The last weekend of October (26th- 28th) I traveled to Denver, Colorado for some martial arts training. While I was there I was able to catch up with some family as well.
My weekend started off REALLY early. I went up to Dallas on Thursday after work to stay with Lesly and catch up before my 5 am flight on Friday morning. I was up and on my way to the airport by 3:15. I flew Frontier on the way up and Spirit on the way down. I'm definitely not going to complain LOL but let me just say I haven't flown budget airlines within the US in a VERY long time and in the end if you have anything other than 1 small personal item it is not very budget. I understand completely that on budget airlines you get charged for EV-ERY-THING. My actual fight ticket was $79 each way so total $158 for the airline tickets. I knew before I checked in at the airport that I had to pay a carry on bag fee which is weirdly the same as a check bag fee. I purchased it on my Frontier ticket while still at home for a total of $40 which was a $10 discount compared to purchasing the bag fee at the airport. On my way back home on Sunday the bag fee was $50 so my "budget flight" quickly turned into a normal priced non-budget airline ticket. Which is fine I understand that and read the fine print but there were several people I heard while waiting at the gate griping about it. I wanted to interrupt them and be like....this is a budget airline the ticket itself is cheap but literally anything else you need will cost you money. I can see where a budget nonstop flight would be ideal for business travelers who only have a brief case or something like that.
Ok onward...once I arrived in Denver I picked up my rental car and headed to the VRBO I had rented. The rest of my teammates had came the day before so I head to pick them up before heading to our first of two classes we were going to attend today. Our VRBO was PERFECT it was so cute and met all our needs! You can check it out HERE! While I was waiting on everyone to get ready I ran down the street to get a few groceries and a couple gallons of water for my weekend.
We completed our 10 am class and after headed to Brothers BBQ for an awesome lunch. I loved it and I think that it is the best BBQ I've had when it comes to meat and sandwich it was really good and a high recommendation if you are in that area. We explored downtown Denver a bit and then headed back to our house for a nap before heading to our 6 pm kickboxing class. After class we headed home to get into bed early and be well rested or as well as we can be for the 8+ hours we had the next day. We ordered in pizza for dinner.
Saturday morning the seminar started at 10 am and was supposed to last until 2 or 3 pm. I can't really remember with a small window for pictures and rest before another hour or more of testing. Everyone on our team that was there participated in ALL hours and we trained with some legends. Several of the guests we had trained with before but I think the star of the show was learning techniques from current champion TJ Dillashaw. It was a good thing we cooked a hearty breakfast that morning because we were HUNGRY and very tired by the time we finished our day. Although we all didn't get what we went up for we came back with memories and a lot of techniques to help us enhance our martial artist skills to get us on the next level which for me is blue.
After the seminar we headed back to our house to shower and head out for a night on the town. I found us a great restaurant that looked like the vibe we were wanting...to experience Denver and little did we know how perfect it was. It was straight down the street from our VRBO 2 miles and overlooked downtown Denver. Avanti Food and Beverage is a collective of little restaurants of variety housed inside a building and then inside a shipping container. The patrons can roam two levels and chose 1 or more restaurants to try. We were done training, were celebrating being together and our experiences, and were super depleted so we were ready for all the food. I had an AMAZING hamburger and fries downstairs and later headed upstairs to try some street tacos. The special breast cancer awareness drink, the Pink Ribbon, was my vodka drink of choice and was so sweet and delicious.
We headed back to our house around 9 or 10 and I tried staying up but was so exhausted from the day just hit the hay. Sunday morning I took Matt and Trina to the airport before heading to an awesome new little brunch spot to meet my cousins and catch up. Hashtag has awesome food and a really fun atmosphere. I loved catching up with my family and plan on making another visit sooner than 20 years!
After we wrapped up breakfast/brunch we looked around a few of the shops and then said our goodbyes. I headed to the airport to turn in my rental car and head home. I had some time to kill in the airport so picked up an awesome little airport read that I devoured. It was SO good. Look for the book review to hit the blog soon.
Overall I had a wonderful trip to Denver and it makes me excited to go back for more exploring. It is the perfect weekend away since you can go direct from Dallas. I think it was also an amazing trip for our teammates and we loved getting to make these special memories together.
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