Hi, my beauties!
Hi hi hi! I’m backkkkkkk, after a beautiful, magical vacation where I did a lot of thinking, a lot of writing, eating and falling in love.
Yes, my friends, you read correctly, yours truly fell head over heels in love with..
Colorado.
As you babes know a couple weeks ago I took a very spontaneous trip with my momma bear and brother. We decided to take a three day road trip to my neighboring state, Colorado and I came back with a fresh perspective and tons of fresh ideas. PLUS a little surprise.
Before we left on our beloved trip, I had a lot on my mind, not in a bad way, there’s just a lot going on right now with my family. The thing is I get into this weird boxed head place where I start overanalyzing everything in life. I basically get into my head so much that I stop making sense and lose a little bit of focus.
I will say that thanks to all of that thinking, I did learn a lot about myself, and well about life. Mainly that you cannot control the future, you can only live in the now. This new found live in the moment and stop trying to plan out the future has brought me to taking in a new rule, a three month rule. My new rule is all about not planning anything more than three months in advance.
This new way of planing has also played a huge role in what I want in life and how I want to live it. I have been on this long self discovery journey and I continue to partake in this journey. While I’m loving every minute of it, I have realized that what is meant to be will happen and if it really isn’t in the cards for me, then it won’t. I’m okay with that.
The lush green mountain air was giving me this perfect chill out, live in the now mellow out vibe.
While we were only there for two and half days, I was able to reincorporate running which I had stopped and really missed.
Our road trip began on Tuesday around 2:00, with snacks in hand, like siete tortillas nacho chips, eating evolved chocolate and homemade tuna collard green wraps along with great tunes and the kiddos aka my cat and my momma bears cat with us.
Can I just say that the drive there was gorgeous, I loved seeing all the wild sunflowers and the switch from dessert to full of live green mountains.
We arrived a little after eight, hungry and ready to eat. After doing some digging around I knew I wanted to check out Work & Class…
BABES this place was out of this world. I love their no fuss mentality and that you can easily pick it up and take it home. They don’t take reservations and it’s small place so make sure you head there early. It was pretty busy when we pulled up.
We ordered 1/2 the Rotisserie Chicken the lemon brown butter one. SOO good.
I love that all of their sides are gluten free. The sweet plantains are a must, they have this spicy coating on the outside that is to die for. We also picked up the spicy and sweet braised greens YUM! The griddle goat cheese masa was tasty and chewy and reminded me of the arepas I grew up on. I also really love that they have a lot of gluten free options when it comes to dessert. My brother got the seasonal fruit cobbler which wasn’t gluten free but I could smell it and it looked crazy good, I shared with my mom the warm chocolate brownie. I am the brownie queen so you know I gotta get my fix on.
Sadly I did not get any pictures. It was dark, we were hungry and I think my brother and mom would of kicked me out of the airbnb if I stopped them from eating to take pictures. LOL.
After stuffing ourselves with food, we cleaned up and got ready for bed. The next day was going to be a long, fun and exciting.
Wednesday was hiking day, we woke up early had a quick bite to eat before taking off and grabbing some tasty snacks to take on our hike.
I knew exactly where I wanted to stop before our hike, after reading Chickpea in the City’s Denver guide I knew I wanted to check out the fabulous all paleo restaurant Just BE Kitchen. BTW they are kicking ass right now and have only been open for a little over three months. We took some chia pudding to go, some muffins and I snacked on a few cookies while there. SOOO good. I love that all the ingredients are high quality, grain free and gluten free which means it is beyond perfect for meeee!
I also indulged in some coffee, I got a lavender honey latte to go and my mom grabbed another latte.
The best part is Jennifer the owner keeps everything very low in sugar which is great for my mood disorder and hormonal imbalance as well as my taste buds.
After grabbing our snacks and just taking in the morning we headed off to Boulder. When we got there, we stopped by Whole Foods, because HELLO it’s me. Grabbed some water and fresh figs, because they looks mega GOOD. I have no idea if it’s just me but the WF’s in Colorado gave me the chills, they are filled with crazy cool local products.
Off to Mount Sanitas.
The cool thing about Mount Sanitas is that you can take in the mountain in so many different ways. I love how there were so many people out there mid week capturing nature and just moving. The view once you get to the top is of the city of Boulder which is pretty cool.
Funny thing, it started raining when we were almost at the top and while I love the rain and truly feel at home in it, the uncoordinated doesn’t really mesh well with mud, water and rocks.
I totally ate shit, on our way down. Not like hardcore but I did fall flat on my ass. Like mud all over my black leggings haha. It was all good, I got up, laughed and we kept going.
It was an amazing feeling. Once we were down, we met up with my brother had our snacks and then headed off to meet my brother’s high school friend who lives in Boulder after that little get together we headed off to Thrive Raw Organic. Okay so there were so many crystals that I felt like I was on my own little oasis. The had all these adaptogenic chocolates, tinctures and more. I love their ayurvedic type vibe.
I was in my own little potion filled heaven. NO joke. This place is unreal and if you are crazy about adaptogenic foods like me, you need to check out Thrive Raw Organic.
My brother ordered the fully raw vegan pad thai and my mom and I got both the nori wraps and kale chips. The nori wraps had avocado, kimchi, cucumber, carrots and greens. They came with a crazy good magnesium mayo. I also asked them to create a potion filled smoothie for me. It had a mixture of berries, healthy fats from avocado a little banana, some spinach and homemade sprouted cashew milk along with holy basil tincture, cordyceps and ashwagandha. IT was crazy good. I wanted to dive head first into this smoothie.
