Hapa Sushi

2780 E Second Ave (Cross Street: Between Clayton Street and Detroit Street)
Denver, CO 80206-4808View Map
(303) 322-9554

 

We popped in here after the Cherry Creek Art Festival. We were seated right away, and got Carla as our server! She was great!  We started with the seasoned edamame – OMG – gotta try it! Next we ordered waaay to much sushi! I’d say skip the hapa roll, and the rock n roll. But definitely get the Fire Cracker if they have it on special – mmmmm yummy! The caterpillar and dragon rolls were very delicious. The inari and egg were great as well. And the ending was the Orgasm Roll! WOW! The price was a bit high, but it was very very tasty and we will definitely be back!

Side note - the art festival was not all that and a bag of chips - i was very disappointed!

 

Celtic Tavern

1801 Blake St
Denver, CO 80202View Map
(303) 308-1795

 

Ate here for lunch. We had a buy one get one coupon (thanks for the entertainment book, mom).

We had heard mixed reviews. I really enjoyed the interior. Very big, and spacious (well without a whole crowd ofpeople). Lots or dark wood that made it feel cozy.

The wait staff was very friendly and happy to see us. I had the eggplant parm sandwhich, Oh my lord! Really really tasty!

Hubby went with the Burger topped with Pepper Jack and Bacon.  He really enjoyed it as well! We would definitely come back during the evening (so we can try the cider on tap) and again for lunch!

Packed weekend!

 

Friday hubby and I picked up my cabinet deal of the week! Came with a free countertop!

Me: I read the listing on craig’s list and skim to the bottom where it says all 3 for $50. I reply and then notice that the $50 was regarding the mirrors not the cabinets. Oh well, I never seem to be the first one to the party on these things anyway.

Seller: They are still unavailable, call my wife.

Me: Crap – I call the wife, but the number is wrong. I email the seller explaining I mis-read his ad, and that 250 was a little too much for my budget, but good luck to him.

Seller: Well, it also said or best offer and since no-one else has responded, it sounds like such to me

Me: Woohoo!!!!

 

 

Since my ability to eye ball how things will fit, and my idea that my vehicle is huge, let to the counter not fitting. And it was like 9 feet long too. Sellers were gracious enough to let us return the next day for it! Sweet!

 

Saturday morning we start with my last craig’s list adventure and put up the ceiling rack. I’m not sure how they managed to build our ceiling, but they put beams that were about ¼ inch cause every time hubby found a stud, the screws before and after the main nail went into air… It took about 2 hours longer than it should have, but it was up eventually!

 

Next, remove all the junk from the end of the garage. Shovecabinets in place. Determine which side we wanted the “gap”. The 3^rdcabinet wasn’t going to fit! We decided to leave the gap where the plumbers had put the air intake and the clean out valve for my sink!

Next was to hack out the back of the left cabinet since theplumbers also angled their pipe in the corner. Worked out well!

 

We determined we needed 80 inches of counter. So we could hack it to pieces and fit it all in the car! Woohoo!

 

As we were heading to Costco and SuperCuts the seller’s called and said that they would be available to pick up the counter. Ok, so no hot dog and berry sundae for me today!

 

We stopped at Toast – a cute little place down in Littleton that we have seen for the past 3 years and never stopped at! It was great! I had the Reuben – it was really tasty, a little light on the sauerkraut, and heavy ,seriously heavy on the butter, but filled my tummy! Hubby did the bacon cheese burger with a fried egg! We were pleased and it was a great location. It might end up be a destination on a bike ride in the future! Nummies!

 

We got the counter home, and headed to Costco, Home Depot (needed liquid nails to finish the job), and Supercuts – can’t have hubby looking like Wolf Man for too long, no matter how sexy it is!

 

We get home, I deal with the Costco aftermath – meaning me and the food saver action! Hubby goes and removes all the left over good from the counter. We got it on, places great, and proceed to empty boxes into the cabinets, cover the counter top and all the space in front and basically made it look just like it did before we started in the morning! Ugh! We still need the upper cabinets! Then we’ll be cooking with gas!

 

At that point it was 6ish…  Time to try out the grill – hubby finally got our propane one converted to the natural gas!  Hot links it was!

 

Then with nothing on TV we decided to head to down to Plaza deel Arte to check out the chalk art! Good thing we did, cause I was awoken Sunday morning to raindrops hitting the windows over my head! I felt so bad for the artists. There were a number of really cool ones this year. Here's one i really liked!

 

Sunday was a visit from the boobers! They didn’t really rememberme, probably because I was out of context, but they warmed up after their dadleft and they were stuck with me!

