Our Weekend in Colorado: Denver, Boulder, Golden and More

This was one of those trips that I booked on a whim, forgot about until the week it was happening, and then proceeded to have the most amazing vacation with my best friends. In December when The 1975 Tour got announced I was looking at the dates for Seattle, but my eyes did the emoji face when I saw that the next show was at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. It was hands down the easiest decision to buy tickets to both shows. Many people compare the venue to The Gorge in Washington – but I have to say although they are both beautiful outdoor venues, they are gloriously different in their own way.

Now I’m sure many of you saw my snapchat (@ellofrankenbery hollaa), but there is no. way. to do it justice without experiencing this place. Internationally known, this venue sits between two towering red sandstone rocks.

I highly recommend anyone who has a love for music and outdoors to look out for this venue on any band tour. Tickets to Denver from Seattle are as low as $140 and the experience is priceless.

Things You Should Know About Denver

1. Springtime has VERY weird weather. I didn’t know this when I booked our trip. I didn’t really grasp this when people were telling me this season is very unpredictable. We got snow, 34 degree freezing rain, incredible blue skies and awesome sunsets… but be prepared for everything and anything!

2. Remember friends, you cannot buy alcohol at grocery stores yet. Liquor stores close as early as 5pm so remember to prepare if you’re planning a weekend. I forgot how lucky we are in Washington to be able to walk into a Safeway and get a bottle of wine!

3. Frontier Airlines is based out of Denver... but I can’t recall having a good experience with them. Southwest all the way baby!

4. There are a lot of awesome Air BNB’s for ridiculously good deals, but pay attention to the season. This city loves their Broncos and their Rockies… so book early unless you’re traveling in their off-seasons.

5. Red Rocks Amphitheater doesn’t allow selfie sticks. Sorry Jordan.

Okay, Are You Ready to Fall in Love?

Stella, Jordan and I collectively took over 500 photos in 4 days of the beautiful rockies, Boulder Flat Irons, and landmarks… in all kinds of weather. I’ll save you some of the tirades that happened in our hotel rooms, and show you the primes.

When we got to the airport, Jordan darted into one of those expensive knickknack stores and said she was buying something that she saw last time she was flying somewhere. That “knickknack” turned out to be a beautiful print by Frida Clements that was bigger than Jordan herself. Stella and I were doubtful it would make the entire weekend of crazyX3 so we snapped a photo of her with it and admired more of her artwork.

 

We got out of the freezing rain and into our Air BNB late Saturday afternoon and settled into our king sized bed that we decided we’d all share.

Our View from our Air BNB Rooftop! Look at those beautiful mountains ❤

 

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Saturday Night we took a chance without a reservation at this restaurant in the Highland neighborhood called Linger–if you ever venture this way GO TO THIS RESTAURANT. Find a table in the upstairs lounge and order one of everything. They have beautiful cocktails and lovely waitresses and amazing global small plates. Not to mention complimentary valet parking… Have I said how much I love Denver yet?? They gave us free fish tacos and a small dessert mousse for Stellas 23rd celebration, as well as bars to check out after. I never felt intimidated by anyone we got served by in our weekend here. The went to Viewhouse for a few cheap drinks and dancing and the Gin Mill, both were full of people out celebrating. Click the photos below for their info!

 

The next morning we got on the waitlist for Snooze, another must visit for any brunch enthusiast. The wait is worth it, especially downtown where you have Union Station. Our bartender suggested a tattoo art gallery– because by this point, we wanted to leave a piece of Denver on us forever. (Jordan said she was never leaving!)

After an amazing colorful meal at snooze, we were off to Ritual Tattoo Art Gallery for a walk in appointment to each get three foxes… for fox sake.

 

lovely phallic doodles on the water closet door

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They turned out so amazing! Many thanks to Jake Diamond!

Monday we headed out of the city and went to Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO. We went shopping in the outdoor Pearl St Mall and ate at the Organic Sandwich Shop.

After some shopping we made the drive to Golden, CO to check into our hotel, The Table Mountain Inn. At this point we learned that it was necessary to buy alcohol early, and got to getting ready. Had ‘the best happy hour in Golden’ downstairs at our hotel and then ran around and took photos.

lolololol

I told a lot of friends and family that I went to Denver for Red Rocks + The 1975, but I think you can tell we did much more than that. They did put on an incredible show, including an acoustic song, Nana, that I didn’t get to hear in Seattle because Matty was ‘feeling blue’. I think he was stunned by the glorious venue he was in and felt connected to the new music they put out.

