Originally, we booked this trip to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. Clay wanted to use AA miles ASAP and we had to do some tinkering to make the flights and the park lodges work. So it was actually after our anniversary but within less than a week of it. Still counts! I am just going through my notes and our photos. I will get these daily posts online as quickly as I can. We are still recovering and I haven't caught up on laundry yet. Meanwhile, we are having the back deck replaced upon our arrival home. Also, just got final paperwork to complete for an upcoming trip that is 2 away. Hopefully, I will finish these posts before having to finalize trip 3 or take trip 1 upcoming! We'll see.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Up before the sun to catch a cab to the airport. I really
hate flying even with Clay’s Elite Gold AAdvantages and the fact that we only
paid $10 each for these tickets. (Plus the $260 or so it cost to move my miles
into Clay’s account.) We had some time to spare although TSA had Christmas
level crowds. We lucked out and they opened a pre-screen line and just shifted
about a hundred folks into it to move us all along and we lucked into that.
Yeah! We wound up with time to get some bagels to eat on the flight. It was a 2
/ 3 seat configuration and we were in 9 A and B so we were happy. It was a comfortable
flight. All our flights were full and only a little late so that was good.
Chicago’s O’Hare was a little stressed from being closed down the day before
but they were catching up today. We bought some Garrett’s popcorn, Chicago mix
of caramel and cheddar. We saved it for the plane. Even though they thoughtfully
handed us 2 wet wipes and a bunch of napkins, we both had absolutely disgusting
and semi-permanently orange-stained and greasy hands. I wound up with a plastic kernel bit in my bra
that rubbed me wrong for the next several hours. So while we enjoyed it, it was
not a good travel food. They had an Auntie Anne's with the cupful of tiny pigs
in a blanket that we enjoyed once in some other airport and we should have
gotten that instead. We thought we would have been boarding sooner
though and wanted something to carry on and eat. This flight was a smaller
plane and a 2 / 2 configuration. We were in 6 A and B and since we had checked
our bags we had no issues. It took us close to 2 hours to get our luggage and
our car from Budget at the Denver airport though. We got upsold at $10 a day to
a Kia Sportage AWD SUV since the guy at the desk told us we’d never get over
the Rockies to Utah in the snow in an economy car, plus we’d ride higher and
see more. We will need to allow for the crowds and shuttle bus rides on the way
back out. (Spoiler: We never had to drive in any snow or ice at all!)
We got to the Days Inn downtown Denver by around 2 pm. We
are on the 2nd floor facing west, which is the direction of the
Capital Building but we only have a view of the roof of the building behind us
and some of the street. We are in room 215. There is an elevator and the room
is surprisingly free of outside traffic noise. It is conveniently located and
has a 7-11 next door and an organic grocery store in the next block over. The
first restaurant Clay picked, the Cheeky Monk is about 3 blocks away. Otherwise
the neighborhood is probably a little too edgy and fringe for most mainstream
tastes. We may be a little more tolerant since we live in a downtown Capital
city. We had a few unpleasant and potentially dangerous encounters between here
and the Brown Palace. Actually the dangerous encounter was within sight of the Brown
Palace so forget what I said about our neighborhood. The Days Inn is relatively and surprisingly quiet, clean and roomy. We’ve been in worse in better neighborhoods and for much more money. It seems strange to me that while the room has a safe, it has no fridge or iron and ironing board. Maybe I just haven’t been in a Days Inn in a long time and those things aren’t standard for them but it seems that most freeway brand places have those things, so we were a little surprised to not find them. Anyway, we are satisfied and it’s only 2 nights. The only real downside to our room here is the heat/AC unit in the wall under the window. It works fine at keeping the room a comfortable temperature, but it cycles on and off every few minutes and it is really loud.
We set off on foot towards the Colorado Capital Building. We went in
but didn’t take a tour. I understood they were free though. It is a really beautiful building under repairs currently. It sits atop a hill. On the west side there are markers on the stairs to show the mile high elevation. A spot made for photo ops!
Clay had read that
the Brown Palace, an historic hotel that has been on my wish list for years,
had 3pm tours for $10 each. We walked over and got there in time to just sign
up. They only have the tours on Wed and Sat so it was just dumb luck. They also
advise booking on the internet in advance and so do I. The concierge and hotel
historian were both shocked that we showed up 20 minutes early and they could
take us. It was a good tour. We should have stayed here or even at the Comfort
Inn that is attached and managed by them. But we didn’t know about their
Comfort Inn before. I believe Clay picked our Days Inn by the location’s
proximity to the Cheeky Monk and the free parking. Price and free breakfast may
have been factors. He keeps going on about how cheaply we are traveling on this
trip vs. the 2 others this year. Anyway.
We stopped at Cheeky Monkey on the way back to Days Inn. The
food was okay. The cheese croquettes were delicious. Clay’s fish and fries were
okay and hot and fresh, but not great. My Croque Madame was a dried up
disappointment. The beignets for dessert were okay. Clay had 2 beers. One okay
and one disgusting. He told me he was going to order a rouge or red ale and it
was described as fruity. I told him he wouldn’t like it and he didn’t. The good
news, maybe, was that this $9 beer was only 8.5 oz. so he didn’t have to drink
much of his “medicine”. So, he asked me to pick his next beer and I gave him
only 2 choices since he was having fish & chips, he took the English black
ale. He liked that one better and it was less expensive and colder, so it all
around went down better. For dessert, we shared an order of 3 stuffed beignets.
They each had a different filling and were hot and runny and sweet, if
nontraditional. It was fine, but somewhat disappointing and we were tired. I
will say that I thought the fries were perfection. Thin cut and really crispy!
We walked back through the organic grocery store and 7-11. Clay got some Diet Coke. I priced yogurts in both places but what I get for less than 50 cents at Harris Teeter at home was over a $1 at both. Really?
We went to bed a little after 7pm. We just couldn’t go
anymore and it was still light out! We had been up for a long day and with the
time and altitude change, we were just wiped out. Plus we have an early morning
tomorrow. Oh, the weather! It had snowed in CO as recently as Monday. But there
was no sign of it in town. It was in the 50s F. There was some rain off and on.
Low overnight is to be about 37F and highs Thursday about 67 with scattered
rain again.
Photos