Denver Anniversary Extravaganza!

  Because, everything is more fun when it's an extravaganza!  :)  So over Memorial Day weekend we decided to head to Denver to celebrate our 4 (!!) year anniversary.  We chose Denver because neither of us had been before and it was relatively close to Phoenix.  We are so glad we did because we had a blast, and would highly recommend the Mile-High City to anyone who hasn't had the pleasure!  We flew in Friday evening and took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel downtown.  We decided not to rent a car, and although I was a little worried, it ended up working out beautifully.  Friday night we walked about a mile to a yummy sushi place near downtown.  We haven't found a great sushi place here in Phoenix so it was nice to have some good nigiri and rolls.

Then on Saturday we woke up and walked to Snooze, a breakfast joint recommended to me by my one-time Pilates teacher/personal trainer haha-Michelley you know what I'm talking about! It was soo good!! The thing is I love pancakes, but most places have majorly disappointing flapjacks.  I don't even use Bisquick at home, and don't feel like I should pay for someone else to use it when I go out.  Well snooze cakes were definitely NOT Bisquickey!  Dean got the sweet potato pancakes with ginger butter-and they were the best things ever!  I got an updated version of eggs Benedict with Salmon and spoon bread and it was also a-mazing! So check it out if you ever go there!!  After breakfast we caught a bus and headed on over to, that's right, the Denver Zoo!  Dean hooked us up so we got in for free and got some sweet tours.  As part of our behind the scenes tour, we got to feed a Tamandua live worms!! Even I was amazed that I was able to do that.  I just smiled and tried to not think about it and remain calm so as not to embarrass Dean in front of his fellow animal loving peeps.

Dean really wanted to check out their Predator Ridge exhibit and it was pretty cool- they had four lions in their pride, and one came right up to us (behind the glass of course)! It was neat to see one that close.  My favorite exhibit was the Gorilla enclosure.  We saw two of them and I loved it!  I like Gorillas because they seem so smart and very perceptive.  I'm never really sure who's watching who.

Sunday morning we went to Sacrament Meeting at the Capitol Hill Ward (made me appreciate how big our ward at home is!) and then caught a bus over to the Highland area (I think...) where we had the most delectable brunch and also my favorite meal of the trip.  Duo was everything we hoped it would be.  This is another one you should not miss if you head to Denver.  We didn't get to try them for dinner, but I'm sure it would be equally good! Read about the Cider Glazed Pork Benedict and the Sweet Sunday brunch items...enough said.  Highland was also a really cute neighborhood filled with lots of fun houses.  If I lived in Denver I would want to live there!  

Of course we had to check out the Birds &  Bees Trail in the garden!

That afternoon we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  It ended up being a surprisingly fun activity.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous so just being able to walk around outside in the incredible gardens was pretty nice.  Plus, we got delicious strawberry lemonade and got to see their Tropical garden which was really incredible.  That exhibit was inside, and so I was expecting a green house with like some Venus fly-trap plants or something (ok actually that would have been pretty cool.  Cancel that.  I was expecting...a small banana leaf plant or something?)  Whatever I was expecting this exhibit was about a million times cooler!  It was really like walking straight into the rainforest.  It was WAY humid, so we got a lil' shweaty but it was well worth it.  I've never really seen anything like that before and I was just really impressed with the logistics of pulling something like that off all year in Denver.  I bet it would be really cool to be in there in winter when it is snowing outside!!  

Ahh yeah...80's glamor shot in the garden!
Let's hear it for back light!

One of the best parts of Sunday was after we left the Botanic Gardens and rented two bikes from Denver B Cycle to ride to our dinner destination.  B Cycles is this really sweet bicycle charing company in Denver and a few other big cities.  How it works is you pay $5 a person to "rent" a bike for 24 hours.  Basically for the next 24 hours you can check the bikes out at one station and ride them to the next/another station as much as you want! As long as it's in thirty-minute increments it's free, and if you do go over it's only $1 more per half hour!  What a deal right?  Plus it was just fun!  Even for a bike-a-phobe like me.  The sidewalks were wide, the bike lanes were well marked, and best of all there was this gorgeous bike-only path right by the Platte river which was my favorite place to ride. On Monday we decided to hang around mostly near downtown, and after breakfast at this place (satisfying if slightly overrated- although if I went again I would def. try something with the pork chili verde on it, just to be fair.)  We rode our bikes to a giant REI flagship store and walked around for awhile.  The Platte and another unknown river meet right in front of the REI and there's sort of a little mini-beach there where lots of people hang out/swim/play with their dogs, so we hung there for ahwile and enjoyed the scenery.  We watched a Portuguese water dog play fetch with his owner and decided that some dogs are definitely more talented than Henry; but we still love him anyway.

Woo Bikes!

Seriously, I kept thinking this dog was about to drown, but apparently his owner knew he was quite talented.  We also saw a very rotund kid whose swim trunks kept falling off which caused his family to laugh and him to yell "Mi pantalones!" in a panic, which only made his family, (ok an us) laugh harder.  Yes, good times at the public beach/park.

So...this is the jungle.

After this delightful interlude, we rode our bikes back to downtown and spent the afternoon doing some leisurely reading (I never have time to lounge about in bookstores at home) at The Tattered Cover bookstore. Tattered Cover is an independent book seller there, and they have two(?) different locations.  I can't speak for the other locales, but if you are ever in Denver I would check out the downtown location for sure; it has a really relaxed vibe to it and with lots of exposed brick walls, old wooden floors and abundant sofas/armchairs it feels cozy and overflowing with books, as I think all the best bookstores do.  I actually wish we would have taken some pictures of this place just because it was so cool looking and you can't really tell from the website.  Oh well.  Just imagine a bookstore almost as cool as the Harry Potter library.  (The one in your imagination not the movies.)  On our way out we found a great market to eat at that seemed like the kind of place locals would frequent.  We decided that if we ever return to dear old Denver we will go here to get our picnic lunch before heading back to that magical river land via the B cycle bikes. We had some really good sandwiches, we eyed their killer dessert case but managed to restrain ourselves, and then we were off to the airport!

Totally normal...rainforest in Denver.

Overall, this trip was a much needed respite from the real world.  With the end of school for me (at least before summer school starts) and the beginning of Camp Zoo for Dean, it had been a stressful past few weeks, so it was nice to get a break!  (Henry free and everything!)  It also gave us a chance to reflect on all the fun times we've had in the past four years.  (I can't believe we have been married for that long already!)  Time really does fly by.  We feel so blessed right now, and not just because we got to take a sweet vacation! Heavenly Father has really been looking out for us and helping things fall into place.  Here's hoping for many more years of wedded bliss! 

ps- I'm sorry this post was so long but since I'm not the consistent at that whole journaling thing, this post was as much for us to read later as all of you!  You can always skim through and just look at the pictures right?!