Last friday night Jacob surprised me by telling me we were going to Denver, Colorado for my birthday! I was so surprised and excited and thankful to Jacob for already planning everything out (i.e. where Jayda would go, who would take care of the dogs, etc., etc.). We were leaving early on sunday morning, flying out at 7 a.m., and would be coming home on Tuesday afternoon. We had all day sunday and monday to do fun activities and hang out and then Jacob had some work to do up there on tuesday. So, on saturday night my parents came up to take me out for my birthday (I'll put that one in another post), and then came back to our house so that they could stay with Jayda while we left early the next morning. So, we headed out of Hobby airport sunday morning excited and ready to get there. We arrived at Denver International Airport at 8:30 a.m. (their time) and then went to pick up our rental car. We got in our car and headed to the Magnolia hotel in downtown Denver where would be staying for the next few nights. We hadn't really planned what we were going to do while in Denver, so we figured we'd ask for some pamphlets and ideas at our hotel so that we could figure out what we wanted to do. We got to our hotel around 10:30 a.m. and they didn't really have any pamphlets, but said the concierge would be back in 30 minutes and could help us with everything. So, we decided to go and look around the 16th street mall, which was only 1 street over from our hotel, while we waited for concierge to get back. The mall was really cool and had tons of outdoor shops and restaurants for blocks and blocks. It was kind of like 6th street in Austin, but instead of bars it's restaraunts and shops. After browsing around we headed back to the hotel to figure out what we wanted to do. We told the concierge that we were wanting to do outdoorsy stuff and see some cool sights. He suggested we either go out west to the ski resorts (Breckenridge, Vail, etc) and check out the mountains, ski lifts and slides, or head north to Boulder and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Since we've been to Breckenridge to ski several times before, we decided to do something we hadn't ever done before and head north.
So, we headed up to Boulder. Once we got to Boulder we were starving so we pulled off at the University of Colorado exit. We found a really neat little pizza joint to eat right across the street from the University. The salad bar there was amazing and they had huge mountain pies that were really just extra thick crusted pizza that Jacob really liked. The view was beautiful with mountains all around.
Jacob and I eating at a little pizza joint.
The restaraunt we ate at, BeauJo's (kinda funny name huh?)
After we finished lunch we continued on up the mountains to Rocky Mountain National Park. We finally arrived at the park and went in to the visitors center to see what we should do there.
Driving through the mountains to get to the park.
We finally made it to Rocky Mountain National Park, yay!!
Usually at the parks I've been to everything is really close by, or at least relatively close by. Well, not this one. Everything in this park is really spread out (could take hours just to get somewhere in the park) and you have to drive straight up the mountain to get anywhere. The visitors center staff suggested that we go up to the tundra. This was basically the top of the park and was so high up no trees or animals even could survive. This part of the park is only open 2 months out of the year because it snows up there so much. So after driving over 2 hours to get to RMN Park, we continued almost another hour up to the tundra. Let me tell ya, by this time Jacob and I are both feeling altitude sick, car sick, nauseas, ready to get out of the car, ready to get down out of the mountains, and you get the point. Anyways, along the way we stopped at a beautiful lookout point. It was absolutely breathtaking, plus we got an amazing picture of the 2 of us up there thanks to some crazy biker dudes!
Beautiful lookout point in the park.
Jacob and I at the lookout point, my favorite picture of the whole trip!
Little squirrel looking animals that were all over the park.
We continued on past the lookout point and finally arrived at the tundra. Woo hoo! The park staff said it was a nice 1/2 mile walk out to the tundra, so we thought that would be great since we'd been sitting so much that day. Well, it wasn't so much a walk as a hike! It was 1/2 mile straight up a mountain! Whew, we were both so out of breath we had to stop and take several breaks! And I thought we were in decent shape! It was 12,000 feet up, so the altitude may of had something to do with it. On the way back down everyone we passed was huffing and puffing and stopping too, it was pretty hilarious. At the top of the tundra you could climb up on these huge rocks and lookout over all the mountains. It felt like we were on top of the world, it was so cool! It was also really cold up there. The signs along the walkway up to the top said that it could start snowing at any moment up there, no matter what the season was.
Walking up the pathway to the tundra.
The big rocks you could climb on at the top of the tundra.
Very steep pathway you have to walk (climb) up to get to the top.
The 2 of us on top of the rocks.
View from the top of the tundra, the pictures just don't do it justice.
Jacob up on the rocks.
On the way back down from the tundra we saw a bunch of deer on the side of the road. It was so crazy to see this because we were so high up in the mountains, you wouldn't even think animals could live up so high!
Deer roaming around in the park.
Our ride while in Denver, pretty stylin' huh?
This was our little Kia Rio that we drove all over the place while we were in Denver. Not sure what it is with little red rental cars, but we always get stuck with them. Oh, and I wouldn't recommend renting one of these cars if you plan on driving up the mountains because it doesn't have very much horsepower and at times we weren't sure if we would even make it up the mountain. I can't tell you how many times we could see a huge line of cars waiting behind us while heading up the mountains because the dang car would barely move. Jacob would floor it constantly and it felt like we weren't going anywhere! Jacob and I kept laughing about this the entire trip, it was hilarious! Oh, one other funny thing about this car was on our trip down from RMN Park. We got stuck behind a huge RV that was going about 5 mph, literally. The RV driver kept waving people around to pass him, however we would be either going around a sharp curve or a car would be coming straigt at us, so we couldn't really pass him. For some reason the car directly in front of us would not pass the RV, and we were right behind that car. So, finally we got an opening to pass this big RV. Jacob floored it (because that's just what ya gotta do in the Rio) and forgot it was in 2nd gear (becuase we were going down the mountain) and all of a sudden we started smelling all of this awful smoke! As soon as I looked at Jacob to ask what that smell was he said "Oh, I guess I shouldn't floor it when it's in 2nd gear!!" Oh my gosh, it was the funniest thing ever and we could not stop laughing for a long time! Good times in that ole' car!
