Sister-palooza , part 1

Once in a blue moon, someone comes up with a great idea. (And that someone would not be me.) To celebrate my sister's birthday, my sisters and I met up in Denver for the weekend. There was some of this:

And maybe some shopping:

(Until we realized that it was the grand opening of that store and the line went around the block! So shopping commenced elsewhere; I ended up coming home with a fake arrowhead, a bubble rock, some mica and a leopard stone.)
There was the walking-and-then-sitting and tasting) brewery tour:

And some sausage and Kaesespaetzle (which I am still sad to say was oversalted):

All of that fun meant that we were in our jammies in the hotel room before 10pm. At least that meant the next morning we could get up and head to the Rockies, where, instead of a hike in the crisp, fall air, we found this:

So there was some chivering and teeth-chattering. And puffing, when I ran back to the car (I will blame it on the high altitude).

We still managed a short "hike."

And in the evening, we went for a birthday dinner. Here is peek into the kitchen:

We toasted the birthday girl and had a fabulous dinner at Potager.

Narrowingly avoiding a run-in with the police (alright, it was not narrow at all, we simply skirted the capitol area where there was a crack-down on the OWS camp, causing me to feel terrible bougouise.)