Blogging Around the World_Denver

8/8/2019 Blogging Around the World_Denver

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Blogging AroundThe World

Cover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsCopyright 2006 by Cara WilliamsCopyright 2006 by Cara WilliamsCopyright 2006 by Cara WilliamsCopyright 2006 by Cara Williams

All rights reserved All rights reserved All rights reserved All rights reserved

By Cara Williams By Cara Williams By Cara Williams By Cara Williams


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Chapter One

Saturday 9 th Oct

As a nervous flyer, I had always wanted to hear the words upgrade but never actually believed Id hear themhowever, today was my day! The lovely ladyat check-in said the magic words upgraded to business class. We, (and by

we I mean my boyfriend Jon and myself )were shocked but not too shocked tohead to Wagamamas for some dumplings before hitting the executive BAlounge for as much free alcohol as we could get. Eventually, we did have to geton the plane, but I felt smug as I headed to seat 10E and snuggled into my podand practiced extending my bed out. But I had to stop messing around oncemy complimentary glass of champagne arrived so I settled down and preparedfor take-off facing backwards.

I had come prepared for the flight and taken a cocktail of valium, sleepingtablets and alcohol, plus pulse point bracelets to cope with the flight. I spent theentire flight anxious regardless but for the first time on a flight, for the entire 9hours and 40 minutes, I was well behaved.

Denver is 7 hours behind the UK and we touched down at 6ish pm local time (so1am London time). We got through customs quickly and I was amazed toencounter an almost friendly customs guy for once. A good omen? Just to addto the good fortune, our luggage was one of the first out, so we grabbed it andheaded to Enterprize cars to sort out a rental car. We got a Chevvy HRR, (whichis not the most beautiful car in the world) and drove to the DTC (Denver Tech

Centre) to pick up some packages for Jon. We then headed to King Soopers(King Soopers!? I am guessing they called it that to make people look stupidwhen they have to say it) to get some groceries. We bought some normalhuman food - milk, eggs and bread, yoghurt and cereal and were shocked thatit came to $22/ 17 pounds. I guess Ill be starting that diet tomorrow.

Sunday 10 th Oct


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This jet lag thing is confusing. I was exhausted at 8pm last night (which is 3am UKtime) but I dont get why I woke up at 3am, and then 4.30am and then finallyagain at 8am. I gave in and got up, had a shower and went for breakfast atMonas Caf (a Mexican fusion caf) and then Jon walked me around the local

area. We headed to Platt River (which is manmade, so locals can test out their canoes on the rapids.

We headed across the bridge to LODO (lower downtown) and to Union Station(the light rail station) and onto the Free Mall ride, which is a free shuttle servicethat drives you up and down the 16 th street mall, stopping at every intersection.It takes forever to travel 4 blocks but at least we could get there while sitting onan adequately comfortable, if slightly worn felt seat. God bless lazy Americans.

The downtown area was deserted, as it is a business district, so people dont

tend to congregate there. We got off at the end of the line and walked back tothe start, stopping in The Tattered cover (the oldest bookshop in Denver), TheCheesecake Factory, where it would have been rude not to buy a piece ofpumpkin spice cheesecake. And very tasty it was too.

We then headed to the American Furniture Warehouse to look for a recliner for Jon. Years of Friends had taken its toll on Jon and he was adamant that hewas going to buy a La-z - boy recliner, so we spent probably too much timelooking for the perfect artifact. Needless to say, after many tests in a controlledenvironment, Jon couldnt afford any of them.

Chapter Two

Jon made the mistake of telling me about a magical store where you can playwith puppies and kittens to your hearts content, but he couldnt remember

where it was in. Well, that was it. I had Jon driving us to any and every mall thatmay sell small animals. After some false starts, we eventually found it in Park Meadows Mall, where we spent a good couple of hours playing with twoAmerican Eskimo puppies. Being a deprived child who was not allowedanything more exciting than a goldfish as a pet; this was my idea of heaven. Ieven forgave the puppy for peeing all over me - repeatedly.


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After a quick shower, we headed out to Stellas Trattoria, which is a cute Italianplace on 32 nd street in the highlands area. Jon was adamant that we wentthere to try the worlds best chocolate mousse. I had a delicious pasta dish,cooked in saffron and white wine, with goats cheese, spinach and pine nuts. It

was incredible. And then the dessert. It was actually the best chocolate moussein the world and I urge you to try it.

