Denver - June 2021

Lunch with Patrick, Declyn and Donnell

After spending a week and a half at home from our first summer trip to SoCal, we left again for a four-week trip to Denver, Pacific Northwest, and Montana.  This blog includes the first part of this trip which was 5 days in Denver.  

We were supposed to fly out on Saturday but got a notice early Saturday morning that our flight was canceled.  We quickly scrambled and were able to get another flight out early Sunday morning.  It was a good thing that our flight was canceled as we had torrential rain coming down in Chicago and our back well (that led to the back door of the basement) was filling up so fast (the pump could not keep up) that a small amount of water started to come into our home.  Keith jumped into high gear, got a bucket, and slowly got all of the water out of the well while Shawna mopped up the water inside and took photos of Keith in action!!  That evening, we decided to try a new restaurant in our neighborhood that recently opened, Savannah Luncheonette.  While our waiter was super nice, we, unfortunately, were disappointed in the food.

On Sunday morning, we got up early and caught our 7am flight to Denver, arriving around 9am.  We decided to fly first class so that we could both work on the plane.  Because we had to change the dates for the rental car, we could not get our original reservation so had to get a rental car from a company we had never heard of, Nu.  With fingers crossed, we got the car, drove off the lot and wished for the best!!  We were too early to check into our hotel and too early for our lunch plans so we decided to do a lap around Wash Park which was so nice to do.

For lunch, we met up with Patrick, Donnell, and their adorable daughter Declyn.  We met at Perdida which is a very stylish and yummy Mexican place on Gaylord near Wash Park.  We had a few chips for an appetizer and split some tacos and brussel sprouts for our entree - and of course, had to have a margarita!  It was so great to catch up with them and to see how much their daughter had grown since we last saw her.  After lunch, we walked across the street to Sweet Action to have ice cream.  We sat outside and chatted a bit more while we enjoyed our cones.

Patio at Perdida

We then checked into our hotel - Element which is a new, modern, affordable Marriott hotel located in between downtown Denver and Cherry Creek.  We got a one-bedroom which worked out great.  The room was spacious, clean, and had a great desk from which Shawna worked for the week.  We unpacked, took a short nap, and then went to the grocery store to get a few items for the week.  

That evening, we met up with Chad and Cara for dinner.  We first met at their new home on the south/west side of Wash Park - it is a beautiful, fairly new home.  We had a few drinks there along with some cheese and crackers and then went to Izakaya for dinner.  We shared a bunch of sushi - all was so yummy and just as good as we had remembered it.  We had last seen them about nine months prior when we passed through Denver after our trip to Yellowstone and Jackson.  

During the week, Shawna worked out of the hotel while Keith visited properties a couple of days and had a two-day offsite meeting with his direct reports in Vail.  They stayed at Tivoli Lodge and had a wonderful time

On Tuesday evening, Shawna met up with some of her book club gal pals - Kristina, Ali, and Sarah.  We first walked around the neighborhood checking out the incredible houses in the area.  We then had dinner at Kristina's house on her outside patio - she made a yummy salad and fruit salad and Ali brought over a homemade tart that she made.  We enjoyed the light meal, had a few glasses of wine, and chatted away until 9:30pm!!

We were supposed to fly out Thursday evening to Oregon but got a notice in the late afternoon that our flight was canceled!!  We thankfully had already booked a backup flight to leave Friday AM just in case (since we already had a cancelation earlier to fly out of Denver).  Good thing we did b/c our airline rebooked us two days later which would have cut into our vacation.  So Shawna quickly found us a room at the Courtyard Marriott by the airport since our flight out the next morning was early.  She dropped off the rental, checked in and Keith met her there.  We had dinner at the hotel - not too yummy - and then went to bed early.  On Friday morning, our flight took off on time so we started the next phase of our trip which was the Pacific Northwest.