon:

         outside seating, - also a full restaurant

  • Pug Ryan’s we're not huge fans; but it is convenient with outdoor seating and a full

         restaurant


Frisco:

  • Outer Range is no longer BYO food, now has a fried chicken company open inside the brewery (Birdcraft) as well as Mountain Dwellers coffee, which is good and a great quick spot for breakfast. This is our absolute favorite brewery in the state of Colorado!

  • HighSide has BBQ and some outside seating

  • Prost (not associated with Denver and technically not a brewery, but German beer hall with sausages)  


Silverthorne:

  • Angry James  like their citra lager; has snack food available but can BYO

 

Toddler Friendly Hikes/Exercise

Breckenridge:

  • Isak the Troll: Park at Ice Rink Lot in the far SW corner of the parking lot. You’ll see brown signs for the troll and cross a little bridge to get to the trail. It’s a quick loop (maybe 0.5mi total)? But there are more trails in the area.

  • Aspen Alley: if you continue up Boreas Pass Rd from the Troll, there’s dirt parking area on the left and on the right farther ahead is Aspen Alley Trail

  • Breck Blue River trail: From River Park, if you walk towards the river, there’s a trail on the right (before the bridge) that is a dirt path to walk alongside the water

  • Minnie Mine: Colorado has so many abandoned mines left over from the days of gold and mineral extraction. This loop is rated as easy and is 1.5miles long, passing across a few old mines.

  • Cucumber Gulch: goes around the base of the mountain and wetlands; under the gondolas. There’s a beaver pond and old cabin (Josie’s Cabin) . If you're not staying in walking distance of this on the base of Breck mountains, you can park at Breck Nordic Center and take the trail to the west/left of the building towards the mountain

 Dillon:
  • Sapphire Point Overlook 0.6mi (quick loop trail area with great views of the lake and mountains); or just park and go check out the lookout

  • Dillon Reservoir has a bike/walk path around the entire lake

  • Old Dillon Reservoir Trail (1.7mi total), hike up above the reservoir to a pond area. Really pretty views and easy (Great for aspen trees!)

Frisco:

Silverthorne:

  • Blue River Silverthorne Trail: paved/shaded path, popular for running, walking, and biking. It’s not really a “hike”. Park at Red Buffalo Coffee and walk behind the buildings to the river. Left/North of coffee shop there’s a bridge. Cross it and go left. (Note, Red Buffalo Coffee shop is about two blocks from Angry James Brewery. You can also access/walk to Rainbow Park from this path)

  • Fairy Trail: This is a must do! In Silverthorne, follow 5th St to Brian and park at the soccer fields. Look across the soccer field and you'll see an opening in the chain link fence. Follow the bath from the opening and you'll find a 1/4-mile trail filled with  fairy and gnome houses. Best park? There's a playground at the beginning and end points of the trail (This is also just a few blocks away from the new Bluebird Market - with food, drinks, ice cream, and a game room!)

Nearby:

  • Clinton Gulch (outside of Copper), 2 miles, can fish reservoir, Mountain View’s and wildflowers (but mud and bugs!)
  • Lower Cataract Loop (About 35min north of Silverthorne near Heeney): This trail is listed as easy and 2.3 miles long. When we did it, we clock 2.8 miles and thought about 1/3 of the trail was moderate (due to inclines and rocks). The trail is a loop and we started off going to the left/clockwise. The last third of the trail was the more difficult part. My 4.75yr old hiked the entire way with not too much difficulty. My 3yr old hiked about half (to the base of the waterfall). Although we hiked mid-June wildflowers were already popping. This trail has so many aspen, it would be a great fall colors hike too

 

Fav Brewery/Park Combos

  • Outer Range and Meadow Creek Park (or Frisco Elementary)

  • HighSide Brewery and Frisco Marina Playground

  • Broken Compass and Breck River Playground (about 0.5mi walk)

  • Silverthorne rainbow park and Angry James brewery

 

Indoor Ideas

  • Breck rec center has indoor swimming/water park
  • Silverthorne rec center has indoor swimming/water park
  • Libraries: Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne
  • Wild and Free Indoor Playground Silverthorne (admission fee)
  • Dillon Movie Theater
  • Mountaintop Explorium (kids museum; admission fee) has finally reopened 2022 after years of being closed; this was always a fav!

Misc

  • Ride Breck gondola up to the base of Peak 8 for free (there are kid activities you can pay for at the top too)

  • Check the schedule for free outdoor concerts on Frisco Main Street or at Dillon Amphitheater

  • Frisco Adventure Park has a bike track in the summer and tubing hill (fee) in the winter. The bike track is better for older/experienced bikers

  • All of the towns have bike rental shops that will allow you to rent bikes, trailers, helmets, and even electronic-bikes to scoot around the various bike paths

  • Summer Fridays, 9a-2p: Dillon Farmer's Market at Dillon Amphitheater

  • Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper resorts have a variety of activities at the mountain like alpine roller coaster, scenic rides, water bumper boats, etc (all for a fee)

 

I will come back to this post to add lodging and food reccs!