The meal was pricey, but worth it. The area is gorgeous too. After dinner, weheaded home and I passed out at 8.30pm again.

Chapter Three

Monday 11 th Oct

Woke at 3am again and couldnt sleep. I was so tired all day and felt prettycrap. Jon was working today so I forced myself to go to the gym in his building,had a bath and chilled out all day. To feel a little bit constructive, I did make anamazing half beef/half pork lasagna for dinner.

Tuesday 12 th Oct

Jon was working again today so I lazed around a bit, managed to block Jonstoilet (with toilet paper), skyped mum to freak out about the aforementionedtoilet blockage, had to own up to Jon, who rushed home to try and fix it andthen headed out at about 2.30pm to wander around downtown, before gettingthe light rail (RTD) to Orchard station near the DTC (Denver Technology Centre)to meet Jons work colleagues. I did the rounds and then Jon decided hewanted to go to the cinema, so we rushed across the road and watched whatturned out to be a terrible movie (My Soul to Take). After the film, we drove back to Jons, dropped off the car and walked round the corner to Sassy Sushi (aposh sushi place near Jons) for an amazing sushi experience. It was reallyunusual food and flavours and very expensive it cost us $60 about 40 poundsfor what was essentially, fish and pickle.

Wednesday 13 th Oct


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Got up early (as usual) and set out to look at apartments, as Jons lease wascoming up and he wanted to upgrade. We looked at a few just outsidedowntown and I fell in love with one that overlooked the city in a complexcalled the Manhattan. It was very modern and light and cost about $1800/1200

pounds a month. The rental process in Denver is very different to the UK. Firstly,they take your passports before they will show you around anywhere. Ieventually found out that they do this in case I tried to kidnap the agent.Sensible precaution. Secondly, they do not let you view occupied properties. Ifyou want to rent somewhere and they dont have a show home of the layout,you have to sign the paperwork in the hope that its half decent. The third weirdthing is that if you want a pet, you have to pay a large non-refundable depositof about $350/200 GBP and a monthly fee of about $30/20GBP. It is a hugemoney spinner in Denver as it is an extremely pet friendly state. Everyone who is

anyone has a dog. And I want to anyone!We took a break from apartment hunting to meet my friend, Helen, who wasworking in Denver at the time. We headed to The Cheesecake Factory for whatturned out to be a gargantuan lunch and the most delicious passion fruit mojitoever.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes to Helen sand went on to see moreapartments in the Boulevard area, which is further from downtown andsomewhat isolated.

We then drove through Cherry Creek to the Land Mark cinema to buy tickets for Case 39. We got VIP tickets for $12 each, which is the business class equivalentof flying. This got us special La-Z-Boy seats and our own private introduction tothe film by Larry. We got unlimited popcorn and drinks as standard and wecould order hot food from our own private menus.

Sadly, we were the only ones at this screening, so I had no one to gloat to. After the okayish film (which I realised I had seen before), we avoided dinner after allthat popcorn and went to bed at guess what time 8.30pm!

Chapter Four


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Thursday 14 th Oct

Woke at 6am feeling dodgy. I knew I was getting ill, which was a shame as itwas Aquarium and Zoo day!

We walked to Starbucks across the river to get a coffee and then onto REI (anoutdoor sports store) so I could buy some new sunglasses. It was in the high 70spretty much the whole time I was in Denver, which is unheard of in October, so Ireasoned that a new pair of sunnies was justified.

We then headed to the Aquarium, which was fun. We were probably the oldestpeople there, but at least we were there to help the school kids with their projects.

After lunch at McGloughlins, we spent the afternoon at Denver Zoo, which was

brilliant. You could get up close to lions, tigers, bears, wolves, polar bears, black bears, cheetahs - the usual suspects. It was well worth the $20 entrance fee.

We had dinner at Little India (near the DTC centre) and I ordered my usualchicken madras, but it nearly blew my head off. My usual cockiness about theamount of chili I can stomach was silenced by the intense pain. The food tastedamazing (I think) but was too much for even me. The waitress had warned meand had already got the chef to make me a milder version of the dish, whichwas still too hot (not that I would admit it). Jons tikka masala however, was

absolutely amazing.After dinner, Jon took me to The Little Ice Cream Man in the highlands area (anice cream shop in a building shaped like a metal ice cream vat). It is anextremely popular with the locals and I could see why. The ice cream is freshlymade and delicious. I had a butterscotch ice cream and although I asked for asingle scoop, it was more like a tub. It was the best (if not the biggest portion) ofbutterscotch ice cream I have ever had.

