Denver - Day 2

We started out our trip with drinking and eating and the good eats continued Saturday morning.

 

Similar to our NYC trip, I started a Denver Pinterest board to remember ideas of things to eat/drink/see during the trip. One of the top places on my list was Snooze. I learned about Snooze from Torts and a Torts blog.  Seeing as she regulars the place, I figured it had to be good.  We weren't proven wrong.

 

We visited the LODO location and had a 45 minute wait; but they had coffee and seating (even games, although it was too windy) to keep us occupied. Once inside we discovered what a well oiled machine this place is.  All of the staff was busy but friendly. Mario was our waiter and extremely patient with our indecisiveness.  When we told him we were visiting, he came out with a piece of paper and started to jot down recommendations.

 

I'm pretty sure this place was meant to be, they had mimosas for me and brewmosa (beer and orange juice for Ben).

Mario kept true to his promise that our order wasn't too complicated (my mom and I split items but had special requests) and it can out perfectly.


Breakfast tacos; one with chorizo

Sweet potato pancakes with caramel sauce

After a hearty breakfast, we gave ourselves time to digest and drove to Boulder (a 20 minute drive) and right on through on Highway 119 to Boulder Falls. When we arrived, the falls were closed due to recent rock falls. However, seeing a few others who'd jumped the gate, we quickly steeped down to visit the falls. Thunderous but gorgeous.

We decided we could part with the scenery just yet (and it wasn't much of a workout), we drove back towards Denver and decided to park at a random trail head we found.

It ended up being the Betasso Link Trail. The guide says it's extremely steep and difficult, but if the four of us non-hikers could do it without much difficulty, it makes you question who assigns the level of difficulty in the first place.

Once we got to the top, the view was amazing!


Boulder below

Having got a decent hike in (it took about 2 hours round trip), we decided to head down to Pearl Street Mall in Boulder to check out the strip.  It was line with restaurants and shops, street performers and people.  What a bustling little downtown!

After checking out Trip Advisor reviews, we decided to give The Med a try for lunch.  We were seated in the outdoor patio and enjoyed the weather, food, and a chance to sit down.

Pizza (AGAIN!) for Ben

My gyro; delish!

After more pursuing of the strip, we decided we'd better head back to Denver to shower and get ready.  Ben took the liberty of showering first so that he could venture out to Argonaut Liquor, the local liquor store. It turned out to be a Mecca.  Ben found not one, but two Russian River beers; Pliny the Elder happens to be one of the top rated IPAs in the world and it didn't prove us wrong.

We enjoyed the sunset on our hotel balcony and watched the start of the Blackhawks game.

After 2nd intermission, we hurried over to 17th avenue to eat dinner at Avenue Grill. They only have two TVs there (located in the bar) but we were able to snag a table to watch the game, enjoy some amazing tuna and cheer on a victory.

Leaving dinner my parents decided to call it a night, but being Saturday night, Ben and I weren't quite ready to call it quits yet.  Instead, we walked over to Cheeky Monky on Colfax Avenue, which Ben had researched to be a good craft beer bar.  He wasn't wrong.

We hopped at spot at the bar and chatted it up with Michael, the bartender.  Like everyone else we interacted with, he was super friendly.  Ben about had a heart attack when he realized they had Russian River on tap.  We were ready to head home when we realized they had Russian River Supplication, our sought after holy grail sour beer, available in bottle.  So, we spent $22 on a bottle of beer and it was worth every drop.

Denver - Day 1

Denver - Days 3 and 4