Tag: Denver

Roadtrip to 30’s: Colorado – Food & Place Alert

I’m back with the traveling and food blogs! I know, it’s been taking me forever and the only thing I can say is that I’m sorry. Life becomes life and it really takes me away from writing, BUT I’m entering a new decade and I want to take what matters to me most with me. This is a two part blog about the food I ate and the places I visited for my birthday trip. Welcome to the first half of my roadtrip to 30’s – Colorado.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

The start of my trip was to Colorado Springs to meet up with my siblings, dad and their families. They all drove to Colorado Springs and arrived a few days before me, but I got to join them for two days before flying over to San Francisco. The Colorado part was actually a trip planned by my little sister for her son, my nephew, Mateo. He had his last chemotherapy treatment for his leukemia in April/May and was cleared to do everything and anything. So this trip was to celebrate that and him beating leukemia.

First stop, Snooze A.M. Eatery in Colorado Springs. Snooze A.M. Eatery serves breakfast/brunch items and their own specialty cocktails. I wasn’t too hungry so I shared a Benny Duo with my niece. With the Benny Duo, You can choose two different benedicts instead of two benedicts of the same and we got the Smashed Avocado Benny and the Ham Benedict III. The benny’s weren’t bad, but they weren’t anything special either. I definitely had better at other places. An entree that was really good and worth mentioning would be their Habanero Pork Belly Breakfast Fried Rice. It was full of flavor and had the right amount of hotness!

Ham Benedict III: English muffin topped with shaved ham, perfectly poached cage-free eggs and our house-made smoked cheddar hollandaise

Smashed Avocado Benny: English muffin topped with fresh, smashed avocado, Parmesan cheese, seasoned tomatoes, poached cage-free eggs, our house-made smoked cheddar hollandaise and everything spice

Habanero Pork Belly Breakfast Fried Rice: Jasmine-garlic fried rice with seared cider-braised habanero pork belly, sautéed red bell peppers, onions, poblanos, carrots and pineapple. Topped with a drizzle of our house-made Sriracha maple aioli, two crispy sunny-side up eggs, scallions and kimchi spice.

Garden of the Gods was the first non-food place we went too. With all the younger kids, we didn’t walk or hike the other paths, but we did walk around the main path and still had a good time! For me it was surreal to be in a mountainous area with most of my family. It’s already hard to get all of us at the same function, let alone on a trip in a state on the other side of the country. We were still one person down, my mom, but she called everyday of the trip to check in with all of us. I would love to come back to Garden of the Gods to do some of their other hiking trails/paths. It was absolutely beautiful, so I could only imagine how it looks like from a higher view.

Denver, Colorado

My two days with the family was pretty chill, they had gone on the more intense hikes earlier in the week and by the time I arrived the kids were all sick of hikes. I can’t blame them though, they did some pretty tough ones! Go them though, they all made it to the top, even if it was hard with the elevation or with the heights. Second day, We made our way to places closer towards Denver, Colorado. Our first visit was to Red Rocks Parks and Amphitheater. I’ve always wanted to make a stop here and watch a show. Iykyk. This is suppose to be one of the best venues and specifically for EDM. I was happy that we were able to check it out. It has a lot of potential still and I can’t wait to see all the new additions they are working on! No show, but they were playing music and that sounded great already. Red Rocks, I’m coming for you!

After Red Rocks, we took a drive over to Lookout Mountain / Buffalo Bill’s Grave. It was an easy drive and for the kids no major hiking was involved. There was a nice lookout of the city and mountains. I think sunrise or sunset watching there would be a beautiful spot. We were all getting pretty hungry, so we didn’t go into the Buffalo Bill museum that they had there.

Now for the yummy location! My family and I went to Tatsu Izakaya for lunch. Now this spot was so good, especially their ramen. I work at a ramen and sushi restaurant which I think our ramen is really good, but I will have to say Tatsu Izakaya did it better. I got the Spicy Tonkatsu Ramen, Hamachi Kama appetizer, White Tuna Sashimi and a Grape Ramune. Everything was super delicious and the portion size of the ramen bowl was huge. I had leftovers and it was my dinner as well.

Spicy Tonkatsu Ramen: Creamy pork bone broth topped with chashu, half egg, mushrooms, sprouts, naruto, bok choy, green onion, scallions & ginger

Hamachi Kama: Grilled yellowtail collar/cheek

Everyone ate so much, we needed to walk it off. We went to Denver’s 16th Street Mall. Sadly malls are dying everywhere, so it nothing much to show off. There are a lot of restaurants on the street and a lot of them looked very aesthetically pleasing and had a good menu. I have been to 16th Street Mall before towards the end of covid and back then it was more lively than what it was this time around. We walked around down 16th Street and visited the train station as well. There where cute stores in there and a grand dining area. It was a nice walk around. When we were all done, we left and drove back to Colorado Springs.

