"Road Trip" to Baltimore

Riding our favorite elevator

A few weeks back I took a "road trip" up to Baltimore for the weekend with some girlfriends.  The impetus for the trip was to go to the Hozier show at Merriweather, then go out in Baltimore afterwards.

Our first stop in the charm city was at Faidley's Seafood - which has been family owned and operated since 1886! The place is definitely a tourist destination, but well worth it.  I don't eat seafood, but my friends ordered a crab cake each and some raw oysters that they all raved about.  I had a meal of mac & cheese, coleslaw, and the best deviled egg I've ever eaten (besides my mom's).  Of course we washed all this down with Natty Boh's.

From there we went into an awesome dance party in another part of Lexington Market (since 1782!)

Then we checked into the hotel and hit the pool.

So our room was one of those windows that overlooked the swimming pool.  It also overlooked this outdoor event space (which I guess used to be tennis courts).  Well we lucked out and we got front row seats to witness a wedding!

Since we were running late from watching the whole wedding, we ran over to the touristy part of the Waterfront for some din and sangria.  Not a bad view!

Now, by this point we were all aware that there were storms rolling in.  We really were excited for the show and were being optimistic.  So from there we called an uber and headed out to Columbia, MD.  As we were getting closer and the lightening was getting intense Merriweather updated their twitter saying they were closing the gates until the storms passed.  Well, we weren't about to get out of our uber and wait outside...and didn't want to keep the meter running while we waited out the storm...so long story short...We took a $50 joyride there and back with nothing to show for it.  We had the driver drop us off back at our room since the storm was really raging.  Lucky for us those windows offered the perfect view for lightening watching.  We found out after the fact that we had our faces pressed up against the windows during a tornado warning!

Since we weren't about to call it a night, but didn't want to venture out; we headed down to the hotel bar.  It was quite swanky and even had an indoor pond!

We finished up the night with Papa John's delivered to the lobby.  Definitely made the best of the night that wasn't what we expected!

We woke up early the next morning to grab a Starbucks breakfast and snag some more pool time.  Then we checked out and headed over to Fells Point for a boozy brunch, shopping and water time.

Bloody Mary fixings!

All in all, not what we were expecting, but an A+ weekend!

Denver!

For Memorial Day weekend I travelled to Denver, Colorado for a girls weekend with my friends Stef and Elise.  Stef moved from DC to Denver about a year ago and was a great tour guide.

Our first stop after getting settled in was The Walnut Room - a great pizza place where I got my signature "Pineapple and Onion."  From there we hit up Black Shirt Brewing Company - a brewery that specializes in Red Ales - my favorite was the Blood Orange India Red Ale.  They also had a guy playing acoustic guitar back in with all the metal casks that sounded so cool.  Then we went to the roller rink!  I was big into rollerblading when I was in elementary school so I was hoping that skill would translate to the four-wheeled version, but it definitely did not.  I went around the ring a few times, but then was content to stand on the outer edge and try to make eyes at boys.  Found out later it was a gay bar!

Saturday morning we woke up early to get in a yoga session in at Solshine.  After getting cleaned upwe headed towards downtown for the "Denver Day of Rock." First stop was City O'City for some lunch.

We then made our way past the capital, through an art fair, and down to 16th street where they had a bunch of stages set up for the festival.

Just as we were checking out some of the music we got hit with one of the many downpours we were caught in that weekend.  

Luckily Wynkoop Brewery (founded by the current governor of Colorado!) was close by - just down in "LoDo."  I ordered a flight - the most interesting beer here was a beer brewed with ancho chilies.  Had a nice kick to it.

After we finished our beers, we were greeted by a sunny sky

We went into Union Station for some ice cream.  I had a boozy milkshake - Salted Oreo with vodka and Baileys.  Delish!
Then walked around and checked out Millennium Bridge.

#perspective

Tried to walk a trail down by the river, but it was flooded!

My friend Ala moved to Denver earlier this year, so got to catch up with her!

Finally, after ducking into a bar to avoid the monsoon that nearly took out the beer garden tent, we got to hear some music! St. Paul and the Broken Bells headlined and were awesome.

The next morning we got up bright and early to head to the mountains!  We were hoping to hike Blue Lake, but the roads up there were still impassable from snow!  So we took a slight detour and hiked up to Brainard Lake.  

After the hike we went stopped off in Boulder for some lunch and shopping on Pearl Street.  Then we headed back to Stef's house to enjoy the sunshine and some beers on her porch.  We had a home-cooked meal - butternut squash and tofu curry served with a specialty gin cocktail concocted by Elise.

Munchie oversaw our cooking.

The next morning we had a Memorial Day brunch over at Stef's friends' house and set off on a hike up by El Dorado.

Cacti!

It was my fave hike I've done in a long time, despite all the mud!

On the way back home we stopped and had dinner at Sputnik - an awesome dive-y bar that had a great menu.

After regrouping we headed back out to the 1-Up on Colfax Ave.  This was my first time at a real arcade bar, and it was great.  I spent more money than I care to admit on pinball and Ms. Pac-Man.

Such a fun night to end the trip!

More apartment

My living area is probably my fave room in the apartment. Right now I have a Room and Board couch and chaise that I think will stay. I also have a Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams chair that I bought on a floor sample sale about eight years ago. I love this and will keep it for a good long time. I also have a wicker basket/side table with storage that I think I'll also probably keep. Other than that I think we'll be making some big changes.

Before pics:

Plans for this room:

• First of all, I'm planning on painting the whole apartment, minus my bedroom Elmira White.  I've loved having such a bright and colorful apartment, but am totally ready to tone it down a bit.  

Traditional Family Room by Surrey Home Stagers Positive Space Staging + Design, Inc.

• Next, as anyone who lives in a small apartment can tell you, storage is the name of the game.  I've been in desperate need of a good bookshelf since I've lived in this apartment (5 years!), so I'm going big with what I'm calling a "media wall." Basically a console with two bookshelves on both sides.  

I'm also planning on getting the rug that's currently in there professionally cleaned (any tips on that?) and then relocating it to my bedroom.  We're going to try and reposition the chaise lounge so that it's facing into the room (which is hard for me to imagine, but I'm trusting a professional), then do a side table on the inside of the couch against the small wall between the french windows.  I am also in the market for a new coffee table - something that sits lower to the ground than the one I currently have.  

Stay tuned - I'll keep you updated on this project!