Denver 2020
Denver Art Museum Trip
Saturday morning and a day filled with possibilities. Since our main focus of this trip, the Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum was completed, we had this morning to relax a little. Howie was up an at ‘em at the workout facility this morning early, shaming the rest of us, and then we met at the fourth floor restaurant for breakfast, alas - no room at the inn. We picked up a recommendation for a breakfast/brunch place around the corner from the museum - The Dozens. It turns out we had noted it on Friday, it is right across from our Pints Tavern lunch place of that day.
We called, they don’t take reservation but there were open tables. We stopped back at our rooms for coats and then walked to the restaurant. We should have been quicker, by the time we arrived, this little house diner was slammed. The wait was anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. Assessing our chances to find any place else in that time frame, we opted to wait our turn. Lucky we did. When we finally got a table after 20 minutes, we were treated to some of the best breakfast food ever. We each tried a different omelette, one with spinach, two of the namesake Denver variety and one with cheese and sausage. Excellent, served with hash potatoes and an English muffin. Coffee was good and hot. Another great food stop in Denver.
Over breakfast we discussed our plan for the day resulting in our returning to the hotel, checking on our packing and negotiating a noon late departure. We then rested for a bit, returned to the lobby for checkout and left our luggage with the door guys and gals for our return as we had booked a scheduled Lyft driver for our airport run for 3:00 pick up at the hotel. We then took a free ride from the hotel to the nearby Denver Botanical Garden, a pleasant surprise being that, due to our memberships in Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, we were allowed free entry! In near perfect weather of 57F, we wandered the grounds, which were surprisingly compact but picturesque in the winter doldrums. Denver’s higher altitude allows a somewhat milder winter than in Omaha. This is really a high plains/arid climate. There were wonderful Pondersa Pines, moved from the nearby higher elevations down to the garden and trained in Bonsai configurations. Some of these trees were near 400 years old, but no taller than 6-10 feet. We had a discussion with one of the volunteer gardeners who was busy pulling old needles off a pine near the frozen pond in the Japanese garden. We learned a lot about the garden and its winter work. Although there were not a crowd of visitors, there were a good number wandering the grounds and taking in their share of vitamin D.
We left the garden around 2:45 via Lyft and headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet our ride to Stapleton Airport. This Lyft driver was one of the most interesting characters we met during our entire trip. He regaled us with his stories of travel, his time in the Israeli army and his work on placing multi-million dollar art collections in museums around the country. Left unanswered is why this guy from Israel, who handles $150 million dollar art collections, was driving a Lyft car in Denver, Colorado - one of life’s great mysteries.
We arrived back at the airport around 3:45 and arranged our check in, luggage drop and security clearance. We then headed for the Pour La France restaurant by our gate. We enjoyed our last meal in Denver of wine, beer, a pair of cheeseburgers and a pair of Crocque Monsieur sandwiches, all accompanied by fries.
We finished and headed a short distance to our gate where the flight to Omaha was already boarding. A large 737 and sold out. We claimed our seats, leaned back and spent a quick 65 minutes on our return, touching down in chilly Omaha at 7:45. An hour later we were home, unloading our suitcases, tossing dirty clothes in the hamper and listening to the dog and cat complain about their caretakers while we were away!! Another fun experience that went off with nary a hitch. Good traveling once again.
