While it seemed like fall in DC on September 1, we hopped a plane to Denver for the nuptials of Matthew and Caitlin. Our last summer travel adventure for 2017! And it was definitely still summer in Denver! Since we’ve traveled to Denver many times in the last few years, this gives us a chance to highlight some of our favorite things.
One of our favorite things: Airport Drinking. Jessica used to be a stingy “don’t buy anything in the airport ever!” type person. But she’s learned to love the celebratory luxury of a drink or two before the plane takes off. It’s a ritual – a signal that the trip has officially commenced. As far as airport drinking is concerned, we love Vino Volo. They have great wines, a few beers, tasty food, and a pleasant place to hang out in an airport. We’ve imbibed at Vino Volo at BWI, Minnesota, SLC, and IAD. If you’re in the airport and need a place to hang for a few hours, check them out!
The flight: We love Southwest. Why? Because in our many many flights, we have rarely paid full price for drinking on Southwest. This flight was just another example. We had three rounds, as did the nice woman from Arizona sitting next to us. We handed the attendant our Southwest credit card, and offered to pay for all of the drinks. He only charged us for ONE drink. Sa-wheat! Seriously, we will pony up the extra cash to fly Southwest, because they have fantastic customer service. Kudos, Southwest!
A big new thing: Silvercar. Silvercar is a luxury car rental company located at a handful of US airports. They exclusively rent Audi A4s. That are silver. Surprise! We decided to give it a go this trip, since we knew we’d need to drive out into the mountains for the wedding. The initial pickup experience was a mixed bag. You have to take a shuttle (Canopy) to the pick-up location, which is off the airport property. This is part of their business model, and apparently how they keep costs down. There was only one person working, and she was overwhelmed and didn’t have time to wash our car or make sure it had a full tank of gas, although she did clean the interior. These are supposed to be standard items. She also backed our Audi into a post as she brought it to us – oops! No harm to the vehicle, though, and she gave a discount for the other items. After our discounts, and a first-timer’s discount, the three day rental cost us $250, which is totally reasonable. And the car? The car was sweeeeeeeeet! It drove like a dream, had gorgeous interior, and came equipped with Sirius radio and the various “fast pass” and express lane items you might need.
This trip gives us the opportunity to highlight another of our favorite things: The Curtis Hotel. This is seriously the best hotel in Denver (particularly for its price point). We love it, and have stayed here on a number of occasions. The décor is awesome and fun and unique, plus there are warm chocolate chip cookies! This trip we were on the One-Hit Wonders floor (floor 5), in one of the hyper-themed rooms: It’s Raining Men (complete with umbrellas and funky wallpaper that had men in rain drops!). Word of warning: all of the elevators in this building are super slow. Every single time. We actually found it was worth paying the additional cost for valet to avoid the ridiculous time suck of trying to get down into the parking structure! But the elevators are our only complaint, because the location can’t be beat: right in the heart of the best neighborhood in Denver, next to the Convention center, and with lots of amazing restaurants within walking distance. If you’re going to Denver, stay at the Curtis!
On Saturday: We wandered through the beautifully renovated Union Station – this spot is definitely worth a stop for coffee, drinks, a meal, or some souvenir shopping. There’s a farmer’s market next to Union Station on Saturday, too! We grabbed bottomless brunch at Tamayo, one of Jess’s favorite restaurants in Denver no matter what meal you’re having. Then it was off to the wedding! The wedding was held at Blackstone Rivers Ranch, which is just outside Idaho Springs. We decided to drive the scenic route, US-6, in our spiffy sports car, rather than taking the heavily trafficked I-70. US-6 runs alongside a river, and winds between and literally through the mountains! It’s a beautiful and fun road for driving. We loved the venue, which was forested, with lots of natural wood structures and seats and extra touches. And the weather couldn’t have been better! Congrats to Matt and Cait, on a beautiful wedding.
On Sunday: We decided we had such a great time driving in the mountains on Saturday that we wanted to put some serious mountain miles on the Audi. We did a quick family brunch in Golden, then jumped on I-70 and drove up to Silverthorne to meet with our friends Kate and Andrew. They were staying at Kate’s parents’ ridiculously gorgeous mountain home just outside Silverthorne. The valley views from the Nadeau’s living room were unbelievably beautiful!
From the house, we drove around Dillon Reservoir, and in about 20 minutes we were in Breckenridge. We decided to have lunch and grab drinks at Breckenridge Brewery. The food was great (have the beer chees fries – you’ll thank us), every beer we tried was enjoyable (and not hoppy), and the view from the balcony was just WOWZA beautiful! After lunch we walked through town, popped into some of the cute little shops, and enjoyed the beautiful late summer day. Breckenridge is an absolutely adorable, fun and friendly town. If you have time for a day trip from Denver into the mountains, put rubber to the road!
We dropped Kate and Andrew off, then jumped on the road in the late afternoon. We didn’t have too much traffic, although the traffic on I-70 can be a serious beast – into the mountains at the beginning of the weekend, and back into Denver at the end of the weekend. The drive took us about an hour and forty-five minutes, but we got back into the city and parked with plenty of time to spare before our dinner reservations at Linger.
Linger is located in LoHi. It’s an area that’s really developed a lot in recent years, and is full of fun and hip places to eat, drink, and hang out in the great Denver weather. Linger has a cool rooftop bar, with views of the city, as well as a dining room with cool, modern décor and an interesting menu full of tapas that are, generally, ridiculously large! And tasty. The menu features items drawing inspiration all over the world. We should have come hungrier, because we didn’t even get to make a dent in trying the menu! Oh well. There’s always next time.
The altitude, particularly in Breckenridge, really kicked our butts on Sunday! After dinner, we were totally beat, and turned in early.
On Monday: Departure day. Booooo! We hate leaving Denver. Lucky for us, our friend Diego had just finished his cross-country drive to Denver, where he’s moving from DC, on Sunday night. So we grabbed brunch with Diego and his friend Michael at The Corner Office, which is actually attached to The Curtis. Since it was Labor Day, they were still serving brunch. Jess has the TCO Hash, with a side of Brussels sprouts, and a bottomless (!) brut rose and grapefruit mimosa. Totally delicious!
After breakfast, we hit the road. It took less than 30 minutes to get to the airport, we dropped our Silvercar, and headed to the airport. Denver Airport is one of those places where it is totally worth whatever you have to pay to get TSA pre-check. The regular security line is always monstrous! But, lucky for us, we both have pre-check! We scooted through security, hopped the train, and we made it to our gate in under 15 minutes, and exactly in time to get in line and board our flight.
It was a great trip, and we can’t wait to spend more time in Colorado in the future.