40th Birthday in Denver
Published Thursday, February 6th 2020 - Updated Thursday, November 19th 2020Planning a birthday trip for others is a piece of cake, but planning one for myself was quite a challenge. Needless to say I had an amazing time. A long time ago when I begin to dream of traveling Denver, Colorado was at the top of my list of places to go. I wanted to see mountains and snow and I wanted to ski. Year after year had passed and I still hadn’t made my way to what is known as the Mile High City. The top excuses were, I didn’t have enough money and I had no one to go with. Most people from the south aren’t trying to go anywhere that it’s cold.
This year, I was turning 40. There was no way I wasn’t going to fulfil my dream of going to ski in Denver on my 40th birthday.
For about six weeks, my Denver crew and I watched YouTube videos, read magazines, and shopped, A LOT in preparation for our Denver Experience. Amazon made a few hundred dollars off us on items like ski pants, goggles, gloves, hats, thermals, facemasks, bibs, scarves, snow boots and even coats. With some of us living in South Florida, a coat had to be purchased. We also purchased carry-on bags and backpacks that would meet the requirements of not having to purchase a bag for our flights. We spent some time in stores like Target, Academy Sports, Sports Authority and of course good old Walmart .
So what did we do in Denver?
For starters, my birthday squad consisted of two of my brothers, one of my best friends, my man, my brother’s girlfriends, and our kids traveling on a Frontier flight from Atlanta at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time on a Wednesday morning. Yes, we were delusional by the end of the day and all sleeping comfortably in our hotel rooms by 10:00 p.m. Mountain Time. We arrived at Denver International Airport a little after 7:30 a.m. Our hotel provided a shuttle to pick us up. We stayed at Homewood Suites DIA in a few of their Two Bedroom Suites. The hotel provided breakfast and dinner with wine and spirits daily so we took advantage of that. Our hotel had plenty to do onsite so we didn’t particularly go looking for stuff to do. There was a basketball court and indoor pool as well as a nice size courtyard with gas grills and fire pits.
The first day there, we explored the hotel and surrounding area, of course locating Walmart. We purchased food to cook which ended up being nachos and tacos, one of my favorite meals. We were in walking distance to many restaurants, a convenient store and a liquor store so we didn’t have to spend a lot of money on transportation (Ubers).
The weather was nice. It was much warmer than I thought it would be. The temperatures were in the 50s. Of course this disappointed me at first because I was chasing cold weather and snow. But later I appreciated it because it allowed us to be comfortable outside.
Thursday, was my actual birthday. My sis and brother in law arrived just in time for us to take a drive up into the mountains for a Day Ski Trip. Ride Experience transported all 15 of us in their vans. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Echo Mountain stopping at a dispensary and great photo spots along the way.
When we arrived at Echo Mountain we had no idea what to expect. Neither of us had ever been skiing. It took us about an hour and a half to get checked in and obtain our ski rental equipment. It was cold. It was hard to breathe. But we were all excited. We stuck to the beginner’s slopes and tubing for about two hours before calling it quits. We had a lot of falls and a lot of laughs. Around 5:30 p.m. our transportation picked us back up and took us back to our hotel. We ate dinner that night at Applebee’s since we’d missed the social hour. We later played Bingo and other family games in the lobby and swam a little in the indoor pool.
Friday, we were supposed to explore downtown Denver, but somehow we managed to stay at the hotel and enjoy one another. We made both Chicken and Shrimp Alfredo and baked my favorite Tollhouse cookies on the grill, played some games and just enjoyed our atmosphere while we could regretting that we’d have to go home the next day.
A lot of times, you don’t have to do a whole lot or spend a whole lot of money to have a great vacation. I had an enjoyable birthday in a bucket list destination with some of my closest and favorite people. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Happy 40th birthday to me!
If you’re interested in visiting Denver, Colorado or need assistance planning your next birthday trip, please contact me.
Nicole Peyton
(678) 396-3569
Nicole.peyton@cruiseplanners.com
@weexploretravels
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