Denver Review

Mountain Bike Pedal

Road Bike Pedal

Cherry Creek Bike Trail

Stroll around downtown, find Wahoo's, eat, work out in awesome hotel gym, swim in maybe a 25 meter pool, lay out on awesome padded lounge chairs, get burned on my chest and face, walk to REI, get excited about biking the off-street trails I see everywhere alongside beautiful rivers and with hundreds of other cyclists, learn that Denver people do not care if the signal says walk or do not walk, they just walk, which explains the L.A. like honking although there really is not a lot of car traffic at all, have an amazing dinner at Tamayo's with Andy's work gang, sleep a little (having trouble here, my bed at home really is the most comfortable in the world, ask my parents), watch TV, mostly Cash Cab, haul the bike out to ride around, run on the treadmill, but not in that order, find the most amazing bookstore, old and huge and opens at 6:30 in the morning!, Cheesecake Factory is next door so I got a salad I ate for 2 1/2 meals (dinner, lunch, brunch) and a cheesecake all to myself, more biking, running, and swimming, and walking about, and an awesome and fun work gang sushi dinner and gelato dessert (AK and I opted for the ice cream sandwiches), and more sleep (thanks to Tylenol PM).

One thing (off street, scenic, bike trails) that Denver has on Salt Lake, are the amazing straight from downtown to everywhere bike trails, but not much else. Oh they have Saks, Neimans, a gigantic REI, and Crate & Barrel, but honestly, nowadays, I can do without those. Oh and the creepily nice people. Seriously, everyone was nice. Like, but it was kind of weird. Like, ignore me people and let me explore the "big" city. No, it was great, and AK just thinks there is a lot of herb being smoked in the city. Anyhoo. The photo above is the Cherry Creek trail. I enjoyed the Platte River trail as well. The intersection is at the gigantic REI store, with has a Starbucks adjacent for my venti ice water and cocoa and sometimes treats. Andy has brought me $20 worth of Starbucks cards (in $5 increments) for breakfast and what not, he gets them in his meetings for answering questions and what not. I made the mistake of bringing my road bike shoes with my mountain bike. It's like wearing stilettos when you meant to bring your Birkenstocks, the road bike shoes won't clip onto my mountain bike pedals. 2nd mistake, not bringing my road bike. I wasn't adventurous enough (or dumb enough) to drive out to Boulder and bike alone on unknown trails, I was kind of freaked out, and most biking downtown is paved on lovely off street bike trails. Most of the trails have a little dirt path alongside, but still not justifiable for full-suspension. Back to the road bike shoes, so I just had to walk to REI and buy some brand new mountain bike shoes and clips to make immediate use of.

Now I am home. And so glad to be here. Smothered with the chitlins and our fantastic bed (I've taken one long nap and a "rest" today, I love my bed!). It was so fun to go on a bike ride with the whole family! We rode to Sugarhouse to see the doggies at Strut your Mutt. P loved it! Holden rode the whole way, and back! A little "bug juice" on the way back helped. He did charge it up the steep Sugarhouse hill flying past me, which was a great proud bike mama moment. H is still kind of sick, but happy as a lark. And O is just stoked to have earned his Indiana Jones lego. Dad took us to breakfast at Original House of P, we were there so early, like by 7:45 and left way before the kids would have been even walking to school (thus the 2 nap times!). So fun, and re-charged, and happy to be home.

My parents and Tia Dori are the best! Our kids had the best time.

I heart Paul Rudd.