Denver Delights

Last week in Denver! On Monday we explored the neighbourhood in a little more detail. Checked out some more of the residential area (love the style of the houses around there, especially the colourful ones) but mostly it meant walking up and down Broadway between 3rd and Alameda and going into lots of the many very cool shops along the way. Also got a 7-eleven Slurpee (for the cup), a chili cheese dog and tried to get KFC cornbread but no luck.

Finished up at the supermarket for dinner ingredients (and hugs from a stranger) to cook chili bean falafel for Yong and Lindsey. After dinner Yong showed off what his keyboard setup is capable of (when you know how to use it). Jon and I had a play around with it too!

Tuesday was Yong and Lindsey's last day before they jetted off to Costa Rica. They took us out for breakfast at Lucile's Creole Cafe and boy was it good! I had the Eggs New Orleans (fried eggplant, poached eggs, creole sauce and hollandaise served with grits, potatoes and a "biscuit" - a bit like a scone), the tastiest fresh grapefruit juice and we all shared a stack of the pancake special: carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese sauce. Jon ordered their famous Bloody Mary with his breakfast which deserved a picture.

After that we were really full and it was way hot (still at 5pm when we ventured out to the post office) so just vegged for a while. Wrote a couple more postcards and the rest of the day disappeared. In the evening Yong's friend Andrew came by and we got a pizza from the Walnut Room Pizzeria down the road, accompanied by Hazed and Infused that Jon and I picked up from a little bottle shop with a ridiculous range of fine beer to choose from, before Yong and Lindsey had to leave to catch their flight. Andrew is starting up a chocolate shop and had brought some tasty samples that we enjoyed for the next couple of days.

On Wednesday we spent the day, on everyone's recommendation, at the Denver Botanic Gardens. These are a 23-acre plot jam packed full of many different styles and themes of gardens, including a japanese garden, cactus, herb, "monet", all american and south african gardens as well as Henry Moore sculptures dotted amongst it all. A highlight was seeing a hummingbird on the Birds and Bees Trail. In the conservatory with all the more tropical plants was a display of colourful poison dart frogs too, and on the roof an example of a Green Roof garden (just imagine if all the roofs in New York, or Auckland for that matter, had these).

Just as we had finished looking at the outdoor gardens and were heading to the conservatory it began to rain, which was great timing to begin with but not so great when it was still pouring when we had to leave to catch the next bus from several blocks away. It was quite a long bus ride to our next stop, JC Penney, so had mostly dried out when we got there. We had a voucher from Jon's aunt to spend there and spend it we did, very successfully. Then it was home for a dinner of Pizza Rolls!