Denver gave us lots of death, good food, and some hockey.

I'm the worst. I know.

I'm not sure why or how I always let so much time pass between blogging bouts, but SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. Like what, you ask? Well...

• My brother and Elizabeth got married.
• I went on my first cruise (with my sister and parents).
• Wheat and I went to Denver for a long weekend.
• I got a horrific case of bronchitis that I'm still slowly recovering from.
• I got a bizarre fingernail infection (paronychia). Immune system, where are you?
• Scarlett turned two somehow.
• Wheat and I went to the 102nd running of the Indy 500.
• Wheat surprised me with tickets to see Wicked (again!). We also saw Anthony Jeselnik and Lea Michele and Darren Criss.
• The Pacers made the playoffs, but were knocked out by LeBron and the Cavaliers in the first round.

So, yeah. Where do I even start?

I'm going to tackle our Denver trip first since it was the longest ago. Let's roll.

In mid-March, Wheat and I took a glorious weekend trip to Denver, a city I've never visited before outside of long airport layovers. We flew out on Friday afternoon, took the airport train to Union Station downtown (which took about 40 minutes), then rode the free 16th Street mall shuttle as close as we could to our hotel.

Airport train views.

Speaking of our hotel, Wheat absolutely SLAYED his research and chose the most Instagrammable hotel in all of Denver, the Curtis. This downtown boutique hotel has different themes on every floor (chick flicks, sports, TV shows, etc.) and we were lucky enough to get a room on the 13th floor - HORROR MOVIES. No big deal - just my personal heaven. Before checking out on Sunday, we visited every single floor to see the amazing themed decorations and little touches. Also, the elevator said theme-related things when stopping on specific floors. Fittingly, ours said, "HERE'S JOHNNY!"

One end of our floor had a floor-to-ceiling picture of the REDRUM twins from The Shining, a perfect choice given that the Stanley Hotel (the one in the movie) is in Estes Park, Colorado. The opposite end of the floor had a picture from Poltergeist while the elevator area was decorated with tons of birds as an homage to the Alfred Hitchcock classic. We had a mountain view room and since The Curtis is a DoubleTree hotel, we also got some warm, gooey cookies upon check-in. Score.

Once we'd settled into our room, we decided to walk along 16th Street, a mile-long, pedestrian-only street lined with restaurants and shops, on our way to dinner. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we took our time passing through Commons Park and crossing the South Platte River along the way.

For dinner, we settled on Linger, a hip bar/restaurant inside a former mortuary...because I'm morbid, I guess. We arrived when they first opened for dinner service, but there was a power outage in the entire area, so we were asked to wait. Minutes later, however, the power was back on and we were given complimentary drink coupons for our "inconvenience." Since we arrived early (and thank goodness we did - the place got packed), we chose a prime spot near the open windows with a great view of downtown.

The restaurant, which takes its name from Olinger Mortuaries, is still filled with several nods to its eerie past. Metal conveyor belts have been turned into tables, water is served in formaldehyde bottles, a church pew serves as the host stand. You get the picture. The mortuary actually held the remains of Buffalo Bill Cody for six months in 1917 while Colorado and Wyoming argued over his final resting place. And though the eatery's haunting past could easily become hokey, the food was anything but.

We were there during happy hour, so we decided to order several small plates. We went with the Mongolian BBQ duck bun, Devils on Horseback (bacon-wrapped dates), sweet potato waffle fries, wagyu slider, and lemongrass pork potstickers. So. Freaking. Good. With the breeze blowing, delicious food, and my handsome date, I honestly could have stayed there for hours.

Unsurprisingly, it was the promise of ice cream that finally tempted me away. We spent all of dinner staring down at Little Man Ice Cream, a popular dessert spot that looks like a giant milk can situated right in front of Linger, so we had to stop on our way back. With cones in-hand, we wandered across the street to a tiny park where we sat on swings while enjoying our ice cream.

Our big event for the evening was actually a hockey game, so we waddled over to the Pepsi Center to see the Colorado Avalanche take on the Nashville Predators. I'm slowly trying to cross every NHL, NFL, and MLB stadium/arena off my list, so it was nice to hit another one. The Predators won, 4-2, and, with the win, became the first team to clinch a berth in the playoffs. We saw a couple goals each from Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg, while captain Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan Mackinnon scored for the Avalanche. Wheat was happy with the outcome and we had fun checking out the hidden treasures in the arena.

Our trip happened to coincide with the first weekend of the March Madness tournament, so we diligently tracked the games. This also happened to be the night that history was made when UMBC became the first 16 seed to defeat a top seed, my beloved Virginia Cavaliers. So, I was furious a little frustrated for the majority of the hockey game. My face here says it all, but - trust me - does not sum up my feelings on the day.