It was great to have my little guys to snuggle with! We played ball in the house, took a walk till they got too hot, took a ride in the car to get lunch, hung on the roof, napped in the big bed, watched TV on the couch, and finally it was time for their dad to come retrieve them. All in all it was a very nice day for me! It was a might stressful for Terrance since he was banished to whatever part of the house we weren’t in. He’s not so social.

 

 

 

 

I heard a strange sound this morning. I was cruising the internet, in my cabin in the woods with no cell service when I heard a sound. At first I wasn’t really sure I had heard this sound, but then I heard it again. It was a gobble. I parted the curtains and there it was… The biggest dang turkey you have ever seen! This thing was probably almost up to my shoulder in height, if it kept it’s head up tall! It was huge! As I was attempting to get the camera he let out another gobble and the “herd” arrived. A total of 5 giant turkeys! They were cruising the front lawn for goodies. These guys moved fast too!  At one point one of them hoped up onto the BMW 7 series of the neighboring cabin – the owners were less than thrilled about that. I was chuckling! I tried to get hubby to wake up and see the giant fellas but sleeping was of more interest to him at the time!

 

 

Later, hubby and I headed off to explore the Big Sur area this morning! I had seen on this site, that this was a must do hike! The Ewoldsen Trail. 4.5 miles. No sweat for us mile high hikers! Had to work off some of that fried calamari from the past couple days!
 

We headed south and stopped at a couple vista points to enjoy the coast! I love how it just drops off and the cool breeze come up!

 

We found the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and headed in! We started with a quick jaunt to the McWay falls. Such a great location. Definitely a beautiful spot!

 

Then it was off to our hike! And it was a hike. They were not kidding when they listed it as strenuous!  I’m sure hubby was less than thrilled as we kept going up, and up, and up and up! We went thru a multitude of climate in our hike! Lush redwoods, wild flowers (lots of bees – ick), dry desert, oak groves…  It was very neat! We finally found the top and then had to go up a smidge more for the look out! It was really amazing to be even higher about highway 1 and the coast!

 

It was a pretty good loop, although the second half brought us by 2 pretty big bee’s nests! ARG! They just love those dead and rotting trees!

 

Hubby kept telling me to remember that the bees were just doing their job! They each had a job to do (ala Bee Movie)

 

I was less than amused!

 

We finally finished our 4.5 mile hike and stopped by the Big Sur River Inn for the burrito bar! You pick your parts and they produce this giant, heavy, tube of goodness! I went with carnitas, white rice, Monterey jack cheese, black beans, guacamole and jalapenos!

Yummy!

 

We then stopped by our cabin for a nap! 2.5 hours later…  we awoke around 5pm!

Since there was still day light we headed over to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to see the falls! It was a cute hike and a cute falls!

 

We both had a smidge of work to do so thankfully the wifi has been keeping us supplied!

It’s early to bed and tomorrow we do 17 mile drive before we fly home!

 

 

We are currently in Big Sur getting ready for the wedding in the woods. Ok, well not currently, hubby is still sleeping and I’m blogging!

We arrived into San Jose yesterday morning, grabbed our starbucks, cause DIA – Denver International Airport - doesn’t have but 1 and it’s at the far end of a terminal I never fly from! What is that silliness anyway!

Should be at least 2 per terminal, per wing! I digress – so we grabbed our caffeinated beverages and head to the bus to Hertz… Alas there is a very small sign that says no food or beverage on the bus? WHAT? I just paid a good chunk of my arm for this coffee and you want me to either chug it or toss is? Hell NO!!! But lucky for me, I was thinking…  I had an empty water bottle in my backpack! Yeah me! So I transferred my piping hot, tasty caffeinated beverage into my sealed container and tossed it into my bag! HAH! Now I understand keeping things clean, but please, no other city does this and for god’s sake put a sign somewhere closer, or alert people when they book a rental car? Hun? Is that so hard?

 

We hop onto 101 south and jump off at Monterey for some lunch and sight seeing.Hubby has never been to this portion of CA. We ate at Fish Hopper -  The calamari was amazing! I had an opened face crab cake on portabello mushroom with a greenbean salad. Very very tasty! Hubby went with the fish and chips and liked thoseas well! The manager was amazing, the seater was annoying since she heard us ask the manager for a seat by the window but put us in a booth. It turned out the view was still good, but still. And the server was not so good. Ourappetizer came out after our meals, and the extra tarter sauce…  nope. The manager brought out our calamari and said  - shouldn’t this come before our meals and we laughed and said ah well, we’ll do it in reverse. She appreciated our attitude! It was definitely spendy – so it’ll be frank and beans for the rest of the trip  ;)

 

 

We did a little shopping, looked at the ocean, checked out the Aquarium…  I don’t really like aquariums, but hubby does, so I figured, why not… Well the prices have gone up since the last time I was there and thought they were too high! $25 a person!! WOAH!! Do you get a private session with a sea lion?

