This past weekend, January 15-19, our friend Amanda from Peru was in town with some her other friends from San Diego, so we spent the weekend playing tour guide. They flew in on Thursday, so we met them for dinner at Papa Frank’s in Broomfield.
On Friday, Andrea and I both worked in the morning then met Amanda, Christine, Monica, Maribel, and Adrienne at the Denver Mint for our 2 pm tour. The Mint tour was a little disappointing because they weren’t actively making much of anything while we went home. After the Mint, we walked up and down the 16th Street Mall and had cocktails at the Rialto Cafe. We then took them to Casa Bonita for dinner because we couldn’t persuade them to go elsewhere. They had seen it on South Park and had to go to the same places as Cartman, despite the fact that the food there is truly the worst Mexican food that we’ve ever had. Andrea said it best when she said that “Casa Bonita is Chuck E. Cheese’s on Mexican steroids.” Yes. It really is that bad. After Casa Bonita, we all went swing dancing for my birthday dance before calling it a night.
Saturday morning, they met us at our house at 9:30. We then drove to Golden and took a tour of the Coors Brewery. The Coors tour is a really good tour. You get a tasting in the “Fresh Beer Room” and then three more full size tastings in the bar at the end. After leaving Coors, we drove downtown and had lunch at the Buenos Aires Pizzeria before walking over to Coors Field for a tour there. During that tour, the Rockies’ Winter Development Program was in town, so we got to see the lockers of all of the Rockies’ top minor league prospects during our tour of the visitors’ clubhouse. After Coors Field, we went shopping for ski gear for Christine and Andrea, and then had dinner with Amanda and Christine and Christine’s mom at Pad Thai before calling it a night.
On Sunday, Amanda and Christine met us at our house at about 6:30 am to head up to Loveland for their first day skiing. Of the 4 of us, I was the only one who had ever been skiing before. It was an absolutely perfect day for skiing. I left them in the lesson and then went on a couple of runs in Loveland Valley before jumping on the shuttle to Loveland Basin. I went all the way to the top of Chair 9 on the Continental Divide at 12,500 feet above sea level. It was a truly unbelievable view. I went back to meet the girls at 12:30 and we had lunch in the lodge. After lunch, I took Andrea and Amanda on the ski lift for the first time. They both wiped out getting off, which is common for first timers, and then we worked down the beginner hill. Unfortunately Andrea’s ankle was hurting a lot by this point, so it took us a long time to get down. I did go back up and make 2 more fast blue runs before the area closed at 4 too.
After leaving Loveland, we drove through the Eisenhower Tunnel and then drove over Loveland Pass to show Amanda and Christine more of the scenery. We stopped in Idaho Springs and had dinner at Beau Jo’s Pizza. After dinner we drove down Lookout Mountain to show them the view from there before heading back into Denver for the night.
On Monday, we had the day off, but had a bunch of stuff scheduled, so we met Amanda and Christine at Dino’s for lunch before she had to head back to San Diego that night. It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun.
Pictures from the 16th, 17th (Coors & Coors Field), and 18th are in the Photo Album.
