I Went to Colorado…
Recently had a meeting in the Denver area with a client so I headed out to since my sister lives out there it was the perfect opportunity to extend my trip a few days and hang out with her and my fantastic nieces and nephew.
My client meeting was on the west side of Denver, following the meeting my colleague and I headed to Golden Colorado.
Golden
We got dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant called Tafolino’s. I discovered green chile, which I kind of expected to be a salsa verde, but it was more of a soup than a sauce and not really green. It was really good. We saw green chile on the menu at several restaurants in the area.
After dinner, we went into the heart of Golden. Golden is a Wild West-themed town. The heart the town carried through the frontier theme. It felt a little like a real-life version of Cedar Point’s Frontier Town. I even got my photo with a buffalo!
The town has some pretty cool views. From the bridge over the river, you can see the Coors facility.
Below the bridge is play area IN the river, with a slide (and stairs) straight into it. The water was moving at a good clip when we on the bridge so it would be scary to go down the slide.
We stopped for a drink Barrels and Bottles, a craft brewery and brewpub. They of course serve their own brews and a ton of other local brews. I opted for the house Orange Creamsicle Blonde Ale, it was incredible. I expected it to taste like an ale with orange flavoring, but no, it tastes like a creamsicle in a glass.
Arvada
The next morning, we went to Arvada for breakfast at Bread Winners Cafe, a top-rated breakfast spot in Arvada’s Olde Town. They have an extensive breakfast menu with a lot of creative dishes and a variety of Eggs Benedicts, I ordered the California Benedict.
After breakfast, we determined that a walk would be a good idea to settle the heavy meal, so we walked through Olde Town. It’s a cute area with a lot of interesting shops, boutique, cafes and more. There’s even a coffee and bourbon bar. Our walk did have a destination, the Rhinelander Bakery. Rhinelander is the kind of place you walk into and get overwhelmed (and have a blood sugar spike). Everything looked and smelled amazing. Both of us were on our way to visit people impacted by celiac disease, so it was refreshing to find whole cases of gluten-free goodies. I was able to find some treats that also checked off the boxes for my sister and her kids’ dietary needs. (They also had a whole case of sugar free options.)
After Arvada, I picked up my own rental car and set off for the suburbs east of Denver.
Sistering and Aunting
That part of the trip was 100% about my sister and her kids. I spent two days taking my sister to accomplish her errands and getting the kids where they need to be. She’s a recently single mom to three wonderful little children and doesn’t currently have a car. Taking her somewhere that was a 10 minute drive would be at least 30 minutes on a bus, if not more, for them.
I was glad to be able to help and give her a bit of a break. However, after driving around with 3 in car seats in the back of my rental car, I have a whole new appreciation for what my parents experienced with three kids and for the invention of child door locks and window locks! People say that when you have a third child, you’re outnumbered. My sister is handling 3 kids on her own and she does a fantastic job. I have a ton of respect for what she’s doing.
While the kids were visiting with their father, we had a sister date to go see Wonder Woman. We’d both been wanting to see it. After growing up in a house where superhero movies were a staple, it was refreshing to see a movie with female superhero. It was good, if you haven’t see it, I recommend it.
After the movie, we picked up the kids and paid a visit to Stuft Burger Bar. Stuft has a cool build your own style menu, a lot like Barrio here in Cleveland does for tacos. And, they are celiac and allergy friendly! We all enjoyed burgers on gluten free buns. Our server was extremely friendly and they had great little activity kits for the kids with activity pages and bendy wax things that we made all sorts of shapes out of.
A couple of days wasn’t nearly enough time with them, but it had to do. I’d love to share pictures of my time with them, but we’re keeping to kiddos off the internet.
I lived in Colorado for a LONG time! 6 or 7 years! 🙂 My best friend currently lives in Golden too by the way! It would have been NUTS if your sister was my friend, except my friend doesn’t have a sister- LOL!