Colorado Trip - Day Two

On our second day in Denver, Ryan woke up with some serious altitude sickness. Poor guy had a pretty miserable morning, but started to feel better once the clean Colorado air hit his lungs. We spent most of the day exploring some of the areas around Denver. The mountain views were every where we went.

I didn't take many pictures as we were out and about. We just enjoyed driving around together, listening to tunes and taking in the natural beauty around us without a phone/camera constantly obstructing our line of vision. 

After our fill of exploring, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night out in the city. An Insta-friend (aka a friend on Instagram) who lives in the area recommended some of her favorite restaurants, and after looking at half a dozen menus, we settled on Racine's downtown. It was absolutely delicious, and we loved the look of the restaurant, too. It was yet another example of old/historic meets new/modern.

By far the best meal we had the whole trip.

Post dinner

After dinner, we headed over to the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. Ryan & I are both big fans of contemporary/abstract/modern type art and sculptures and the awesome, rotating LED piece right outside the museum drew us in.

The view of Union Station from the rooftop parking garage across from the museum.

Unfortunately, the pierced heart at the entrance accurately depicted how we felt after walking through this museum. (If you can really call it that...) The entrance was the best part of what was featured inside. As we walked in, we had to walk through a hallway where crocheted pieces hung from the ceiling.

 Then we were greeted by simply written "Hello".

We paid our $5 each, and were ready to experience more of the amazing art we'd seen around the city. However...that never happened. We toured the basement, and two main floors and saw THREE "exhibits". (Really, they were sparse walls with a few mediocre pieces.) We passed numerous empty rooms that were closed for "updating". What was apparently the coolest part (a bubble garden on the 3rd floor) was closed for a private event. It took us 20 minutes to walk through the ENTIRE museum. We kept looking at each other like "are we missing something?"  I am an avid "Yelper" and always check Yelp before going somewhere new/out of town, but this time we just went on a whim. I checked Yelp after the fact, and so wished I'd looked at it before. It would have saved us time and $10.

The top floor that we didn't get to see.

 
As we left the museum, completely disappointed and bummed, we knew we needed something special to redeem this evening out. Since the sun was just starting to set, we jumped back into the car and took off toward the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. It was one of the things we'd most looked forward to.

The drive up was so scenic and beautiful. 

What do I have to do to live in that house?

 

 
 As we walked up to the top, we were greeted by a large, bronze scuplture. We loved how everything in Colorado had a back story.

  As we rounded the corner, the anticipation grew...

 

Absolute perfection.

 We stood in this spot as the sun went down, just taking in all the beauty that surrounded us.

As the sun dipped behind the mountain peaks and the winds got colder, we drove back down the hill. In the glow of the headlights, I spotted something just ahead...a deer!

Can you see it? Just left of the street light.)

As I got out of the car to snap a picture, I saw that just down the hill, there was a whole deer family! Look at all those white, fluffy tails! They were not afraid of us at all...I was in complete awe.

As we exited the park, we snapped one last picture at the Red Rocks Trading Post. It looked like it had been there for as long as the rocks themselves. 

After views like that, how could our night NOT be redeemed?

To be continued...

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...

I'm Still Here!

So...I haven't blogged in almost a MONTH.

Oops, I did it again. (You know you're singing along...)

The lack of blogging has left the depressing post below sitting in the top stop for too long, by my standards, so this is a super quick "Oh HI there"! We are heading out of town soon (I know, they say you should never announce that on the web, buuut my home will NOT be left unoccupied, so whatever) and I'm sure I'll have much more to write about when we get back.

Till then, how about a couple of pics of my delightfully adorable kitties! ;)

No I did NOT paint Chloe's nails. I haven't gone that far off the rails. They are SoftPaws nail covers - look them up!

Cooper, peeking out from his favorite windowsill.

The rare "blanket share".