What an incredible weekend. Chris and I met for the first time on Thursday night in the bookshelf-lined lobby of Williams & Graham, which we’d heard was one of the best cocktail bars in the country. He’s 6’7, so he was hard to miss! I’m not a huge fan of waiting in line for a drink, but once we got inside the service was friendly and the cocktails were fresh and inventive. We called it a night on the early side so we lounge a bit in our Airbnb, a modern, 4-story apartment with rooftop access and great views of Downtown.
Friday morning, we made our way to the town of Golden to meet up with Eric and Alex of Oxotic Supercar Driving Experience; Chris was dying to drive a Lambo through the mountains, and I was happy to oblige. We took out a Porsche 911 Turbo and a Lamborghini Superleggera—I know nothing about cars, so to me they were "the cute black one" and "the sexy orange one"—for a jaunt through the hills, stopping for photo ops and to switch cars halfway through. I actually enjoyed the drive way more than I thought I would—gunning a Porsche down a straight stretch of mountain road is prrretty, pretty satisfying. We headed back to Denver hungry and squeezed into the bar at Uncle Ramen, a local spot serving pork buns and rich bowls of broth along with sake cocktails, of which we had many while befriending the staff, leading the entire restaurant in a singalong and closing the place down.
Chris is definitely a night owl, so I wasn’t sure how he’d do waking up at 7:30am—especially knowing that we were headed into the mountains to rock climb—but he was a great sport. We met up with our Denver Adventures guide, Stefan, and hiked a 20-minute approach to North Table Mountain, which embarrassingly kicked my butt due to the high altitude. The rock outside of Denver is mostly volcanic, which is different than what I’m used to scrambling on and made for a fun challenge; I was proud of myself for making it up a few tough routes, but was ten times as proud of Chris, who’d never been on a wall before but pushed himself and worked past the fear everyone feels on their first climb. It was so awesome to watch! Afterward, we made our way up the mountain to Buffalo Bill’s grave and museum. We weren’t sure what to expect, but the views were spectacular (part of the reason he requested to be buried there) and the museum was equal parts kitschy and informative. I loved seeing Bill’s old performance outfits and black and white photos of him and his fellow dreamy Bills (Wild Bill Hickok, Pawnee Bill). They even have a lock of his hair! It was also fascinating to learn how ahead of his time he was, preaching (and practicing) equal rights for women and performers of all races in his shows. After paying our respects to Bill, we drove to Red Rocks Amphitheatre to take a look around—the place is just as spectacular as everyone says.
After a bit of a rest back at the Airbnb, we made our way to Sushi Den, a Japanese restaurant that’s been at the top of the Denver dining scene for over 30 years. The service was incredible and everything we ordered was insanely good and super fresh. After dinner, we moseyed over to the Grizzly Rose for a bit of beer and a glimpse at the cowboy side of the city. There was bull riding and line dancing (and cute gents) galore—I could have stayed all night, but Chris was anxious to get to the club. Clubs are definitely not my thing, but he’d been so great on the rocks earlier that morning that I finished my beer, said farewell to the cowboys and steeled myself for a Night at the Roxbury situation. But as it turns out, this particular club was awesome!? They played a bunch of ‘80s deep cuts, and the crowd was super diverse. I haven’t danced that much in years.
We got a late start on Sunday, recovering from our night out. We did a quick tour of the Source, Denver’s first food hall complete with a butcher shop, brewery, florist, art gallery and fine dining restaurant; then grabbed coffee at Bellwether, a whiskey and coffee bar that doubles as a clothing shop. For lunch, we dined at Linger, the former Olinger Mortuary (established in 1908 and the brief resting place of Buffalo Bill—full circle!) that was recently transformed into an "eatuary" complete with Harold & Maude murals and an airstream trailer bar on the roof under the building’s historic neon sign. We’d heard the food was, ahem, to die for, and it didn’t disappoint. We knew we wanted to check out the Stranahan’s whiskey distillery before we left town, so we tagged along on the last tour of the day, learning about the company’s aged oak barrels, small-batch specials and unique labeling system. Then Chris, gentleman that he is, drove me to the airport where we said a pretty emotional goodbye—you bond pretty quickly when you’re thrown together for 72 hours of out-of-the-box adventuring!