Flying Lad Goes to Denver

Flying Lad Goes to Denver

Last year, Flying Momma had a couple of business trips to Denver, so Flying Dad and Flying Lad tagged along.

The first trip was in the summer time.

It was pretty warm and we thought Flying Lad might enjoy a place to cool off, so we brought him to the fountains at Union Station.  Perfect place for a toddler in Denver! He was a little unsure, but other kids thoroughly enjoyed running in and out of the water popping up from the pavement.

He did enjoy the Big Blue Bear, though.

Cookie decorating!

Our second trip was in October.  Flying Dad and Flying Lad highly recommend the Glow at the Gardens event at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Make sure to get your tickets ahead of time, as they do sell out.  Flying Lad enjoyed checking out all the pumpkins and most of all decorating his own cookie.

Another kid-friendly, fun family activity is a Rockies game.  We bought our tickets day of via Stub Hub and got great seats (front row down the third base line) for a great price.

Eventually the tarp came off!

We saw some good baseball, walked around the park, and picked up our “First Rockies Game” souvenir button.  We even ran into the Rockies Dinosaur mascot – Dinger.  Before the game, be sure to grab a sausage at Biker Jim’s. After the game, it was raining and we could’ve walked and taken the bus to get home, but we decided to take a covered pedicab, and that may have been Flying Lad’s favorite part of the night.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t recap the highlights of the restaurants we tried.

Breakfast:  Snooze an AM Eatery at Union Station.  Make sure to get a pancake flight.  We chose pineapple upside down, blueberry danish, and the pancake of the day, which was apple with a savory hatch chile sauce – So good!

Good to know:  We had to wait 45 minutes, which can feel like an eternity with a toddler, but Union Station does have a number of cool things to see and do to pass the time.  We spent some time walking around, exploring the train station and its shops, and read books in the bookstore.  We could’ve even played some bean bag toss outside the restaurant.  Regardless, it-was-worth-the-wait!

On the way to the airport we picked up breakfast to go from Denver Biscuit Co.  Biscuit french toast breakfast sandwich with sausage, apple butter, egg, and syrup (The Dahlia), and a cinnamon roll THE SIZE OF YOUR HEAD topped with bacon. Holy cheebus, these things were heavy, too. Thought we might have to pay extra for exceeding the weight limit on our carry-on.

Perhaps the most excellent dining experience we’d highly recommend is dinner at Linger.  (Fun fact:  it used to be a mortuary.)  We had made a reservation for a table, but we got there early to check out the happy hour scene.  The menu had a lot to offer and the weather was perfect for dining al fresco, so we ended up skipping our reservation and made dinner out of happy hour.  It was a beautiful night.  The view, the food and the drinks were outstanding!  Afterward, we went downstairs for an ice cream from Little Man.  The ice cream is very good and if there’s a line, don’t worry about it, it moves very quickly.  In addition to the ice cream, Flying Lad enjoyed going down their slide and sitting in their vintage ferris wheel cabs.

There is so much to do in Denver, and the surrounding area, we barely scratched the surface, and this blog barely starts our adventures there.

Can’t wait to go back!