Well, first time to Denver and first time crashing one of my fiance’s work trips in the books. Can’t believe it took me this long to do it. It was great to be able to explore a new city, help use up her per diem on delicious new restaurants, and not having to miss her while she’s gone (yeah, two and a half years in and we’re still super gross). She appreciated having me tag along to keep her company since these trips can often get kind of boring.
Anyways, Denver is a pretty interesting place. The downtown area has a pretty solid big city vibe, but it still seems to have some small city charm when you get out of that area. Reading up on it a bit it seems like the downtown area was actually pretty run down until they put a plan in place to revitalize the LoDo area. I have to say it really paid off. Lots of restored buildings from the late 1800’s, awesome food, and microbrews galore. It’s got a bit of a Williamsburg vibe, but refreshingly more laid back and not nearly as expensive. It was really nice not having to pay $9+ for the sort of beers I like. Unlike Williamsburg, where a bar might have 20 taps and 15 IPAs every bar seemed to have a really varied selection. As someone who really likes Belgian ales, it was really refreshing to have most carrying 3 or 4 solid Belgian style but locally brewed options. The mix of big city, the option to have some space, and a thriving music and arts scene has lured a few friends of ours out there and it has us looking pretty hard at it as an option if we decide we’re done with New York at some point. Of course, once we ran into a few things like the improving but still a bit lacking public transportation and restaurants that close way too early it became apparent that we’re not quite ready for that yet.
Denver as a whole does seem to have a fun bit of playfulness and weirdness with its style and art. The airport is really interesting and unique. The check-in building is massive and the roof is made to look like teepees from the outside. Inside there are some just wonderfully strange murals, like this guy at baggage claim:
My favorite bit though is the bear at the conference center. First of all, I love bears and I’m pretty convinced if I could chill with one of the smaller species we could be cuddle buddies. Secondly, they could have just put some random bear statue like a lot of other places might have, but they went ahead and made him do silly bear things and have him peering into the conference center.
I snapped that picture of him after dropping off my fiance at the conference center the first day. I decided that it was far too early to be up when I don’t have to work and went back to the hotel for a nap. Thursday was expected to be an easy day for her work wise so we were hoping to meet up for lunch, but unfortunately conference set-ups never go to plan and she got stuck there for most of the day. That’s ok, I got to play hero and grab sandwiches from Chiba Hut and bring her lunch. For those of you not familiar with Chiba Hut, it is a glorious sandwich place with a bunch of weed themed puns for everything. Seems like an awesome fit for Denver given it’s now the weed capital of the US, but it’s actually from Phoenix and has long been her favorite sandwich place. I highly suggest checking one out if you come across it, it makes all the other sandwich shops look like dog food.
After lunch I got to do a walking tour of the Lodo area. I’m pretty used to walking everywhere in NYC, so one of my favorite ways to see a new city is to just go walk around and hopefully run into cool things. Just west of the conference center is the theater district and behind that is a sculpture park with these two beautiful dancing figures hanging out.
Next I turned back up into LoDo and spied this pretty awesome clock tower:
Kept walking around and found Union Station so I figured I would go check that out. I’m a huge fan of trains. They are a great way to see the sights of the surrounding countryside and I was pretty excited when I heard about the Winter Park Express train to go snowboarding. Too bad the US has no clue how to actually do trains and it was cheaper to rent a car and have my choice of mountain. It’s so frustrating to want to do something like go to Washington DC by train but nope, renting a car or flying are cheaper. Even though I didn’t get to take a train, the station is still beautiful and got some pretty awesome shots of it.
Afterwards I wandered over to the park by the river, and caught a glimpse of an amusment park in the back ground
On my way out I found a herd of buffalo on the street. I guess this is a thing you got to watch for here.
