Day 3 of our 6 great days in Colorado started with us moving hotels again, but for the last time this trip! As I wrote in my previous blog posts, this trip was made possible by my winning Southwest Airline’s “Breathtaking Beats” Sweepstakes, which included round-trip flights for two people to Denver from a Southwest hub, two tickets to a live concert at the world-famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and one night at the uber-hip Origin Red Rocks Hotel! We added 5 days, turning a “flyaway” into a mini-vacation, and the morning of our 3rd day we moved to the Table Mountain Inn, a very cute, adobe-style, Southwestern-themed boutique hotel on Washington Street in downtown, historic Golden, and spent the last 3 nights of our Colorado vacation there. I booked a “Traditional Mini Suite” for us, as it had a sweet, little “Juliet” balcony, and gave us a bit of a view of the mountains and fresh air- AND it had a great, jetted, jacuzzi tub, too!
We left our suitcases at the desk in the morning and took off straight away for the noon Oktoberfest excursion on the Georgetown Loop Railroad, the second of our three Colorado railroad trips on this vacation. It was only about an hour’s drive from Golden, and we had time for a bit of breakfast at Georgetown Coffee & Tea in historic, downtown Georgetown, a cute café serving locally-roasted Copper Door coffees, pastries, & extremely expensive ($15!) artisan chocolate bars- which I had to try, if only to see what a $15 chocolate bar consists of! (It was very good: dark chocolate, studded with ginger and pistachios- but still…) We then headed to the “Devil’s Gate” Depot, to check in for our Georgetown Loop excursion, and enjoyed a Tommyknocker Colorado Beer Tasting, buying a can of our favorite beer to take with us on the trip.
We were happily able to upgrade our seats to the Parlour Car, which hadn’t been available when I made our initial reservation, and it was cozy and warm, with included snacks to enjoy with my beer & Dan’s coffee, and very lovely service, and it made the excursion luxurious and delightful! It was quite cold that day, and I’m not sure being in an open car for over an hour up in the frosty mountains would have been all that delightful for us! So yes, get Parlour Car seating if you can! Historic steam trains are pretty fabulous engineering marvels to experience first-hand, and it was a lot of fun to watch the engineers couple and uncouple the engine, and enjoy the sights and sounds of our train chugging between the mountains, high above the roads and rivers… Completed in 1884, this spectacular stretch of three-foot narrow gauge railroad was considered a true feat of engineering for its time, and we had glorious, scenic views from our seats on the train. The Georgetown Loop Railroad was one of Colorado’s first visitor attractions, with seven trains a day running out of Denver at the height of its popularity! When we got ready to board the train a professional photographer took our photo (see above), and, like we often do, we bought it as a souvenir, as we were very pleased with how it came out!
Dan wanted a steak for dinner, so we had a bang-up “surf & turf” meal that evening at The Chart House, in Genesee, near Golden. Since I was in “holiday wot-the-hell mode”, LOL, I ordered their signature, fancy, smoked cocktail, a “Torched Apple Manhattan”, made with Basil Hayden Toast Bourbon, Berentzen Apple Liqueur, & Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, and infused with applewood smoke. It was made table-side by our excellent water, and really delicious- I love all things smoky!! (Only wish I’d ordered a double, LOL)
Dan had a Mango Mojito, and we started dinner by splitting a large, yummy plate of Kimchi Calamari– which beat every other version of fried Calamari we’ve ever had! (If you make fried calamari at home, try making a dipping sauce using Kimchi- I know we’re going to do that!) For our entrees, I had a perfectly seared & rare filet mignon, and Dan had the prime rib, and to top it off we split a slice of Key Lime Pie. Chart House is an elegant restaurant with excellent service, a lovely ambience, and great views; while new to us, and a happy discovery, it is a chain, and they have branches around the country, apparently all in scenic places with beautiful views.
That evening we enjoyed the one “surprise” for Dan I booked on this trip, something that I was hoping he’d get a kick out of: a 90-minute private spa session at the Denver Beer Spa! I have always been one to try interesting spa treatments, since first experiencing the 30-day, totally natural healing of my psoriasis at the Dead Sea in Israel, and I have taken Dan there, as well as to a number of other spas, including Dr. Fish in Korea, for reflexology in Japan, walk-on massages in Vietnam where the masseuses actually walk on your back, ear-cleaning in China at the Opera, acupuncture treatments and couples massages while on cruises and elsewhere, and to the Volcano Mud Bath in Cartagena, Columbia! When I discovered the Denver Beer Spa online, it seemed to me like THE Colorado Spa Experience if ever there was one, and, based on great online reviews, I booked us a room- and we had a relaxing, fun, and truly uniquely Colorado, spa evening!
After doffing our shoes & putting on spa slippers, we started our Beer Spa Evening with a free tasting of craft beers and cider at their Tap Room; they have non-alcoholic selections as well. Then we moved, beers in hand, to our private Beer Therapy Room! We enjoyed our detoxifying infrared sauna (which included a fun chart of “conversation starters” to help pass the time), our delightful rain shower, and, most of all, the bubbly beer spa bath, which was like a Japanese soaking tub infused with hops, barley, and medicinal herbs- it smelled divine! The bath came with a muslin bag of hops & herbs, which felt and smelled so good on my skin that I bought a Beer Bath Tea Bag to take home, as well as their Beer Body Lotion which soothed Dan’s itchy skin, and their cedarwood-amber scented candle, as I loved the way the spa smelled! (I also bought their products as a gift for our BFF who was pet-sitting for us, and she loved them, too!) You can check out their beer-infused products here, and order online: https://shop.thebeerspa.com/ The spa was immaculate, the service friendly and nice, and our room came with lovely spa robes and towels. The Denver Beer Spa is truly unique, something “really Colorado”, and I’d call it a “Must-Do” for anyone visiting the Denver area and looking for a special and fun way to spend an evening of “self care”!
Next: Colorado Day 4!
