The Continental Divide at Loveland Pass

One of my final adventures in Colorado was visiting the Continental Divide!  We went up to Loveland Pass, which at almost 12,000 feet!  I was excited to see some water splitting at the divide, but I guess it doesn't quite work like that.  The scenery was AMAZING though!  We hiked up a ways for an even better view.

Zip Away

I'm getting ready to leave for my next adventure, and realized that I never finished my posts about Colorado. Oops.  Hopefully I can remember...

Laura really wanted to go rafting and zip lining while I was there.  Unfortuantely rafting didn't work out since it was too late into the season, but zip lining was still available. 

I did a ton of researching trying to find a great zip lining spot.  Many of the places are just in between some trees and not very high or exciting.  Companies just throw something together to have another

acitivity to offer in the summer.  We finally decided on a company called Zip Adventures.

Zip Adventures is out near Vail and the course is beautiful.  We got to go across 6 different lines that crossed a canyon with a river below.  We were about 200 feet up in the air!  The zips go back and forth across the canyon, and the last one cuts back all the way to the beginning of the course (over 1000 feet).  We had a super fun time and were sad when it ended.


All geared up and ready to go!



This is FUN



And I'm off!

 

Tandem Zip!

Our Awesome Guides!! And an awesome view!

**Coming soon...a video of the last zip!

After a morning of zipping away, we headed into Vail for lunch.  It was both of our first times to Vail.  As luck had it, it was Oktoberfest in Vail, which was really fun!  We ate some brats, drank some beer, and wandered around the village.  It was absolutely beautiful, and I hope to make it back there again soon!

Summit County- Breckenridge and More!

After exploring Red Rocks, we continued our journey to Summit County.  It was a beautiful drive through the mountains to get there and it started to look more like how I imagined Colorado would look.
Our first stop was Frisco.  Frisco is a cute town situated by Lake Dillon.  Next we went up to Sapphire Point, which overlooked Frisco and Lake Dillon.  People we having their wedding photos take up there when we arrived.  We snuck around so we could check out this gorgeous view:

Next stop: Breckenridge.  Finally we made our way to my sister's new town of residence.  She drove me down Main Street.  Then we parked and walked along a river/creek that ran through the town.  Breck, as the locals call it, is adorable!



Eventually we made it back to Laura's new house for a little bit of rest before our big night out on the town.

We went to Motherload for dinner and it was super yummy.  Then it was onto Bender Weekend at Ollie's.  The new Breckenridge location of Ollie's was having their opening weekend and in celebration were selling all you can drink for the entire weekend bracelets for $25. 

Loving the all-you-can-drink



Me, Laura, and roommate Danny












Suffice to say we drank our $25 worth.  We eventually decided to check out some other bars on Main Street.  I would tell you their names if I could, but I do not remember.  I remember attending them, kind of, just not their names.

The next day involved some sleeping in before watching the Duck Game and continuing to celebrate bender weekend.  We eventually made our way to Ollie's in Frisco to watch the second half of the game and get some lunch.  A few of Laura's friends were there too and we got to play some cornhole (or "bags" as they called it).  Love that game!

We made our way back to Breck where we went to visit Reagan at the shirt store where she works.  A movie night was necessary...especially since we had a big day planned for Sunday!

Red Rocks

Friday after lunch we started making our way to Summit County, with a stop at Red Rocks.  Red Rocks is about 20-30 minutes outside of Denver and is both a park and an amphitheater.  It would be amazing to see a show there sometime, but for this visit we were just going to check out the park.

Driving up to the visitors center, we got a pretty good taste of what we were in for.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  The red rock formations looked like they sprouted up out of nowhere.  We got to the visitors center and went inside to find out about the trails.  We found one that was a 1.4 mile loop around many of the rock formations and decided to check it out.  It was a beautiful hike, and aside from being really hot outside, it was a fairly easy. 

If you're in the Denver area, I highly recommend a trip to Red Rocks!

Here is some of what we saw:



View from the Visitors Center



Big Red Rocks

Panoramic View from along the hike

Laura exploring the rocks

Keep Off those rocks!

We survived the heat!

Denver, Colorado

This past weekend I took my very first trip to Colorado!  I went to visit my sister who moved to Breckenridge after graduation (so a few months ago).  I flew into Denver on Southwest on Thursday and our journey started there.

Laura is still getting to know her way around Colorado, but she took me to one of the areas in Denver that she is most familiar with...the 16th Street Mall.  This is a long stretch of shops and restaurants in downtown Denver.  The street is closed to cars, but they do have free buses that run up and down the mall.



16th Street Mall



Random Pianos everywhere



We met Laura's friend Elle for a beer at Colorado's first brewpub, Wynkoop.  The beer was just ok (I ordered the Wixa Weiss), but we enjoyed sitting out on the patio.



