Oh the Places We Have Gone...

                Today was a day of figuring out the Denver area and getting my bearings.  I’m generally great with directions and finding places after looking at a map once or twice, but usually it takes a day and some getting lost as well. 

                First on our list of new lessons was deciding what type of ticket to get for the light rail and where to do so.  We walked to the nearest station, but when we got there, we were very confused and ended up calling the light rail service desk.  It turns out we were rightly confused as we couldn’t get the pass we wanted unless we were at one of the service stations.  So, we had some nice morning exercise before driving right into the heart of downtown.  Since we were already in the area, it was a perfect time to see the capitol building as well.

The hubby and the capitol building.

Failing the "selfie" technique, but it'd kind of hard when the hubby is 6'2" and I'm 5'4".

A monument to all veterans.

Not quite sure what that building is behind us, but it looked pretty and school children were visiting it, so we thought we would need a picture!

Finally getting the selfie down!

                After figuring out our light rail tickets (which we probably still did incorrectly, but live and learn), we still had time left over on the meter, so we took a stroll up Colfax street.  We saw lots of homeless and some interesting characters, but the coolest piece that I almost walked by unnoticed was this:

Graffiti can be beautiful when it has an artful purpose.

                Anyways, we decided that walking partially down Colfax wasn’t enough and I wanted to, again get my bearings, so we drove in the direction of the Zoo and the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.  On the way, we saw an awful bubble gum pink facade and people walking with pink boxes.  The realization hit Kyle and I that a Voodoo Donuts had opened in Denver!  Okay, so we aren’t really on the band wagon of this donut shop since I work at Treasure State Donuts already, but we had to check out what all the fuss was about.  Yes, we waited in line for about 30 minutes (which is short if you’ve ever heard of Voodoo) and after waiting all that time and not having eaten lunch yet, we made the horrible decision to get their most popular pre-packed bakers dozens. This included items such as the bacon maple bar, the voodoo doll, the captain my captain (captain crunch cereal on it), Portland crème, Colfax crème, Neapolitan, and way too many others that we shouldn’t have even gotten.  I will say that they were good, but they didn’t compare to our donuts (TSD).  Kyle did prefer their version of a Bavarian crème because he likes his crème to be sweeter, but I didn’t like it at all.  I know this will sound snooty, but you can taste the quality difference between the two, and since I have tried almost all of our donuts and a good selection of theirs, I think I have earned the right to say so!

They are definitely creative in design and name departments, so I’ll give them that.  Here’s the hubby and I being silly after purchasing a baker’s dozen for the two of us…COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS!

It was lunch time if you could't tell...

Their famous voodoo doll donut and voodoo Lauren too!

                Ok, so the rest of the day was spent exploring Pearl Street (a few streets West of our vacation rental).  The area we are in is a super cute neighborhood south of the heart of Denver.  There are so many charming houses and boutique shops and local bistros, etc.  We had lunch at a place called Gaia, which Kyle explained means Earth in Greek (and I believed him since he’s the smart one).

The pulled pork burrito, YUM!

And I had the crepe (of course), but was slightly good and got it gluten free and savory instead of sweet.

And of course I had to check out an upscale consignment shop right down the street.  They had super cute items, but most were a small or extra small and even though I’ve lost some weight, I still have the body of a woman for goodness sake! Despite this minor frustration I find with many stores (because us average girls are more common and hence the average sizes sell faster), I did find an adorable gray dress at a reasonable price.  It makes me giddy just telling you about it! Pictures to come…hopefully. 

                After getting our fix of vitamin D for the day, my man and I took a little cat nap, fixed ourselves some chicken and asparagus and then got ready for the Avs game.

                Gah!!!!  I forget how much I love hockey until I see a great game and all the fond emotions come flooding back to me.  I didn’t grow up with a die-hard hockey family, but my grandfather and uncle are definitely die-hard Los Angeles Kings fans and I like to think that since I have the same blood, that’s where the love comes from.  Okay, so I guess it wasn’t a great game for the Avs because they lost, but the Bruins played really well and damn!...their defense was rock solid.  I mean there were at least three defenders in addition to the goalie in the goal area whenever the puck was near.  In fact, the goalie rarely ever touched the puck (despite MANY attempted goals), because a defender would usually block it first.  Even though our team lost, it was amazing to see a professional game (it has been a while) and hopefully someday we will live in a city that has a professional hockey team.  Hockey is just entertaining; it’s that simple!

My ticket!!!

Yeah, strawberries and frozen cheesecake on skewers, then dipped in chocolate.  Did I get one? No, because 1. they were some outrageous price like $12 for one skewer and 2. because I probably ate five donuts throughout the day! Also, take note of my FREE Avalanche plastic cup!  We got one upon entering!

Vodka lemonade, now that's what I'm talking about! Great concept, but not for $12 per drink :(.

That's me!

Giant jersey and the national anthem came next.

Some action or not...  I'm a great photographer!

                Well, tomorrow is my birthday, which I forgot about until this evening (see I told you I was awful with birthdays). Because it’s my special day, I get to choose what we do and poor Kyle is going to have to hang out with me while I go antiquing and thrift shopping!  Don’t worry, I figured out that if I give him my phone and let him play Candy Crush he behaves like a good little boy.  I guess I’ll have some pay back in order when his turn arrives on Monday!

                Hopefully I’ll find some great deals and items out there! Until next time…

P.S. It amazes me how rude people can become/be in big cities.  I stopped to let an elderly couple cross the street and the car behind me blew their horn!  We aren't in Missoula anymore...I hope you got The Wizard of Oz reference ;)