If you haven’t given this band the chance please go watch these beautiful music videos. Probably some of the more beautiful short films i’ve ever seen: Robbers, The Sound, and A Change of Heart being my newest favorite.

Trying to squeeze one last adventure before we left on Tuesday, we drove up to Lookout Mountain and got to see Golden on a beautiful clear day. Wrapped up our trip with some southern style ‘Po Boys, Mac and Cheese, and a Bloody Mary Sampler at Sassafrass and snatched the window seat home.

Granted we found a lot of reasons to fall in love this weekend. Four days wasn’t enough time to try everything and we will definitely be back. If you’re looking for cool restaurants to eat, fun bars to dance, or places to explore around Denver – feel free to comment below or reach out! I’m going to go ice my fingers from writing this huge blog post and head down to Greenlake Bar and Grill just in time for happy hour.

Travelogue – Updated!

Using Instagram to help with your Travel Bug

How often do you use the mapper in Instagram?

I highly recommend you find some of your favorite ‘grammers and look at there maps. I promise it will encourage you to start building your own! With a trip plan in the works in June… I am excited to add more to mine. My USA map is pretty pathetic… but I just can’t rationalize spending $500+ to go to the east coast when that money can get me to another country.

It’s save to say I have the travel bug right now.

Now the important question… Costa Rica or Hawaii?

Photos:

@missholldoll – Currently in Thailand! This amazing lady has photos from all over the PNW and beyond, and writes about it adventures at mymountaintherapy.com

@youngadventuress – I got to meet the one and old Liz in New Zealand last year! Her travels never stop on her blog missadventuress.com

We Sing In Time – From Anacortes to Friday Harbor

Weekends well spent  range from choosing a neighborhood in Seattle to meet up with friends, lounging around making dinner together, or finding a Groupon to try. I like to consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to thinking of new things to try–IE, the whole premise of this blog

but I have to give him credit for this date.

Even though we got a late start last Saturday morning we drove up North to take a ferry ride over to Friday Harbor. He has this saved note in his phone of date ideas hidden up his sleeve and this one was perfect for the great weather we had in the midst of all this rain and wind. Sorry to those who are without power tonight! After a ice-cream + french fry stop we drove through downtown Anacortes where we stopped at Boxes and Bears Puzzles and Games where we found none other than…

John Van freaking Deusen.

Look who we found – John from The Lonely Forest!

Who is this lovely human in between us?

Please improve your life by taking three minutes to watch this video:

Now the lucky owner of the cool Puzzle and Games store we found, he is living a ‘rual lifestyle’ in Anacortes with his family. (Source) We each got a hug before heading out towards the ferry line, where we tried curing a hangover with more alcohol. (I’ll let you decide if you agree with these studies…)

Pro Tip: Bring fun activities. I don’t think we prepared for the 2 hour ferry ride, but at least we had a pretty nice nap. and napping is the key in a successful relationship. 

You can’t get more Pacific Northwest than taking a ferry boat in some classic cloudy weather.

Some things I would share is if you go to an oceanfront town of any sorts, don’t expect it to be as thriving as it is in the summertime. We luckily had practice in this when we got stuck in the i-5 mudslide on our road trip last December when we stayed in Seaside, OR… and I think it can make for some out of the ordinary memories. We got to drink a beer on the benches right in the middle of town, have a bookstore all to ourselves, and experience some usual service at Blue Water Bar and Grill. (save yourself the $80 check and make your own meatballs from home.)

 

Now to my favorite part of the evening,

the ferry ride home.

I don’t have any images of this part so you’ll have to use your imagination.

We were smart enough to stop at Kings Market, and grabbed a sketch book and some easter eggs. We filled it up with my 4lbs tub of Jelly Bellies (thanks mom) and hid eggs for each other on opposite sides of the ferry. We wrapped it up with some doodling.

 

Raglan, NZ Reminiscing

I’m not gonna lie, this 7-day forecast of rain and gloom is hitting me hard. I love fuzzy socks and oversized cozy sweaters as much as the next girl, but I am getting impatient waiting for warm summer nights and for my friends to come out of hibernation mode (Something that typically occurs here between the month of November-March.) I was scrolling through my Photos Library and came upon the warm sunny Raglan photos at the start of my trip last year. What I wouldn’t give to go back here. Right. Now.

