Day 3.17: Denver, CO to Boulder, CO to Estes Park, CO

We woke up in time to catch the end of breakfast, where we were able to order custom-made omelets but were disappointed to find that they ran out of a bunch of items early and didn’t replace them.

We got on the road to head about forty-five minutes to Boulder, stopping along the way at a pullout to take pictures of the mountain view. We met a nice transplant from Kansas City who said she really liked it in Colorado.

We continued on to Boulder and found a parking spot right across the street from Snooze, our chosen lunch spot. Since we weren’t hungry for lunch just yet, we walked along the city blocks and did some casual zillowing of the homes along it.

We returned to Snooze at just the right time to be seated after putting our name in when we arrived. We sat outside and ordered an array of delicacies, including avocado toast, banana white chocolate chip pancakes (with everything else that came with it on the side, per Abe style), and a pancake flight featuring sweet potato, blueberry, and pineapple. It was a delicious meal.

We drove a few minutes to go check out of a rooftop view of the city and the mountains at the top of a parking garage, which was nice.

We then got back in the car to head to our next surprise destination: the Celestial Seasonings factory. We had visited back in January 2018, and we knew that tea lover Brenda would be particularly excited about this attraction. Because it was a Saturday, the production lines weren’t open, but we still enjoyed an informative and very scented experience. Arielle was also disappointed that they don’t give you a raspberry zinger packet as your ticket anymore, but we still got to sample both hot and iced teas after the tour.

Abe had seen signs for Rocky Mountain National Park on our drive up, and even though it was an hour away, we decided to go for it since we had liked it a lot back in August 2018. Brenda wasn’t sure how she would do with the rising elevation, but we kept tabs on it as we ascended. We stopped for gas in Estes Park, the town outside the park, and Arielle gave Brenda some (salty) chips and lots of water, and advised her to take Tylenol to make sure she’d be okay. As we drove into the park, we all started to feel the elevation a bit more, but we were distracted by the gorgeous scenery and then by the moose we saw on the side of the road! A couple hours later, Arielle asked a ranger, who confirmed that it had actually been an elk, which made Arielle sad. We did see tons of deer and elk, and mountain goats with huge horns.

After about an hour of driving slowly through the park, we left to head back into Estes Park to the amazing Italian restaurant we had gone to two nights in a row, Sweet Basilico. It didn’t disappoint. Harold got seafood in a broth, and the rest of us shared eggplant parmigiana, fettucine Alberto, and ravioli. Conveniently, we each had a different favorite, and we got to chat with the owner’s son, who remembered us from last time. This is a great place and a must-visit for anyone who travels to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We drove back about an hour and a half to the hotel, where we went to relax in the hot tub. There were other guests there who had already called about the fact that there were no towels, which finally showed up after multiple other calls and twenty-five minutes, just as we were about to head back to our rooms. We went to sleep to prepare for our final day in Colorado.

Approximate number of miles covered: 144

Day 3.16: Denver Day 1

We woke up and said goodbye to Talia and Yona, leaving the house around 10am as they departed to complete a few errands before heading to a Shavuot retreat. We drove about twenty minutes to the Embassy Suites Denver Stapleton Hotel. We tried to check in early but were told that the rooms weren’t ready yet, and set up shop in the lobby working on a project we needed to complete.

After checking in multiple times, we finally got the keys nearly three hours later, only to learn that the rooms were not the correct type that we needed. Beyond frustrated, we spoke to a manager, who, after ensuring that the new rooms were correct, said that we could have lunch on him from the on-site restaurant since we would have gone out to get something had we known it would take three hours. We went a bit overboard since we were pretty hungry, ordering a veggie burger with fries, margarita flatbread, gnocchi, a side of onion rings, and two lemonades. We liked the flatbread best, and definitely didn’t need all that food.

Abe went out to get a few things, and saw the apocalyptic skies rolling in as a few raindrops started.

We heard from Arielle’s parents that their flight was going to be considerably delayed, so we modified our dinner reservation accordingly so that we might go straight from the airport there instead of having a couple hours to relax at the hotel or see Denver first. We enjoyed complimentary drinks at the Embassy Suites happy hour, decorated Brenda's room for her birthday, and then left around 8pm to head to the airport.

Brenda and Harold finally arrived around 8:30pm and we drove straight into Denver to go to Safta, an Israeli restaurant that had come highly recommended. We perused the intense and long menu and made a few choices based on the recommendations of the friendly waitress who looked just like Drew Barrymore. We chose the cauliflower hummus, an order of falafel, the duck matzo ball soup (which was interesting, but tasted a lot like duck), the crispy eggplant, and the pomegranate braised lamb shank. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience, though one visit was probably enough for us.

By the time we finished, it was after 11pm, so we got back in the car and drove the twenty or so minutes back to the Embassy Suites to head to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 18