Denver Dalliance (food photos!)

Friday 1/14-Monday 1/17: Food, Family, Art

Mr. E and I headed to Denver for the MLK, Jr. holiday long weekend. We were originally planning to be there on Thursday evening and work remotely on Friday to have some extra time, but then United cancelled our original late afternoon flight, so the only workable alternative was early afternoon on Friday. Grrr.

We got upgraded to First Class for our outbound flight, and I definitely enjoyed the offering of champagne now that the food and beverage options have been at least somewhat restored. The rental car process was surprisingly swift, and even with making a quick stop at Safeway to pick up some supplies on our way to the hotel, we arrived at the Warwick Denver around 5:30pm. I unpacked in our corner suite while Mr. E went out to get some wine, brown liquor, and sweet treats.

I did my daily yoga practice and a little recon to remind myself of how to get to the pool, and then we headed down to Gattara for cocktails. We had received vouchers for two drinks per day from the Front Desk, and I tried the Busso  (raspberries, gin, lime juice, fresh basil), which was both colorful and delicious.

 (don't look now, but there's a cat surveilling our beverages!!!)

We shared an order of the amazing grilled octopus while sipping our drinks and took another order of octopus to-go along with a pizza for Mr. E. I had sushi from Safeway for my in-room dinner, and I wrapped up the evening with popcorn and several of the French macarons from D Bar that Mr. E had procured earlier.

My Saturday morning workout was Zumba + yoga + short swim in heated outdoor rooftoop pool. Brr! The pool was definitely not as toasty as it has been in the past, and I was quite chilled by the time I returned to the suite. We decided to try a new spot for brunch and walked the few blocks to Exile Kitchen, formerly known as Sassafras (hence the leaf design on the coffee mugs, which we didn't figure out until much later). We lucked out with our timing and were able to grab two seats at the bar rather than waiting 20+ minutes for a table. Of course we couldn't resist starting off with a plate of shared beignets to accompany our Americanos and fresh orange juice. Then for me, fried green tomato benedict with grilled cornbread and fruit. For Mr. E, pot roast benedict with roast carrots over potato casserole. Yummy, different, and quite filling!

We explored a bit more of the area south of the Capitol to find second coffee, which was unfortunately not successful due to the very acidic (sour for our palates) roast on the beans. Then a bit of time to relax at the hotel before heading off to the Denver Museum of Science & Nature to meet up with A, F, and C. We had a wonderful time roaming around several of the exhibitions and watching the kids get close-up with many of the hands-on exhibits, including the special guitar exhibition that provided an opportunity to strum different types of instruments, including a left-hand guitar that was a great fit for F.

Just over two hours was plenty at the museum, and we then went to A's house to meet up with R, who had taken care of picking up our takeout dinner at the nearby Sawa Sushi. We ate in the basement TV area while watching one of the [many] NFL play-off games. Then A and I had some time to chat upstairs while F challenged Mr. E to a game of chess and then all of the boys had a turn with a group play on their new arcade game. Mr. E and I took our leave of the family around 6:30pm so that we could have some time on our own to wind down at the hotel for the evening. We made a return visit to Gattara to use another drink voucher, and this time I tried the Angora with vodka, St. Germain, lime cordial, and white cranberry juice. Very refreshing! 

My Sunday morning was just Zumba and yoga in the room, as the pool was for some reason not open at the correct time when I tried to do another short swim. Since we had 11am tickets for the Whistler to Cassat exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, we had breakfast at Dozens, just a couple of blocks away. We decided to share the veggie benny and a side of fruit along with a press pot of coffee and a cinnamon chip scone that tasted very much like the coffee cake I used to make from a Bisquick recipe. All was tasty, and even the somewhat acidic coffee was palatable once we had the sweetness of the scone to balance it out. With a little extra time before our museum entry, we found a kiosk Starbucks about half a mile away for second coffee.

When we got to the museum, we stowed our heavy coats and my little backpack purse in a locker so that we could stroll unencumbered through the exhibit. I took advantage of the free audio guide and enjoyed listening to some of the curatorial explanations and insights as we walked through the various galleries. One of the other reasons I had wanted to visit the museum was to see the new building, and we had time to go up to the top level to check out the views and some of the western art before our 1pm lunch reservation at the new restaurant, The Ponti. Our table for two was right by the window looking out over the street, so we had a lovely view as we enjoyed our tasty lunch of salad of brussels two ways (shared) with salmon on top (me), trout ravigote (Mr. E), and dukkha roasted carrots (shared). I accompanied my meal with a glass of sparkling rose, while Mr. E enjoyed some Earl Grey tea.

On our way back to the hotel, we of course had to make a detour to bid hello to Blue Bear at the Convention Center.

The weather was quite cooperative for our entire visit, sunny and not too cold except for the first morning. So nice to walk around in enjoyable wintry weather and explore some different parts of the downtown area!

The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing at the hotel. Mr. E fit in a workout while I read at the bar with a glass of sparkling rose. (That cat just keeps staring at me!)

I used our final drink voucher for a glass of red wine to take up to the room. We ordered takeout for dinner from Steuben's, which can now absolutely lay claim to having the Best. Kids. Meal. Ever. My PB&J order from the Kids Menu included carrot sticks, cucumbers, edamame, fruit, steamed broccoli, lemonade, and a chocolate chip cookie. All for just $8.00!!! And the sandwich was huge -- I decided to save it for the next morning for an on-the-go breakfast and made do with the veggies and some other leftover crackers and cheese spread from the United snack box for dinner.

I was able to fit in a Zumba workout on Monday morning before we left for the airport around 9am for our 11:30am flight. My PB&J was about 60% thick bread, so I nibbled off the good bits and ended up tossing the rest (too bad I couldn't find any birds to share it with!). At the airport, Mr. E hit up McDonalds for his breakfast while I set off on the trek to find the only open Starbucks in the United terminal. Not only did I secure a Pike Place for Mr. E but also an egg and cheese protein box for me for lunch during the flight, which I rounded out with a veggie snack box from one of the airport stores. No upgrade for our return flight, unfortunately, and we had the Exit row that doesn't recline, which wasn't the most comfortable despite the extra leg room. But I did enjoy some wine thanks to Mr. E's status, and we arrived in Sac almost on time despite some departure delays.

Miss Calypso welcomed us home with her usual dulcet tones, as we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and getting organized for the work week.

Next up... ???