Life is Full of Choices: 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.