With COVID impacting travel both internationally and within the US, Eric and I hadn’t taken a trip since we got back from a wedding Asia in February. With our 2 year wedding anniversary happening in August, we decided to finally brave the outside world, and test the waters with a short weekend trip to Fort Collins, only an hours drive north from where we live in Denver.
Day 1:
We started the trip by driving up to Fort Collins early Friday morning. We stayed at The Elizabeth Hotel, which is a beautiful Marriott-owned property, and part of their Autograph Collection.
The property is right in the downtown Fort Collins area, and is completely music themed. All of the rooms have record players, and in the lobby, there is a music library, with an extensive collection of records and a variety of instruments that you can rent out (for free!).
We were able to upgrade to the Ram Suite, a beautiful room with a tasteful Colorado Rams theme. We really enjoyed being able to have a separate living room area, a kitchen area to eat in, as well as a large balcony with a view of the mountains in the distance. It was perfect, and we ended up spending a good amount of time enjoying the room.
For lunch, we stopped at CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing, which was rated the best burger in all of Fort Collins, and let me tell ya, it did NOT disappoint! I went with the Cooper’s Burger, which is their burger covered with their famous Artichoke Dip. They have an extensive list of beers, and we tried at least 6 different ones before heading out to explore the rest of the city.
Fort Collins is a super walkable city, and everything was very centralized around our hotel. We started with a quick stop at Nuance Chocolate. They have an incredible selection of dark chocolates from countries all around the world, as well as house made truffles, and we got a few of each. The staff is super knowledgable, and we spent some time just learning about the differences in taste from country to country.
From there, we stopped by the Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop, and picked up some cheeses, meats, and crackers to bring back to our hotel room. They have a huge selection, and they were able to recommend which cheeses and meats would pair together best, and cut us small enough portions to enjoy and not need to bring leftovers back home.
After stocking up on chocolates and cheeses, we walked over to The Exchange, which is a super cool outdoor market, with a ton of restaurants and bars in old shipping containers with a beautiful green space in the middle.
We stopped at Crooked Stave in The Exchange for beers. You can order small tasters and create your own flights, so we got to try 8 beers between the two of us. They had some new releases as well, and we took home a six pack of their Strawberry Coconut Milkshake IPA.
After our beers, we headed back to the hotel to change into our robes and enjoy our cheese, meat, and chocolate.
The hotel gave us a beautiful card and bottle of champagne, and we were able to enjoy it all on our balcony!
Prior to dinner, we stopped by The Emporium Kitchen and Wine Market in the hotel to grab some expresso martinis (we were feeling a little tired from the big day!) and then onto dinner at the Welsh Rabbit Cheese Bistro.
The restaurant was incredible, and we ordered almost everything on the menu. They also had a super interesting wine list – living in SF for so long, I really only know Napa wines, and am totally lost other than that. They were able to recommend some good ones, and we loved the bottle we ended up with.
After dinner, we stopped at the Magic Rat in the hotel for live music and drinks – they’d set up outside in the alley, and had a live band playing, while still being able to social distance.
Day 2:
We were feeling a little tired from the late night and many beverages, so we took our time getting up in the morning, and then decided to take a bit of a longer walk over to The Lost Cajun restaurant. Most may know, that I’m from New Orleans, and any chance to get some Nola food I will always take! It was a solid walk, and the food was totally worth it. We had the gator bites and each picked a po boy from the menu.
After a few beers, we walked back into old town and stopped by the Old Firehouse Books bookstore – I can’t visit a city without finding a new independent bookstore to support!
From there we took another substantial walk over to Odell Brewing Company, which is slightly outside of the main downtown area, but was a much needed walk after our full day of drinking prior. They have a huge outdoor area, and once seated, you could order by phone and have your drinks and food brought out to you.
We had planned to go out again for dinner somewhere, but after the long day of walking (and drinking) we decided we’d do something a little more casual. Eric had never had Illegal Pete’s before (despite living in Denver for over a year at this point), and so we grabbed some to go and brought it back up to the room. In addition to the food, they were doing pints of margaritas to go as well, and we once again changed into our robes and took full advantage of the beautiful room at The Elizabeth.
Day 3:
We got up early and went back to The Exchange to checkout Foco Doco for coffee and donuts. The donuts are small, and come two to an order, so we opted to try out the Peach Crisp and the Almond Daddy. Every single item on the menu looked incredible, and the coffees were delicious.
After fueling up with coffee and donuts, we drove out to the Horsetooth Reservoir for a quick hike and some quality time sitting by the water. Up until now, we hadn’t been near a body of water, so it was incredible to sit with our feet in the waves and watch the boaters and paddle boarders.
After washing up at the hotel and checking out, we stopped by Jessup Farms, which was on the way back to Denver. We had an incredible lunch at The Farmhouse at Jessup, and then walked through the shops. I found some great stuff at Hey Day Boutique, which has two separate shops for men and women in the collective.
Overall, it was an incredible anniversary trip, and a great intro to get us comfortable traveling in the new world of COVID. After having such a great time, we decided to plan a month long trip driving the entire pacific coast highway, from Washington down to the southern tip of California. Stay tuned for the full itinerary coming soon!
