We took a short little vacation to Denver last weekend. We left on Saturday around 8:00, and arrived
around 2:30. Denver is not a bad drive,
about 6.5 hours. Here is my recap with a
few travel tips thrown in. 😊
We first checked in to our hotel. We stayed at the Hyatt House Denver Tech
Center in Englewood.
TRAVEL TIP: Price check, price check, price check. We were going to try to find an Air BnB, but
in this case the hotel was cheaper. And
it was a GREAT hotel. Our ‘room’ was
more of an apartment, with a separate bedroom and a full kitchen. It’s so nice to have a large
fridge/freezer/microwave when traveling.
I had packed a bunch of snacks (yogurt, fruit, nuts) so it was
convenient to throw those in the fridge and put my ice packs in the freezer so
they would be ready for our drive home.
ALWAYS check the
amenities of the place you are staying.
Like free wi-fi. A lot of hotels
advertise free wi-fi, but they only offer the free wi-fi in the lobby, and then
charge you for wi-fi in your room. Check
the details of the breakfast. This hotel
served a hot breakfast every morning complete with an omelet bar. There are a lot of hotels that offer free
breakfast, but most of them are cold cereal, fruit, pastries, and make-your-own
waffle type breakfasts. And there’s
nothing wrong with that! But if you’re
expecting a hot breakfast and find cold cereal, that might be a tad
disappointing.
After we checked in to our hotel, we found a local tavern
that hosts Husker fans every game Saturday.
It was so much fun! It’s nice to
be in a roomful of people rooting for your team. I had their version of a Runza. It was not the same.
Sunday morning I found the nearest Pure Barre and took a
class. It was a pretty full class
(compared to what I’m used to). It felt
good to MOVE after driving for 6 hours on Saturday.
After Barre I went back to our room and hubby informed me
that he got tickets to the Bears/Broncos game at 2:25 p.m. YAY!!!
I showered, we relaxed for a couple of hours and then got back in the
car and headed to Mile High Stadium.
TRAVEL TIP: If you’re going to a large event, like a
football game, do NOT attempt to find parking near the stadium. It will be impossible and lead to loads of
frustration. So we drove to the nearest
‘box store’ parking lot in proximity to the stadium and parked there. And then from there, we took a Lyft to the
stadium. It was soooooo nice. Free parking at Target, and then a $5 Lyft
ride to the stadium, where we got dropped off pretty much at the front
door. After the game, we did NOT attempt
to get a Lyft back to Target. Lyft’s
prices go by supply/demand, so their prices skyrocket after events like
football games and concerts. So we
started walking away from the stadium towards Target (it was 2 miles
maybe?) About halfway there, we found
some Lyft scooters. Basically, if you
have the Lyft app (which we do), you scan the barcode on the scooter and off
you go. It was fun, and slightly scary
at times ha ha. So for about a mile, we
rode the scooters back to Target. The
scooters charge by the minute. I think
our rides ended up being $4? Totally
worth it!
Now let’s talk about the football game. Oh my.
I have NEVER in my life been so stress out about any football game. First off, we paid a LOT for our tickets so I
was really, really, really hoping for a Bears win. And all looked great up until the last 2
minutes. There were SO many things that
had to happen just right. First, the
Broncos attempted point after kick to tie the game. The kicker missed, but there was a penalty
against the Bears. So then, the Broncos
decided to go for 2, which would put them one point ahead of the Bears with
30-some seconds before game end. And
they made the 2-point conversion. At
this point, I was heartbroken because I figured it was over for the Bears. The Bears had just a few seconds to get the
ball down the field in field-goal range.
At 2nd down and a bunch of yards, the Bears QB couldn’t connect with
anyone. At 3rd down, he
connected with his receiver who got down the field a bit further. And then the clock ran out. And Broncos players and coaches started
running onto the field thinking the game was over. BUT…the Bears had called a time-out with one
second remaining on the clock. ONE
SECOND. One field goal attempt. A 53 yard attempt (not easy). Everyone lined up, the kicker kicked and I
swear it felt like the football was going in slow motion. And he made it. Game over.
BEARS WIN! It was fun because we
had Bears fans right behind us AND in front of us so we were all celebrating
and high-fiving as the disgruntled Broncos fans were making their way around us
trying to leave.
