Denver Do-Over

Friday, January 15

Mr. E and I took advantage of the MLK, Jr. holiday long weekend for a re-do of our truncated Denver trip from the end of the year. We had a late afternoon flight on Friday and got to our hotel via taxi just before 9pm. We stayed again at the Warwick Denver in the same type of suite, but this time our room was on the 11th floor and the other side of the corridor, so our view out over the city was a bit different compared to last time. I unpacked and settled in while Mr. E placed a room service order and then headed off to the nearby Uptown Wines and Safeway to procure some snacks and drinks for the weekend. Our grilled octopus, butter lettuce salad, and salsicca pizza offerings from the hotel restaurant Gattara were just as yummy as we remembered, so we had a lovely dinner in our room to wrap up the first evening of our return visit.

Saturday, January 16

I did my usual Zumba room workout in the morning followed by laps in the wonderful outdoor heated pool on the rooftop of the hotel. Then we headed a few blocks away to Steuben's for brunch. We had noticed the night before that indoor dining had returned to Denver, which was a bit of a surprise since that hadn't been the situation at the end of December. At Steuben's, we were seated in the big heated tent that the restaurant had set up in its parking lot, which was a nice hybrid strategy for sort of indoors but still outdoors. Mr. E ordered the sausage and biscuits, and I had a veggie eggs Benedict. Very large portion sizes!!! We also appreciated the option to add on a donation to our bill to support local first responders.

However, neither of us enjoyed the house coffee, so after a quick stroll down the street to get some snacks and wine at Marczyk Fine Foods, we stopped by Toasts n' Roasts on the way back to the hotel to pick up two Americanos. We sipped our coffee in the room before heading out to the Denver Art Museum for our 1pm general admission entry. Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to secure tickets for the special exhibition on Mexican Modernism, but we really enjoyed The Light Show exhibit that was scattered across several floors of the general gallery space. Quite a bit of the Museum was closed off for ongoing renovations, so it will be interesting to visit again once all of that work is done to see the new spaces and new works.

Given our large brunch, we weren't really hungry for lunch after our Museum visit. Mr. E went to work out when we got back to the hotel, and I did my daily yoga practice in our room and then had some time to check email and read. We tried to grab drinks at 54Thirty, the rooftop bar at Le Meridien Hotel downtown, but the limited capacity meant that the spot was closed to any non-hotel guests. Instead, we had cocktails and snacks at The Lobbyist bar. I have to admit, it felt a bit weird to be eating indoors!!!

For dinner, we opted for takeout to eat in the room. I got a yummy shrimp and veggie with zucchini noodles bowl from Noodles & Company, and Mr. E picked up a burger and fries from Colorado Campfire.

Sunday, January 17

I repeated my morning workout, and we decided to have brunch in LoDo near the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), which was our destination for a 12pm general admission entry. We had a fabulous meal at Delectable Egg, with a Cowboy Benedict for Mr. E and a Portabello Mushroom Benedict for me. 

The coffee here was far better than at Steuben's, and I enjoyed it so much that we bought a pound of beans to take home! When we arrived at the restaurant, there were a bunch of people waiting for tables. But I discovered that they were trying to get seated inside, so when we opted for an outdoor table with a personal heater, we got seated right away and started a bit of a trend.

We were a little early for our museum time, but we were able to enter and head up to the cafe on the third floor, where Mr. E ordered an Americano, which we could enjoy in the sparsely furnised indoor cafe. Our visit around MCA was quite interesting and thought-provoking, as the entire space was devoted to a range of exhibits related to democracy. 

For lunch, we grabbed some items from the Whole Foods near MCA and walked back to our hotel. Our afternoon activities were similar, and we then debated our options for dinner. Once we discovered that Manzo Lobster and Oyster Bar offers Happy Hour on Sundays from 3pm onward, we realized that was an obvious choice! We had wanted to try this place during our previous visit but hadn't had the chance. When we arrived, the restaurant was pretty quiet, and we opted to sit at the bar, which was a great choice since the bartender, Anthony, ended up being super friendly and also super knowledgeable about all of the seafood offerings. We started with cocktails and half a dozen of the $1.75 Happy Hour oysters, Pemaquids from Maine, plus a few of the more delicate New Brunswick Beausoleil oysters that I remembered fondly from our family dinner at Shore in Austin when we were there for Christmas.

Our main dinner was diver scallops with roasted carrots for me, lobster poutine for Mr. E, and a side of grilled asparagus to share. All amazingly delicious, and no issues at all to accommodate my allium allergy throughout the entire evening.

We were just a few blocks from our hotel, and on our way back, we stopped at d Bar to pick up some sweets for dessert -- the best French macarons I've ever tasted!!! I wish I had saved some of them to bring home...

Monday, January 18

I wasn't able to do a final lap swim in the morning as several people were already in the pool by 8am, but at least then I didn't have to deal with wet swim stuff to pack in my suitcase. I suggested to Mr. E that we needed to make a visit to Blue Bear, our favorite piece of public art in Denver, so we walked over to the Convention Center to greet him.

Then we stopped by different location of the Delectable Egg for brunch, which was much closer to our hotel. Yes, we had enjoyed the food so much that we wanted to return, and the menu was definitely large enough to give us many options for something different to try! 

We got back to our hotel with enough time to pack and check email before we walked to Union Station to catch the train to the airport. Snow flurries! How perfect!

