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Published: June 26th 2010
...well, not my Spring Break, but my cousin Juli and three of her friends (Brittany, Sam and Kyerstin) came out to Colorado for the week. They all go to Eastern Illinois University, and decided to come out here for their spring break. I used a couple of vacation days at work, and was able to spend almost every day with them. Since our furloughs at work started almost six months ago, I haven't had any extra money, so it's been a pretty boring winter for me. I didn't get a ski pass this year, and haven't really been doing anything fun. This week reminded me of some of the reasons I love Colorado so much. I had a good time showing them around and enjoying all of Colorado's beauty. It was great getting to spend so much time with my cousin, too!😊
The girls flight from Chicago got in late Friday night. Saturday morning, we got an early start down to Denver, to celebrate my favorite holiday - St. Patrick's Day! Denver has a huge St. Patrick's Day parade every year, and since the weather was beautiful, we headed down there. We started off the morning with some jello shots
before heading out to Fado Irish Pub, right next to Coors Field and right next to the parade route. Fado is a cute, traditional Irish pub. We had to have our obligatory Guiness and Strongbow Cider there before heading out to the street to see all the floats. Last year, I perfected my traveling jello shots - ziploc bags work perfect for jello shots on the go! They were a huge hit, so I decided to resurrect them for this years parade- lime and margarita jello to keep with the green spirit. They were delicious! 😊 During the parade, we met up with my roommate, Beth and some of her teacher friends. We all headed to the Giggling Grizzly for some green Coors, and then bar-hopped for the next couple of hours. We went to Beth's friend Pat's house after the bars for some delicious pizza, before heading home and crashing for the night. Since we started the morning drinking at 7:30, I thought we did pretty good to make it till 5:30p! 😱
Sunday I ended up having to go into work 7-3, so the girls slept in and hung around the house until I got back. The
airline had broken Brittany's suitcase, so she wanted to go shopping to pick up a new one. She mentioned Marshalls and TJ Maxx, but instead I had to bring her to my Colorado favorite- Ross. It's pretty much the equivalent to a Marshall's but soo much cheaper...and better! 😊 I don't think anyone walked out of there empty-handed... I even found a pair of really cute sunglasses for $4.00. Brittany and Kyerstin were excited to learn that we have Red Robin's here (a sit-down burger chain) so we decided to hit it up for dinner. I've never been there before, but everyone always says it's really good. I got their veggie burger, and it was ok, but I've had better. After dinner, we went to go see Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3-D. It was good, but honestly I expected better from Tim Burton!
Monday, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I've never been there before, so I was interested to see what it was like. Brittany was really excited because the Body Worlds exhibit was going on. If you've never seen it before, you need to check it out. They are human cadavers, both
full bodies and body parts, that have been specially preserved using a process called "plastination." I saw it with my mom when it first came to Chicago a couple of years ago, and it is amazing. This was another version of it, and showed some of the full bodies, but focused on the heart and cardiovascular system. Brittany loved it. Juli thought it was depressing, which it kind of is when you think about it, but it's still amazing to think they're able to do that. After Body Worlds, we headed to Boulder to do some shopping down Pearl Street. There's so many stores that you can wander around for hours...and we did. 😊
Tuesday, we headed up to the mountains. I have a National Parks Pass, so admission to Rocky Mountain National Park was free for everyone. I don't think you can visit Colorado without getting up into the mountains at least once, so I was excited to show the girls how beautiful it is. It was a gorgeous day, 54 degrees even up at the high elevations, and there was snow, but not too much to hike around. Last winter I went hiking up here a couple
of times when there was tons of snow. I went with Brett when I was trudging through snow up to my thighs...which is hard going! I wasn't sure what to expect this time, but the snow was perfect. There was a decent amount, but not enough to keep us from hiking a couple of miles. We walked a little around Bear Lake, and then walked to Alberta Falls, which is roaring in summer, so it always amazes me to see it in winter, completely frozen over. After our hike, we walked around the stores in quaint Estes Park. Everyone was excited to see the Stanley Hotel.
Wednesday, we headed to Celestial Seasonings for the free tea tour.
Thursday, we headed to Golden for the Coors Brewery Tour. Red Rocks
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Kim
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Irish Heritage
Heather the pics are great. Such a way to show your Irish heritage. It is great to know that other parts of the country know how to party on St .Pat's Day.