Mile High Mania

There couldn't have been a better way to start our weekend in Denver than our Friday adventures:
1pm- Personal Wine Tour and Tasting at an urban winery in the heart of Denver's Art District
(shout out to Aaron at The Infinite Monkey Theorem!)
4pm- Brewery Tour and Tasting in Downtown Denver, walking distance of the hotel, at Great Divide

7pm- Dinner in Uptown Denver at Vine City Pub.  Chatted with the man sitting next to us at the bar, who was alone just having a few beers.  Moments after he had left, a bartender came up to us, "Nick and Erin?" she said.  "Yes.....," we replied.  "The man sitting next to you, who just left, bought your drinks and dinner for you!"  Our response, "Why?" mouths wide open! Can't say I have ever had a dinner bought for me by a stranger who left before I could even say thank you.  Such a sweet and generous gift! "'Tis the season."

Saturday afternoon, our long awaited, great friends, Sydney and Richard(wallet-less), rolled into Denver.  Stuffed in Nick's truck we drove back into downtown.  Deciding not to waste anytime, we dropped the car and their luggage off and headed for the breweries!  First stop- Wynkoop Brewery.  We did a sampling of their beers and grubbed out a lil.  Ready for a change of scenery we strolled over to Falling Rock Tap House.  Hands down, this proved to be our favorite watering hole in Denver!

This bar has 75+ beers on tap, and 130+ different bottled beers in the cooler.  They have the widest selection of beers I have ever seen! Myself, and the other 3 musketeers trialled many a brew here- one of the best being a Russian River called Pliny the Elder.  Nick stating, "That one was delicious!"








Our next fantastic discovery happened Sunday morning.  We all woke with one thing on our mind- a super yummy brunch! Riding on a recommendation from a bartender at our hotel, we tested his judgement and trekked over to the brunch hot spot, Snooze.  Well, turns out, we owed that hotel bartender, because this was easily a top 3 brunch for me! With everything from Salmon Benedict, to Breakfast Pot Pie, to Red Velvet Pancakes, this place was amazingly good.  Our awesome waiter even treated us to a free little sampling of what he called "The Sinful Pancake".   

And, yes, that is the Red Velvet Pancake in the middle of the table.  As our waiter told us, it was 'a spiritual awakening of a brunch'.  We all were thankful for our walk home after this binge.  
After taking the afternoon to digest our feast, we finally headed back out to see another side of Denver, LoDo and 16th Street Mall.  I loved how decorated downtown was with all the lights.  Really put me in the holiday spirit!

We spent the last night with our much missed friends chatting over beers and indulging in some pizza.  It was such a treat for Sydney and Richard to come and adventure with us in Denver.  We couldn't have asked for a better weekend! 
Thanks Syd and Richard! We miss you already and hope you're enjoying Telluride with El and Ashley! See you soon in Atlanta! 

A Stunning Falls- Glen Eyrie Hike

Today (finally catching myself up with my blogging!), Nick and I hit the hiking trails again!  Nick had been researching over the weekend, and found this raved about spot.  He tried to make reservations (yes, you actually have to make reservations to hike here!) for Monday, but they were already booked. So, we settled on Wednesday for our hike.  Only about a 15 minute drive from Nick's parent's house, we arrived at Glen Eyrie.  This name is for the castle that sits on the back of the property, which was built in 1871 by the founder of C. Springs.  We drove past the castle to the public parking and started down the Queens Canyon Trail.  This was unlike any trail I had every been on, we were literally winding between the canyon wall!

It was about a mile hike through the canyon to the falls. Most of the trail required you to cross the creek multiple times using rocks or logs. I loved this aspect of the hike, treating it like a puzzle each time.


We took our time hiking the canyon towards the falls.  I tested my luck on the frozen creek skating across it, while Nick found some heavy rocks to test the ice's strength. We finally rounded a corner, when a bright light caught our eye.  It was sunlight reflecting off the completely frozen over, Dorothy Falls.  We made it!  I stayed behind, so I could get a good shot of Nick as he got closer to the natural beauty.  