On both of our flights, we managed to snag the 2-seater exit row so we didn't have to be concerned at all about having someone in a middle seat. The flight home was especially full, and I'm glad we could just be with each other.

The do-over trip was definitely a success. I got my art fix, we found some awesome local restaurants, and we had some quality couple time together away from home, which we hadn't really had since our Lassen adventure last August. I'm certainly hoping for more travel options and possibilities in 2021...!

New Year's Eve in Denver (just kidding)

Monday, December 28-Friday, January 1Tuesday, December 29

Mr. E and I had planned a trip to Denver for New Year's Eve and had 1.5 days at home after our return from Austin to unpack, snuggle with the kitties, do laundry, go through mail, and repack before our morning flight on Monday, December 28. Unfortunately, we got news on Tuesday morning of a potential COVID exposure that caused us to cut our trip short and return to Sac that evening. *sigh*

We did manage a few of our planned activities during our short time in Denver, beginning with lunch with Mr. E's cousin, D, on Monday afternoon once we picked up our rental car at the airport (long wait for the Hertz shuttle!). Then we headed to our hotel, the Warwick Denver, to check in and get settled. We had stayed at this hotel years ago, and I had very fond memories of the roof-top pool, which was one of our priority amenities when looking at lodging options for this trip since our gym is still closed. *sigh* (again) While I took a snow-flurry swim in the [very] warm pool, Mr. E took advantage of the Fitness Center for a treadmill workout. 

Our room was a suite on the 12th floor, looking out over the city. We decided to procure some beverages and snacks before going to the hotel restaurant, Gattara, for Happy Hour. Luckily, we were able to enjoy the last 30 minutes of drink and food specials in the outdoor igloo enclosure before a group reservation came in for dinner in the igloo. We took the rest of our drinks and food to-go and finished up dinner in the living room of our suite, enjoying the falling snow outside on the balcony. Mr. E put his adult beverages outside on a small table to chill, which gave us a good sense of the snow accumulation over the evening!

During my Tuesday morning workout, I enjoyed the panoramic snowy sunrise view over the city.

Given the circumstances, we couldn't do our visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art as planned but instead stayed in the hotel room and took care of some online shopping and thank-you notes. We both repeated our pool and treadmill workouts since those were safe activities that were isolated from others, and we walked to Safeway to quickly get some sushi for lunch before heading back to the airport for our evening return flight.

We made the most of our inadvertent staycation here in Sac by taking care of lots of home projects, including several changed room set-ups to accommodate the new bar cart downstairs and revamp of our upstairs library area into a home workout space. And eventually, we learned that the potential exposure was the result of a false positive, so all family and friends are just fine.

This wasn't quite how we expected to welcome 2021, but we already made plans for a Denver trip "re-do" during the upcoming MLK, Jr., holiday long weekend. 

Let's all hope that 2021 brings more joy and fewer "interesting" times into our lives!

Family Holiday in Austin

Saturday, December 19-Saturday, December 26

Mr. E and I spent a whole week in Austin with J and the family this year. J very kindly gave up her office to the two of us, since we were all working for the first few days before Christmas. We managed to make it work pretty well overall!

The special family celebration (and primary reason for our longer visit) was M's baptism on Sunday, December 20. The service was outside in front of the church, with physically distanced chairs and a limited capacity congregation. B had composed a new song, Dandelion Sky, for the occasion, which was beautiful. He accompanied himself on guitar and didn't let the mask impact his performance at all!

That afternoon, J and M and I went to the Blanton Art Museum while Mr. E, B, and C headed off to play mini-golf and Mom got to stay home for some restful time in a quiet house. I was very excited to have a museum visit and get my art "fix" since museums here in Sac have been closed again for several months. I especially enjoyed the experience of Ellsworth Kelly's Austin, which is a stand-alone installation on the grounds near the main building. We were fortunate to be the only people in the building at a perfect time for the sunlight to illuminate the stained glass windows. Lovely!

The main theme of the week in some ways was: What are Mr. E and Dr. J making for dinner? Mr. E really enjoys cooking for a larger group and being able to make certain meals that he wouldn't make just for himself here in Sac. Here's the rundown of the nightly menu for the week, followed by photos of some of the meals:

Sunday 12/20 -- Pork fajitas and fish tacos

Monday 12/21 -- Tofu and veggie stir fry. This was my contribution, and I won over two tofu converts as both B and C really enjoyed the dish!

Tuesday 12/22 -- Happy Hour and dinner at Shore Raw Bar & Grill, just down the street from J's house. Yummy oysters!!!

Wednesday 12/23 -- Turkey dinner (since none of us had a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year) with guests J and J

Thursday 12/24 -- Standing rib roast and salmon

Friday 12/25 -- Leftovers galore, including turkey noodle soup that Mr. E made from the remains of the Wednesday meal

I managed to get in one set of mini-laps in the pool on Wednesday morning, once it was sufficiently heated. And I also took advantage of J's really nice Pilates reformers one afternoon. We didn't fit in a movie viewing of any kind, but we did play lots of card games. I taught C three new kinds of solitaire, double solitaire, and Rummy 500, and Mr. E started to teach C poker. The kid is going to be a card shark, for sure!

We returned to Sac in the late afternoon on 12/26 and had the rest of the weekend to unpack, clean, snuggle with the kitties, and then re-pack for our trip to Denver for New Year's Eve.