Mt Karioi

If you ever find yourself exploring the North Island of New Zealand, please promise me you will visit my favorite town I ever stumbled into. Raglan was one of those places that wasn’t on my “plan” when I was mapping out where I wanted to travel to, but I’m so glad I ended up here, many thanks to my free spirited best-best-best friend, Abbie. We met up with Steve and Ryan for a weekend filled with Good George Beer, Fish and Chips Takeaways, and  new card games. Friend Tip: Show me a new game and win a piece of my heart forever.

It was in this adorable little surf town that I found Three Little Birds, a shop filled with delectable little treasures just waiting to be gobbled up. Tony, originally from Jamaica, owns this little charming place and I got to spend an entire week working on their social marketing, running around the town with a beautiful Canadian gal taking photos of the clothes and accessories sold there.

If you ever find yourself in this little gem of a town:

• Try surfing
• Hit up Mt. Karioi
• Make friends with the locals + travellers
• Enjoy as much brunch as you possibly can

 

Home is where…

It seems that coming back home center and getting an inspiration to write has been a trend that i’ve noticed about this blog– so I am going to channel it one last time (and then I promise not to have the word ‘home’ in a blog title ever again… for a while).

photo/illustration by @samlarson

It’s been exactly a year since I landed in New Zealand and since then my perspective on life has shifted. I went back to working for Apple, which is where I spent almost three years before I left to go travel to a new country. Since then I started exploring my backyard, leaving footprints all around Washington. Although the Pacific Northwest will always have my heart, I have recently fallen in love with a new city. 

San Francisco is opening her arms to me and I want to fly into them.

At the end of January I left for AMCT (Apple Mac Certification Training) in the Bay Area. It was my first trip traveling for business and I got to take a peak into Corporate life. If you are ever in a situation where your work wants to send you somewhere, jump on the opportunity. Not only did I get to spend three weeks in Sunny California, I met so many amazing individuals from all over the US. When you’re traveling for business you do have to give up some luxuries– the comfort of your own bed for example– but getting a little time away was really helpful in making me realize how appreciative I am for home.

Steven showed me the city not long ago when we went on our road trip last December in my new Subaru. It’s funny how un-interested I was at the time to fall in love with anything besides the mountains. I thought I was so high and mighty after basically living in the cascade mountains all summer that I couldn’t see how interesting and adorable San Francisco was. It took some resettling back into my life and thinking about my future before I could even subconsciously be open to the idea of it. I saw the city a second time, but it was with whole new eyes. 

How I fell in love with the city of San Francisco:

Our good friend Sarah recently moved to Lower Height, which is covered in pine trees and has a generously sized recreation area otherwise known as Buena Vista Park. The first weekend we were there we were surrounded by people from all over visiting for Super Bowl 50. We walked down the Lyon Street steps to the Marina after shopping and brunch in Fillmore, which is filled with a designers dream of stylish eats and boutiques. They had a shop just for lamp shades, guys. Like, how adorable does that get??!

Bun Mee, A Motorized Scooter Lover/Vietnamese sandwich shop.

Lyon Street Steps, Courtesy of San Francisco Days

Height Ashbury, photo by Anthony Hall

Nob Hill, photo by Can Balcioglu

Exploring around the city got me thinking about how easy I could pick up my life in Seattle and do these things every day.

I pictured walking up my steep stairs to my row house. Running to the market deli to grab snacks. Going to our neighborhood cafe and talking a long walk around the countless adorable neighborhoods. Burning calories walking up Haight street and running up to the Buena Vista viewpoint every weekend after trying a new cafe or restaurant (there is no shortage of these in SF.)

Obviously the cutest city has to be one of the most expensive places to live. Demand is high, and it’ s about 2% more expensive than New York City for cost of living. So while I start digging in my pockets and look for dream jobs so I can have the dream house and life, I’ll just keep flipping through my memories made in this charming place I can hopefully one day call home.

Even without the sun, this city still shines.

We’ll take the top floor apartment, please and thank you.

 

Home, Sweet Home. (Back Home from New Zealand)

Wow it’s been too long since I’ve jumped on here. Looking back to when I first started this page I had no idea how the blog platform worked other than posting a few photos and typing some captions. More than a year later I have designed website for some awesome clients, graduated from college, and started my spark of traveling the world.