We grabbed some adaptogenic chocolates and kale chips to go and headed back down to Denver to our airbnb to clean up and chill out before dinner.
Dinner was a no brainer, you all know my love for tacos. While I live in New Mexico, there is a huge difference between Mexican food and New Mexican food, and I am so in the less is more mentality so it was crazy cool to be able to get my taco fix on. Tacos Tequila Whiskey was the perfect place to end the night. This place is so on point when it comes to tacos. I loved the atmosphere, it was super chill and the music was on point.
We ordered guac and chips to snack on, a little bit of everything when it came to tacos.
The pork belly was tasty, super tender and delicious. I have to admit that our favorite was the chicken with agave.
By the time we got back to the airbnb from dinner we all basically crashed, and since I wanted to wake up earlier to catch the sunrise, it was an early night.
Thursday morning our alarm went off at 4:30 so we could arrive at City Park around 5:00 am. It was still dark out, while I pushed my mom to go on a run around the park with me.
So something I should share with you all is my fascination with ducks. I’m not 100% sure when it started or why but I love ducks and think they are way fascinating and just cool to talk to. Yes, I talk to random ducks and somehow they understand me and come close to check me out. It’s kind of funny.
The park was beautiful and I ran around the park and felt this serene feeling wash over me. I truly felt at peace for the first time in months. I felt like all the trauma that I had experienced in April was gone and I could breathe easily for once. (I have still not talked about this, and hope to soon) The pure magical feeling I felt when I ran out of breath from running as fast as I could and then trying to breathe in and out to get clean oxygen into my lungs was amazing.
After hanging with the ducks and just taking in the sunrise post run we headed to Overt & Co. where I had one of the best iced matcha’s that was spiked with elderberry syrup. YUM!
My mom was in heaven with her coffee and the smell of the pastries that they were baking at their sister restaurant Vert Kitchen, next door was out of this state. Hahaha. See how I changed that up for you all.
From there we headed back to the airbnb to pick up my brother and shower to head out for breakfast.
Oh yeah you guessed right, we went back to Just BE Kitchen for breakfast and more muffins. Honestly how could I not…
We all ordered the same breakfast. THE SIMPLICITY Go figure. I know, how boring can we be. What can I say. The paleo tortillas that Jennifer is cracking out, are a reason alone to move my hippie ass to Denver. So not kidding about this. I told her she needed to start mailing these babes out because they are GAME CHANGING good. I should of bought some and popped them into my freezer. Oh well, one more reason to visit soon.
I totally felt like I was sitting in my apartment eating, only I wasn’t the only cooking. It’s still a really cool feeling. I love all the inspirational quotes she has everywhere.
I wanted to check out the kombucha at American Cultures but sadly we were pressed on time and I was still full from our breakfast.
We did head to Beet Box Bakery for some gluten and vegan doughnuts. They were sooo good, the only thing is that this is totally a splurge for me. I do stick to eating really low in sugar and this was a total treat for me. They were all very good, and turned into snacks on our way back to Albuquerque.
Our drive back was pretty chill and mellow and I spent the entire time catching up on some reading.
While I still have a lot of exploring left to do in Denver, I do feel like my first trip was out of this world.
Andddd.. I wanna share with you all something super exciting, I am going to be splitting my time between Denver and Albuquerque, until I can fully move next year.! YAY!. I know I am beyond excited.
I obviously did not get a chance to check out all the places on my list and totally will next time I’m there next month.
Already have a list going.
American Cultures – you babes know my love for kombucha and hello they serve bucha floats. OH YEAHHHHH!
Morning Collective – it calling me just for their no booze elixirs like the horchata iced latte. Oh and their loaded bowls sound amazing!
Allergen Free Bakes– So they don’t necessarily have a place but Jennifer from Just BE Kitchen told me their cinnamon buns are mega huge and delicious. So I’m gonna have to order them and get them delivered to the airbnb next time, I crash Denver. All of their goods are allergy friendly and the owner doesn’t use nuts in her baked goods. FYI to those of you sensitive or allergic to nuts.
Ophelia’s– has a bunch of gluten free options and I am totally digging their brunch menu. Their Nacho Flatbread YUMM-O. Like old school Rachel Ray would say.
Mmm… Coffee– is a paleo bistro and their baked goods are yelling “Dreaaaaaa”…
Acorn– I’m totally down to check out any place that has a booze free menu. The acorn aqua fresca sounds amazing with peach and watermelon aloe, ginger beer and more. I’m in!
La Chiva– Okay Colombian restaurant, yes please! They have a lot of the staples I grew up on and tons of gluten free options. Like their patacones con pollo.
Beast + Bottle– Another great brunch menu, loving the corned lamb shank hash. Oh their dessert menu like the smores bites, YES please, brown butter marshmallow. HELLO!
Wooden Spoon Denver– sounds like a great place to stop for quick bite before heading out for a hike.
City ‘O City– chicken and waffles are both vegan and gluten free. I am always down for chicken and waffles and their twist is giving me all the feels.
The Corner Beet– This place sounds crazy cool, they make their own beet butter. I know right?? The new trend babes, beet butter.
Amethyst Coffee – They make their own cashew milk. Enough said.
Wong Way Veg– is kicking butt with the plant based street food game. Their menu changes daily but with awesome favorites like their jackfruit quesadilla’s you babes know I am totally down. Food truck for the win!
