Joy and I always wanted to try Vino Volo at SMF before departing on a flight, but we never had time until this trip. I did a "flight" of California red wines. Joy got a guava mimosa.
As a VIP car renter, our upgraded SUV rental was waiting for us at the Fastbreak area so we bypassed the LONG holiday weekend lines. The shuttle driver even took us directly to the car.
We got late into Denver so I decided to book a hotel near the airport. I wanted to try out BonVoy properties so I booked a Element by Westin. It was a little too "green" for me.
This is a nice view we had in the morning with the Rocky Mountains from our hotel room.
Our drive took us from a mile high in Denver to over 10,000 feet or more. This is one of the many tunnels we went through to get to Glenwood Springs from Denver.
The drive through the Colorado River gorge was very scenic!
A friend of mine suggested we go to the Pullman in Glenwood Springs for lunch. I liked how no one was masking in Colorado anymore even the wait staff!
I loved my braised short rib tacos. Apparently, this is cooked overnight with the sous vide method.
Downtown Glenwood Springs had nice brick buildings like this old hotel.
Downtown Glenwood Springs was bustling with tent vendors and lots of tourists. I loved how people were NOT masking! The liberal's socialist experiment was over in Colorado!
I got dessert at Sundae, an ice cream shop that makes their own ice cream in small batches. The waffle cones and bowls smelled so good that I had to get one. Notice the staff is unmasked! Take note - asshole Gavin Newsom of CA! Recall Newsom!
My sundae at Sundae was delicious!
I am about ready to go into the hot springs pool at the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs resort!
After checking into the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Lodge, we went to the world's largest hot springs pool on site at the resort. The weather was great!
I took my waterproof 4K camera with me so I could film in the pool. The water was nice and warm from the natural hot springs!
The view from the pool was awesome! I loved that green mountain with the red dirt.
The Spa of the Rockies was still closed, but the capacity limits were removed along with the mask mandate.
We went to check out the town again afte my dip in the famous hot springs pool. Our first stop was Doc Holliday's Tavern.
Doc Holliday died in Glenwood Springs after he came here to cure his TB. This pub named after him was cool.
Joy and I both got western wear at Bullock's Western Store next to the tavern. This was the site of the hotel where Doc Holliday died. That is the original tombstone for Doc Holliday behind me.
There was a museum dedicated to Doc Holliday at Bullock's.
Joy and I did some local spirits tasting after shopping. Stoneyard has a mix between moonshine and rum.
We decided to get the horchata flavor spirit in a take home flask.
The Hotel Colorado is a nice vintage property next to where we stayed.
Joy and I wore our new western wear to dinner at the River's Restaurant. This cowboy hat is from Jason Aldean's collection by Resistol. We are posing in our hotel lobby here.
We walked back to downtown after dinner. The hot springs pool looked so cool at night!
I did go back in the hot springs pool after the complimentary hot breakfast the next morning.
We had sushi for lunch at Ming in downtown Glenwood Springs. The fish was super fresh!
I liked the Amberjack sashimi a lot!
We checked into our two story loft suite at the Highline in Vail after arriving amidst a thunderstorm. There was a full kitchen.
The loft suite had a nice living room area with a fireplace.
This loft suite was pretty unique since it was two story with the sleeping quarters upstairs.
This was the bedroom area of the loft suite.
Our balcony had nice views, but the skies were still angry when we checked in. I had to go work out since it was still pouring.
We were worried that we could not do anything outdoors that day due to that rain storm!
When I went down to the gym to work out, I checked out the cool outdoor pool area.
The hotel shuttle took us to the Vail Village so we could explore the unique restaurants and walk by the small river.
The Vail Village was modeled after ski villages in Bavaria or the Swiss Alps.
We found a cool European style deli which had great gelato and espresso. Notice that masks were not required in Vail also! So Cool!
We went to Hermits Brewing to get a drink as well. I did not like any of the beers they had so I got an Old Fashioned with a Colorado whiskey.
When I got back to the hotel, I felt like a dip in the hot tub!
The Highline by Doubletree lobby was cool with lots of seating areas and a shuffleboard table. Masks were NOT required! Yay!
I am waiting for the hotel shuttle to take us to the Four Seasons for dinner.
When we arrived at the Four Seasons, we saw all these super cars!
They had a large super car rally going through Vail on the way to Denver.
Joy and I are enjoying dinner at Flame, the signature restaurant at the Four Seasons in Vail.
