More 2012 Unmentioned

Continuing from yesterdays post, I am covering some events about which I didn’t make time to post this year. Remember, this is the blah life so not everything covered here will be exciting for you.

March

Let’s see, in March I went to a Bike Denver event at the Denver Beer Company. At this event they were taking photos of Denverites with their bikes and with statements in a whiteboard bubble. Here’s my beer and then me with my bike:

I attended the LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) prom. Basically we gathered at Bender’s after getting dressed up in prom dresses and drank. Here’s Jess, me, and Shannon at the event:

Oh, and spring arrived in March! Always a photo opportunity to catch the trees blossoming on my walk to work:

The big event for March was my trip to Moab with Jess! It got off to a bumpy start with her car breaking down, but we got lucky when we pulled into a AAA gas station that provided towing service! So it was just a slight detour. I don’t remember exactly the hikes we did but we hit both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The weather was amazing and we had a great time – we even met up with Hillary for an evening.

So, that was March. Up next…April!

Unmentioned 2012

Several events came and went this year and I didn’t make time to cover them here. But! I don’t want to leave them out entirely!

January

New Years Day Snowshoeing: Hillary organized a group of women (and Stephen) for a fun 1st day of 2012 snowshoeing. We slogged up Butler Gulch and back down in the chilly January 1st air, but it was super fun! Jess took this photo of Emily, me, Hillary, Shaina, and Stephen:

It was a beautiful day:

Stock Show Rodeo: Every January here in Denver the National Western Stock Show comes through town. It’s an event that last for a few weeks and includes a parade in downtown and a variety of events. I was invited to the rodeo one night! Of course, we visited the petting zoo prior. I think this photo was taken right as the little goat in my lap bit my thumb:

We also meandered through the area where the livestock are prepped for showing and sales:

Yes, sales – you can purchase all manner of livestock at the stock show. In fact, some places advertise with postcards and flyers on the walls:

Then there was the actual rodeo. Very entertaining. It is fascinating to see just how quickly a grown man can “hogtie” a baby cow…It was a patriotic affair – lots of flags:

We headed to the stock show bar after and observed some small amount of line dancing before Hillary sang “These Boots are Made for Walking” in a brave show of karaoke.

February

Not a lot happened in February…I went skiing with Lisa and her son Jack!

We got locked out of her car, but luckily the ski resort guest services guys were ready with tools:

In February, I also went thrift store shopping. Didn’t buy a lot but got some good merchandise shots. Yep, there are all kinds of animal glassware available at your local thrift store:

What else did I do…? There was the WTS Colorado annual awards gala:

There was a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion:

Ok, so that was January and February…I’ll let that soak in for a bit. Stay tuned for the rest of 2012!!

Alameda and Tejon

In mid-November we went for dim sum at Super Star Asian. This excursion was for the birthday of a friend of a friend. We sat down to the table of four adults and two children (already seated) and were immediately surrounded by carts of buns and dumplings. It was amazingly overwhelming. I was offered lobster, duck, and shrimp in various forms. I was originally a little leery of the prospect of dim sum. I mean, who knows what might be inside of a steamed or fried this or that…and what is shu mai anyway? Though since I like shrimp I knew that I could eat something there and I went without protest. I was pleasantly surprised! Even I, a discerning eater, walked away with a too full stomach. It was actually a pretty fun experience. They did serve the lobster head with the plate of lobster bits (a prawn was added so the big guy wouldn’t get lonely).

Afterwards, we all journeyed to the other end of the block to the Pacific Ocean International Supermarket to check out the offerings and walk off the dim sum. There was a subsection of the market devoted to glassware, kitchen utensils, and miscellaneous other items. The scantily clad plastic doll in the photo below falls into the latter category. It was actually in with some kids toys…so, I guess it’s for kids. All I know is that it’s butt actually jiggled. 

Anyway…they sell a variety of items at the Pacific Ocean market – including unicorn horns! Well, that’s what they look like. Not actually sure what they really are though.

Having arrived back from Portland just two weeks earlier, there were some other items that stood out. I say this because Portland seems to be the land of the gluten-free, vegan everything.  So, to see both canned fried gluten and “big gluten ball” was odd.

We bought some noodles and gummy candy and called it a day. Super Star Asian was pretty tasty and they serve dim sum all day – I recommend it.

P-Town Silliness

Portland has a special randomness that is delightful. If you look, there are interesting stickers, signs and/or graffiti almost everywhere. Take a mailbox for example. Stick some eyes on it and voila – an interesting inanimate object!  There are also messages to be found tacked onto telephone poles that bear important life reminders: Even a birdcage in a store has cute little signs: Speaking of birds, they were on everything, which is apparently very Portland. Of course, there are the stickers and things on the backs (or even fronts) of signs and on various poles around town. This one was pretty pervasive: There were also lots of Kurt Russell stickers and stickers with realistic teeth photoshopped in: Here are some other ones:

Portland wins when it comes to this kind of thing with San Francisco and Toronto coming in tied for second. Get with it Denver!

Soaked in Beer and Coffee, Drizzled with Salt

It’s Sunday and raining. We’re laying drowsily on Curtis’ couch in NE Portland. We have a few hours before our flight back to Denver and we are pooped.  A few days of walking, eating, drinking, and looking around will do that to a person. Eating and drinking take center stage on any Portland trip – in the three days we visited the damp, northwestern city we had 19 occasions to eat and/or drink.

Friday was the most full food day. It started at Ken’s Artisan Bakery for quiche, cappuccino, and a cinnamon-glazed cinnamon roll.

This fueled our trip up the hill to the Japanese Garden. The winding trail through the park took us through the rose gardens, which were still plentiful with mist-laden roses:

We also encountered Phyllis the banana slug on the path!

I loved the Japanese Garden. We spent over 90 minutes in the wonderful, gentle drizzle strolling quietly through the mossy terrain. Many of the maples and other trees were turning yellow, red, and orange and there were stairs made of stepping stones that descended deeper into the gardens and leaf-strewn paths that took us back out again.

The whole trip was soaked in coffee and beer – Portland does both extremely well. On our way out of the gardens we popped into Coffeehouse Northwest for surprisingly soothing cappuccino that was beautifully made:

This was followed about an hour later by lunch at Bridgeport Brewing and dessert of mini pumpkin whoopie pies and fleur de sel chocolate chip cookies at Two Tarts.

After meandering through the Pearl District and getting totally overwhelmed at Powell’s Books, we spent some quality time at the Hostel reading and napping. Vacation is so fantastic…The napping just prepped us for Friday, part 2.

With dinner reservations at Le Pigeon, a seriously cozy restaurant in the southeastern part of the city, we showered and hurried across the Burnside Bridge. Over candlelight we shared a bottle of Willamette Valley pinot noir and enjoyed Pumpkin Agnolotti with brown butter consommé and parmesan (me) and Lamb Shoulder with yogurt spätzle, sausage, and persimmon saffron chutney (Seth). We didn’t get dessert per se, but super tasty, gourmet chocolates came with the bill.

Burnside Brewing was on the way back, so we stopped in to try the award winning (Great American Beer Fest 2012) Sweet Heat, which is a wheat beer brewed with apricots and Jamaican scotch bonnet peppers. It was just the right amount of heat – worthy of an award in my opinion. Also on our path was Voodoo Donut, home of the maple bacon donut – see below to the far left of the photo:

One last Friday night stop – Rogue Brewing! Just five or so blocks from the hostel, we couldn’t pass it up. I had the mocha porter mixed with their chipotle ale from the tap, which mixes to make a mole beer – such a treat.

We slept very well Friday night.