This weekend I went to visit my sister in Denver, Colorado! She’s doing a dental residency program there so she and her husband moved there last June.

While I was recovering from my mini toe-surgery I spent a lot of time online looking at flights and ended up booking a roundtrip long weekend for $69 (okay actually each way was $69, but I had points to use so I only paid for one way). So Denver it was!

Thursday:

My flight left at 5:35am on Thursday and I landed in Denver around 6:45am local time. Then I hopped on the light rail and my sister’s husband picked me up from a stop nearby their place. I spent a bit of time showering, settling in, and taking a break to relax and snack with the pups.

I had a haircut scheduled with the lady who did my hair all of middle/high school at 11:30am so then I went and did that. It took 2 hours. She did a great job. It’s much too short for my taste though, and honestly I don’t really feel like myself and would like it about 2 inches longer. But I guess I just gotta wait it out.

I spent a bit of time walking around, getting coffee, and headed back to my sister’s place around 3:30pm. I ate a late lunch snack thing and rested for a while. My sister came home a little bit later and her husband made us an awesome dinner of homemade veggie burgers, TJ’s sweet potato fries, and salad with chickpeas, quinoa, nuts, and dried cranberries. He’s an awesome cook. He’s a vegetarian, and my sister also eats mostly vegetarian, so meals with them are often plant-based. Nom.

The veggie burger patties were based on this recipe, and were truly outstanding. Served with avocado, tomato, lettuce, onion, and cucumbers, and some random hummus sauce that tasted nice. Also ketchup + hot sauce + BBQ sauce because we like condiments in our fam.

(Speaking of condiments, this tweet from Ed Sheerean is everything to me):

Then we went to ice cream at Little Man’s. The experience was fun and filled with laughs. The vegan ice cream tasted okay but the texture was very gummy and unpleasant. Still an awesome time and nice evening.

Friday:

The next day I drove my sister to work, and then explored the city a bit. I camped out at Denver Central Market for a bit to do some work, then went to Babette’s to get the most amazing bread ever period.

After that I headed back to her place to make some lunch and shower. For lunch I had the leftover salad with added greens and cashews, and a ton of Babette’s bread. It was perfect. My appetite was a bit lower than usual, probably because it always takes me a little bit to adjust to altitude, so I was craving something not-too-heavy and fresh. This did the trick.

 

I did a bunch of work outside (it was so beautiful) until it started to rain. I came inside and ate more cashews (okay honestly Trader Joe’s organic cashews are somehow the best cashews ever period) and by that time it was almost time to get Jenn from work. I had intended to go shopping this day, but wasn’t in the mood.

We grabbed Jenn from work and brought the dogs, and planned on a walk, but it started to rain (hard) almost the minute we pulled up to the park. We headed back to my sister’s place, and by that time the rain had cleared (lol). But we got ready and headed to dinner.

For dinner we went to Watercourse Foods, which is an all-vegan place. We ordered the MOST AMAZING cauliflower wings and a huge (much bigger than we anticipated) plate of nachos to start. I was very much infatuated by the wings.

The nachos were good too, but I’m not a huge nacho person (I eat them and like them, but don’t crave for them, if that makes sense).

After appetizers, we were basically full (lol) but our food came out anyways. I had ordered a vegan caesar salad with added miso-glazed tofu. I think my appetite was still adjusting cause I just didn’t have the giant appetite I usually do. This was a perfect entree following the apps.

We were stuffed and passed on dessert (shocking, I know), and headed back to Jenn’s place where we walked the dogs.

Saturday:

Saturday started bright and early. I got up around 4:50am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Jenn got up at 5:30, and we had a breakfast of Babette’s bread with peanut butter and banana.

Next we hit up yoga at Red Rocks at 7:00am, which was pretty damn awesome. The sun was shining, and the weather was great.

The walk up to Red Rocks was probably the most strenuous part lol.

 

After that + an hour of yoga we were ready for iced coffee and some chill time.

Here is the best selfie I took all trip:

Back to hotel Jackson we went for some down time. Jenn napped, I chilled. We also ate a papaya at some point. I also had a banana + more bread + pb as a snack before we headed out for the park a little after noon.

We spent a solid amount of time in the park with the dogs. The weather was so nice all weekend so we really soaked it all in.

After our walk we headed to TJ’s to grab some stuff to make a corn and bean salad for a party later. I got some yummy Healthade Pink Lady Apple Booch + some slaw for the party (which was on demo and SO good) + some chocolate.

 

Look how cute the doggo stuff was!

Then it was home for a late lunch and some more down time. I had leftover salad + miso glazed tofu (from last night) and more bread. Because bread.

That night, we headed out to one of my sister + Tyler’s friends party. On the way, we stopped for beer at a rando liquor store which just so happened to be next door to Beet Box!