 

Anyways, I am switching to a new style that I hope will take off to something exciting. Follow along at Hello Adventure Co.

www.helloadventureco.com

Upcoming are some excellent posts of my two months in New Zealand, (I have notes upon notes that I have been collecting over there waiting for decent wifi) and my spontaneous trip to Cali.

After that…

Yosemite?

Greece/Croatia

WA Coast/Olympic Range

Aussie?

LOTS MORE.

(You could say I have the bug.)

Thank you guys for being so patient, good stuff is on the way. Perhaps after I rid my closet of all the extras that didn’t fit into my backpack for the last 8 weeks. (Inspired by this article and the wonderful creation of the minimalist fashion blog that is un-fancy.)

Shooting Sunrise on Camano Island

Just because it’s December does not mean one must stay inside– unless you still have been procrastinating putting up a Christmas tree. (*raised hand emojii) Thursday night I reached out to a fellow loyal instagrammer and we decided we’d go shoot sunrise up north. It was my first experience meeting up with a stranger at dark, as well as walking through the woods, but i’m happy to report I am still alive! 😉

This is Calvin Blond! Check out his instagram for moody, epic landscape photography and coffee! He took the shot of the baby doe who didn’t want to eat the apple I tried to give him/her.

We drove around Camano Island and decided to head east–I was craving mountains after Wednesday’s adventure up at Index Wall (blog post to come). We found a family of deer, fog, and some great views up by Pilchuck.

My fancy new Timberland boots, that I FOUND AT VALUE VILLAGE. <333

    

and because you made it till the end, take away my one phrase to live by:

Olympic Peninsula

I have had such a relaxing spring break so far. Abbie and I met up with my friend Chuck. This man knows how to take portraits, let me tell you. (Don’t take my word for it, check out his blog.) We took the ferry to Kingston and drove passed Port Angles up to Hurricane Ridge. We had a beautiful 17 mile drive up the mountain road with plenty of places to stop and appreciate the scenery.

 

We weren’t quite ready to wrap up our trip, so we looked up other nearby places and I discovered the most WONDERFUL tool. WTA (Washington Trail Association) has an app that allows you to access trip reports and nearby trails and parks. I am still getting to know our beautiful landscape and I love how it lets you see what trails people are using in the early weeks of spring. I can’t wait to cross off some hikes as the seasons warm up.

Diablo Lake (check)

Rattlesnake Ridge (check check check, lol)

Summerland

+++++

We did however, found a place that I’ve never heard of.

Lake Aldwell.

Found on Elwha River, this spot has changed drastically over the past two years. With the removal of the dam, there is not much running water– revealing what used to be at the bottom of the lake: hundreds of axed tree stumps. It allowed for some really great shots.

  

 

Stay tuned for more photos as the week continues!

If anyone has any suggestions, please share!

Road trip!

This weekend was purely brilliant and I am still in a daze from it. I packed completely wrong and slept most of the car ride, while the boys jammed to heavy metal and rock music. (I’m a very heavy sleeper.) Nevertheless here are some great photos on the drive up there. We stopped quite a few times to take some photos. (Okay, maybe more than a few)

I also got to try out my new Olloclip, which is so neat! It’s a lens you attach to your iphone to take fisheye, macro, and wide angle shots. Really highlights the beautiful camera power that Apple has designed. Here is a photo of me using it:

 

And here are some shots I liked:

Our next stop was near spokane area, right off the highway the sun was going down and we found brilliant shadows created by the trees. These are some of my favorite shots, ever.

    

This is my glamorous friend, Nick.

I’ll post our adventures that we had when we got to Montana later on. In the meantime I am still trying to locate all my essentials that got lost in Pete (the rabbit) on the car ride back home. This was after as we were leaving. Pretty huh?

Reminscing the Past: Crescent Bar

One of those memories that was purely awesome primarily because of the people you were with. This was last summer, when all of my best friends went on a roadtrip to Crescent Bar to see John Mayer at the Gorge.

We stayed at Wild Horse Campground in George, Wa. I was pretty impressed with how our campsite turned out (Photo below). A tip for you all: DON’T FORGET LIGHT. We spent every night in the dark because someone forgot the lantern. (Not pointing fingers though!)

The drive down was amazing. We took the scenic route, stopping at Snoqualmie Falls. Also drove passed these awesome wind towers. Live it.

Overall was an awesome trip. With awesome friends!