By this point I was pretty thristy and was just looking for the first bar with a happy hour. I ended up at the Wynkoop Brewery which had some fantastic beers on tap. I ended up getting their Quad, their Tripel, and a Saison, all delicious! I hung out there until my fiance got off of work and then it was time to check out some of Denver's awesome food scene. We settled on Katchina and their promise of Navajo tacos. For those that haven't had them, they are tacos that use Navajo fry bread instead of a tortilla! You can find them on the way in and out of Burning Man and they are a tradition for my fiance to grab some on the way home. I had never had one before and was super stoked to try it. She was not lying, they are ridiculously good! We called it an early night since tomorrow was my big snowboarding day.
I had settled on Keystone as my my option near to Denver. Woke up far too early (6:30 am) and made my way over the the rental and was on my way. The receptionist at work introduced me to the glory of Taco Bell breakfast earlier in the week and so of course I made it a point to grab a breakfast crunchwrap with a Mountain Dew on the way in. Fuel for an EXTREME!!! day or something. The mountain is about an hour and a half drive, which was slow going thanks to some dense fog on the way out of Denver, but I have to say, once it cleared it was one of the most beautiful drives I have done. First time to the Rockies and they did not disappoint. Made it there and by 10 I was on the gondola for my first run. It was my first time boarding in almost two years and so of course rather than find an easy trail I went right to the top and found myself on a blue trail with moguls. I hate moguls like Indian Jones hates snakes. After a bit of humbling on my first run I was dialed in and ready to shred. I'm a solid intermediate so I mostly avoided the black diamonds, but it was really a great day of boarding. Beyond that though it was really worth it for the views alone.
Once I got comfortable headphones went on and it definitely helped make the experience even better. One of my lift mates also suggested getting stone was the way to go, but frankly I get way too high for that to be a good idea. Good music though can really get you in the right head space to just carve your way down at full throttle, my best runs coinsided with these tracks:
Overall I was super happy with how I did on the mountian for my first time out to Colorado. I do have to say I felt the altitude a few times, needed a break during most of my runs, but I made it all the way to 6 until I was just totally gassed. Glad I did though because the sunset up there was incredible.
Made my way home, some more thick fog and snow made the drive pretty unpleasant, but got back in one piece and ready to just relax. To help with that I visited one of the dispenaries in Colorado that was right on the 16th Street Mall. Wow what a game changer. Every type of bud they had was set up next to an iPad that gave you all the info on the strain you were looking at. It was like buying weed in an Apple store. Picked up a gram of some Tangerine OG Kush and headed out for some much needed beer and food. We were both so hungry (and not even high yet) that we just ordered everything that looked good on the menu to split. Once we were done there a warm bath and a one hitter was all I needed to be in my happy place.
That was until I woke up the next day and everything was sore as hell. Definitely felt the going hard after a two year break, but was so worth it. It was pretty brutal and snowing outside so I wasn't really interested in being anywhere other than bed anyway. I did manage to get up to meet my fiance for brunch and ate this glorious thing:
On the way out of the convention center I also caught a great view of the bear. Poor guy in the snow, he just wants to come in and chill!
Tried to do some shopping after cause I really need new jeans, but hated everything at Uniqlo and H&M. Not really sure how H&M is still in buiness to be honest. Was still drained though so went back to the hotel for a nice long nap. Woke up when my fiance came back to the hotel room and decided to keep on napping. We had plans for the Pink Mammoth (a Burning Man camp) party and we were both pretty drained, but we're nap and rally experts. Took a very confused Uber driver out to a warehouse a few miles away and got a bit lost trying to find the actual entrance, but had an awesome time once we found it. Ran into a few friends who recently moved there as well. Music was standard deep house stuff, but it was nice to see how the Denver scene gets down. Unfortunately we both had early days so we only made it to about 1am and confused another Uber driver trying to get a ride back.
Overall it was an amazing trip and I will definitely be back for another visit if not just for the beer alone. Would love to see how it looks during the summer, it's such a beatuiful part of the country. Still though, was very happy to get home early Sunday and spend the rest of the day resting and covered in cats. Last bit of travel for a bit, now I get to really focus on getting into a routine and accomplishing my goals for this year!