48 Hours in Denver and Boulder

Thursday afternoon we left Pittsburgh for Colorado with one mission: find a new home in Denver to move in June. The Type A person that I am I lined up about 15 appointments on Friday and Saturday to see apartments, condos and houses in all parts of town from LoDo to Platt Park to Cherry Creek to Park Hill. Other than my 36 hours in Denver for my interview in January, neither me nor The Boy had been to Denver before so we wanted to get a feel for the city and if possible do more than just look at kitchens, bathrooms and garages.

Thursday

We got in on Thursday and drove straight to Breckenridge Brewery to meet up with my buddy’s beer club. We played trivia (which is interesting to do with 20 drunk neurologists), I drank stout and then we hopped over to Great Divide Brewery to drink more stout and catch up with my friend’s fiance. We  really enjoyed our first night of drinking beer and meeting the first of dozens of really interesting and welcoming people.

Friday

We slept in EST which was waking up early MST so we stopped by the Golden Triangle to check out some coffee places near my future work. First was Rooster and Moon Coffee where I had a great latte and really yummy yogurt with apple walnut compote. Next we walked over to Metropolis Coffee where The Boy enjoyed an espresso and a really amazing blueberry scone. We looked at a half dozen housing options before grabbing some sushi, salad and sandwiches from Whole Foods to picnic in Cheesman Park.

After another half dozen homes and 8 hours of searching, we found The House at 5 pm. It had everything we wanted and more. It was in a great neighborhood just blocks from Old South Pearl Street, walking distance to Whole Foods and the parks, and a 20 minute bike ride to work. The house had a layout that works well for our needs, a beautiful yard and our landlords seemed like great people. We put in an application and anxiously hoped we would get the house while enjoying drinks with my college roommate, her husband and their baby (who was too busy charming us to imbibe ;))

The owner of The House recommended Sushi Den for dinner and as we were ordering drinks we got a message- we got The House! A champagne toast and the best sushi I’ve ever eaten resulted in me and The Boy floating home on cozy thoughts of a great future in Denver.

Saturday

Now that we didn’t need to look at houses, we had a bonus day! One of the things that I love about The Boy, is that there are any number of things one could do with a free day, but we didn’t even need to figure out what we’d do (hike), only where we’d do it. We got brunch at Snooze (the best pancakes I’ve had in my life!) and our waiter recommended a few trails and also gave me some local trail running resources. We headed to Boulder’s Pearl Street where we did a bit of shopping and grabbed lunch at Pizzeria Locale (and in a small world moment, ran into our future landlord who was grabbing lunch after a hike!). We hiked Royal Arch, did a bit of trail running in Chataqua and then went back to Pearl Street for some beer at Mountain Sun. My only regret is that they had a nitrous tap stout that I missed.

At Royal Arch

When I exclaimed to The Boy that this was our new backyard, he corrected me: It’s our new neighbor’s backyard

We had dinner at Boulder Dushanbe Tea House with The Boy’s Mom, who was in town from Montana. It was great to eat outside (it was such a beautiful day it pulled us away from the incredible interior) and the tea was wonderful.

We had plans Saturday night but by the time we got back to Denver at 8 pm I laid down on top of the covers in my dirty trail clothes and slept until Sunday morning. It was a great trip visiting dear friends and The Boy and I are so excited to experience a year in Colorado!