We started out with oysters and a heirloom tomato salad with a gelee made of tomato too.
My filet was amazing! I loved the heat of that pepper as I paired that with the steak and the chimichurri sauce.
This was their signature molten chocolate cake with ice cream and a Grand Marnier sauce.
We saw more rally cars as we left the Four Seasons.
What a difference a day made! The views from our balcony in the morning were amazing!
We stopped in Frisco on the way to Breckenridge after checking out of the Highline in Vail. Frisco was a neat little mountain town.
I love finding local coffee shops on my travels since they make way better Americanos and Lattes than Starbucks. This place does not require masks either unlike that piece of shit Starbucks group!
Golden, Colorado was the first capital of Colorado. This town is also home to Coors Brewing.
I thought that was a cool rock formation near Golden, Colorado.
We finished our weekend in Denver. Downtown Denver had a lot of cool old brick buildings like this "Ice House."
I did some beer tasting at Wynkoop Brewing in downtown Denver. This place was the first craft brewery in Colorado.
Joy wanted a picture next to this monkey. LOL.
The bartender at Wyncoop sent us to White Pie in uptown Denver for some great wood fire pizza!
It was so fun watching the pizzas being made from scratch!
Our waitress was dating the bartender from Wyncoop so she hooked us up with a dessert on the house. This was made in house also!
Having started a new
job at the biotech company I did not have as much PTO as I did at the
European pharmaceutical company so we just planned a three day trip for
Memorial Day in 2021. Originally, I got the date of Memorial Day
mixed up so I had to cancel a longer trip we had planned for South
Padre Island in Texas. However, we enjoyed our three day Rocky
Mountain trip a lot! We flew out of Sacramento late on Friday
evening, and we had plenty of time to check out Vino Volo, which is
found at many airports. I did some wine tasting, and we got an
appetizer to soak up the alcohol. LOL.
Upon arrival in Denver, we proceeded to the rental car center where our SUV was waiting for us in the special Fast Break area for VIP customers like myself. Our shuttle driver first dropped off all the "peasants" at the main building where people were waiting in line for a LONG time, and then we drove us right to our car! I love Fastbreak from Budget. If one has the opportunity to become a Fastbreak customer, I would definitely do it. They usually try to upgrade customers also. We got a SUV for our upgrade.
Since I was requalified for Hilton HHonors Diamond status again until March of 2023, I decided to try out the BonVoy family of hotels too so I could see if I wanted to use them for business travel since I had a lot more travel with this company. I booked an Element by Westin. My fear was that Colorado was still going to be a mask nazi state, but I was so surprised! The hotel did not require masks for check in or to move around the hotel! Yay! Marriott (Bon Voy) was more anal about masks than Hilton was through this plandemic hoax. I really hate the liberals! They created this bull shit to take out our President, Donald Trump. Lots of new stuff is coming out now too about Fauci and the links to the Wuhan lab. It is time to expose the leftists for what the socialists they are! Anyway, getting back to Element. The room was nice, and the hotel was super modern. However, I was not happy with some of their "green" bull shit. Instead of giving out bottled water, they have "filters" in the room so one can drink tap water. Joy and I do not drink tap water so we bought bottled drinks at the lobby store. Screw the green deal idiots! I think they were in on this pandemic too! They wanted us to stop flying and driving.
The next morning, the grab and go breakfast was actually not bad. I asked the girl to customize my breakfast sandwich. Masks were not required. I already knew that the Glenwood Springs Resort where we were staying on Saturday was maskless since I threatened to cancel my reservation after reading about the mask policy, and the hotel staff told me that the mask bull shit was over now!
We drove out to Glenwood Springs from Denver after breakfast. Our long drive on Highway 70 took us through the beautiful Rocky Mountains and a gorge carved out by the Colorado River. There were several tunnels too as we made our way through the mountains. The V6 SUV was nice to have as we had several elevation climbs as we made our way from about a mile up in Denver to around 10,000 feet at the summit by Vail.
One of my friends suggested we go to the Pullman in Glenwood Springs for lunch. She is a foodie so we took her advice, and we were not disappointed! I loved how no one was required to mask inside the restaurant including the staff! We must return back to normal now. This Covid thing is over! The short rib tacos were so amazing! The waitress said they were prepared sous vide style. I also tried this tomato bisque soup which was really good too. My wife enjoyed this fava bean hummus that had like no flavor in it. LOL. We decided to walk around the vibrant downtown area after lunch. There were lots of vendors selling their wares from tents outdoors. The Colorado River runs right by the town too. I got some dessert at Sundae, which was an ice cream store that made their own ice cream in small batches. The waffle cones smelled so good that I had to get a waffle bowl!
