In early June 2017 I went on a girls trip with Katie Whalen and Katie DiLauro to Colorado. It was a welcome get away after a busy and intense year of student teaching and completing my Masters degree, and a great chance to get a girls trip in before Baby Verdi arrives. I'm not going to do a full play-by-play of the trip, but will share highlights and some of the best photos of the week.
Katie D. and I flew out of JFK and into Denver and met Katie W. at the airport, before grabbing our rental car and driving into Denver. We stayed in a cute Air B&B in the Highland Park neighborhood, which had some of the cutest homes, many colorfully decorated and inviting. Our first night's dinner - gas station snacks (no joke, it was so late all of the fast food places were closed) was hilarious and probably something we'll always remember. We spent a few days with Denver as our base, exploring the city, taking a day trip to Breckenridge, and the beautiful Red Rocks. In Denver we visited the Denver Botanic Gardens, which was absolutely beautiful, and we would all highly recommend. We spent a couple of hours exploring some of the downtown Denver RiNo neighborhood (lunch at the Denver Central Market, viewed all of the cool street art) before enjoy one of our best meals in Colorado at the trendy Linger. The food at Linger, tapas and shared plates was all excellent, the service was super friendly, and it was a fun environment. We totally over-ordered and were in a food coma, but it was worth it. A couple of the more spectacular plates are in the photos below. The next day we drove an hour and a half further west to the ski town Breckenridge to explore. We went on a short hike, spent the day strolled in and out of almost all of the town's little shops, had lunch, and took the gondola up onto the ski mountain and saw some of the snow (still on the mountain in June, CRA). It's a quaint little town and would love to experience it during ski season. That night we had pizza and ice-cream and were on the lazier side after a full day of walking. (If you ever visit Denver make a pilgrimage to Little Man Ice Cream. It is SO GOOD, and an incredible deal - the cones were HUGE and a fraction of the price of what you would pay for a cone in Brooklyn.) On day three we spent more time exploring Denver, touring the Molly Brown House Museum on a very warm day (it was in the low 90s that day and the house, which is very old, has no AC and just a few fans; it was the first day that I was really feeling my pregnancy.) You can only tour the house through their official tour guides who know and share a lot of information on about Molly Brown, her family, and the long history of the home. She was such a larger than life character, immortalized in the movie Titanic, that it was fun to learn more about her. We visited the Denver Public Library of course. If you are ever in the city and looking to kill a bit of time, head up to one of the top floors for some sweeping views of the city. We did a self-guided walking tour of our neighborhood to view all of the pretty little houses referenced earlier. I was seriously in love with all of the craftsman-style bungalows and if I was ever going to pick up and move to Colorado, it would be to one of these homes. We had an easy dinner at a food-hall type location, Avanti Food and Beverage, before hitting up the speakeasy Williams & Graham - virgin cocktail for me! We departed our little cottage the next day, driving to Red Rocks to explore and do a bit of hiking, before driving up to Rocky Mountain National Park. We stayed at the Discovery Lodge, just on the edge of Estes Park, one of the nearest towns to the park. It was simple, but looked like it had been recently renovated, and was inexpensive. When we got into Estes Park we stopped at the visitor center, and because we couldn't check into our hotel, immediately took one of the shuttle buses up to the park and did the first of two hikes we would complete over our three days near the park. The park was busy but the trails weren't too swamped with people, and we were able to make it to and from Dream Lake in a few hours. Dream Lake was a beautiful endpoint especially since there was snow still visible in many places. By the time we got back into town it was early evening - which is actually late on Estes Park time - and all but one restaurant in town was closed. We proceeded to have the most awkward but hilarious dinner at a local diner. (The entire evening is too much to explain, but I'll leave this: I asked for a grilled cheese with tomato. The serve asked if I would like the tomato sliced, to which I replied yes. What I received was a grilled cheese, with an entire tomato sliced and on the side. It might not seem funny, but compounded with a number of other funny occurrences, it left Katie, Katie and I in tears throughout our meal.) We got a good nights sleep and were up early the next day, and after a quick breakfast headed back into Rocky Mountain National Park. We did a second hike, to Mills Lake, a 5.3 miles roundtrip. This one was a bit trickier for me - and required more breaks. But it was well worth it again; there were picturesque waterfalls, mountain range scenes throughout, and snow scattered along the trail. This hike took us much of the day, but made it back to Estes Park in time to have dinner at a normal restaurant, Claire's On the Park. It could have been because we had such a strenuous day, or because we'd only had so-so food since two days before, but dinner was really good, and both the service and environment were great. Before we retired for the evening we visited the famous Stanley Hotel (from The Shining) to take some pictures. We decided to return the next morning for breakfast. (Breakfast there was ok. If you really wanted to visit the hotel briefly, I might recommend just getting a beer at the bar, rather than sitting for a full meal.) We spent the morning strolling through the shops of Estes Park, doing a bit of shopping. Midday we left Estes Park for Boulder, the final stop on our Colorado adventure. In Boulder we checked into our hotel, Basecamp Boulder, which was a hip and trendy, and a quick ride to Pearl Street. We grabbed lunch (awesome empanadas at Rincon Aregentino Boulder) and then spent a few hours shopping on Pearl Street. We had dinner at a local brick oven pizza place which was pretty good, but the name of which completely escapes me right now. We had a low key evening at our hotel - enjoying the hot tub (only feet for me) and relaxing outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. The next day we visited Chautauqua Park, and did a short hike, one-mile hike. Later in the day we visited the Avery Brewing Company, a pretty large Colorado-based brewing company. It was an interesting tour - the brewery is huge - and the owner's story was pretty interesting. We had some late lunch snacks in the restaurant, and Katie and Katie tasted lots of beer - I watched, but bought some to bring home to Jared. Later that evening we enjoyed on last, girls trip dinner at The Kitchen - Boulder, back on Pearl Street. It was a farm to table restaurant, with lots of Colorado-based farms and products represented, a simple yet stylish environment, and friendly service. We headed back to our hotel, had some s'mores by the fire pit before packing up for our departure the next day. It was a super fun and relaxing week (despite all of the strenuous hiking) and I was so glad to spend the week with two of my fave gal pals.
Photos from my iPhone are below. At some point (who knows when) I'll upload photos from our good camera too. Enjoy!