Friday15 th Oct

Woke up wheezing and coughing up phlegm. This was Jons cue to run awayand do some errands, while I tried to breathe. When he got back, we headedto the DTC area to look at apartments near Jons work.

After the apartment hunting, Jon took me to the Castle Rock outlet mall, whichis like Bicester Village. I bought a pair of boots, two pairs of sandals, a winter coat from Gap and a top. This was somewhat of a personal triumph for me, as I


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hate clothes shopping. It all came to about $230/180 pounds, which was quite abargain.

After a thorough wander round, we decided we would make cocktails at Jonsplace that evening, so we stopped off at King Soopers for limes, raspberry mix,and passion fruit and then went to the liquor store for vodka, triple sec and rum.(You cannot buy alcohol in the supermarkets over there).

We went home and Jon invented The Greenwood Passion, which was madeof a can of frozen concentrate orange and passion fruit, a good amount ofVodka, a splash of triple sec, half a lime, a splash of raspberry cordial, a stick ofmint and a quarter of lime in the drink and lots of ice. It was delicious.

While drinking the cocktails, I played my first ever game of guitar hero and asthe cocktails disappeared, we moved onto Singstar and managed to stay upuntil 1.15am the latest night so far

Chapter Five

Saturday 16 th Oct

We were offered the use of a condo in Steamboat Springs for the weekend byJons boss. We packed up and started the 3.5 hour to Steamboat, stopping for a bagel at Einstein Bros bagels, where no-one seemed to understand myaccent. I asked for a smoked salmon bagel and was offered a cinnamon roll. Ithen asked for an orange juice and was given a coffee. I had a cold, but am Ithat difficult to understand!?

We then started driving through the mountains to Steamboat, stopping at Vail tosee the infamous ski resort. We ended up spending quite some time there, as I

found a Birkenstock shoe shop and spent 40 minutes looking for something toreplace my stupid new sandals, which were really hurting me.

Back on the road, Jon warned me about altitude sickness as we would beascending from 3.5,000 ft to 11,000 ft to reach the top of the mountain to get toStemaboat.


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With no horrible symptoms, we arrived at Steamboat at 3pm. We settled into thecondo, which was lovely and cosy. It overlooked the mountains and although itwas just out of skiing season, snow was starting to form on the peaks.

Everything was much more autumnal here than Denver and looked gorgeous,although the temperature was also more autumnal. It was freezing.

I had a 3 hour nap as I was feeling really unwell and woke up craving pizza. Jonwas happy with that deciwion, as it meant he could introduce me to another Colorado specialty - lava cakes, which you can only get in Dominoes Pizza. Theyare chocolate sponge cakes with a gooey chocolate centre and are extremelymoreish.

Chapter Six

Sunday 17 th Oct

We woke up, cleaned the apartment and headed down Trail Ridge Road to theRocky Mountain National Park. It was amazing scenery and in particular, the US

40 highway was beautiful. We passed an area called Rabbit Ears Pass, in RouttNational Park, which was stunning. The mountains, lakes and autumnal colourswere spectacular. We eventually entered the park and in true Americanfashion, decided to stay in the car and follow the road right up the mountain,rather than walk. We got up to 11,000 feet, and got out to take pictures. Itstarted snowing on top of the mountain and was freezing. We were both feelinga bit light headed at that altitude and the air was noticeably thinner. I wasfreaking out as the winding cliff edges had no barriers and were dangerously icythe higher up we got, but the scenery was stunning.

Once at the bottom again, we drove to Boulder, which I really liked. It is astudent town, with a hippy vibe. There are street performers and buskers and agenerally relaxed atmosphere. We had coffee in the Paradise Bakery and thenwandered down the main road to peruse the shops. As we headed back to thecar, I spotted some ideal souvenirs for the sisters - moccasins made by genuineRed Indians. Not 7 year old boys in China, but genuine red Indians!


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After shopping, we headed to Teds Montana Grill, where we tried another ofJons top ten culinary experiences - the Beer can chicken. They literally stuff anopen can of beer up the chickens rear while cooking it, so the moisture infuses.It was moist but wasnt a patch on my mums roast chicken.

