the rockies

This post comes as an reflection, since I was too busy enjoying the comforts of home to write until now. We drove from San Diego straight to the Grand Canyon, got there after dark and went right to sleep in the van. The next morning, we took a lot of beautiful shots from different viewpoints around the canyon, as the sun was casting shadows.

It was another 16 hours to get to Denver from the Grand Canyon, but we decided to book it and drove straight through. Arrived in Denver around 10:30 p.m. to Brice’s lovely home, where we crashed hard. Waking up refreshed and ready, we went to Le Peep for breakfast (our favorite meal).

 

Brice with his breakfast burrito.

 

 

Crab cakes with poached eggs atop? How could I say no?

 

 

Marissa's burrito. The girl can't get enough Mexican.

 

Brice drove us downtown and we passed the Coors Field, ending up in LoDo (lower downtown, for those who are new to the area). The Falling Rock Tap House was our place of choice to watch the Denver football team (forgot what they’re called). We were the only people in the place, and our waiter told us to grab the couch and pull up the table. It felt like a cozy living room lined in beer bottles…

Europe backpacking trip shout-out!

 

The brewhouse took us on a 14-beer flight, among the most notable: chili beer and a great ‘punkin’ ale.

The next day Marissa and I went hiking at Red Rocks. Elevation 6,500 feet.We were winded after about two steps.

 

Since we were so close, we decided to round out the trifecta of breweries with a tour of Miller Coors in Golden, CO.

We met up with Marissa’s friends Shelby & Nicole for dinner that night at a vegan restaurant (sorry no pictures, hungry hippies would have attacked), and the next morning was Marissa’s BIRTHDAY!!! Our new breakfast ritual with Brice  took us to Snooze, Denver’s b-fast hotspot. Absolutely amazing menu offerings and the place looked like a 1960s mod diner. The afternoon was spent shopping around downtown Boulder, which was a really cool college town. We really slacked on the pictures in Denver, must have been our blogging burnout. That night, however, I was on full paparazzo duty, documenting the best birthday ever!

 

Shelby's smooshed sushi surprise.

 

We gave her endless amounts of money for the jukebox, and the birthday girl had a ball! Everyone did! Our breakfast ritual turned into lunch the next day, and we’d been waiting the whole trip for one of Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs. Unlike The Spot, these dogs were off the chain! His menu changes daily, all offerings were wild game, except the mini-printed “Hebrew National” at the bottom of the menu. Marissa and I both got the rattlesnake/pheasant combination dog, and Brice had a jalapeno elk cheddar dog. The lovely chef tops each dog with caramelized onion and cream cheese, and lets you put the rest of the fixings on. So good. We would go every day for lunch if we could.

Thanks so much to Brice and Shelby for being amazing hosts! We had a great time in Denver and this will NOT be the last time we visit you both!

Brice's house.

We left Wednesday around dinnertime and stayed at a Walmart Inn somewhere in Nebraska, drove all through the next day and I made it home to Brighton at 11:30pm Thursday’s eve.

Ahh, so good to be back. Reflection post and possibly a video montage still to come.

X’s and o’s,

Gretchen Klosterman

Soups on

My sweets,

Waking on a drizzly day, Kimmy blessed us with two free passes to the world famous San Diego Zoo, wahoo! The cool weather brought most of the animals out to play, and I got a pretty neat children’s poncho out of it.

Rough housing rhinos

Playing with pinecone

Geoffrey

Bear!

Gorillz

Koala bums

Zeebs

We had lunch at the delish Prado restaurant in Balboa Park, post zoo. I fed my muffuleta addiction while Gretchen had a turkey cranberry sandwich of some sort. Gotta love terra chips!

Kim let us whip around in her mini Madza, which was a nice change of pace from the Van. Here is Gretchen in her racing jacket.

Botanical garden!

 

Muddy feet afterward

Went out on a delish sushi/sake/tempura binge with Kim and Mike!

One last tofu fry…

Get it, Mike!

The next day we took a stoll around some surrounding neighborhoods, Mission beach and Ocean beach! First nice day in southern Cal.

Carnitas torta y burrito!

Mike is the recipient of the Roadscholar’s ‘Kitchen Rager’ award for being the best cook along our travels, mainly for his trio of delicious soups we were able to feast on during our stay. The pork posole was lovely, in addition to:

Borscht!

and Seafood chower!

Thanks to Kim and Mike for being such lovely hosts, we continue to be so lucky!

En route to le Grand Canyon tomorrow with a hearty meal in our guts! (Actually, we have already came and went, but due to the timing of things we have to delay the post, maybe tomorrow) Stay tuned!

Best,

Marissa Behringer

 

 

“it’s beer o’clock.”

We left LA Saturday morning, jonesing for a veggie burger from a little place in Hermosa Beach that was featured on the Travel Channel, called The Spot. Call us jaded, call us cynical- but if something is featured as one of America’s Best Burgers, it better blow me away. The Spot was not good. Being overpriced and having barely any customers inside should have been a giveaway. I ordered a barbecued tofu burger and Marissa went with the chili veggie burger. I needed a sip of water after each bite to swallow. I imagine experience this was similar to the spoonful of cinnamon challenge. Worst meal of the trip. Onward and upward to San Diego!

Arrived at Aunt Kim and Michael’s place around 2! Just in time to catch the re-cap of the MSU game. Go Green! The house is awesome! Two blocks from Balboa Park and a short walk to the world-famous San Diego Zoo! That afternoon, the hosts with the most took us out to Point Loma to explore the old lighthouse and get a great view of the city.