What a game!!!
After parking our Lyft scooters (you can just leave them
wherever) and retrieving our car at Target, we headed back to Englewood and
found a meatball restaurant for dinner.
Yes, a meatball restaurant. It
was delicious!
Monday was Ikea. We
took our time in the morning, had a long breakfast, packed up our stuff and the
car and checked out around 11:00. And
then drove to Ikea, which was only about 5 minutes away.
I don’t really have any Ikea tips, except HAVE A LIST. And try to stick to it ha ha. Ikea is like a wonderland of good quality
cool stuff for cheap. The Ikea employees
are extremely helpful.
We pretty much stuck to our list. We got a white shelving storage unit for my mother-in-law. Light blocking curtain panels for our sunroom for the super hot summers. A couple more bookshelves for the library. And misc. odds and ends.
After Ikea, we packed up the car. My trusty CRV. I should have taken a picture with the Ikea
boxes, bags, and our luggage all piled up.
And then we headed back downtown (ish) for the entire reason
we went to Denver. Of Monsters and
Men!!!! I got the tickets a couple
months ago, pretty much as soon as they released their tour dates and cities. They are an Icelandic band and they put out
an album every 3-4 years. So this is
only their 3rd album. I
kicked myself for not going to see them in 2015, so I did NOT want to miss them
this time around.
They played at the Mission Ballroom, which is a relative new
concert venue in Denver. It was a really
nice place. It was a sold out concert,
I’m guessing there were maybe 3,000 people there?
TRAVEL TIP: Again, when going to a large event like this,
don’t count on parking near the venue. I
found a really cool parking app which lets you reserve a parking spot in a
secured parking garage for WAY cheaper than event parking. I paid $5 to reserve a parking spot at a
parking garage about 6 blocks away from the venue. I reserved it from 4:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. When we got there, I just whipped out my
phone, held it up to the little scanner at the garage and the arm magically
lifted and let us through. IT WAS
AMAZING. Especially when we got to the
venue and saw they were charging $20 to park in the lots nearby. The app is
called ‘BestParking’. I’m a fan.
The venue was really nice.
There were bars and bathrooms everywhere, so there were NO LINES
EVER. It was general admission. Meaning…there are no seats. On the balcony level though, there are
‘tiered’ steps to sit on though if that makes sense. So that’s where we sat. Which was nice because we got to sit down for
the majority of the concert. It was
mostly the older people in the balcony so we fit right in ha ha.
The concert was AMAZING.
It exceeded my expectations. They
sang every song on my mental list that I hoped they would, with the exception
of one on their new album (Stuck in Gravity).
They sang maybe 20 songs? They
played for an hour and a half. It was
just amazing. They didn’t do a lot of
talking in between. They speak English
(obviously), but with heavy Icelandic accents.
After each song Nanna (the female lead) would say ‘thank you’. It was so cute. 😊 They
did introduce about every other song.
One of my favorites, Lakehouse (from their 1st album), they
introduced by saying ‘this song we wrote reminding us of summers in
Iceland’. And another one they
introduced by saying ‘if you’re an awkward dancer, then you will dance great to this song’ (Wars,
from their newest album). 😊 They’re just such a great band. It was an all-ages show, so it didn’t get
crazy or anything.
They didn’t go on until about 8:45 and ended around
10:15. We waited until a lot of people
had cleared out before we left. So we
got back to our car around 11:00. And
then we started the drive home. We had
to drive home after the concert because hubby had to be in Santa Fe on Tuesday
at 9:00 a.m. I did the driving so that
hubby could sleep. I took my time (no
speeding!), stopped for gas 2 times, ate a gross Arby’s sandwich at 3:00 a.m.
(I was starving and it was my only option!), and listened to ‘Into Thin Air’ on
audio. Hubby slept. We rolled into Santa Fe around 5:00 a.m. I found a grocery store parking lot, parked
the car, and looked at my pictures and videos on my phone while hubby
slept. I woke him up around 6:30. We found a Starbucks, got cleaned up (thank
goodness for disposable washcloths), had coffee, and then I dropped hubby off
at the Santa Fe office and I headed home (he caught a ride back to ABQ with his
co-workers).
It was a great trip.
Kind of a whirlwind, but we packed a lot in. It’s so important to get away every now and
then!