Beet Box is a vegan bakery I sought out last time I was in town. SUPER yummy all-vegan bakery and cafe. While Tyler was grabbing booze, I grabbed some sweet carby snacks.

I got us a vanilla coconut doughnut, an apple cinnamon walnut doughnut, and a giant cinnamon roll to share. The vanilla coconut doughnut was a bit sweet for me, but the other two were EXCELLENT. LOVED the cinnamon roll.

We headed to the party where we hung out for several hours. It was a grill out and the hosts were sweet enough to grill Tyler and I some mushroom caps. I made a sandwich thing with a mushroom cap + a grilled peach + avo + tomato + onion + lettuce + slaw + hummus + had some more slaw + bean salad on the side. Not pictured: veggies + more hummus + chips + more guac. It looks really gross in the following pic:

I headed back to the Jackson’s in an uber around 10:30 cause I was pooped from my inability to nap during the tow opportunties available to me that day.

Except then I couldn’t really sleep well because the doggos kept barking. I think their neighbors were having a party or something. Anyways, I didn’t get to sleep until around 12:30am. Blah.

Sunday

Sunday I slept in til 7:30am, which is pretty darn late for me. I spent the morning hours outside on their deck reading and drinking coffee in the sun. My sister got up around 9:30am and we got ready for a day of adventures.

First we swung by Denver Central Market to hit up Babette’s for another loaf for me to take home. We also grabbed some coffee from Boxcar. Love that place.

 

We piled into the car and got on the road. St. Mary’s Glacier was on our agenda.

My sister and her husband took me here in January, but it was SO cold and windy (like 20 degrees and super gusty) and I had Millie in my arms who was so pissed about the whole thing I spent all of my energy clutching her in my arms and carrying her up the glacier gloveless (I had a good grip and she was so swirmy I didn’t wanna bother) that I barely remember much except making sure Millie was okay. I had really thought she would have liked the hike but didn’t realize it was that freezing that day in the mountains. Oh well.

See? Look how PISSED she looks lol.

Anyways, it was nice to be able to see the glacier but like actually see and enjoy it.

We hiked up, took some pics, and felt anxious watching people ski down the glacier. Then we hiked up the glacier a bit more and had a snack break: apples + TJ’s Walnut Fig Date Nut Bar. I LOVE this bar.

 

After some water, views, and snacks, we headed back down to the car and got back on our way. We stopped in Idaho Springs for more water from a gas station and decided to go up to Mount Evans to try to see some mountain goats.

 

Back on the road we went. The road was the highest road in America. I freaked the fuck out and made us stop. Holy cow did that road scare me. And I’m not even afraid of heights. Anyways, we stopped on the road and took in more views and snapped some more pics before I made us turn back around and head home.

We returned to the Jackson’s around 3:30pm and had some snacks + all of the water + chill time. Altitude takes a lot out of me.

Around 6 we headed to dinner at Vital Root.

I ordered a grilled beet arugula salad with candied walnuts + their avocado toast.

Can we talk about this avo toast for a minute? Hands down the BEST I’ve ever had. It had glazed nuts, crispy chickpeas, microgreens, radish strips, and balsamic glaze on top. And it came with a side of this really yummy spicy green stuff.

The sunflower seed bread it was served on was SUPER thick and like tasted French toasted somehow. I don’t know how they did it, but holy cow. This was so.good. I could have eaten 4 of them.

Post-din din we went on an ice cream adventure. I got black sesame, pb fudge and berry chip from Frozen Matter. Yes, it was excessive. I also added Oreos which I regretted. I should have gotten cocoa nibs but the girl kinda talked me out of those. Boo. Oh well. Still really good, especially the black sesame. It tasted like blue moon.

I managed to inhale this entire 3 scoop concoction with impressive speed. It was around 8:15 at that point, so back home it was. Jenn and I watched the Simple Life and she did some work while I chilled.

Monday:

I was super tired Monday and my tummy was a bit off so I chilled in the morning. I went to a nearby coffee shop to get some work done, and then headed back around 2 to pack up. My flight got delayed about 90 times and I ended up being around long enough for dinner.

We went to Biju’s Little Curry Shop, which is kind of like a Chipotle of Indian Food. It was also randomly on Triple D recently. Anyways, I got a reallllyyyy spicy curry with rice, lentils, cabbage, green beans, potatoes and slaw. And more hot sauce.

Biju’s is some of the only Indian-type food I like. Most curry tastes muddy and greasy to me. This tastes fresh and flavorful and doesn’t make me poop my pants. Score.

Then we grabbed a quick cider sampler drink and after that I hopped on the lightrail to the airport for what ended up being a super duper late flight back to MKE. I got back around 2:00am, ate some chocolate, brushed my teeth, and went to bed with my Millie (it was SO good to see her little face!!!)

That’s all for this Denver trip. Can’t wait for the next!

What’s your fav place to travel?