Best of Colorado trip: 5 things you absolutely cannot miss

Happy New Year friends! Our last adventure of 2018 was our Christmas trip to Colorado. Ironically, the last trip of 2017 was a road trip to Denver, CO as well. The reason is very simple: growing up, I was able to experience the weather of four seasons, so for me personally, white Christmas is a must. And there is no better gift than a gift of traveling. My habits and lifestyle have changed since moving to Austin, TX which I absolutely love, but there is a part of me that needs to experience and bring back those childhood memories around holiday season.  I have already shared the posts about Life in Denver and Road Trip to Colorado, but this trip was a little different: every day was an adventure, full of driving around, exploring and getting new experiences.  
Today’s post will be a little different – I won’t go into details, but I will share the highlights of our trip. The best and most memorable moments of Colorado trip 2018.  
The highlights of the trip:

My first Snowboard Lesson  
Let me be honest: ever since my husband bought me a day of snowboard lesson, I was trying to mentally prepare myself. I was looking for the reasons to get out of that, do something else. I was so scared to fall down badly, or break my leg, or not being able to snowboard. Now I think that it was one of the most amazing experiences in my entire life. I would highly recommend it to anyone why hasn’t done it yet.  

Sunset in Boulder
 Surprisingly enough, Lost Gulch Lookout in Boulder Mountain Park used to be my favorite spot to see sunset when we lived in Colorado. So, it was really nice to visit it this winter during our day trip to Boulder, CO. If there were only three things you could do while in Boulder for the first time, I would say go to Pearl Street,  take famous Celestial Tea Tour and watch the sunset at Lost Gulch Lookout. 

Authentic German Meal at Bohemian Biergarten
After our summer trip to Berlin, Germany, my husband fell in love with German cuisine. The reason I highlight this place and recommend it to both meat lovers and vegetarians like me is very simple: we were surprised how good and authentic the food tasted at Bohemian Biergarten. In addition, it was approved by our friends in Munich. So, if you’re planning to visit Colorado, add this restaurant to “must try”, and don’t forget about their amazing Mulled Wine this holiday season.  

Estes Park 
There are so many parks in Colorado, and it was hard to choose just one to visit this time. The plan was to go to Strawberry Park Hot Springs and Rocky Mountain National Park, but due to Government Shutdown, most of the services were limited. Long story short, we were on the way to see  Bear Lake and explore Estes Park.  

Red Rocks Amphitheatre
No trip is completed without a visit to this absolutely unique place in Colorado. Red Rocks Amphitheatre along with Garden of the Gods is an absolute must go. My favorite time would be in the afternoon, so I am able to walk around, appreciate it one more time and watch a beautiful sunset with the view from Amphitheatre.  

Thanks for stopping by! 

XX, 
Gena 

White Christmas in Denver: last minute adventure of 2017

   Hello everyone! Today I would like to share with you the craziest adventure we had in 2017. We came from Canada and I was ready to spend the end of the year at home. Our Christmas was planned, fresh tree was bought and there were presents under it. On Friday morning my hubby started talking about spontaneous decisions and the times when nothing was planned. I knew where this was going…. 🙂   

   It took us about 2 hours to change our plans, book the hotels, come up with the budget and hit the road. We were driving to Denver, CO.  We felt like it’d be a perfect trip to celebrate all the adventures of 2017. So why Denver? To be honest, I think there is no better place in the USA for a white Christmas than Colorado. Even when we lived there, I was absolutely amazed by its winter. We did not have a chance to go snowboarding, but let me assure you: we had a lot of fun. We visited Downtown, went to places we used to like, apartments we lived in, even the dealership where we bought our first car. We made so many memories in Colorado that almost every street was full of “Remember this place?” and “this street was different”.  

If you are wondering what made us move to Austin, TX, I talked about it here. 

   We were upset that it may not snow, but it took an hour for Denver to look like Winter Wonderland.  As we walked to Larimer square and felt nostalgic, we remembered our favorite streets, special moments, experiences and were ready to make new ones.  If you are looking for a weekend getaway in Denver, CO, I am sure you will always find plenty of things to do like Denver Art Museum, Elitch Garden Theme Park, Garden of the Gods, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and much more. There is always something going on.  

And when it comes to food, here are some really good places to consider: 

Pikes Peak Brewing Company for amazing beer selection and delicious food (beer cheese soup was the best!). I couldn’t say “no” to hubby, so it was our first stop in Colorado.

