Welp. With all the drear and snow and negative temperatures here in Kansas City, you would think I’d be off taking a tropical vacation right about… NOW! (Especially because I keep getting these in my e-mail.)

Au contraire my dear ones. T and I headed off to Denver for a long weekend in the middle of February.

Woof. 

Lucky for us, Denver was above freezing and sunny the majority of our visit so it almost DID feel like a  (semi) tropical vacation.

And not just above freezing, I’m talking between 50 and 70 degrees! That’s downright WARM.

Little known fact about Denver that I found out during my visit, the mile high city gets around 300 days of sunshine per year!

(Thanks S for this tidbit!)

So off we went for a warm weekend in Colorado with nilch plans. Plane tickets in hand and a car waiting for us at the airport to take us to the Magnolia Hotel.

Since we took an early bird flight, the first thing we wanted when we arrived was FOOD. Total travel munchies.

My Denver transplant friend, M, recommended eating at Syrup.

Since we were on vacation and that means doing WHATEVA we want. Our scrumptious breakfast included an appetizer of “3 little pigs in a snuggie!” Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I am totally anti-snuggie, but those little guys were mouthwatering.

All fueled up and ready to go, and we were off!

We visited the Denver Art Museum. Although it was only my first art museum visit (don’t ask me about my attempt to visit the Louvre… it’s closed on Tuesdays!), I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

Adults can admire the art and history, but it’s kid-friendly too! 

After the art museum we walked across downtown to Coors Field.

A fantastic tour guide made for a very informative and interesting tour of the entire facility…

and then lead to a great bar recommendation!

Anyone like Blue Moon?

Another little known fact about Denver, Blue Moon was born at Rockies Stadium! The brewery now is in Golden, Colorado, but the Rockies brewpub, the Sandlot, is constantly coming up with new beer creations that you can test for just $1 each. Soooo… all 8 creations (in LARGE testers)… $8. Surgeon General’s Warning: if you’re not used to the altitude a little bit of alcohol can feel like a LOT of alcohol. Yikes. 

During my internship in South Carolina, I made some extremely solid friends. See “Friends.” It just so happens that “Lucky Us!” five of us happened to be in Denver on the same weekend! So after our double flight of trial beers, we were off to meet up with the crew, which led to a too short, but very ‘good ‘ole time’ night in.

The next day, T and I grabbed brunch at the hotel and then spent most of our morning at the 1UP in LoDo (Or for all of you Denver newbs… “Lower Downtown.”)

Now, I don’t consider myself much of a gamer, but you simply CANNOT beat paying a quarter for old school games like Galaga and PacMan, or pinball or my personal favorite- SKIBALL!

T ended up kicking my ass in everything we played, but what’s new?

After gaming, we checked out the 16th Street Mall, got some souvenirs and checked out the Tattered Cover.

I’m sure the 16th Street Mall is more wonderful if you’re actually wanting to do some shopping, but we were just there to wander around and it worked just fine for that too.

When we finally arrived at the Tattered Cover, I was smitten. Throughout the entire bookstore, books are marked with “Employee Recommended” or “Favorite” homemade tags. I could have spent DAYS snooping through the post-it notes to see who liked what and sometimes even how the book changed their life.

That night, we hit up Ocean Prime for a late dinner reservation. (Happy Valentine’s Day to me!)

This place was top notch in all aspects. Attentive, friendly service, food bursting with flavor and an uncomparable Pear Grapefruit Fizz! Read: Highly Recommended.

Here’s our fabulous peanut butter pie…

We wrapped up the night with those previously mentioned friends at Nallen’s Irish Pub. Shenanigans.

The next day needed brunch. Cue, bloody mary. S, M, T and I (You see what I did there!?) grabbed a hangover-friendly brunch at Racines before taking a GORGEOUS Sunday stroll, and then catching a ride with S back to the airport.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering if I’m telling you the whole story. “You went to Denver without visiting a dispensary!?” “You didn’t participate in weed tourism!?” etc. Well, what would you do?

Credit: The room and car were both set up by one of my wonderful friends- it was kind of like having our own personal travel agent. Thanks M!

That’s all for now.

Thanks for reading! Until next time, adios, ciao, sayonara, good-bye!