Then we switched, so I could climb closer to this stunner.  I was just completely in awe of the frozen sculpture created by the icicles. Nick and I ended up sitting on the large rock in front of the falls for a while just taking in the moment.






After soaking up the beauty, we headed back, taking a totally different path.  With daylight left, we decided to wander the grounds of Glen Eyrie and ended our day outside of the gorgeous castle.

A Snowy Hike- Helen Hunt's Falls and Mt. Cutler

Monday, December 12th, Nick and I threw on some warm hiking clothes, packed a backpack of snacks, and slipped on our gym shoes (but have quickly realized the need for 'real' hiking shoes!). We started up the the trail to Helen Hunt's Falls and Seven Falls.  Helen Hunt's Falls is right at the base of the mountain and was completely frozen over! It was covered with ice and snow, so much that we couldn't even see tell the where the water started and the bank ended!  We kept on up the trail to Seven falls, where I found the littlest pinecone ever! We crossed over the creek that fed into the falls on our way up, where I was fascinated by the frozen layer of ice that covered running water.  

The falls were fairly frozen over, but had a few spots we found on the way up where you can see the water slipping past the ice and sliding over the rocks. Can't wait to come back in the spring when it all melts to see it at its fullest!  The top of the falls, had a gorgeous overlook of the mountains that surrounded us.

On our way up to the falls, Nick had spotted a trail sign for Mt. Cutler.  Interested, we decided to drive back down to the trail head and hike up it to the summit.  So glad we did, because it proved to have some of the best views of the day!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The view from the summit was breathtaking (literally, although it could have also had a little to do with the thin air at 7200ft)!  We decided to take a minute to figure out the self timer on our fancy new camera so we could get a few shots together.  Our first hiking adventure has us hooked!

Birthdays and Running in Sin City

The alarm rang early Thursday morning, and Nick and I woke to our first snow in Colorado.  It had been coming down since very early in the a.m., and showed no signs of stopping.  We loaded our luggage into the truck, and headed up to Denver to catch our flight to Las Vegas! Here is a 

glimpse of the treacherous roads Nick had to navigate:

We caught our flight and arrived later that afternoon in Sin City!  We checked into New York New York, where we would be staying for the next 4 nights.  Turned out to be a very good casino to us! 

Thursday night, we found an awesome burger joint in the hotel and then hit the blackjack tables.  We found our second home here.  We fell victim to the dangerous lighting of the casino floor and found ourselves finally cashing in after 4am.  

With the thick curtains in the room blocking out any ray of sunshine, and no concept of time, we finally pulled ourselves together in the late morning and hit the strip.  We wandered down to Caesar's Palace to indulge in the much buzzed about Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate.

After filling our bellies to the brim with Frozen Hot Chocolate and a very appropriately named omelette, "The Hangover", we walked over to the Venetian.  This is one of my favorite hotels.  It is absolutely beautiful on both the outside and inside.  Convinced we had literally walked all over the hotel, we finally found the Rock n' Roll Expo.  These are held before every Rock n' Roll half/full marathon event, and serves as a place for runners to pick up their number, shirt and 'swag bag'.  To any rookie race runner it can easily appear to be pure chaos, loaded with vendors passing out samples and selling gear of all kinds.  We decided to have a little fun at it with these pic boards from the race's biggest sponsor, Zappos. 

Friday night the rest of the crew got in town, and we all got together to celebrate Johny's Big Birthday (for you, Johny, I wont mention the number)!  Saturday came quickly, and we all headed over to Monte Carlo for their famous pub (over 200 beers on tap!) to watch the Dawgs vs LSU in the SEC Championship.  Sorry game for the Dawgs, but we still managed to have a great time!

After the game, we headed back to our second home, a.k.a. the blackjack tables, to win back our lost bets on the Dawgs.  About a $100 up, I headed up to bed, the only night I did so before midnight!  

