Denver vacay, the rest

Or most of the rest, I guess – we’re still here until tomorrow.

I’ve been a little better about taking pictures, but not writing so I think this will be a bit long! I’ll try to go chronologically so you can skip around.

On Sunday after Mark walked and I iced my hand, we got a grocery list from the kids and went shopping at Whole Foods and made dinner. Pasta with broccoli-basil pesto and sliced, sauteed, boneless chicken breast on top, garlic toast, and salad.

On Monday our AirBNB host lowered the seat on the coaster bike and I made it to the coffee place without mishap. But still not super comfortable riding a coaster bike sans helmet. After,  I drove over to Megan & Ethan’s and made some blueberry scones, trying to make filled scones like the coffee place has, with mixed success. The filling oozed out a bunch, but they were tasty. I think I have more of the summer to perfect, tho. I think Mark walked over to join us for scones.

After scones & pictures, their cleaner arrived so we took off, and decided to go see a movie, the new Wes Anderson, Asteroid City. We haven’t gone to theaters much since pandemic, but we kind of got the idea from our friend George Hesselberg, who has started going to retired-people-afternoon-movies and mentioning how there’re usually maybe 4 people total in the cinema. Besides, what else do you do on a hot summer afternoon if you’re not going to the pool – you sit in an air conditioned movie.

I know the Asteroid City reviews have been mixed, but we liked it. Big cast for Anderson. I especially liked the roadrunner, although this shot of the puppet with his handlers doesn’t really do him justice. I think there’re a number of Asteroid City roadrunner puppet appreciations out there online, too.

After the movie we asked the kids about coming over, but Rowan wasn’t having a great night so we got dinner on our own at a local pizza place. Slow service but good pizza and salad and they made the substitutions we requested which were balsamic vinaigrette on the wedge salad instead of blue cheese, I mean the salad already had blue cheese crumbles, and pepperoni instead of chicken on the pizza. I just don’t like chicken on a pizza much, it always seems to be little white meat chunks that have about the consistency of a pink eraser.

Tuesday I think I hung out at the AirBNB a bit, and then Mark walked and I braved the coaster bike and we rendezvoused for coffee, and started searching museums and stuff for our day’s entertainment. We decided on the Botanic Gardens, that even though it was a bit hot, turned out to be an OK day. Oh, and yea,  Mark walked and I drove to Voodoo Donuts and picked up a few donuts for breakfast that we ate in the park before going into the Gardens. I always get a plain glazed to test the mettle of the new donut place and Voodoo’s was good, but the best was a variety they call Dirt, that’s the plain glazed with Oreo crumbs on top and a plain vanilla glaze to make up for the Oreo cream filling.

I took a lot of pictures at the gardens, mostly waterlilies and dragonflies, but also a decent selfie, Chihuly – every botanical garden must have its Chihuly, I guess – and a few other flowers, too.

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Tuesday late afternoon/evening, Mark & Rowan got some good grampa bonding time.

We ordered barbecue for dinner that night, from a place called Smok. Because Ethan works for Door Dash, and both Ethan and Megan work from home, they are masters of order and curbside pick up or get it delivered. Their pandemic habits are now fully carried over to cocooning maternity leave. Mark & Ethan went to Smok to pick up so that we could get the chile cheese fries, and save a bit of money.

Wednesday started as usual with coffee. I walked, but my knee was really hurting. I think it was the combo of about 3 miles of walking at the Botanic Gardens and I might’ve bonked it in my bike crash on Sunday. Anyways, we looked at bicycle rentals and we decided to go to the big REI and rent a bike for me and Mark could walk around on the trails. I got a little confused and didn’t get on the most scenic of trails but still had a approximately 40 minute ride on the little hybrid I had. I felt a bit ridiculous on it, but at least it had handbrakes and I got a helmet.

The bike didn’t need to be returned until 9:00pm Thursday so we left it in the car, as a good way to keep it secure and dry. We had gotten a sandwich at the upscale little Park Hill grocery Spinelli’s across the street from the coffee place and had that for a late lunch. Eventually we went over to Ethan and Megan’s and made breakfast for dinner: the little red potatoes we saw at Whole Foods Sunday, that cried out eat me, smashed and roasted with lots of garlic; scrambled eggs with tomato & cheese; toast. Megan had bought a box of Krispy Kremes so that was dessert. And miraculously the short walk to coffee plus bike riding loosened up my knee.

Meanwhile, back home Jasper had his 8-months birthday and enjoyed holding his own spoon.

Wednesday night it rained some, and Thursday it was threatening storms, and it rained a bit in the morning, but mostly cleared off and the thunderstorms were supposed to not really arrive until 1:00. We walked to coffee and decided to sit inside at the counter by the windows because it was kind of wet outside, where I knocked over an almost full latte and it ran across the counter onto Mark’s phone (away from my phone). We were getting the All Trails app installed on my phone – I had had it before and deleted before I had to pay (and might do that again). Mark thought it might help me stay on the better trail. And, I had forgotten my own cup and elected to not take a plastic top for the paper to-go cup my coffee was in. Anyways, the people at the cafe were super nice – I went to ask the barista for a bar rag to clean up, and she said, I’ll send someone with a mop, and remake your coffee. And Mark’s phone seems not to have suffered any damage; I pulled it out of the coffee flood as quick as I could, and he took the case off and wiped it off, and all seems to be well. After the coffee excitement we went back to the trails near REI, and I got pointed properly on the Cherry Creek Trail, and did a nice hour’s ride, and only got rained on a little.

The kids asked us to hold off on coming over so we went to another movie – Joy Ride. Which was hilarious and much more raunchy than I expected. It was official training for TIFF (which may or may not happen at this point due to the SAG-AFTRA strike).

Then we had pizza for dinner – another pick up partly to save $30, partly to customize our pizzas. Rode over in Ethan’s giant SUV, the vroom vroom, to Rowan, where he sleeps. Joy Hill, described by one of Ethan’s friends as “the bomb”.

We had:

 

And

Meanwhile here’s a dump of my remaining Rowan pics, and I’ll let you know about our last 24 hours in Denver, later.