Laura & Elle at Wynkoop





Wynkoop Beer Menu



I had gotten multiple recommendations to visit a Mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita, so I decided we had to give it a try.  Let me tell you, Casa Bonita is a unique experience.  You definitely don't go there for the food! 

The inside is decorated like a scene from Disneyland.  There is a 2-3 story waterfall, a cave, cliff jumpers, pirate shows, a traveling Mariachi band etc.  The restaurant seats over 900 people.

When you arrive, you place your order with a cashier, then proceed to get a tray and some silverware.  At a small counter, you pick up your food, which comes out entirely too quickly.  Then you head over to the host stand where, they bring you to your seat.  We got pretty good seats with a nice view of the waterfall.

We both ordered the all-you-can-eat delux chicken dinner for $13.79.  Not bad for all the food you get!  We only felt slightly sick after eating the food! haha.

We headed back to downtown after dinner, so Laura could show me the bar scene.  We only got to visit two bars before a little altitude sickness made me want to call it quits.  First we went to The Front Porch.  It was really chill and decorated really interestingly!  I guess there are usually a lot of hot guys there too.  Next we went to a vodka bar that was around the corner.  Laura had tried the pickle infused vodka last time she was there and got a pickle as a chaser.  This time she tried the honey infused vodka and didn't like it as much.

We spent the night at Laura's friends Elle and Joel's, who live in Denver. The next day we went back to the 16th Street Mall for lunch. We decided on H Burger Co. Laura had been before and raved about the burger. The highlight of this place was the dipping sauce for the fries...tasted like pita sauce in Belgium (that will only make sense to a few people, but I don't know how else to describe how good it was).

So basically Denver was mostly eating and drinking.

Then we were off to Red Rocks...

Carmel

Typically I don't write about trips on here unless its somewhere brand new that I've never been before.  I'm making an exception for my most recent weekend getaway though.  I went to Carmel with a group of friends from grad school this past weekend.  We ended up doing a lot of the touristy things in the area, so I think its blog-worthy!

I'm very fortunate to have had grandparents who bought a house in Carmel back in the day.  Its a great little house near town with some awesome 70s decor.  The house isn't very big so we had to creatively fit eight people into the house, but we made it work.

Friday afternoon Allison, her boyfriend Heath, and I drove down to Carmel.  The rest of the gang wasn't arriving until later that night though.  We went to the grocery store after we unloaded our stuff to pick up some groceries for Saturday night's dinner, then chilled a bit before dinner.  We went to one of my favorite dinner spots, Rio Grill, and it didn't disappoint.  Back at the house we played some Scattergories while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.

Scattergories

Around 11pm our friends finally made it-- Jen/Steve, Feruza/Sanjar, and Beatriz!  We enjoyed a little wine and laughter, then called it a night so we could get some rest before our big day on Saturday.

We were off and running by 11:15am, which wasn't too bad considering there were eight people and two bathrooms.  We walked around town in Carmel, found a coffee shop, and poked around in some shops.  Then we walked down to Carmel Beach.  It was a little overcast, but it was still a great view.

I suggested another of my favorite restaurants for lunch, Village Corner.  Its a really cute place with yummy food.  The heated outdoor patio is adorable, but given our group size we had to sit inside.



The Girls at Carmel Beach





Waiting Outside Village Corner

 

Next up was a drive to Monterey.  We planned on going to Cannery Row, possibly Point Pinos, and then doing the 17-Mile Drive.  By the time we got to Monterey and then got distracted by a bar downtown, we had to adjust our plans a little.  I decided that Cannery Row was out.  There is not too much there besides souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants.  I'm not completely writing it off, but given our timing, I felt ok skipping it.

YUM! Beer!

After a refreshing beer at an unknown pub, we decided to end our excursion with a trip to Point Pinos.  We delayed our trip to 17-Mile Drive until Sunday since the fog was rolling in.  Point Pinos was a blast from my past.  My parents used to take me there when I was little to climb on the rocks and look at the tide pools.  A few of us had a great time exploring the area, while the others just chilled ashore.  Unfortunately we mostly only saw hermit crabs, but no starfish and just one sea anemome.   

Feruza & I Exploring



Allison & I out on the rocks








Back at the house we made fajitas, played some games, drank, and had a blast just hanging out!

Fajitas!

Game Time!

We were a bit slow-moving on Sunday, but we had a few more things we wanted to do before heading home.  First we stopped at the Carmel Mission. 

Then it was time for our scenic drive down 17-Mile Drive.  We started on the Monterey end at the Sunset Drive entrance.  This way we would be driving on the coast side of the road and we would end our drive back in Carmel.  There are 21 points of interest along the drive and we stopped at a lot of them to check out the scenery, animal life, and of course snap some pictures.

Coastline

Sea Lions

The Lone Cypress



18th Green at Pebble Beach



Overall it was a very fun weekend with great friends!  Can't wait to go back again soon!