Lacey and I had never been to Denver before. Being that Southwest has nonstop flights from Boise, we decided to give it a look. If nothing else, we could put a new pin on our travel map. With the help of some beautiful weather, public bicycles, nachos, and 21oz. margaritas, we enjoyed our day in Denver.
Thanks to the Southwest Companion Pass, Lacey and I hopped on a free flight to Denver last Saturday morning. We landed, caught the hotel shuttle, dropped off our bags, and took a $5 Uber to downtown Denver. We were enjoying brunch and mimosas at the Viewhouse on Market St. by 11:30am. The Viewhouse is one of the coolest sports bars I’ve ever been to. It’s like Disneyland for drunken sports fans. They have a huge outdoor area on the 1st level that is full of backyard games like corn hole. The top floor patio, where Lacey and I hung out, has amazing views of downtown Denver and of Coors Field. Their brunch is delicious and is accompanied by solid happy hour specials that include bottomless mimosas and a build your own Bloody Mary bar. Our day in Denver was off to a strong start!
After brunch, we walked across the street and found a public bicycle station where we rented 2 bikes. We couldn’t think of a better way to quickly find out what all was going on in the downtown area. While cruisin’ around, we ran into a Farmers Market right outside Union Train Station and then discovered the 16th St. Mall. Lacey had heard good things about the 16th St. Mall from a friend, so we hopped off our bikes and decided to check it out a bit more. Full of shops, restaurants, and people, this 1+ mile strip of outdoor mall was something I had never seen before in any other city.
As on most of our trips, I was on the prowl for a delicious margarita. I wish I could remember the name of the place we found on 16th St, but I definitely found a winner. The menu offered a 21 ounce, margarita. Yikes! It took quite a while to finish that bad boy off, but we enjoyed some great people watching from the patio of the restaurant while I worked on it.
Still on 16th St., we visited a cool little sports apparel shop. I’ve been wanting a new Chicago Cubs hat for a while now. I don’t know if it was the margarita or just the excitement of visiting a new city, but I figured this would be a good day to make that purchase. Surprisingly enough, I found the exact Cubs hat I had been looking at online the day before in Boise. An all black fitted New Era hat with a white “C” on the front…likely the best Chicago Cubs hat ever.
Still riding the high from my purchase (and margarita) we headed back toward Coors Field to grab a bite at Lodos Bar and Grill. This rooftop patio restaurant looked out to 2 other rooftop bars as well as Coors Field. The surroundings reminded me of a beer commercial or something. I always figured they staged those commercials to make ’em look like that, but as it turns out, that’s real life in downtown Denver. Well done Denver, well done.
Following Lodos we headed over to Coors Field as we had tickets to the Cubs/Rockies game. Right around that time, Lacey started feeling ill and we decided to call it a day rather then head into the game. I think the altitude played a role in her illness as I wasn’t feeling so hot either. Make sure to drink tons of water when you visit Denver! You need to keep as much oxygen in your blood as possible being that you’re not going to get as much from the air as you normally would.
Aside from getting sick, we still had a good experience in Denver. We got to see this beautiful city via bicylces and rooftop patios, we had some delicious food and drinks, and I scored a new hat! We will surely visit the mile high city again someday.