We checked into our resort at the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Lodge afterwards. The room was pricey since it included admission to the world's largest hot springs pool, I think it was worth it. The pool was really nice! Furthermore, the water was warm, and I loved the view of this one mountain that was a mixture of red dirt and green trees. The pool was packed too! Capacity limits were eliminated since this bull shit pandemic is OVER now! You understand, you piece of shit Gavin Newsom of California!? This bull shit is OVER! End the mask mandates in California now! Colorado is a blue state, but their governor knew that people were getting so sick of this!
After enjoying the hot springs pool, we walked back to downtown over the pedestrian bridge over the Colorado River. I enjoyed a local Colorado whiskey at Doc Holliday's Tavern. Doc Holliday? Yes, if one remembers we just heard about his story a few weeks ago when Joy and I went to Tombstone. He died in Glenwood Springs. Doc Holliday had TB so he came to Glenwood Springs to see if the vapors from the hot springs would cure him. Next to the tavern was Bullock's, which is a western wear store that was built on top of the hotel where Doc Holliday died. The hotel burned down, but they were able to keep some of the original foundation brick which is viewable from the museum they have in the basement that is dedicated to Doc Holliday! The museum was pretty neat, and I even saw an old fashioned dentist's chair. We decided to get some cool western wear at Bullock's. I got a cowboy hat that was part of the Jason Aldean collection from Resistol. Joy got a really nice western cowgirl top!
We went to the tasting room for Stoneyard Distillery after Bullock's. This distillery had mostly rums that were more like moonshine. After doing the tasting, we bought a flask that was filled with the horchata flavor rum. We also had a great conversation with the staff who were also antimaskers, and they seemed like they were pretty conservative. I thought all of Colorado would be pretty liberal, but the people in the mountains seemed to be normal and not into the liberal brainwashing.
Joy and I checked out the historic Hotel Colorado next to our hotel before we got ready for dinner. This building was super cool! We decided to wear our new western wear for dinner at the Rivers Restaurant. The Rivers was built along the river in Glenwood Springs, but it was not in the main downtown area. The food was great, but the service was a little slow. After dinner, we walked back into town and got dessert at a yogurt store. It was so cool to be able to just walk around and be safe! California has become the worst state in the union thanks to the Democrats.
The next morning, we got our hot grab and go breakfast at the hotel grill which was by the hot springs pool. We had reservations for a table there so we just ate our breakfast there, and then I went for a swim again in that warm water. Joy wanted to walk around town since we can not do that in Sacramento since Sacramento is not safe and full of weirdos.
For lunch, we walked into town and had sushi at an Asian bistro. I was surprised at how fresh the fish was! They even featured amberjack sashimi! The sushi was great also! We had to get more ice cream at Sundae next door too before we left Glenwood Springs. I loved the weather too since it was warm, but it was not humid!
We drove out to Vail next, but we got a little bit of weather on the drive. There was hail and thunderstorms as we approached our hotel, the Highline by Doubletree. After checking in, we dodged the heavy rain as we ran back to the hotel from the parking lot. The front desk staff were all unmasked, and we were upgraded to a nice two story loft suite since I was a Diamond member. Our suite was cool! There was a kitchen upon entering the suite. A living room with a fireplace was downstairs too. Upstairs, there was a bedroom and bathroom. Our balcony was cool too. Since it was pouring rain, I decided to go work out in the gym until it cleared up.
Once the weather got better, we took the shuttle from our hotel to the Vail Village. The Vail Village is designed like an Alpine ski village. There were lots of luxury shops and gourmet eateries. We liked the European style deli where we got some gelato and iced espresso. I also got a drink at this one brewery. Our walk through the village was fun, and we also loved the roaring little river that ran through the village.
After a nice soak in the hot tub, we headed out to dinner at the Four Seasons. When we arrived at the Four Seasons, we saw there was a super car rally going on! They had all these Ferraris, Mercedes super cars, and McLaren sports cars! After checking out the neat cars, we headed to dinner at Flame, the main restaurant at the Four Seasons! This steakhouse was amazing! We had a great view of the mountains from our table too. After some delicious appetizers, I enjoyed my filet mignon before our signature dessert arrived!