The big day, Sunday, came and we all rested our legs all day in anticipation for the run that night. Over 40,000 runners had registered to run in the country's only night run.  We got out to the starting line at 5pm and took off around 6.  

Two hours and twelve minutes later, and in about 30 degree weather with a wind chill, I crossed the finish line!  I snagged my medal and made a beeline for our hotel.  Johny, Juliana, and I were the last women and man standing, and we made the most of our last night in Vegas, partying until 6am on Monday! 

We finally pulled into our new home in C Springs Tuesday morning, and rested from our amazing 5 days in Sin City!  

Day Adventure in Manitou Springs

Monday, November 28th, was a beautiful day, so Nick and I decided to get out and do a little adventuring.  Nick's parents had provided us numerous suggestions of fun places to see in the Colorado Springs area.  We finally made up our minds, and headed to Manitou Springs.  This is a small,artisan city at the bottom of Pike's Peak.  The town is known for world class art, it creepy history of witches, warlocks, and wizards, and it's 24 fresh mineral springs in the area.  

After walking through town and popping into the interesting shops, we came across a local bar, Townhouse Lounge.  We took a seat and checked out the bar.  To our surprise, we spotted a very special piece on the wall...

A UGA HAT! We asked the bartender about it, and found out the owners of the bar were, in fact, Dawg fans! Nice to know we have 'family' in unexpected places.  We quenched our thirst with a beer recommended by the bartender, it was called Colorado Native.  It was an amber lager, brewed by Coors in Golden, CO, and featured all local ingredients from the state.  


We settled up at the bar and went on to check out a few other shops in town.  When we had had our fair share of Manitou, we jumped in the truck and headed to a park we had passed on our way up.  Looked like a perfect spot for a little hiking and testing out the new camera (a very generous gift from a very loving family member!).  

This park is a beautiful area full of hiking paths and the natural red rock formations.  We had just enough time to enjoy a 1.5 mile trail before the sun started to go down.  Great shot of Nick to show how massive these formations are.

Second is a panoramic shot Nick got of our view, as I kept on along the trail.  

At the split in the trail, we opted for the 200 ft incline that brought us up to this prime photo spot.  This overlooked an amazing ridge of red rocks that went all through the park.  


We climbed back down the trail, winded for sure, the altitude is something to get used to, and headed back to the truck as the sun started to hide behind the mountains in the distance.  


A successful day of adventuring, for sure!

Our 2 Day Trek to Colorado

Our experience started on the morning of November 20, 2011.  With the UHaul trailer(with the help of family and many friends, we got pretty much everything in!) hitched up to the back of Nick's truck, we pulled out of my parents driveway in Johns Creek and started our journey across the country.  


Our journey really started to hit us as we left Georgia and entered into Alabama, first of 5 states we would drive through before entering Colorado.

  
After 12 hours of driving the first day through Birmingham, Memphis, and through most of Arkansas, we arrived in the town where my Uncle David, Aunt Robin, and Grandparents live.  With great hospitality, they fed us a yummy homemade dinner and hooked us up at a hotel nearby.  The first long day of driving was over and we were on the road again bright and early Monday morning.


After 10 hours of driving through the most agreeably, boring stretch of plains and oil fields, we had arrived in Colby, Kansas.  This was the last major city before we entered into Colorado.  With the excitement of reaching our new home state, we grabbed some caffeine and decided to push forward through the remaining 3.5 hours.  

At 10:30pm mountain time, we finally pulled into Nick's parents house.  Nick was such a trooper and drove the whole 25.5 hours we were on the road!  Words could not describe the excitement and exhaustion that overcame us when we settled into our new home that night. 


The second best thing, after sleeping in all morning after our late arrival the night before, was unloading the UHaul and getting that thing off the back of Nick's truck! 


Our move was over, but our adventures in the Red Rock State were just beginning!