The Market at Larimer Square: the only bakery in the USA (!!!) where my hubby would buy Spring Fling cake. This time it was the perfect combination: delicious cake for him, coffee and cookies for me, and Winter Wonderland outside. 

Crú Food & Wine Bar hand down one of the best cheese fondue I have ever tried. The service, wine selection, and interior make it a perfect place for a date night. 

The 9th Door Capitol Hill is our favorite Spanish Tapas restaurant in Colorado. The service and decor are memorable, paella is a must try as well as well-prepared sangria.

Menya Noodle Bar for delicious noddles and Tuna/Salmon Poke Bowls. It was our first time here and we enjoyed everything from the first minute: convenient location, excellent service and delicious food.

Sushi Katsu has officially been our favorite Sushi Bar since 2015. All I am going to say is quality, quality, and quality of the food and fast service. No wonder it’s always crowded. (They also offer “All you can eat” options) 

Kachina Southwestern Grill was our choice for the Christmas feast. We wanted to have the food that would be light,but delicious. At the same time, the feeling of home combined with fast service was important. It was also our first time here and I was pleasantly surprised by food overall: it tasted like mom’s homemade food + I had enough vegetarian options for me. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. What is your favorite thing about Denver, CO? 

 

XX,
Gena

Living in Denver: what’s not to like?

   Hello everyone! Just recently I got a reminder that a year ago we made one of our last pictures in our apartment in Denver CO and somehow I never mentioned on the blog that we actually lived there. What a great experience it was! So today I have a pleasure to share our little adventure in Colorado.

How did it begin? 

We used to live in San Francisco CA (find out about life in SF here), and as much as we loved the City, it was time to move on with our lives: we couldn’t handle too well the pressure of Golden City and as a new family we needed to save for our future. Hence we were ready to make changes.  

   If you travel a lot, you know that at some point you just can’t sit still in one place, you gotta go somewhere. The same story happens to us, but we also take all our belongings with us.  We had several options in mind and Denver seemed to be the best one. What’s not to like? Gorgeous nature, the city surrounded by mountains, four seasons everything was cheaper than in California. With that being said, our little family was excited to start a new chapter.  

Life in Denver. 

Turned out that almost everything that I heard about Colorado was true. Even though the lesson I learned from moving across the country: “don’t fully trust what people say, go and see yourself”, I still read all the reviews and feedback. The most beautiful part of life in Denver was its winter: mild with a lot of snow and mountains of adventures. Driving in that season was a challenge, as well as walking (I swear I  had to learn how to walk again;)). 

We really enjoyed museums, amazing parks, and wildlife. I think now it’s a great privilege to be able to see animals in the parks, having their freedom, and be able to observe it all. I am not even going to start on the winter resorts. If you like camping – you should definitely try it in Colorado as you will find so many amazing spots with breathtaking views.  

At this point it seems like I forgot to mention the bad things about living in Denver. The truth about us is that we always find ways to be happy no matter where we live. Otherwise, what is the point? I won’t give you any reasons not to live in Colorado because your experience will always be different from mine. You will never know the truth until you see it with your own eyes. I can tell you that life in Denver was not perfect because we did not know that Colorado would become second-fastest growing state in the U.S. and prices would rise 10 percent in 2016.   

Denver is not known as a food city, it never was. But not only the legendary Coors Brewery is there offering free tours, Colorado is generous when it comes to local beer as well. We really enjoyed: 

  – Avery Brewing Company 

  – Black Bottle Brewery 

  – Boulder Beer Company 

  – Breckenridge Brewery 

  – Great Divide Brewing Co 

  – Fort Collins Brewery & Tavern 

Talking about attractions:  

• Garden of the Gods 
• Pikes Peak 
• Rocky Mountains National Park 
• Royal Gorge Bridge 
• Red Rocks Amphitheater 
• Elitch Gardens Theme Park 
• Hanging Lake  
• Denver Railroad  

And then we left Denver. 

So why did we move from such a beautiful place? At some point, both of us felt like we were ready for a new chapter. We did not feel like we were home, so after some discussions, my husband convinced me that Austin TX was a place to live. We left Colorado, but so many great memories were created and so many lessons learned. We made new friends, had snow in March and explored more. Together, hand in hand. And who knows where our next adventure will begin!  

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it!  😃

XX,

Gena