And as always - update this list with new activities as we find them. If I missed some of your favorite activities, reach out so that we can give them a try too!









Sunday, February 7, 2021

January 2021 - Whole 30



Gosh, it's been a long time since I've posted here, and an even longer time since I completed a Whole 30. For my own use, and per your requests, I'm attempting to document what I ate this round (January 2021).

Mr HaHa joined me, which had its own challenges given that he really doesn't eat vegetables; but we found some great recipes and work arounds (aka, me adding extra veggies to my meals). Having to balance two toddlers, a puppy, and working out of the house; it took a lot of planning. Generally we would keep a list of meal ideas on hand as we found them, on Saturday's we would decide on the following week's menu. Sunday mornings we have groceries delivered and use Sunday naps to prep and precook some meals for the week (ie our breakfast for the work week and a lunch option for me for the work week)

Here is our January 2021 Whole 30 Menu!

Jan 4

  • Breakfast: Nut granola* with 1/2 banana and almond milk
  • Dinner: Grilled steak with roasted sweet potato and kale cesar salad (Primal Palate dressing)
*Technically granola is considered a SWYPO by Whole30 (Sex with your pants on; a cheat) given that you're potentially following an unhealthy habit (ie granola I guess?). Given that we ate this once a week, there were some meals, so as this, that we decided to eat as long as the ingredients were Whole30 compliant as the goal of our Whole30 was not only a "healthy reset" but also to find more long term sustainable healthy habits and recipes.

Jan 5

  • Breakfast: 40 Apron's Sausage Breakfast Casserole (notes: I generally use 8-10 eggs; again to make sure we have enough substance to make it last for enough servings all week. Since my first Whole30 in 2016, I've made our own breakfast sausage with plain ground pork and followed this blend of Primal Palate recommended spices)

Jan 6

Jan 7

Jan 8

  • Dinner: Can't remember!

Jan 9

Jan 10

Mon Jan 11

Jan 12

  • Dinner: Living at Altitude's Spaghetti Squash Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli (would not make this again)

Jan 13

  • Breakfast: 40 Apron's Sausage Breakfast Casserole (substitute regular hashbrowns with shredded sweet potato)
  • Lunch: Chipotle bowl
  • Dinner: Crockpot Italian Beef over mashed potatoes (I don't have a recipe for the Italian beef, mainly slow cook 8 hour and douse with a ton of italian herb blend!)

Jan 14

  • Breakfast: 40 Apron's Sausage Breakfast Casserole (substitute regular hashbrowns with shredded sweet potato)
  • Lunch: Sweet Green's salad
  • Dinner: Air fried buffalo wings with celery, carrots, and Tessesame's ranch

Jan 15

Jan 16

  • Breakfast: Olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper roasted kale, air fried sweet potato cubes, eggs over easy and Pederson's bacon, topped with everything but the bagel seasoning
  • Lunch: Homemade Acai bowl  made with this frozen fruit and this acai powder
  • Dinner: Homemade Chinese chicken with cauliflower rice and broccoli (I can't remember who's recipe)

Jan 17

  • Breakfast: Cascadian Farm's potato/sweet potato blend has browns, scrambled eggs, bacon, and leftover Just Be Kitchen's green chile

Mon, Jan 18

Jan 19

Jan 20

Jan 21

  • Dinner: Leftover night

Jan 22

Jan 23

  • Breakfast: Air fried purple sweet potatoes, eggs over easy, avocado, hot sauce and bacon. Topped with EBTB seasoning

Jan 24

Mon Jan 25

Jan 26

Jan 27

Jan 28

Jan 29

Jan 30

  • Breakfast: Olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper roasted kale, air fried sweet potato cubes, eggs over easy and Pederson's bacon, topped with everything but the bagel seasoning
  • Lunch: Recovery smoothie from Kale Me Crazy (add spirulina and chia seeds)
  • Dinner: Real Simple Good's Korean BBQ Chicken thighs (make double the sauce), served over oven roasted baby broccoli tossed with sesame oil and sweet potato noodles (homemade with spiralizer)

Jan 31

  • Lunch: Acai bowl from Kale Me Crazy (hold the honey and granola; add homemade nut granola)

Feb 1

Feb 2

And there you have it! Ben and I both feel better overall. Ben lost a significant amount of weight (I haven't weighed myself and probably won't. I figure if I'm feeling good and motivated to keep eating well and exercising, why letter a number get in my brain and mess that up). I do know my clothes are fitting much better. My skin is much clearer also. Big bummer is that I'm still waking up nightly to go to the bathroom (#smallbladderproblems), although I have generally had an easier time falling asleep.

We both agree that we're willing to maintain a paleo lifestyle during the week, some more food freedom on the weekend, and keep beer in our diet. Although it's been 5 days since Whole30 ended and I've only had 2 beers; so that's pretty good ;)

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