Denver, Colorado

July 17-19, 2021

Jarrod’s birthday is in July, he’s as big a Dodgers fan as I am, and they just happened to be playing the Colorado Rockies the weekend after his birthday. I figured that would be a perfect birthday gift.

I had purchased the tickets for the game and reserved a hotel room a month prior. I initially hoped we could head out Friday, July 16 for the game Saturday the 17th, but Jarrod wasn’t able to get the 17th off, which meant we wouldn’t make the Saturday night game, but would be primed for the Sunday afternoon game.

Saturday

I picked Jarrod up at about 11:30. We stopped for a coffee and a last bio break before heading up through Bernalillo to I-25 north. After hitting two pretty major downpours, one outside of Castle rock and another outside of Littleton, we made it to our hotel in Englewood right around 6:00.

In my previous relationship with Brandy, she would always jab at me over my constant need for bio breaks. Once, on our four hour drive to Walsenburg, I had to stop THREE times.  This time was different though. We made the entire six hour drive without a single stop. Now, that’s not to say that when we pulled up to the Quality Inn we both didn’t have overfull bladders. But the point is, we didn’t stop, not even for gas!

After checking in, we contemplated dinner.  We had passed a Raising Cane’s on the way in to town. Having only heard nothing but good things about the chain, we decided to give it a whirl. We only have one in New Mexico and it’s in Las Cruces. In Colorado, they seem to be all over. We looked up the nearest one on GPS, set Maps to avoid the toll road it wanted to take us on and headed out.

By the time we got back about 30 minutes later, the food was still nice and warm and the chicken was still crispy. Both meals included crinkle cut fries, a slice of Texas toast and a little tub of coleslaw.

I’m not much for fast food fried chicken, but I have to say, this is some of the best I’ve ever had. The flavor was amazing, the chicken was fried to a perfect crispiness and was still juicy, and they included an AMAZING dipping sauce. We polished off our food and quickly called it a night.

Sunday

As I usually do when travelling, I woke up way too early, much earlier than Jarrod. Not wanting to wake him, I went to the small lobby of the hotel and sat with a tepid cup of hotel coffee, browsing my phone. I was told there was no hot breakfast being served (still), so when Jarrod woke up, we discussed breakfast and decided to seek a food spot once we got into Denver proper.

We got ready and walked to the RTD-Denver Lincoln Station, which was a quick, ten minute walk from the hotel. We hopped on the train that arrived just as we were getting into the station and rode for about half an hour to the Union Station terminus. We got off the train and quickly decided on Sam’s No. 3. I had been here on my last (and up to that point only other) trip to Denver a few years prior. I enjoyed it then, so we decided to go to there.

It was about a 20-minute walk. It really should have been like 15, maybe fewer, but we kept stopping so I could take pictures. When we got to the restaurant, there was a small crowd of people waiting for their tables. We were told it would be a 30-45 minute wait, but we added our name to the list anyway.

Jarrod said he wanted to go to a dispensary that he’d found nearby. While he was gone, I got the text that our table was ready so I went in and sat on the patio.  I wasn’t sitting too long before Jarrod showed back up. I scanned the QR code on the table to open the restaurant’s online menu and ultimately landed on the chicken fried steak and eggs, subbing biscuits for my toast. Jarrod got the same thing, except country fried chicken instead of the steak.

Our food came pretty quickly. It smelled delicious, looked fabulous and tasted amazing.

We were presented with our check electronically, paying on a tablet (or, more accurately a phablet). Everything is going electronic these days.

Rather than fighting the crowd to escape the patio, we simply hopped the short wall in front of where we had been sitting.

We headed up Curtis Street toward 16th and quickly found a Free MallRide stop. We took the shuttle to the south end of the 16th Street Mall and disembarked just north of Civic Center Park. I had been inside the nearby State Capitol building on my previous trip to Denver and was eager to see it through a different set of eyes, but we couldn’t seem to find an open set of doors to walk through. We cut our losses and crossed Lincoln St and Broadway to take a peek at the City Council building but were sidetracked by the Black Love Mural Festival taking place on the west side of the park.

There were several four-sided cubes, measuring about 8 feet square per side, with some fantastic murals celebrating the heritage of the black community in Denver. Some of the murals highlighted black baseball players such as Hank Aaron, CC Sabathia and Satchel Paige, none of whom, to my knowledge, have connections to the city of Denver, or even the state of Colorado, but perhaps they were just inspiring figures for the artists. There was just so much to see, I didn’t take the time to read anything about the pieces.