 

So we meandered a bit more and then headed south to catch up with the bride!

 

We arrived at our “cabin” and were amused! I can hear the traffic on Hway 1 from my perch in my cabin, typing away on my free wifi! Definitely a cute place, but nothing spectacular! Compared to the prices at the “Lodge” that the family stayed at, I’m ok with our $100 cabin in the woods!

 

Next was a hike to see the possible wedding locals! They decided against in the woods cause there are too many people and it requires a permit! So we’ll be near some great cliffs and yellow flowers (the brides favorite). Should be a great time!

 

“Rehearsal” dinner was the Rocky Point Restaurant.  

I’ve seen this place multiple times when driving thru Big Sur on my way to San Fran and Napa, so I was excited to finally get to try it! The calamari here was also amazing! Not rings but thin strips! The garlic cheesy bread – also amazing. And that is where the fun part of the food stopped! I got seafood fettuccini with pesto sauce. Well the pesto sauce was green. Not much garlic or pine nuts to be found. And the shrimp was cold… Yes, that was creepy. And the rest of the fish in the dish was anh…  But the calamari strips were good! I doused it in parmesan cheese but that didn’t help either… Hubby went with the fried prawns and said that was pretty good – but how can you go wrong with fried, eh?

 

Bride and Groom are hanging at the camp site by the river with their friends that are also camping. It was just too traumatic to try and get our camping gear here, so we went for the cabin in the woods. It should be a really fun day! Most people are switching their outfits to jeans, but I didn’t think of bringing alternate outfits, so I’ll be in my dress, wish me luck on avoiding the poison oak that is all along the path!  ;)

 

My other job, which the Aunt of the bride assigned me, was to find the bride “something blue”. (my own fault i asked if she had her something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue) Ugh! We are in the middle of nowhere…  Any stores are a multitude of miles away. I know the bride would appreciate a small blue piece of paper with a smiley on it, but not so sure the family will think it’s as cute as I do…  We’ll see what we can find at breakfast at the gift shop!

Wedding today, hiking and sight seeing tomorrow!

Falafel King

1201 16th St
Denver, CO 80202View Map
(303) 629-6603

 

Hubby and I had another coupon from the entertainment book - thanks mom! - so we decided to hit up Falafel King for lunch!

Sorta in between the house and my current office down town!

After decifering the menu and determining what our coupon covered I went with the greek plate and hubby did a gyro!

It was ok. It was pretty tasty for food court food. I’m nota big fan of falafel – mainly it’s a vessel to get the yummy sauce into yourmouth! It was neat that they had little falafel balls. The gyro meat was tasty,the salad was yummy and the hot sauce they pour all over everything – super yummy!  I would like to taste the hummus,baba gannoush, and tabbouli. It in a good place on 16th st (2 locations in fact).

It was a nice outing and fun to see hubby mid day! I definitely have other fav's for mediteranean, but in a pinch it will do!

A Day in Motion

 

I started the day at the gym! It was great – not too manypeople made it in so early.

All the machines were open and the girly weightsthat I use were mostly unused! Yeah!

 

Next it was a walk at Cherry Creek Resevoir with J and her new baby.

Ihad never been and it was a great! Mostly near the water, great breeze, allpaved!

I had a quick nap, and a new out fit and out the door for anotherwalk with one of my work buddies L!

We walked around Cheesman Park(twice) and then had drinks at Irish Snub

Cute place, out door patio on Colfax, and happy hour 7 days a week! Woohoo! 

Then L and I walked to check on her Garden (one of thosecommunity things), and it was a lot further than I thought!

It was really farin fact! It was really neat though! All her little sprouts were super cute!(then we had to walk back – ugh!)

 

Met another set of friend for drinks after than and then home! My dogs are barkin! And I felt icky from all the sunblock, sweat, and dirt!

 

I feel like I have been in motion all day long.

 

It was an absolutely fabulous weekend in Denver!

Saturday started pretty slow. We found a coupon and headed to Sport’s Column for lunch on the deck! It was lovely!

 

Later I had some mojito’s on my neighbors deck (we hopped the divider!)

 

After that we discovered that we needed a door bell that rang on the roof! Hubby’s BFF from high school was in town and had stopped by to say hello! We did catch up with him, so dinner was almost on the roof top deck at Tavern Downtown but it was too crowded – game was almost over. So we dined inside and hubby got to catch up with his friend!

