Vaxxed and Ready To Roam!

 We are Revisiting Denver!

Hubs and I have now spent the last of our Southwest $$ from the last two years of 

Covid-Delayed Travel.  

We couldn't wait to get back to Denver and sample some good food and beer and see the sights. Jeff made all the arrangements and surprised me every day with food and fun. 

The first thing I noticed was that Denver was absolutely blooming! Everywhere we went the tulips and daffodils and so many other gorgeous varieties of flower were in the loveliest of blooms. 

I don't think I've ever seen this color of magenta in a tulip before. 

Getting around Denver is supremely easy. We stayed in the RiNo Arts Neighborhood, and it was very walkable. We stayed at "The Source Hotel" and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It was super modern, almost European in style with lovely eateries and a gorgeous view of the Rockies, a view that I could definitely get used to. 

Can we talk about the food? We've been trying to up the diversity in our food experiences and found some tasty eats around Denver. 

Particularly yummy were the empanadas from La Rola at Zeppelin Station. 

Zeppelin Station was a mixed-use venue with eats & drinks on the first floor, along with smaller businesses, and apartments or condos on the upper floors. Pretty sweet!

We absolutely loved the street food from 

Soy Pinoy & Thai Khun, also at Zeppelin Station. 

Everything was served in to-go boxes with disposable and/or compostable containers and utensils. Covid-19 has certainly changed the way things are done, especially with respect to restaurant dining. 

I'd love to see less waste, but I also want to see less illness. 

Keep up the good work, everybody! 

P.S. Get vaccinated as soon as you can. 

We also had some absolutely delicious breakfast pastries from Reunion Bakery, right at The Source. 

And the Israeli delights from Safta at The Source were incredible. 

Lusciously whipped humus, paprika-rich potatoes, and soft warm pita. Yum. 

The Denver Biscuit Company was a slice of southern biscuit heaven.

I had biscuits cut like french toast with maple syrup and sweet honey butter.

Jeff had a biscuit sammy piled high with bacon and eggs and the works. 

Delicious. 

I must mention that we stopped (accidentally) into a little chocolaterie that was incredible. 

The Chocolate Lab at 2504 E. Colfax was a special treat. 

Solidly wonderful dark chocolates with unique and stylish truffle fillings. 

I'm checking their website right now to see if they ship. 

www.chocolatelabdenver.com 

P.S. - They do. 

Mr. Smith got me hooked on the UnTappd app to check in at the nine breweries we visited along the way. What a fun way to keep track of all your drinking!! 

Bruz off Fax was one of my favorites - love those Belgians. 

With a little help, I remembered every single brewery we visited:

Blue Moon Brewing, EPIC Brewing, Odell Brewing Company, Mockery Brewing, Great Divide Brewing, River North Brewing, Woods Boss Brewing, Stem Cider Company, and Bruz Off Fax. 

All of them wonderful in their own right. 

What other kinds of shenanigans did we get into?

We visited the Denver Zoo, which opened incredibly in 1918. The exhibits were very approachable and the animals were enjoying the sunshine and cool weather. 

My favorite animal of the trip - the Okapi, or Forest Giraffe. 

He looks part zebra, part moose, part donkey, part cutie-pie. 

But check out this little goose family. Adorable, right?

We also visited The Denver Botanical Garden, and you'd think I would have more pictures, but I couldn't stop gazing at all the beauty within the garden. I did get a picture of this mama below. she was a stunning sculpture and I loved her immediately. 

It was lovely and peaceful, a beautiful space, well worth your time and a return visit. 

Speaking of beautiful... Denver is a small town-big city with some great street art. Everywhere we walked we ran into some truly exceptional works. 

The Denver Art Museum had a wonderful exhibit on fashion while we visited. Many pieces from the wardrobe of Veronique Peck, wife of Gregory Peck were on display. We were able to visit the Impressionists as well and enjoyed visiting this museum as well. I'd love to go back when they finish their expansion and bring a few more pieces out for us to see. 

In the mean time - here's a pic of a larger-than-life sculpture just outside the main entrance. 

I kept seeing these gorgeous pink trees in Denver, and they reminded me of our time in Mississippi on the Natchez Trace. Sure enough, they were Redbud Trees. Bright pink blooms everywhere we turned. 