The four musketeers went back to the house and Michael (the incredible chef) made burritos! (How San Diego of us.) The next morning we took a short drive to Torrey Pines and went hiking up a hefty hill then down to the beach!

"Look you guys it's growing on a rock!"

"See?"

Then we all went to La Jolla, a hoighty-toighty area just north of San Diego. Ate lunch at the Contemporary Art Museum Cafe, then climbed down 120 stairs to this cave to watch the waves crash in.

After our day of exploration, we made delicious sangria and had a homemade Mexican soup, prepared by Michael.

Our San Diego post part deux will premiere at a computer near you soon. Expect lions and tigers and bears… OH MY!

As Aunt Kim would say, it’s beer o’clock and I have places to be.

-Gretch

Smog check

Hello again! Last we spoke, we were on our way out of Big Sur and heading south toward the city of angels. The drive was just as pretty away from Big Sur as it was toward

There was a dolphin sighting somewhere inbetween here and there

The winding roads we once drove were replaced with…

Traffic as far as the eye can see. Totally gross! After finally making it off of the 405, we took the advice of a very handsome young man and made our way to Cha Cha Chicken in Venice Beach. The restaurant was open air and breezy, which was appreciated on this 100 degree day.

We both ordered the combo, which packed a jerk chicken enchilada, a jerk chicken tostada and fried plantains with a tad of sour cream. Here are the remnants mid-munch

There was even a depiction of the Ukiah hot springs inside!

Spicy, sweet and delish! Haven’t had a plantain since my Costa Rican days. It was nice to reminisce. We hopped back in the whip and drove the short distance to Gretchen’s cousin, Bridget’s, crib in Marina Del Rey. Bridget had over some very quirky company, and we called it a noche.

The next morning, we traded in the standard 4 wheeled beast for beach friendly cruiser bikes. We took to the Venice strip to take in the scene.

Pumpin iron oceanside

I’m usually one to air on the side of caution, but playing basketball in my bulletproof vest always seemed to be a little much

Gretchen picked up some new sunnys, and we cycled to the Abbot-Kinney area of town. Lots of cool shops, restaurants and bars. We grabbed some late lunch at Casa Linda. I tried the chicken mole and Gretchen went with a carnitas quesadilla.

Delicioso! We did a bit more browsing and I lusted after this chair

Most price tags were a little higher than our penniless pockets could handle, but twas fun to look!

Because everyday on this trip has been nothing short of a food binge, we took to Runyon Canyon Park to do some hiking around. The place was full of dudebros hauling up the steep climp, some even toting yoga mats to do some machismo push ups at the top of the canyon. Pretty L.A, I guess.

‘The Sign’

Sprawl!

Very pretty and very hot. I had high hopes of seeing Matthew Mcconaughey or the like jog by, but maybe next time. We cleared the sweat from our brows and headed to Merchantile for some lunch. We both went with a southern favorite, the muffuletta.

Boastin’ capricola, salami, mortadella, provolone and a marinated olive salad, both of us needed a box when we fell short of eating more than half. We did some driving around and cut through the Beverly Hills area

R.I.P

Freddy Seegs, with it’s front full of foliage

We had enough ritz and returned to Bridget’s with our sights set on another happy hour. We hit up the Whaler on the Venice boardwalk and got there just as the sun was bidding us adieu.

The next morning, we both declared it to be a beach day. First things first, though. Food. So we took a walk down Ocean Ave (anyone else remember that amazing song..?) in search of some breakfast. Unfortunately, the much talked about Omlette Parlor had closed its doors for good this past Memorial Day, so we settled for Benice. Can anyone spot Gretchen?

Madame G ordered some New Orleans french toast with bananas (made with sourdough bread! wee!)

And I had veggie huevos rancheros. And a salsa caddy.

After breakfast, we basked in the sunlight and thought about the concert we were attending later on in the eve, Neon Indian with some special guests at the Music Box on Hollywood Bld. It was decided that we should email the lovely Daniel Gill in search of press passes for the event, due to the priceless, mass exposure our blog would give the band. He responded to our email and granted us two photo passes for the show. What a peach! The concert was about 15 miles away and took us a little over an hour and 15 minutes to arrive (???)

We hit up a bar next door (oops, forgot the name) that featured 24 different beers on draft. I went with a Big Sky saison, brewed in the lovely Missoula, Montana! Hi Carol and Kevin!

After a little confusion at the door (they had no idea who we were), we had to text the band manager and get things situated with the passes. All was well, and we were in. What a beautiful venue!

I think we arrived a little bit too early…

First up was Miniature Tigers, or Mini Tigs for short

Awesome sweater, and ‘stache. The lead singer, drummer, and keyboardist/bassist all rotated instruments and sang/played different ones depending on the song. A pretty talented group of lads.

Prefuse 73!

Scott Herren (lead guy) is part of 6 or so different music projects, this one I believe to be his most popular. Heavy on the beats with slight interludes of some pretty invasive reverb, id describe it best as electronic hip hop.

Neon Indian! (play, it’s like you’re there!)

Ronnie, lead guitar, shreddin’ in his white hot ensemble and killer loafers

Waah!

Admiring from afar, Ronnie’s LED guitar!

Dad’s camera wasn’t all that conducive to taking the sharpest pics, but what a great view to watch a show! All bands impressed and had us jammin’. A lovely L.A send off. Tomorrow we trek south to San Diego, but not before a stop at the Spot in Hermosa Beach. A special thanks to Bridget for being such a great hostess to us!

With ears abuzz,

M.B