We headed on back home to Denver from the park, which took a good 3 hours and finally checked into our hotel around 7:30 p.m. that evening. We walked down to Jimmy Johns (love that place!!) to get a sandwich for dinner, then came back to our room and crashed around 9 p.m. We were both totally exhausted!
On monday morning we woke and had a delicious breakfast downstairs at our hotel. Oh, and I have to tell you this hotel had some awesome perks. First, complimentary hot breakfast is served every morning from 6-9:00 a.m. Then, happy hour with free beer and wine is served every evening from 5:30-6:30 p.m. To top it all off, warm cookies and milk (regular, strawberry and chocolate milk) is served every night from 8-10:00 p.m.! I thought that was all really cool! Anyways, back to the trip. Monday morning we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for the day. We were pretty tired of driving in the mountains so we thought it would be fun to check out some stuff downtown and take some tours of the cool places in and around Denver. We started off that morning trying to take a tour of the U.S Mint downtown. We went over there and found out that apparently you have to make a reservation to take the tour 2 months in advance! So unfortunately we didn't get to do that. We checked out the gift shop instead for a little while.
Jacob outside the U.S. Mint, too bad we couldn't get in for a tour!
After that didn't work out, we decided to head out of Denver a little ways to a little town called Golden, Colorado to tour the Coors Brewery. The tours were free and self guided so it was really nice and relaxing. It was so cool to see all the different stages of how beer is made, plus they had free beer at the end of the tour! The brewery is down in a valley with mountains all around it and apparently the water that they use to make the beer comes down through all of the mountains and cleans it self then goes directly to the brewery to make the beer. Pretty neat!
Outside the Coors Brewery.
All of the Coors brands.
The brew kettle.
Control room for all of the beer.
Lab where they test the beer.
Packing of all the beer.
Jacob enjoying his nice cold, free beer at the end of the tour.
After the tour we went over to downtown Golden to eat lunch on the river. The restaraunt was actually at the bottom of a hotel and had a beautiful view of the mountains and the river.
The little restaraunt on the river where we ate lunch at after the tour.
The 2 of us at lunch.
The river right next to where we ate lunch at, so pretty!
After lunch we drove up to the little town of Blackhawk. We had heard a lot about this place that had a ton of casinos. It was a really neat little town and it had several large casinos and hotels. We checked out the Isle of Capri and Jacob played craps and I played some slot machines. It reminded me of a mini Las Vegas. Apparently they just legalized gambling in Colorado so this was a big new hot spot.
Driving up the mountains to Blackhawk. That river ran beside the road we were on for our entire drive up to Blackhawk (at least 45 minutes) and was so beautiful!
One of the many casinos in Blackhawk.
Jacob playing a game of craps.
Monday afternoon we drove back down to Denver and went to a Rockies baseball game. The field was only about 8 blocks away from our hotel so we walked over there. The stadium is beautiful and we had a great time watching the game. It's always fun to check out other baseball stadiums! Plus we were there when some guy (can't remember his name) hit for the cycle, pretty cool!
Outside the Coors Field.
Inside the baseball stadium.
The beautiful sunset at the game with the mountains in the background, love it!
Go Rockies!
Jacob and I at the game (Rockies vs. Cubs).
The Magnolia Hotel where we stayed at in downtown Denver.
Different sign of the hotel.
View from our hotel room.
On tuesday morning (my birthday by the way) Jacob and I went down to the workout room for an early workout, then had breakfast, and then he had to head off for work. I browsed around the 16th street mall most of the day and grabbed some lunch at Jason's Deli. Around 4 p.m. I went and picked up our car from the hotel and went over to wait for Jacob at the office building downtown where he was at. He didn't finish utnil 4:45 (the deposition started at 9 a.m. that morning, so it took forever!) and as soon as he walked out he hopped in the car and we headed off to the airport. Well, of course we got stuck in traffic since we were heading out of town, just like everyone else. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:15 and around 5:30 we realized that there was no way we would have time to drop the rental car off, take the shuttle to the airport, check our bags, print off our tickets, go through security and make it to our terminal in 45 minutes. So we saw a bunch of hotels right near the airport and decided to stay the night at an Embassy Suites.
We called Southwest Airlines and switched our flight to 9 a.m. the next morning. We checked into our hotel and then Jacob took me out for a birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesday's right down the road from our hotel. Dinner was really good and it was nice to just relax. After dinner we went for a walk at sunset and could see downtown Denver and the mountains in the distance, it was really pretty! We checked in pretty ealry that night and made it safe and sound to our flight on Wednesday morning! We had to stop off in Austin and switch planes on the way home, but finally got back to Houston around 3 p.m. wednesday afternoon. We went straight to pick Jayda up at Jacob's dads office in Spring and back home that evening, hallelujah! We had a great trip and it was an awesome surprise! Thanks babe for a wonderful birthday! Thanks also to Oma and Oupa and Nanna and Pawpaw for taking such good care of miss Jayda while we were gone, plus Justin,Lourdes, and Klint for taking care of Harley and Nina! We love you and appreciate you all!
