Mile High

left: sunrise over Colorado; center: our tiny Nissan Versa rental; right: the best meal I've EVER had, filet & lobster at Black Hat Cattle Co.

       As you can see, I recently discovered Instagram. I didn't feel like lugging along my DSLR camera, so I opted for documenting with my iPhone. We woke up at 2am on Thursday morning and made our way to Chicago to board the plane to Denver. The entire day dragged for me.. I was pretty much a zombie. While sitting on an aluminum bench in the grandstands watching the bull show, I found myself repeating behavior that I had done before during long boring lectures in college: the doze and snap, as I call it. Ya know..when you find yourself dozing off with your head slowly making its way forward when you realize what's going on and snap yourself back up and attempt to keep yourself awake. Lets just say this went on for the entire afternoon. I DO NOT do well with less that 8 hours of sleep. God help me, when we have a baby someday and sleep becomes a luxury. That night, we both were not feeling that well but we decided to try out a new restaurant before we headed back to the hotel. I mentioned a couple posts ago the Denver Chophouse (our usual). Thanks to Chris thinking outside of the box and urging me to let us try something new, we found my new favorite steak joint EVER. We took our little, four-cylander cracker box Nissan 30 miles outside of Denver up winding roads and steep inclines until we made it to the little town of Kittredge. Our entire experience at the restaurant, Black Hat Cattle Co., was perfect. The lighting was low and romantic. The food was even better. The decor was strictly western/cowboy/AMAZING. The owner of the restaurant was there all evening, greeting customers, shaking hands, making sure that everyone was happy with their service and meal. It was just great.

left: Chris at the Black Hat;  center: the romantic lighting at decor at the Black Hat;  right: the staircase/chandelier just inside of the historic Denver Stockyards Building

      

 The next day (Friday), we walked around the historic Denver stockyards, where current livestock breeders had set up their animals inside of the old pens. We meandered in and out of the pens admiring beautifully bred and raised animals and talking with other breeders from around the country. We ended up eating dinner in the Stockyards Saloon, a building that has housed a saloon/restaurant since the late 1800s. I tried to imagine how it would have been back then, when cowboys, weary from their long journey leading their cattle on horseback to the stockyards, kicked back and relaxed or got completely blitzed on whiskey there.

left: the fab lemon shake ups that drank the heck out of; center: our friends' stalls; right: my cowboy boots resting on

the sawdust that covered the barn floor

 Saturday was our final day in Denver. It was show day so we got there around 6am to help our friends get ready for the show/assist in carrying any supplies they needed to the show ring. The heifer we own got 3rd in her class. It was nice to see her all cleaned up gliding around the ring. There were vendors set up outside of the show ring and I found 2 booths that offered farm fresh honey. Being the honey fiend that I am, I couldn't just buy one jar so I ended up coming home with 2: a nice, tall jar of raw strawberry/raspberry honey (its not flavored, those are just the plants that the bees got their pollen from), and a short, stubby jar of whipped cinnamon honey which is great for spreading on toast, etc. 

Before I knew it, we had to be on the road. Returning our rental car was a satisfying experience. Chris, being stubborn, refused to upgrade our rental even when the woman at the counter asked him 3 times, stating that the car had no automatic locks, windows, anything.. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get to the show as fast as possible on Thursday morning. So we ended up petrified of our deathtrap of a car. Getting passed by semi trucks and big dually pick up truck had never been so scary. At 7:20, we said goodbye to Denver for the year and flew off to the Windy City. Being back home has been great. Its hard to believe that 3 days away made us miss it so much. 

    

Herefords show

  Our Sunday morning has been rough. Chris is feeling like death after breathing in the fine dust at the stock show and inhaling the dry Denver air. The regulars who attend the stock show annually call this sickness the "Denver crud".  I can definitely feel a sore throat coming on but I can't complain because I am way better off than Chris. So I'm spending today nursing my baby back to health and doting on him like a happy little servant. Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday, and if you happen to have off work tomorrow, do something fun!