The next day, we headed to Breckenridge for lunch, but we made a stop in Frisco for some coffee at a local coffee shop! In Breckenridge, we enjoyed lunch at a Thai restaurant.
We checked out Golden,Colorado next. Golden was the first capital of Colorado, and it is also home to Coor's Brewing. However, the brewery tours were still closed due to Covid. We got some neat items at an antique shop in Golden including some vintage money.
Our next stop was Denver. In downtown Denver, we went to Colorado's first craft brewery, Wyncoop. We also saw the cool Union Station which was a large train station back in the day. It is now a hotel and mini mall. The bartender at Wyncoop told us his girlfriend worked at White Pie in uptown Denver and suggested we go there for dinner. So, we went to White Pie for dinner, and we loved their wood fired pizza. The bartender's girlfriend got us dessert on the house too. People are so nice outside of California!
Upon arrival in Denver, we proceeded to the rental car center where our SUV was waiting for us in the special Fast Break area for VIP customers like myself. Our shuttle driver first dropped off all the "peasants" at the main building where people were waiting in line for a LONG time, and then we drove us right to our car! I love Fastbreak from Budget. If one has the opportunity to become a Fastbreak customer, I would definitely do it. They usually try to upgrade customers also. We got a SUV for our upgrade.
Since I was requalified for Hilton HHonors Diamond status again until March of 2023, I decided to try out the BonVoy family of hotels too so I could see if I wanted to use them for business travel since I had a lot more travel with this company. I booked an Element by Westin. My fear was that Colorado was still going to be a mask nazi state, but I was so surprised! The hotel did not require masks for check in or to move around the hotel! Yay! Marriott (Bon Voy) was more anal about masks than Hilton was through this plandemic hoax. I really hate the liberals! They created this bull shit to take out our President, Donald Trump. Lots of new stuff is coming out now too about Fauci and the links to the Wuhan lab. It is time to expose the leftists for what the socialists they are! Anyway, getting back to Element. The room was nice, and the hotel was super modern. However, I was not happy with some of their "green" bull shit. Instead of giving out bottled water, they have "filters" in the room so one can drink tap water. Joy and I do not drink tap water so we bought bottled drinks at the lobby store. Screw the green deal idiots! I think they were in on this pandemic too! They wanted us to stop flying and driving.
The next morning, the grab and go breakfast was actually not bad. I asked the girl to customize my breakfast sandwich. Masks were not required. I already knew that the Glenwood Springs Resort where we were staying on Saturday was maskless since I threatened to cancel my reservation after reading about the mask policy, and the hotel staff told me that the mask bull shit was over now!
We drove out to Glenwood Springs from Denver after breakfast. Our long drive on Highway 70 took us through the beautiful Rocky Mountains and a gorge carved out by the Colorado River. There were several tunnels too as we made our way through the mountains. The V6 SUV was nice to have as we had several elevation climbs as we made our way from about a mile up in Denver to around 10,000 feet at the summit by Vail.
One of my friends suggested we go to the Pullman in Glenwood Springs for lunch. She is a foodie so we took her advice, and we were not disappointed! I loved how no one was required to mask inside the restaurant including the staff! We must return back to normal now. This Covid thing is over! The short rib tacos were so amazing! The waitress said they were prepared sous vide style. I also tried this tomato bisque soup which was really good too. My wife enjoyed this fava bean hummus that had like no flavor in it. LOL. We decided to walk around the vibrant downtown area after lunch. There were lots of vendors selling their wares from tents outdoors. The Colorado River runs right by the town too. I got some dessert at Sundae, which was an ice cream store that made their own ice cream in small batches. The waffle cones smelled so good that I had to get a waffle bowl!
We checked into our resort at the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs Lodge afterwards. The room was pricey since it included admission to the world's largest hot springs pool, I think it was worth it. The pool was really nice! Furthermore, the water was warm, and I loved the view of this one mountain that was a mixture of red dirt and green trees. The pool was packed too! Capacity limits were eliminated since this bull shit pandemic is OVER now! You understand, you piece of shit Gavin Newsom of California!? This bull shit is OVER! End the mask mandates in California now! Colorado is a blue state, but their governor knew that people were getting so sick of this!
