Colorado Trip - Day One

Ryan & I just got back from our first true vacation since our honeymoon! We visited the gorgeous state of Colorado and had an amazing time. I have so much I want to say, so I'm going to break this up into four posts, covering our five day trip!  (Be prepared for loads of pictures...)

Waiting for our flight Thursday morning

We flew into Denver on Thursday. I will admit openly that I am NOT a good flyer. Flying is one of the things that still has the power to completely spin my anxiety out of control...and it did so Thursday morning. But, I turned on my "keep calm" music (an exclusively Bon Iver playlist) and did my best to focus on the destination.

We flew Southwest, so we had to land in Oklahoma City, pick-up more passengers and then continue on to Denver. I have not experienced many flights as turbulent as our flights to and from Denver...and I am very prone to motion sickness. So, needless to say, it was not an enjoyable flight for me and my apologies to the flight attendant who had to dispose of my airsickness bag...

But, we finally arrived in Colorado, and we were both so excited as soon as we got into our rental car and started our drive to our hotel. There was art, in many forms, ALL OVER Denver. Like these little clouds, which were the first things we saw on our drive.

Oh, the mountains. Be still my heart! 

After settling into our hotel, we were ready to go exploring. So, we hopped into the car and took to the streets of Downtown Denver. 

There were so many little things that made us feel like Colorado was beckoning us. For example, I have an obsession with all things VW. I drive a Jetta and have a torrid love affair with VW Buses and Karmann Ghia's. I saw more VW Buses in Colorado over our 5 day trip than I've seen collectively in my entire life!

Our view of Downtown from our hotel/as we headed to the bridge into the city. 

One of the first things I noticed about Denver was the perfect mix of old, historic and new, modern buildings. They somehow melded so perfectly. 

Something old...

Something new...

The Capital building. 

As an avid baseball fan, I had to scope out Coors Field.

Around that time, we hit a little construction traffic. Ryan was not a fan. ;) 

Of course, we also had to scope out all the theater/music venues.We both loved how many of the buildings had almost entire walls of windows. When surrounded by the mountains, it only makes sense.

Ryan particularly loved the arcitechure of the Pepsi Center (where the Nuggets and Avalanche play/also a concert venue). Another building with infinite windows! 

 

It is also a city filled with breweries and most of the bars carry all the local beers, which was pretty cool. 

Denver's Union Station 

 OH the art. I loved the diversity of it!

This was Ryan's favorite piece.

This was MY favorite piece. I just starred at it every time we drove past it.

After a long day of traveling/sight seeing, we settled in for a semi-early night by ordering pizza from our hotel room. 

To be continued...