 

Sunday I worked out while hubby slept and then we took thepaper and our coffee and enjoyed the rooftop deck some more! Great morning! Puffy clouds, nice breeze!

 

Then I looked up how the bike trails in Denver worked and we found an entrance very close to our house, so we hopped on and rode almost 10 miles! IT was lots of fun and our new fancy bike shorts left us less sore this morning!

 

After the ride we enjoyed a relaxing lunch with some lime type daiquiris made in my brand new blender!

  

Mine bit the dust on mother's day - so hubby had the bubbahs get me a step mama's day present!

Dinner was with friends down at Thai Basil – sushi on thepatio.(Bancock Roll is awsome!)  It was a lovely lovely weekend! Plenty of Vitamin D to be had by all!

 

P.S. Hubby is less yellow, feelling better, moving soda and beer back into his diet, and exercising again... Fingers crossed they let him go to Japan!

Yazoo Barbeque Co

2150 Broadway
Denver, CO 80205View Map
(303) 296-3334

 

I have seen this place but was a little wary about wanderingin for dining. Looks can be deceiving! My boss decided this would be a good place to take our team out today. I must agree! The folks behind the counter and super niceand friendly, and they just want to get you something good to eat! I went withthe ¼ pound brisquit sandwich. Oh my was it good! And the hot sauce iswonderful!

I’ll definitely be back to try the ribs, the bobs and everything else available!

The seating left a little to be desired - so i'll be going early again next time! And lucky for me they have Hot links on the menu so hubby is willing to give it a try!

 

 

Wednesday and final day of the conference!

Hubby and Tom did their key note to great success! They do this thing where they are transparent as far as where the money goes. Basically Milan was a - wait for it - 9k loss. Oooofa!

The rest of the day was saying good bye, and getting ideas of where to eat on our trip thru Italy!
It was really neat to see all the different language and ethnic barriors break down as the attendees got to know each other. The French were hanging out with the Israli’s, the italians with the romanians etc etc etc! It was really neat and nice to watch!

The conference ended well! Hubby and Tom might even do another one over in Europe in 2009! Lucky me!

That night we chatted with some of the conference sponsors and then off to dinner.
La Vila - down the street from the business hotel near the Del Mar Metro station. It was amazing! The caprese salad was great, hubby had some spicy salame that was really tasty and tom had a weird seafood thing that was pretty good.
I went for pizza - Quattro something of other. Not too generous with the toppings, but edable. Tom ate my crusts for me! Hubby did a colzone and it was pretty good - mozzarealla and ricotta in there...  Mmmmmm...  Tom went with a couple course which were not memorable, but definitely a cute little place to visit. They tend to get side tracked if their friends arrive, and even though the menu says to stay seated to pay your bill, it appears that doesn’t work at all! It is family run with pappa doing the pizza, the boys busing and doing sue chef duties and mom doing the rest!

April 8 and 9 were conference days.

Mostly i hung out with the fellas down at the conference, manning the desk, refereeing their quibbles and attempting to answer questions from the masses.

Tuesday before dinner we went to the Italian version of Walmart! Ipercoop. I needed some nylons since apparently they stick to the no bare legs or white before memorial day!! Hubby and John also want to get some gift for Carla at the hotel for all the grief she had to deal with for the conference! Very cool store, wish i could have spent more time in it!

Tuesday night one of Tom and Hubby’s very helpful speakers took us our for dinner. We went to a restaurant recommended by Carlo at the hotel. His cousin ran it - figured they would at least have to be nice to us!

We started with some focaccia and parma ham for the table. Mike picked some nummy wine and then we got down to the business of attempting to translate the menu. We discovered that my dinky little phrase book was extremely lacking (thanks rick steve’s).
Even with his partial hold on italian Mike couldn’t make out all of the stuff to eat on the menu.  Eventually we settled on the seafood soup and some preccuto. The seafood soup was amazing - maybe even better than legal seafood ciopinno. Let’s just say i wish we had more bread to soak up the sauce!

First course - hubby did angry pasta - pasta arriabiata. He loved it. I went with the gnocchi of the day - was lovely. Second course - hubby and i split some super think beef with parmesan cheese laid across the top - so it melted in place. Om my! Who know something so simple could taste so good. Desert was carmel flan with berries - super yummy! Fresh grown strawberries - wow!

I think we ate for at least 3 hours! Great conversation and full bellies!
I’ll find out the name of the restaurant to anyone else looking to venture into a Milanese Neighborhood can go too!

Hubby and Tom then stayed up til 3am working on their Key note for 8am the next day!
I gave up at 1am!