We ventured across City Park in Denver and this memorial tribute to 

Martin Luther King, Jr. 

with Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Frederick Douglas, and Sojourner Truth. 

While we were taking in all the information surrounding the memorial, 

a young woman asked if we would answer some questions for her 

research and teaching program for middle school students. 

We are not about to impede progress for research and answered all her questions to the best of our knowledge. We realized that we do know quite a bit about what's going on in the world as regards 

Black History and Black Lives Matter. But we didn't know everything!! 

We were happy to help her out, and learn something new in the process.

Wherever you are, whoever you are - continued good luck with your program. 

We had a marvelous time in Denver - all thanks to my guy. 

Love you!!

... and those tulips... 

I can't get over them!

:) Deb

Forty-Eight Hours in Palm Springs!

~ A Getaway ~ 48 Hours in Palm Springs ~ A Weekender ~ 

Our good friends invited us to come stay with them in Palm Springs for a quick getaway this month. 

We haven't been to Palm Springs in oh-so-many years and readily agreed. 

I lived in Palm Springs way back in the mid 1960's; my sister was born there in 1963. 

So off we went, utilizing just about the last of our Southwest $$ that was about to expire. 

Flying into the Palm Springs Airport is darling. It's small, and mostly outdoors. Love that. The crowds were relatively light with only about 10 gates and one terminal. 

Our friends picked us up and we were off!

First stop - Elmer's Restaurant for a diner-style breakfast. Quick, friendly service and a huge menu of every breakfast item you can imagine. Eggs, omelets, french toast, waffles, biscuits, and pancakes galore. Hubby had a HUGE German-style pancake and it was delicious. Elmer's has been around since 1960 and they still use Walt Elmer's Famous Buttermilk Pancake recipe today. 

Palm Springs has really changed quite a bit since we were here last. Palm Canyon Drive is loaded with newer shops and eateries. We stopped in to a few of them. I had to get my Brandini Toffee - that stuff is completely addictive. Check them out at www.brandinitoffee.com if you have a hankering. 

The mountains surrounding Palm Springs and flowering Jacaranda Trees. 

One of the delightful surprises on this trip was The Reef at Caliente Tropics. This older hotel (with a terrific Palm Springs vibe) has a wonderful little Tiki Bar right on the property. We were blown away by the delicious food - fish & chips, spam tacos, onion rings, and burgers. Their drinks were solid, and by solid I mean STRONG! 

Another great surprise was the Palm Springs Air Museum. This truly fascinating and memorable museum situated their historic artifacts and planes according to the war-time period they were flown. 

World War II - Pacific Theatre, World War II European Theatre, and Korea & Vietnam

We ate very well in Palm Springs. This city is loaded with wonderfully diverse restaurants and our favorite by far was Copley's Restaurant on Palm Canyon Drive. This enclave of  deliciousness was the former guest ranch of Cary Grant. He used to entertain here, and many of his famous guests visited and stayed on this very property. You can see how the place was a guest ranch once you enter the courtyard. 

Service was excellent, the food was incredibly delicious, and I cannot wait to revisit!

My favorite thing about the whole trip was sitting on the porch listening to the breeze blow through the jacaranda trees and keeping an eye on this little mama. 

You just never know where you'll find joy.

Cheers!!

:) Deb

Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler

 Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler ~ Let the Good Times Roll!!!

Straight out of Atlanta, we headed towards the Edmund Pettus Bridge, historical sight of racial and civil unrest just outside Selma, Alabama. 

We had to head a little out of our way, but it was totally worth it to drive across. 

Driving through Selma, we visited The Old Live Oak Cemetery.

I just cannot pass up something with so much above-ground tombstone action.

And the trees here are glorious. Old cypress and magnolias and weeping something-or-others. 

From Selma we headed straight away to Laurel, Mississippi. I have wanted to visit this little Southern town ever since we started watching Hometown on HGTV. Ben & Erin Napier have done a lot to revitalize this sweet town and we wanted to see for ourselves what it actually looked like. 

                                                 

                                                 

First stop - Pearl's Diner! We have watched the episode with Miss Pearl a couple of times and love her sweet personality. Her diner is open from 11am-2pm and the line forms right out front. We waited about 30 minutes for one of three main courses. 

Our choices were fried chicken (duh), salisbury steak, or ham steaks. 

We waited a bit for our meal, but it was so good. 

