John, JoAnna, and Claire Visit CO - Mar 2012

JoAnna and Shawna in Vail

Instead of heading straight home after the Grand Canyon trip, John and JoAnna came to Denver for a few days to visit us.  After picking them up at DIA, we headed straight to dinner at the Cherry Crickett, a famous burger joint in Cherry Creek, where we had beers and burgers, starting with a some of the fried mac and cheese.  After dinner, we went home and gave them the grand tour.  About an hour later, Keith's cousin, Claire, arrived - she was staying with us a few nights as she was in town for a conference.

We both had to work the next day, so after we went to work, Claire went to her conference and John/Jo walked around the neighborhood and had lunch at the Tavern.  While at work, they sent us pictures of JoAnna in front of the WaPa sign (John decided to call our neighborhood WaPa instead of WashPark) and a picture of the most fattening dessert on the menu at the Tavern - enticing us to hurry up and get back home!  We were supposed to get home at 4pm but work delayed us, so we did not get home until 5pm.  After quickly packing our stuff, we drove to Vail where Keith was a panelist at the MFE Conference the following day.  We checked in at Vail Cascade Resort (sharing a room) and then took the bus over to Vail Village.  Dinner was at Up the Creek, where we enjoyed wine, salads and braised short ribs.  Following dinner, we went to the Red Lion, the most popular bar in Vail, for drinks but it was so stunningly packed we just had one beer and decided to head back to the hotel.

JoAnna in "WaPa"

The next morning, Keith got up super-early to prepare for his panel discussion while the rest slept in (Shawna did a bit of work).  Then Shawna, John, and JoAnna packed up the car and drove over to Vail Village to walk around while Keith was at the meeting.  We all met for lunch at the Tap Room to watch UVA get spanked in their first game of the ACC tournament.  Right after the game ended, we quickly left so that we could get home in time to see the Duke game at 5pm from home, though we found time to stop by Silverthorne to see Ice Castles, which we had bought on Groupon a few weeks earlier.  It was a bit of a disappointment - mostly that we should have seen it at night when it was all lit up.  Instead, during the day, it is just a bunch of....ice and it was no where as big as we thought it would be!  It only took about 5 minutes to walk through!

Keith and JoAnna at Ice Castles in Silverthorne

Once we got home, we watched the Duke game until 7pm when we walked over to Wash Park Grill (which is our favorite local restaurant) for dinner.  The food was, as always, delicious!  We were all pooped so called it an early night.

On Saturday morning, Claire left us for her conference and then she planned to go to Boulder to visit with her brother's family.  So, JoAnna, Shawna, and Keith walked a couple of laps around the park - John stayed at home as his toes were killing him as a result of tight shoes he wore in the Canyon.  Following this, we walked over to the Tavern for the 1pm Duke game.  We had a great afternoon of fatty appetizers and lots of beer - though the bad news was that Duke lost to Florida State.

We all returned home for a nap/relaxing in the house before getting a cab to downtown to have dinner at Vesta Dipping Grill.  Dinner was delicious - we started with the Pecan Pie Salad and the Pork Tacos, then split the Flank Steak for our main course.  For dessert, we shared the Sticky Toffee Pudding.  It was Mustache Night at Vesta, with 10% of all revenue going to the Make a Wish Foundation.  There were photos on the wall and some great 70s music by the DJ, so a really fun night.  After dinner, we walked to Larimer Square but were not inspired by any of the bars so walked back to 16th street to see what was there.  The Tilted Kilt was right in front of us, so what the hell?  We were so full from so many days of debauchery, we could only down one beer before we snagged a cab home.

Sunday was a lazy day - we slept in a bit, watched The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, watched UNC get spanked by Florida State (great game!), had Jambalaya for lunch, and then Keith took everyone to the airport: John and JoAnna to fly to Raleigh and Shawna to Hartford.  The goodbye's were not too long as we all were planning to meet again the following weekend in Philly to celebrate St Patrick's Day!