Due to some plumbing misfortune in our original hotel room, we were upgraded to what I can only imagine is the presidential suite a la Comfort Inn. More views from our hotel room of lovely downtown Denver:
Tuesday, July 2nd Continued.
Up early again, heading to Golden, Colorado. A relatively short drive from our hotel. Informative, yes. Interesting? I suppose. I feel like it's just something we needed to see while we are here. Coors is a big part of beer culture, and to pass by would just feel inappropriate. The tour was free after all, and they insisted on getting us tipsy at 1030 AM. I learned there are so many beers that Coors/Miller makes. Blue moon blue agave is pretty delicious.
Moving on, the city of Golden was charming, and had a western feel. It was a change of pace, and holds a lot of history. Apparently it spent almost a decade as the state's capital.
After lunch, we headed to the Red Rock Ampitheater, after a recommendation from some locals the night before. It was located just outside of the Golden city center. This was breathtaking! They constructed a concert stage in the center of a natural rock formation. A show schedule mentioned tons of familiar names - John Mayer, The Postal Service, Earth Wind & Fire to name a few, this year alone. That would have been quite an experience, but not an opportunity we were granted on this trip. The red rock structures were massive around it.
The view was amazing. A cliche, I know, but pictures do not do it justice. We were able to see the skyscrapers of downtown Denver from up here, though it appears they are not visible in these photos.
Next stop was Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is about 30 minutes north of Golden, also 30 minutes northwest of Denver. Another scenic drive, and Boulder is seemingly a more affluent city for the area. The city had an enormous downtown district, many many blocks of restaurants, stores, cafes, street performers, activists, freakshows, and just families enjoying the outdoors. The sun in most of Colorado is stronger than any Sun I have felt so far, so we only walked for about 45 minutes before the heat got the best of us. However, the streets went on much further with attractions.
Heading back to Denver, we had to rest. It seems for us who are not used to the blaring Sun might get the wind knocked out of us after some time in it.
Our next stop was to a game at Coors field. $4, why not.
The stadium was nice, too bad the Rockies are apparently just god awful. I should've taken a hint because I really rarely hear of them. On the bright side, this was the first time I've been to a stadium where they serve hard liquor. A couple tequila sunrises, and their 8-0 shut out loss was comical.
Outside of the Coors field area is known as Lower Denver, or "LoDo". We wound up at this intersection, with 3 huge bars, all with loud rooftops - music, DJs, and lots of people. All on a Tuesday night. So much fun.
I think I forgot to mention how cheap everything in Colorado has been. $7 for top shelf beverages. All my manhattan/hoboken people out there know this is a steal. Obviously we killed the night this way.
Wednesday, July 3rd 2013.
I thought this picture came out a lot better. It's the Bronco's stadium. Too bad I was wrong and this picture sucks. Today we are on our way out of Colorado. It's almost sad, maybe just bitter-sweet to what is coming next. But Colorado has really impressed us, and Denver was an absolute ball. We met so many pleasant, social, helpful people in this city, saw a lot, did a lot, and just had a lot of fun.
Before I continue, I just must add, Colorado has thus far become the most beautiful state that I have ever seen. The drive between here and Utah was breathtaking, over and over. For most of the trip we would get pretty tired along the way and take quick naps. Even though we were both getting pretty exhausted, we couldn't bring ourselves to sleep, we just had so much to see. About 20 minutes down the interstate we were greeted with the following view. The Rockies! We stopped to just take in the scenery, this is something we had been waiting to see since we got to Colorado.
We climbed quite high driving through the mountains, and thus eventually had to come down. This cycle repeated a few times.
Lots and lots of mountains. I want to say we drove through the Rockies for 2 hours before we were on the other side. Another little while and we stopped in a small town, and made a slight detour on a hunt for hot springs. We found them, we think, but decided the river was more interesting. The water was so clear, flowing down from the mountain peacefully, and apparently it was tasty.
Before continuing I must reiterate how much I enjoyed Colorado. I really feel like it was a huge surprise. I often say how much I love San Diego, California, and how I could see myself there. Denver holds a special place in my heart similar to that. If only there was a coast somewhere...
Utah!
Utah is pretty desolate, wide open, and sandy. We are making our final trek towards Salt Lake City now. So I leave you with much of the view from the remainder of our time on I-70.