I’m super happy that I was able to have that time with my family and next time I hope my mom will be able to come with us too. The one place that I would love to go with my whole entire family is Disney World. I have been many times, but it would fill my heart x1 million if I went with my parents! Growing up my mom and dad would always talk about taking all of us and I just know when it happens, it’s going to heal a big part of my inner child. Going places and doing new things with my family now as an adult, brings me back to when I was a child doing things with my family, my aunts and uncles. So I get to be the fun aunt and make memories with my nieces & nephew like how I had with my aunts. It’s one of the best full circle moments ♡

P.S – Don’t forget part two of Roadtrip to 30’s: San Francisco – Food & Place Alert is coming soon! There’s a lot more foodie adventures there ♡

Last Minute Trip, CO.

I’ve always dreamt about last minute traveling where you spontaneously buy a flight and leave within 48 hours. Well… I did just that! I booked my flight the day before leaving and spent that weekend in Denver, Colorado. It wasn’t as stressful or exciting like I always fantasized it out to be, but it was worth the experience.

Going on a flight all by yourself is pretty boring and I did not properly prepare to entertain myself for 3 hours. I assumed that I would fall asleep on the flight and was I wrong. Don’t ever assume that, that’s where I messed up haha. What I DID loved about being awake during the flight was seeing clouds. I don’t think I will ever get over how beautiful it looks up close.
When my dog passed away, I read a book and on one of the pages it talks about how each dog has their own comfy cloud to sleep on. So I just imagined my little Koko rolling around in the most perfectly soft, cotton candy like cloud bed. I definitely teared up at the thought. I let myself dream for a little that I was so close to her and her cloud home. Just a sweet little moment.

Time for my favorite part of the trip: THE HIKE. GRAYS PEAK.
Oh my… I’m so proud of myself for not giving up even though I wanted to so bad. I don’t even know where to begin with the story. So I do not work out at all. I think the last time I worked out at the gym was August of 2019. I also had a dry cough the whole weekend that would hurt my sides whenever I coughed. So I’m already going into it busted up and not physically ready. Oh, did I mention that the hike was a fourteener? YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Elevation of 14,278. When I said I wanted to quit, I wanted to jump off the cliff and rolled back down to car as a shortcut. It was such an experience though. I can’t decide if it was good or bad yet hahah
We left our airbnb at 3 AM to drive there, got there around 5 AM and started hiking. This hike was suppose to take 5 hours all together, up and down. It took our group 10 hours to complete. We dropped like flies, we took tons of breaks, goats wanted to beat us up, hikers kept giving us false hope with how close we were, MAN. My lungs were struggling and the weather was so confusing. There was snow on the mountain and it was windy, but I was in my tank top while the guys were all in their hoodies. It’s the middle of July, my body was never so confused before. The elevation and basically doing knee to chest lunges up got me. My little legs were killing! I told the guys to go ahead of me and if I caught up, then I did, if not so be it. The last hour or so up, I hiked alone and only could walk like 20 steps before having to stop to breathe. I met this very cool hiker though and honestly, he gave me an awesome pep talk about finishing, so thank you guy! By the time I met up with my group I was 5 to 10 minutes away from the top so I had to finish it. Everyone was right, the view is so worth it. I was just way too tired to take decent pictures and kept thinking about how I had to hike the whole thing to get back to the car. LOL. Hiking down was probably harder and you just have to pray that you have strong ankles. Did I also mention I did all of this in some training nike shoes? Not prepared at all! The walk back was killer cause it was at least 93 degrees. I got so sunburned in the last two hours. My shoulders and lips paid their dues the hard way. I actually had a lot of fun with my group though and just proud that I made it. Would I do it again? Honestly, probably not LOL. One time was enough, maybe ask me again in a couple years.

  • 5:30 AM Sunrise

The rest of the trip was a lot less exercise haha. I did have the opportunity to skydive while I was there, but I have no idea why I decided not too. So I do regret that, but it’s okay. That can always be added on to the next trip.
I met some new people on the trip and strengthened my friendship with others, so I’m very happy that I went. I’m ready to plan the next one!

Thanks Denver for the adventure, xoxo.
SALLY ♡ T