Things to do in Denver, when you're not dead

We went to Denver this past weekend on a total fluke. Long story, well, why make it short?

The Man in my life has an ex-girlfriend, whom I'll call Holly. I have never met Holly, but have heard some backstory on Holly from the Man. She sounds nice, she has a kid, has a fiancee, and lives in Denver. The Man heard from Holly back in February that she was getting married on October 25. He then finds out that Holly is pregnant, and had her baby early. I think the baby is ok, but was born prematurely. Flash foward a few months, and the Man finds out from Holly that the location of the wedding was not going to be in Denver, but in Baltimore, oh, and BTW, Holly asked the Man to be in the wedding. Now we are obligated to go. We had already bought our tickets because they were pretty cheap, and it was right before all the airlines were going crazy with fares. I was a little preturbed, but told the Man to call the airlines and change the ticket. Flash forward another couple months, and he gets another email from Holly, who states that the wedding has been postponed, and it should be happening next year sometime and in Las Vegas, oops and I'm sorry. Thank god the Man procrastinated and didn't change the ticket, because we would have been out another $300 bucks.

So we had the choice - stay home, or make a weekend out of it. We chose the later. The Man had enough points that we could stay at a hotel downtown and not have to pay anything out of pocket. So we took a little break from life, and headed west.

We rented a car and went to the mountains (yea! mountains!!). I actually got teary-eyed when I saw them. (I know, I'm a mess). We went to Red Rock Amplitheater and walked around. It's beautiful!! We went on a light hike (more like a nature walk, but still) on the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden. We also were going to hike St. Mary's Alice Glacier, but weren't quite prepared. It was pretty cold, and we didn't have hiking gear with us. Everyone else had heavy duty boots and bibs on, I was pretty sure our jeans and running shoes weren't going to work.

We had lunch in Idaho Springs at the basin of ST. Mary's Alice Glacier near Golden. It was great. Then we headed back into Downtown Denver and walked around. We saw the capital building and the Denver Mint. Went shopping in LoDo, and on 16th Street. It was kinda lame, but we did find an area that looked a lot like Pioneer Square in Seattle - Laramie Square. We decided to try out a Cuban restaurant for dinner, and it turned out pretty good. Went shopping for a little bit, and the Man bought me the most awesomest pair of boots EVER! the boots i was wearing were hurting my feet so bad that I decided to wear my new set out. I'm such a little kid.

We then checked out a bar around the corner, and had a couple of drinks. We got tired early, and hiked it back to the hotel. That's really about it. We just relaxed and read the paper on Sunday before catching our flight. It was so nice to get away and not think about the house, dogs, wedding stuff or have any plans. It was so pretty too!!