These three children are hungry more often now than when they were babies. I can count on one of them declaring they’re “so hungry” about every 90 minutes. This means that vacations often feel like we’re just bouncing along from one meal to the next and the last two days were no different.
Sunday was our first full day, and we started with Ron and Casey and Mallory exploring nearby breakfast options while Ally and I stayed back at the hotel because Ally. Was. Crabby. It wasn’t until later that we realized that our hotel did indeed have free breakfast. Sounds good right? Mallory will later declare everything they have to offer “disgusting.”
After breakfast we walked around downtown Denver a bit and determined that it was cold. Much colder than we are used to. We found ourselves near a TJ Maxx that was about to open and had at least 30 people waiting to go in. Turns out that almost of them, including us, were on the hunt for gloves, scarves or hats. Mallory, Ron and I were successful in our hunt and we were back outside. Sidebar: Casey won’t wear his coat. I’m thankful he’s wearing pants. But he doesn’t complain and it’s not the hill I’m going to die on.
At this point it was almost 11 and someone was hungry. Mind you, we were meeting our friends at 12 to eat lunch. We tried unsuccessfully to get Auntie Anne’s pretzels but they were still making the pretzels. We stopped at Safeway to get some snacks for the duration of the trip. They dove into those ON THE WAY to lunch. And still ate lunch.
Wet met our friends Andy and Erin and their four kids for lunch at Punch Bowl Social. The perfect place for this kind of lunch because the kids were free to go play arcade games, shuffleboard, skee ball and darts while the grown-ups drank beer and caught up. We were there for several hours and then drove to a cool, brewery-filled area of Denver to have another beer before we all went to the Nuggets game.
Apparently Sunday afternoon is a busy time for young, childless hipsters to drink craft beer because everywhere we went was packed. We found a small bar with a big outdoor area that was toasty warm under the heaters. The kids played cards until it was time for the Nuggets game. We scored tickets off Stubhub for $13 each and were in the very top two rows, but it was a great game (Nuggets win!) and the view really wasn’t too bad.
Meal and snack count: 7
Monday morning Ron was a trooper and left the hotel at 6:50 a.m. to get in line at the Denver Mint to get free tickets for the 9:30 a.m. tour. The tour was highly rated on Trip Advisor. Admittedly I love tours that show you how things are made (I loved that show “How It’s Made”). Mallory told me not to ask any questions, but I still managed to ask our tour guide two questions when she was out of ear shot. We learned that they lose money printing pennies and nickels, but make it all up on dimes, quarters and their other coin programs. At the gift shop, Ally fell in love with a giant stuffed bison and so we have welcomed Penny (get it, the Mint. They make coins. Penny? I crack myself up.) to the fam.
After lunch, we drove to Boulder and explored Pearl Street. Casey was inexplicably excited to see a Capital One Café. Apparently this is the new bank branch concept (Banking Reimagined) and he wanted a picture in front of it. I don’t know if 11-year-old boys are Capital One’s target market but whatevs.
Shortly thereafter, he asked if it was dinner time and didn’t even seem phased when I said it was only 3:02 p.m.
We compromised by stopping for a snack and then drove through the CU campus a bit before heading back to the hotel where they scarfed down more of the snacks we bought. We decided on pool time and pizza. Ron has to do 3.5 hours of CPE before Dec. 31 so he is spending the night cramming in some fascinating accounting videos.
Meal and snack count: at least 6