After enjoying the hot springs pool, we walked back to downtown over the pedestrian bridge over the Colorado River. I enjoyed a local Colorado whiskey at Doc Holliday's Tavern. Doc Holliday? Yes, if one remembers we just heard about his story a few weeks ago when Joy and I went to Tombstone. He died in Glenwood Springs. Doc Holliday had TB so he came to Glenwood Springs to see if the vapors from the hot springs would cure him. Next to the tavern was Bullock's, which is a western wear store that was built on top of the hotel where Doc Holliday died. The hotel burned down, but they were able to keep some of the original foundation brick which is viewable from the museum they have in the basement that is dedicated to Doc Holliday! The museum was pretty neat, and I even saw an old fashioned dentist's chair. We decided to get some cool western wear at Bullock's. I got a cowboy hat that was part of the Jason Aldean collection from Resistol. Joy got a really nice western cowgirl top!
We went to the tasting room for Stoneyard Distillery after Bullock's. This distillery had mostly rums that were more like moonshine. After doing the tasting, we bought a flask that was filled with the horchata flavor rum. We also had a great conversation with the staff who were also antimaskers, and they seemed like they were pretty conservative. I thought all of Colorado would be pretty liberal, but the people in the mountains seemed to be normal and not into the liberal brainwashing.
Joy and I checked out the historic Hotel Colorado next to our hotel before we got ready for dinner. This building was super cool! We decided to wear our new western wear for dinner at the Rivers Restaurant. The Rivers was built along the river in Glenwood Springs, but it was not in the main downtown area. The food was great, but the service was a little slow. After dinner, we walked back into town and got dessert at a yogurt store. It was so cool to be able to just walk around and be safe! California has become the worst state in the union thanks to the Democrats.
The next morning, we got our hot grab and go breakfast at the hotel grill which was by the hot springs pool. We had reservations for a table there so we just ate our breakfast there, and then I went for a swim again in that warm water. Joy wanted to walk around town since we can not do that in Sacramento since Sacramento is not safe and full of weirdos.
For lunch, we walked into town and had sushi at an Asian bistro. I was surprised at how fresh the fish was! They even featured amberjack sashimi! The sushi was great also! We had to get more ice cream at Sundae next door too before we left Glenwood Springs. I loved the weather too since it was warm, but it was not humid!
We drove out to Vail next, but we got a little bit of weather on the drive. There was hail and thunderstorms as we approached our hotel, the Highline by Doubletree. After checking in, we dodged the heavy rain as we ran back to the hotel from the parking lot. The front desk staff were all unmasked, and we were upgraded to a nice two story loft suite since I was a Diamond member. Our suite was cool! There was a kitchen upon entering the suite. A living room with a fireplace was downstairs too. Upstairs, there was a bedroom and bathroom. Our balcony was cool too. Since it was pouring rain, I decided to go work out in the gym until it cleared up.
Once the weather got better, we took the shuttle from our hotel to the Vail Village. The Vail Village is designed like an Alpine ski village. There were lots of luxury shops and gourmet eateries. We liked the European style deli where we got some gelato and iced espresso. I also got a drink at this one brewery. Our walk through the village was fun, and we also loved the roaring little river that ran through the village.
After a nice soak in the hot tub, we headed out to dinner at the Four Seasons. When we arrived at the Four Seasons, we saw there was a super car rally going on! They had all these Ferraris, Mercedes super cars, and McLaren sports cars! After checking out the neat cars, we headed to dinner at Flame, the main restaurant at the Four Seasons! This steakhouse was amazing! We had a great view of the mountains from our table too. After some delicious appetizers, I enjoyed my filet mignon before our signature dessert arrived!
The next day, we headed to Breckenridge for lunch, but we made a stop in Frisco for some coffee at a local coffee shop! In Breckenridge, we enjoyed lunch at a Thai restaurant.
We checked out Golden,Colorado next. Golden was the first capital of Colorado, and it is also home to Coor's Brewing. However, the brewery tours were still closed due to Covid. We got some neat items at an antique shop in Golden including some vintage money.
Our next stop was Denver. In downtown Denver, we went to Colorado's first craft brewery, Wyncoop. We also saw the cool Union Station which was a large train station back in the day. It is now a hotel and mini mall. The bartender at Wyncoop told us his girlfriend worked at White Pie in uptown Denver and suggested we go there for dinner. So, we went to White Pie for dinner, and we loved their wood fired pizza. The bartender's girlfriend got us dessert on the house too. People are so nice outside of California!