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I brought the following foods: 7 sleeves soy free wildcaught salmon- 1 for each day; 21 paleo mini muffins - 3 for each day; 7 very small qty kiddie snack size ziplocks of soaked nuts - 1 for each day. 1 lemon, 1 Lindts 85% chocolate bar. 1 tiny jar coconut oil (like a lip balm jar). 14 tea bags. On previous trips I've brought fruit but I no longer do that. It is too heavy to carry around and is usually available for free at the hotel check in areas.
I don't normally travel solo but the first 4 days were solo as I wanted to gradually acclimate to the altitude. I had to pack really really light as I did not get a rental car and took public transportation the whole way.
Some highlights:
Denver: I stayed at the Oxford Hotel right across the street from Union Station. Union Station is a newly remodeled Amtrak station. THis was beautiful. Everything was brand new. I checked menus at about 15 restaurants in the downtown area but ended up eating dinner at Burgers and Brats restaurant on the Union Station patio after I had a 25 minute conversation about GF with the manager. He told me his wife was GF and their fries were Belgian style made in a dedicated fryer. He sold me so I had a bunless burger and GF fries. I normally don't get fries but they were awesome.
Denver to Glenwood Springs: I took Amtrak to Glenwood Springs. This was one of my highlights of the trip. The train went through 27 tunnels, along the Colorado River and through Canyons. I could see people rafting and fly fishing in the river. I stayed at the Denver Hotel in Glenwood Springs. It was right across the street from Amtrak and across the river from the hot springs. Dinner was at the Brewpub next door. They had the largest GF menu I've ever seen. I had bunless burger with avocado and tomato, potato topped w/ bacon and spring onions and homemade root beer. They had GF buns available but thought I better be safe and go paleo. After dinner I soaked in the hot springs which felt really good as I had done extensive walking in Denver.
I had some dizziness when I got to Denver and some dizziness when I got to Glenwood Springs but overall my altitude symptoms were mild. I think abstaining from alcohol was key and drinking a lot of water.
Night two in Glenwood Springs I was going to try a new restaurant the Pullman but we had torrential rains so I went back to the Brew Pub next door and had same order from previous night. Really loved the homemade root beer.
I took the express bus from Glenwood Springs to Aspen. It cost $7.00 and took about an hour and 10 minutes. The bus network is pretty extensive in this area so I was concerned about which bus to get on. I talked with a young Mexican guy at the bus stop about my concerns of getting on the right bus. He was going to work his shift up in Aspen so he told me to stick with him then he pulls out his wallet to start giving me money for the bus ticket. I was like "No thank you, I have my 7 one dollar bills but thank you so much!." There are nice folk everywhere.
I made it up to Aspen and met up with my work mates. I had some dizziness as I was now at 8000 feet but nothing too bad. The next two days I ate pretty much gluten free banquet food. One night we had a sushi bar. I asked one of the servers if he could check with the chef as I wanted to make sure I could eat the sushi and it was GF, SF and cream cheese free. The chef said yes it was all okay for me. I had my first sushi since my diagnosis. Yea! No reaction! My hotel also had a large water cooler at the check in area. The water was flavored with slices of cucumber. This tasted great! Another highlight was the GF bagel at the hotel. It was really yummy and I topped it with coconut oil as a spread.
Overall this was a great trip! I'm glad I did not cancel as I've never been to that part of the country.
Brandy
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