Dietz Summer Road Trip

 

We spent a total of two nights in Denver and the first evening all of our travels caught up with us. We stuck close to the hotel and walked to a sushi restaurant nearby. I didn’t even take any pictures but dang was it good! John got a seared duck breast and we soon realized duck would be on the one menu almost everywhere we would go while in Denver.

 

Our full day in Denver started at the Hammond’s candy factory. We took uber rides everywhere we went so we got to see a good portion of the city between either driving around or walking. The candy factory tour came recommended to us by a random guy eavesdropping on our conversation in the hallway at our hotel. Tours of the candy factory are free and of coarse there is a store, which felt like a page out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

The tour was comprised mainly of us, kids, and the brace parents reminding their kids to behave themselves.

 The candy factory has been in operation since 1920 and makes everything from candy canes to marshmallow caramels. We got to see candy being poured, cut and pulled. At the end we were rewarded for our efforts with a free piece of taffy!

 

Next we wanted to go to the US Mint but it was closed for tours on the day we were there so we settled on the Federal Reserve Building and Money museum instead. It was completely free, and although small, it had a lot of interesting stuff. Really old money, money mistakes, and a wall of $30,000,000.

 

Before you leave the museum you get to pick up your very own bag of shredded money (deemed not fit for circulation) that has about $165 in the bag! I’ll just be over here trying to put it all back together again…

 

At this point we were getting a little hungry and wanted to check out the famous Larimer Square. From the Money Museum it was a nice little walk to check out them setting up for the “Slow Food” fest in Larimer Square. 

We settled on Euclid Hall. John got Duck Poutine with black pepper gravy (see told you, duck was on the menu everywhere!) and a in-house made and cased smoke pork Andouille sausage with a mustard flight. Danielle got fried Japanese eggplant.

 

After lunch we continued to walk around, window shop some of the many outdoor stores in the area. Our walk lead us to Union Station, the beautiful train terminal downtown. 

From there we caught a ride over to the Great Divide tap room. Turned away from the brewery tour (because we didn’t have closed toe shoes on) we sat outside and enjoyed the comfort of a nearby food truck, until it started to rain. We headed inside to finish up before getting a ride to our next establishment.

 

Trip Advisor recommended one of the top things to do in Denver was to buy tickets to the Stranahan’s distillery tour. In an effort to really shake things up from all the breweries, we decided the $10 tickets would probably be worth it.

 Again we caught a ride to the other side of town to the distillery and hung out in the lounge for about an hour before the tour started.

 Our tour guide Katie was awesome and took us through every step of the process with a through tour that lasted over an hour.

 

Along the way we learned about the distilling process, the barrels used, and of coarse got two free samples.

 

After a full day we headed back to the hotel and just ordered pizza. While it would have been great to go out to another fantastic restaurant in Denver, we just wanted to chill. The next morning on our way out of town we stopped at the Red Rocks Park and amphitheater. Finished by the CCC in 1941, the park is open daily for visitors and athletes running the stairs. Not only is it a famous music venue, its just a cool construction concept with awesome scenery.

 

 

There is an awesome music museum with some highlights of famous acts that played there, who has played there the most, and a little bit about the history of the park/amphitheater. The whole time the Dave Matthew Band Live at Red Rocks album was playing in my head. Definitely need to check this out if you are in the Denver area.

 

Next up are some new National Parks that deserve a blog post all their own!