Welcome to Colorful Colorado!
It’s the first weekend of my spring break! I flew out to Denver for a few days to visit my uncle Thad just because. The last time I was out here was almost four years ago for a family vacation to the Rockies. A year before that I came out here with my dad to see Thad and visit CU Boulder as a potential college. As much as I love OSU, it definitely would be sweet to wake up to those mountains every day. Most Ohioans must feel that way too, since a lot of Denver residents are Ohio and other Midwestern transplants.
I got into the Denver airport around 7pm on Friday night, where Thad picked me up and we went to get tacos at a restaurant called Illegal Pete’s. It’s like Chipotle except with a lot more options and a bar.
On Saturday morning we got up early to go to yoga, which was actually harder than I expected it to be. I go to yoga semi-regularly at the university rec center with a bunch of super fit college girls, so I’m over here all confident like ok, I am a tiny limber female, I can handle the yoga that my 6’2” huge uncle can do. NOT SO MUCH. My whole body still hurts.
After spending most of Saturday at a rooftop Saint Patrick’s Day party with Thad’s friends, we went over to the RiNo district for dinner at a restaurant called Hop Alley. It’s a super trendy Asian place with an unofficial tag line of “white dudes do Chinese.” Since Thad knows just about everyone, we got seated early and were offered complimentary wine (score). We ate pickled vegetables, fried rice, duck rolls (tastes like sweet chicken), and pig ears — which were delicious. For dessert we had ice cream and chocolate at the Denver Central Market.
On Sunday morning we got up early again to go hike at Red Rocks. First we stopped at Burrito Giant, a hole-in-the-wall Hispanic breakfast place that also sells workout equipment out of the back (just go with it I guess?). Their red chili bacon breakfast burrito is delish.
Anyway, Red Rocks is an area about thirty minutes outside Denver at the foothills of the Rockies, home to the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater. We hiked around the rocks for a while, where I got super winded…because of the altitude obviously, not because I’m out of shape…maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go to school out here?
We spent the rest of the day running errands to prepare for Thad’s commercial shoot on Monday and later stopped at Tony P’s for pizza.
Today (Monday), since Thad had to spend most of the day filming, I got to explore some of Denver on my own. Thad lives in the Uptown area, a few blocks from downtown, so it was easily walkable. I walked down to the 16th Street Mall to shop and grab a sandwich at Cheba Hut. I also found this Japanese clothing store called Uni Qlo, a more minimalistic version of H&M. I bought a bomber jacket there, which I probably won’t be able to fit in my backpack on the way home. Oops.
I then randomly stopped at the Money Museum in the Federal Reserve building because it advertised free admission, so why not? They displayed every version of American money since the Revolutionary War, as well as $30,000,000 stacked in a glass case–but I’m skeptical if that was real. It only took about 20 minutes to walk through the museum, so you might as well check it out if you’re strolling past on a free afternoon, but I wouldn’t advise going out of your way for it. I would’ve definitely checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art if I had more time and a bigger budget to blow on museum admissions prices.
After the Money Museum, I took the trolley up 16th Street to Union Station, which was a beautiful collection of coffee shops, breakfast cafés, and bookstores where I could’ve spent the rest of the day. I ended up walking to the Denver Bicycle Cafe however, where I’m writing this.
Tonight I’ll get dinner with Thad after he gets back from his shoot and then I head out tomorrow afternoon back to Cincy for the rest of my break. Can’t wait for the snowy Fort Thomas Beach!
See ya, Denver. Hopefully I’ll be back to the mountains soon ✌