Jon then took me to a bar called Lime where we had more lovely mojitos. Iloved the dcor and atmosphere of the place and the nachos were yetanother thing Jon urged me to try. They were pretty special.

Chapter Seven

Monday 18 th Oct

Jon had to work today so I spent the morning cleaning his flat and makingmyself presentable. I got on the light rail to meet Jon after work and he took meto John Hollies an amazing Chinese restaurant in the same complex as theLittle India one we went to last week. The gyoza was amazing, as was thetempura. The food out here is amazing I totally get why Americans are fat.

Tuesday 19 th Oct

Jon didnt want to have to drive today, so we had a lazy day. I decided to sit bythe pool and read.

I made some cocktails at about 4pm, ahead of our night our downtown. Imixed a splash of triple sec, a good amount of Vodka, some fresh mint, blendedwith the other ingredients, ice, cranberry and raspberry cordial, raspberry mixer and a tablespoon of rose grenadine and The Rose Royce was born.

After several cocktails, we walked downtown to find some bars and somewhere

to eat. We came upon a bar/restaurant called The Paramount Caf on 16th

street. I ordered something unpronounceable, which arrived in what I can onlydescribe as a vase and as it took me so long to drink it, we ended up havingdinner there too.

On the way home, we stopped off at Gelato for an ice cream.


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Wednesday 20 th Oct

Today, we did some more apartment hunting in the DTC area. The apartmentsare cheaper in this area, as it is further from downtown, but there is still a goodcommunity of restaurants, bars and activities. Jon took me to a Denver institution- Tonys market. Tony is an ex-pat who lives down Jons parents road in the UK.His market is the place to go to get your mint sauce, Colmans mustard andCadburys chocolate. We decided to attempt to make a traditional roast lambdinner, but didnt realize it would cost us $80/45 pounds to buy a modest pieceof lamb, mint sauce and jelly, Colmans mustard, veg and a couple of Englishchocolate bars. Poor but determined, we went back to Jons place and sat bythe pool until it was time to make dinner, which took a long 3 hours, but wasworth the wait.

Chapter Eight

Thursday 21st Oct

We got up early and headed to a complex called The District to see someapartments. I fell in love with the area, which is very Desperate Housewives.

Jon then took me to a cake shop called Nothing Bundt Cakes in the Lone Treearea for yet another Denver taste sensation. The shop is (as we Brits would say)quaint and the moist sponge cakes are made on the premises fresh each day.They each have flavoured frosting on top and are melt in the mouth delicious.Needless to say we got a range to take away.

After talking about apartment options, I persuaded Jon to go back for a secondlook at a large 2 bedroom property we had seen near his work. We went back and found out that there was an identical one on the top floor with 20ft ceilings

at $1345 (1250 pounds). Jon put a holding deposit down and reserved it. Newapartment. Done.

We went back to Lime Bar to celebrate with a cocktail or three.


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Friday 22nd Oct

It was miserable weather today. We mooched around in the morning andwalked downtown to the cinema to watch Paranormal Activity 2 at lunchtime. Itwas free refills of popcorn again and reclining chairs. I could get used to this.

We then got in the car to go to Cherry Creek. It is the posh area of Denver theChelsea equivalent, with modern, marble buildings and expensive designer shops. It is a nice area, but not as nice as Boulder. We looked around the mallitself and then had a nibble in Hapa Sushi. Jon then drove me to Cheery Creek Dam, which offered spectacular views of the area.

We headed back to Jons apartment to get ready for dinner and then headedback downtown to find another branch of the Little India restaurant so I couldtry the Tikka Massala. We eventually found it at 10pm and ate quickly, as theywere closing at 11. It was de-licious.

Chapter Nine

Saturday 23 rd Oct

I was sad on my last day. I packed and then we headed to the Pinnacle area tofigure out where everything was in relation to Jons new apartment. All the bars,restaurants, Jons work, the light rail and a gorgeous park were within walkingdistance, which is pretty unheard of in the States.

We then headed back downtown and had lunch in McLaughlins before settingoff for the airport at about 5.30pm. It was very sad saying goodbye to Jon atsecurity, but I did meet Antoinette a British architect who took pity on me,drank with me, shared her dinner with me and then took me for free drinks in theBusiness class lounge until we got on the flight.

I didnt manage to sleep on the flight, but it was a lovely smooth flight and I wassitting next to the air steward, who reassured me right the way back to London.

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