Miles driven: 4000+
Costcos visited expressly for the free samples: 4
Denver is big- it's nearly twice the size of Salt Lake, Portland, or DC. Is also constantly buzzing. Not in a city-that-never-sleeps NYC way, but more in a lets-go-running-kayaking-hiking-biking all in the same day way. It is, in a word, exhausting. It's not all exercise and games, though. We stayed with Carys, a friend from William and Mary, who showed us exactly why everyone seems to want to live in this Mile High piece of heaven.
We arrived in the Highlands, Carys' cute and quaint downtown neighborhood with a peek of he Rockies just in time for dinner. We had some incredible Italian food al fresco at a street side cafe before unloading our bags at her house. Side note: it's incredible how social media has made our lives easier this trip. About an hour outside our destination, we will begin to Yelp, Foursquare, and Open Table ourselves into some of the most hidden(and therefore local) places in town. Now, it could be said that these programs also remove the mystique and local-ness of some of these places now that the tourists can find them, but regardless- they have saved us from an Applebee's more than once.
After meeting up with Carys, her sister Fiona, and Fiona's boyfriend Jamie at an arcade/bar (drunk giant Jenga anyone? Enjoy the video of cat playing such a game in the next post) we headed back to rest up for Red Rocks.
The next morning was spent hiking (see??) the Red Rocks amphitheater, a quasi-natural formation that Denver County turned into one if the most spectacular music venues in the country. More impressive than the sandstone formations , though, was the sheer number of people using the amphitheater as their personal stair master. We walked in to two different cardio pump classes going on, as well as about 100 Bob Harpers and Jillian Michaels hopping, running, and push-upping their body fat away. It was certainly a sight to see. For many reasons ;)
That afternoon, we grabbed lunch at a riverside sausage joint (gourmet , free-range, cruelty-free, and caviar-fed swine of course- this is Denver!) and took a tour of four of Denver's finest breweries. The "city of beer" certainly lives up to its name. At least, it did until we forgot around brewery 3.5 exactly which city we were in...
That night we went with Fiona and Carys to a local band festival called "Pickin' on the Poudre" (pronounced 'pooder'). A haven for blue grass and blues music, the Pooder, as it's apparently known, did not disappoint. Way up in the Rockies, the Pooder is set right along a fast-flowing river, which added to the chill in the mountain air. You may guess that country/bluegrass isn't Cat's favorite music, but Carys, Fiona, and I rocked out hard. At one point, with more than one whiskey and that West Virginia blood flowing through me, I danced a hearty jig with a mountain man wearing little more than a pair of red suspenders.
The next morning I went for a run (you know, just to fit in) and then we headed to brunch. Cat and I wandered around downtown Denver, went to what I'm sure is the worlds largest REI (go figure) and walked back to Carys' to nap and pack up. We met Fiona and her in a lovely park for a dinner picnic, while we watched four different volleyball games and several frisbee-ers.
At ice cream afterwards, we sat listening to live jazz while enjoying my favorite flavor-oatmeal raisin cookie. So while you might have to drink the fitness Kool-Aid ( sugar free of course) to really fit in, I think we could definitely get used to the laid-back, earthy, urban grace 5280 feet in the air.
* since I am writing this on an iPad in Iowa somewhere, pictures to come when we get to WiFi!
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