The Centennial State
Well known “Colorful Colorado” was a journey to get to. After a pit stop in Salt Lake City, that will be described in our Utah post, he headed towards Colorado. We were met by our first snow storm and it got so bad they closed the highway. This forced us out into the snowy off roads of Wyoming.
These small roads bordering the highways were packed with feet of snow and only had shallow tire paths. We were SO thankful for our new snow tires (thanks Papa Slack!) and thankfully Meredith handled the snow storm like a dream! We could not say the same for the rest of the highway caravan.
We ended up getting stuck behind a mini van from California. They kept getting stuck and it slowed our 20 mph down to continuous halt. Daniel had a small snow shovel and kept jumping out into the snow to help dig them out. One time when we jumped out the snow was much softer and it went up past our knees. The family was very sweet but did not speak any English and it made coaching them how to drive in snow very difficult.
Some way, some how we finally made it to a gas station! Parts of the road dropped off into large valleys, so it was very important not to slide off the road. BUT, Everyone survived, which was a small miracle. And they finally decided to re-open the highway. After about a 5 hour delay we were finally Colorado bound again.
Once finally in Colorado, our first stop was Boulder! My cousin David is living there and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to hang out. Since David had to work in the morning, we decided it would be a late night visit. We met Dave at Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery. We hung out for quite a few hours and split some nacho and bonded over some local brews. It was nice to catch up, even if it was for a quick visit.
In the morning, we headed straight for the Rocky Mountain National Park. Once again very thankful for our snow tires, we made the beautiful drive up the mountain to the Rocky’s.
We loved driving through this park and were thankful for our National Park season pass to avoid paying for parking. The Rocky Mountains are truly so beautiful you could easily spend quite a few days here.
We headed towards Sprague Lake for a frozen wonderland. It was really really cold outside and I wore the wrong socks. My boots were pretty frozen from being stored up top, so I might have been being A LITTLE bit dramatic. Daniel lovvvves it when I am grumpy, but still he tried to cheer me up to enjoy the park.
All this to say, I was being pretty snappy, Naturally nature decided to humble me, and I quickly fell and busted my butt. It felt like I was slipping for a like 90 seconds before I crashed down about 4 minutes into the hike. It hurt pretty badly, but it was quite comical. After that, I decided I better shape it up before the snow takes its vengeance out on me again.
Now that I was in a better mood we could hike around and enjoy this frozen land. We were really lucky and came across a heard of Elk. They were really magnificent and way bigger than I imagined. We kept quite as to not disturb them and they did not seem too bothered by us.
On the way out of the park we decided to hike around Estes Park a bit. Daniel came here as a kid and remembered there were a bunch of chipmunks you could feed. Unfortunately all those little fluffs were deep in hibernation. But, it is still a really beautiful park.
Once we were done prancing around through the snow we decided to journey down to Denver: the Mile High City.
Once in Denver, we managed to snatch up some parking right outside of the Capitol Building. We thought, “hey why not?” So we ventured through the huge doors of the beautiful architecture.
They had a HUGE Christmas tree set up and everything was decorated. It was totally free to explore, so defintely worth the stop. The center where you can look up and adore the decorated dome was my favorite part.
From there we wandered through Denver and found some really neat parks. This city was much more artsy that we anticipated, and there was a lot of beautifully designed buildings. Being so close to Christmas, a lot of buildings took advantage of red and green lights.
One park that we found, was a little bit disturbing. First of all there was a dry fountain out front, which was due to the season. And secondly, there were animal heads everywhere. It reminded me of some serial killer’s collection or a satanic sacrifice.
Once we reached the explanation plaque, we realized it was something much more innocent. Each animal actually just represented the animals of the Chinese Calendar. Looking at it in that light, it seemed much less intimidating.
All these animals reminded us of the famous animal we hadn’t visited yet. The Big Blue Bear! That’s right. Right outside of the Convention Center (which is huge and really impressive) is this geometric bear just peaking in watching passing citizens.
After peeking at the peeking bear, we went into the Convention Center to de-thaw. This center is packed full of people coming and going. It resembles a busy airport or train station, but it is more inviting. We mingled around and passed the tourist information desk. There we found a flyer for a German Christmas festival. Of course, we could not resist!
The Christkindl Market was actually only a few minutes walk from the Big Blue Bear, so we really lucked out! This festival is a really neat experience. Outside is lined with shop upon shop of little ornaments, hand sculpted wood, pretzel shops, beer stands, glass art, and so much more. Then in the middle of the little “German Town” is a heated tent full of tables like a true festival hall. In this warming tent there were people eating, dancing, and a live band was preforming.
The band was really good, especially the fiddler (tiny bit biased). So we decided to stay a while. We swung by the beir garten and got some drinks. I chose the hot wine (which was served in a cute hand painted mug) and Daniel got a German Pilsner.
PROST! Which is German for CHEERS!
Sipping our drinks and jamming to the tunes really worked up an appetite. We decided to face the freezing temperature once again and find some authentic food to scarf down. We settled for some Wiener Schnitzel, German styled cucumber salad, and a rich potato salad. It was delicious.
With our spirits lifted and our stomachs full, we continued our tour of downtown. Denver has a really interesting thing were they set up Piano’s all throughout their pedestrian streets. They have them covered but everyone is encouraged to uncover them and take a spin on their musical talents. The pianos are brightly painted and we witnessed quite a few being put to good use. They also have benches set up with chess boards to play while listening to local music. There is a bunch of modern art decorating the walkways which keep downtown very lively.
Finally, we headed back to the Capitol building, to be reunited with Meredith. On a side note: I am not sure if it is due to Colorado being so 420 friendly, but I have never seen so many people walking around with full pizzas and munching on them right out of the box. I mean in New York, we witnessed a lot of people eating pizza slices on the go, but here it was right out of the box! No Shame. These people were not going to waste their pizzas, or let them get cold, without enjoying their slices in the pizzas freshest state. I respect that. This really added to the whole vibe of Denver, which is really positive, artistic, encouraging, and festive. We will definitely be visiting again!
Once we finally made it back to the safety of our car, we reflected on such a unique city. Unfortunately, now was the part of the trip we had to venture into the cursed land of Kansas. Stay tuned for the very uninteresting details of our journey through Kansas. Thanks for reading my post this week. Cheers!
God Bless you guys,
McKayla