Red Rocks (and so does Ruth’s 50th)

Birthdays are a lowkey affair for Ruth. Even 50 wasn’t really meant to be a big deal, but when she mentioned wanting to see the Avett Brothers at Red Rocks, and we all decided to tag along, it became a big, great group affair.

In sum, it rocked *groan*.

It was an early morning airport meet up. And then, Guys and Gals, we were on our way to Denver!

We took to the trails

For our first full day in Denver, we wasted little time getting outdoors. After much debate, many an app, and the review of various maps, we locked in on a short trail in the Red Rocks area, and went for a wander.

We passed dogs, flowers, cacti and thankfully, no rattlesnakes (though we heard from a number of hikers that there was one nearby).

Guy and Jay brought up the rear in a joint effort to call birds (through the Merlin app), and then capture them (in image, with Sony-a’s help). I questioned the morality and ethics of artificial bird calls — what if a local sparrow put off mating because it started to think there were other options out there? And then, there weren’t. No one else was concerned about the plight of our feathered friends… we carried on.

Alas, birds were called and photographed. Steps were taken in the blazing sun. And we returned to the car ready for lunch.

So THAT’s why they call it golden!

When I hear the name golden for a friendly, outdoorsy town, I think of Golden Retrievers in bandanas who go on long hikes in the mountains. Most people probably think of gold – that’s definitely the more relevant connection for the town of Golden where we stopped for a post-hike lunch.

The gold-rush vibes were at the forefront with saloon looking gift shops and eateries, and statues of cowboys and horses from a bygone era. There were also dogs in bandanas. Many.

We wandered along the main drag, enjoyed ice cream to cool off the fiery reminder of a delicious Mexican street food lunch, and looked for a post-box where Jon could mail a package. This frontier town may have held gold, but no luck again on postal service.

From there, we made a stop at Target (because no trip to ‘Merca is complete without one!)

We visited Safta

We capped off the day by cleaning up and dining at Safta. Ruth and Guy treated us to a family-style feast. Everyone left stuffed, and the leftovers made for some great sandwiches 2 days later when we packed a picnic for Red Rocks.

This was not a beer trip (much)

When Jay and I travel, beer is involved. Even when it’s not a beer trip, rarely does a getaway not include a brewery visit. And so, among the activities we made time for in Denver, beer was on the list.

We had in fact started the beer appreciation portion of the trip immediately after landing on Thursday. With a few hours until check in time, we made our way to Boulder and to Avery Brewing. Jay introduced himself as a ‘Terrible Beer Snob’ and ordered the menu. beer was consumed, and purchased.

But Avery was not the only brewery of note in Denver – or so we thought! Jay had mapped out a number of beer stops for anyone and everyone who was up for it. But, apparently the Denver beer scene is ever evolving and a number of breweries had recently closed (and one was even closing on exactly the day we were planning to tour).

Alas, game time plans were hatched, routes were replanned. No mailbox was located, but don’t worry, beer was still drunk.

We saw some art and met some dogs

Along the way to sake and beer we took in the sights, sounds and streets of RiNo. Who knew that RiNo and so many other downtown adjacent areas would be full of street art.

And, who knew that Denver was such a dog’s town. Perhaps greater in number than the cultural stops were the canine ones.

We covered a lot of ground – and yet in between numerous breweries, a sake stop, a BBQ lunch and a bunch of random pop ins along the way, we still could not find a mailbox for Jon.

Your vader, my vader, Arvader

With Ruth and Guy on reconnaissance duty at Red Rocks, the rest of the crew were left to our own devices and made our way into ‘downtown’ Arvader, for their street festival. We wandered through vendors selling candles, organic dog treats and CBD, to find tacos for dinner, and a 7-11 for supplies on our final leg.

It was another fun excursion (though we still neglected to mail Jon’s package) and hopefully we didn’t do too much damage to Jon’s Uber rating along the way.

The main event rocked

Sunday was the big day. Jon’s package was posted!

Also, we were going to Red Rocks.

We started with brunch, and then followed it with a Gals excursion to the Capitol Building and Trader Joe’s (just like old times!).

Jay and Jon took in Meow Wolf. After years of relationship-building in their cooperative video games, they were able to put their skills to the test and they managed to escape! (Or at least that’s the version of the story I’m telling. The pictures look like they just roamed around some very elaborate rooms taking in a wide variety of very random things).

Recharged and packed for adventure, we grabbed our totes and headed to Red Rocks. And WOWZAH, it did not disappoint.

While we didn’t get lucky on parking, we did get lucky with new friend Shane, who had shade to spare and let us tailgate under his canopy. Seated in his camping chair like the reigning champ in Game of Thrones, Ruth was giddy with birthday glee!

And the gleeful vibes were contagious. This 👇other demi-centennial celebrant popped over to join in the fun. We let her hold a bag for a photo too (but she was under strict instructions to give it right back!)

Inside the venue, the views got better and better. (The steps also seemed to get steeper and steeper). Truly an amazing venue to see any show in, and the Avett brothers did not disappoint.

As the sky grew dark, the rocks lit up. (The lightning in the sky seemed less magical, and more foreboding – but the rain held!).

We walked up the stairs one last time, so that we could make our way down the long staircase and winding road back out.

Worth every step.

And that’s a wrap …

For our last day, we managed to squeeze in brunch, a last US shopping window, and some impromptu wildlife spotting. (While it was too bad that the full road happened to be closed this specific week, we still saw some deer, a frog, a very large fish – and more birds Jay tried to catfish with his robot calls).

We headed to the airport. It had been a great few days of living with friends comfortable enough to make each other eggs for breakfast, throw on a combined load of laundry and collectively nap through some Netflix. (But also stay collectively riveted to finding out what happened at Woodstock99! Spoiler: nothing good.)

Souvenirs were purchased. A package was (finally) mailed. And memories were made.

Until next time, gals and guys!