And then, we wandered. We wandered all over the downtown area, visiting the Laurel Mercantile, the antique stores, and up and down residential streets looking at the darling Craftsman style homes. 

These sidewalks were a bit of a challenge for this old gal! 

But the trees throughout the neighborhood are so pretty and they distribute their roots pretty randomly! 

We had a wonderful Italian dinner at Mimmo's in downtown Laurel. The story goes that a man from Florence, Italy fell in love with a Southern gal from Georgia and he followed her home. Whether or not the story is true - the food was wonderful. Some of the best bolognese I have ever tasted. 

We stayed in a charming B&B called The Grandiflora Inn. 

Loved the gracious hospitality and the gorgeous setting. 

If you find yourself in Laurel, Mississippi - check them out!!! 

Did Laurel live up to what we expected? Yes, it did. 

Hometown on HGTV showcases what is beautiful about this small town, 

and probably very similar to others throughout our country. 

Onward to New Orleans ~ 

Our first stop - Dooky Chase's Restaurant

This place was phenomenal. The fried chicken was the best we had on the entire trip. And the gumbo was unbeatable. Not too spicy, but plenty of flavor. 

We loved the service here and the pressed white tablecloths for lunch. 

So yummy. 

Oh, and surprisingly, New Orleans had some of the strictest mask mandates we've seen.

I like that. 

We did a lot of walking throughout the Garden District in New Orleans. 

We stayed at a lovely B&B called The Parisian Courtyard Inn, right on Prytania Street.

It was walking distance to just about everything we wanted to see except for City Park. 

We had to drive there, but check out these gorgeous photos from 

The Sculpture Garden situated just outside the NOLA Museum of Art. 

Spectacular!

Ladder to Nowhere

I Love Botero! 

This artist is everywhere in New Orleans

Another Favorite - Mother & Child

And this lovely gal just spoke to me. - She is so beautiful!

This walkway symbolizes the Mississippi River currents throughout Louisiana.

Having traveled to Minnesota earlier this year and seen her there, then seeing

her here in New Orleans was truly amazing. 

Another stop for us was the Ogden Museum of Art. 

No photos of what's inside there, 

but it was a lovely walkable museum filled with Southern Art pieces - 

everything from folksy crafts to lovely paintings and sculptures. 

Padlocks of Love on the Mississippi River - 

this was along the walkway just beyond Cafe du Monde. 

I love seeing these kinds of street art - my favorite was in Lyon, France. 

We sampled quite a bit of good food in New Orleans. 

My favorite was Compere Lapin run by Chef Nina Compton.

My Caribbean Roast Chicken was out of this world. 

Fragrant and richly spiced - really special. 

Commander's Palace was as good as we had last time we visited. 

Jeff's dinner was a bit better than mine. 

He had the Lacquered Quail and it was divine! 

Oh, and The Bakery Bar.

I just can't like this place enough!

Friendly and helpful with delicious cocktails and uber yummy Doberge Treats.

We sampled four mini-cakes and they were all so good. 

A true favorite. 

I'll say this - we had gracious service just about everywhere we went. 

One of our favorite stops was into MS Rau in the French Quarter.

This high-end (really high-end) antiques dealer was as gorgeous as an art museum. 

We wandered through the three floors (on the advice of our son and his wife - I kid you not)

and just gazed at all the beautiful pieces.

My favorite piece was a player piano/violin combination that someone requested we hear.

I felt so lucky to be there and listen to this wonderful sound. 

Never seen anything like it. 

Speaking of which - we also sat for a bit in the shade of the Cathedral and watched a 

Wedding in progress. The happy couple had a small group in attendance and we saw their 

Second Line take place a few doors down the way. 

And then there was this place - Mardi Gras World.

I wasn't sure about this warehouse, and didn't expect much, but Oh My Land, it was so cool!!

We viewed a film on the philanthropy associated with the floats and how they make them.

The sample of King Cake was better than expected as well. 

But check out this Styrofoam-based sculptures. 

Just wow. 

Isn't he gorgeous??

Shrek and Jeff!

Wickedly Wicked Witch

Spidey Senses

We really had a very fun time here.

New Orleans is truly one of our favorite cities to visit. 

There is so much to see and do and sample. 

I know we'll be back again some day down the road.

Until then...

Cheers!!

:) Deb