We wandered around some more finding ourselves in the middle of an amazing flower garden nearby. We stopped for a moment to rest our feet before carrying on toward the City Council building we had been aiming for.  We once more were sidetracked by a city employee who told us about an art exhibit in the nearby McNichols Building. We walked in to the building and were greeted by a security guard that gave us a brief history of the building and what we could expect to see there before he sent us on our way.

The primary draw for me was the Shades of Greatness exhibit celebrating the Negro Leagues of baseball. There was a large, open room with several paintings by various artists depicting players and executives from the now-defunct league.

Outside of that room was another smaller room with more tactile displays – sculptures and what-not. The second and third floors held even more artistic pieces by black artists, though not necessarily baseball related. There was some fine art, some pop art and some street art, a little bit of everything.

After we’d seen it all, we decided to start making our way back up to Coors Field. We walked back to the Free Mall Ride stop, rode the shuttle all the way back up to Union Station and made the quick walk to the stadium.

Coors Field

I’ve been to a few Major League baseball stadiums in my life. Of course Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium and Petco Park. I have to say, Coors Field is probably my second favorite, after Dodger Stadium. The architecture is perfectly suited to its location, there are plenty of nods to the Rocky Mountains and the connection to nature, such as a small forest of trees beyond the batter’s eye in center field, and the mountain peaks built into the giant scoreboard screen in left field.

It had been three years since I’d been to a Major League Baseball game. It had been a while for Jarrod too. There’s nothing like it. The crowd, the sights, the smells, the noise… it’s a nearly religious experience.

We found our seats just beyond and about 30 rows behind the Dodgers’ dugout. I would guesstimate that about 90% of the people in the surrounding sections were wearing Dodgers gear. The Dodgers fanbase is very present in Denver, as was the case when I last visited in 2018.

We got hot dogs and sodas and parked ourselves at our seats and settled in to watch the game.

It was a back and forth battle, the Dodgers eventually dropping the game 6-5 in on a walk-off home run by Charlie Blackmon. It was a shame to not see a win, but just being there for the experience was amazing, plus, we got to see Albert Pujols one last time before his likely retirement at the end of this season.

After the game, we filed out and made our way back to Union Station and took the train back to the Lincoln Station, then made the short walk back to the hotel.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were about ready for dinner so we took off, one, to visit another dispensary for Jarrod, and two, making a stop at Qdoba, which seems to be Colorado’s answer to Chipotle.

Not knowing what to expect, we walked in, ordered our meals to go and headed back to the hotel to eat. It was very comparable to Chipotle, as far as taste, quality and price, so nothing exciting to report there.

After the long day we had, we were both bushed so we almost immediately headed off to sleep.

We woke up early the next morning and headed home. I got to the dog-sitter’s to pick up Ash at around 3:30 or so, got back to the apartment and just relaxed for the remainder of the day Monday.

Conclusion

Of course, the trip to Denver wasn’t without it’s flaws. There were some mild hiccups along the way but nothing we didn’t push past and we still had a wonderful time. I didn’t have as much time to do as much sight seeing as I wanted, but that’s OK. I still got to spend an amazing weekend with my son for his birthday and see a Dodger game… even if they lost.

I would absolutely love to make more of an effort to see the Dodgers on the road more. I am still going to try to get up to Chicago to see them at Wrigley one day, and NEED to get back to LA to see them at home very soon. Perhaps I’ll plan a trip out next year, who knows?

I know this report is nearly a month late but things have been crazy hectic busy lately. I work 4 tens now and am off on Fridays. That’s about the only time I have to write any more is on my extended weekends, but I certainly want to remain active outside of the apartment, so that doesn’t leave me with much time even on my days off to write.

I did make an effort today though, Friday, August 6. Since the trip to Colorado, I’ve taken another pretty big hike (my first in a month) and have made plans for many more, so stay tuned for more coming soon.

As always, pictures from this trip are up on my Photo Diary.

I leave you with this quote:

“Life is about the adventures you take and the memories you make. So travel often and live life with open eyes and an open heart.”

— Katie Grissom

I’m not sure who Katie Grissom is, but I do absolutely plan on doing just that: Travel often and live life with open eyes and an open heart.

Stay tuned for a report on the hike I took last weekend, and until then, thanks for stopping by, I appreciate you!

-Phil