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!