I’m back – literally – at home in Iowa!
Our Denver vacation was cut a day short because of some nasty storms snaking through eastern Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa, that could have potentially kept us in Colorado for Christmas! 
I will say I was incredibly bummed, but after getting the weather report yesterday morning, we quickly changed plans and managed to squeak in about 90% of what we wanted to do while we were out there. SO, we’re now back at home but it least I can relive my vacation through photos – onto day 2!
Sunday in Denver was a snoozefest in the way possible… because it started at Snooze! An a.m. eatery, don’t you know. 
Snooze specializes in breakfast and came highly recommended to us by several readers. After our success with the Cherry Cricket we, of course, obliged and headed down for breakfast on Sunday morning!
Snooze is a very popular restaurant and there was a 40 minute wait to get a table. We didn’t mind – we stood outside, basking in the beautiful morning air and sipped on the free, piping hot coffee they provided. Nice touch, Snooze!
Check out all these awards! We knew were in for a treat. 
The inside of the restaurant has a retro, 60s vibe. Very bright and airy too.
After being seated we were presented with a menu, and my jaw dropped…
Pineapple Upside Down Cake Pancakes? Funky Monkey Pancakes? Fall Classic Pancakes? This was my sweet tooth’s dream come true!!! How would I ever decide? I decided that I couldn’t possibly decide, so I ordered a Pancake Flight. (I know.) In my customized flight:
- Pineapple Upside Down Pancake (Snooze is famous for this one)
- Fall Classic Pancake (Like apple and pear crisp in pancake form, eek!)
- Blueberry Pancake (I decided I better keep it real and not have three pancakes for breakfast!)
We were giddy with anticipation.
See?
Ben got so excited he even channeled the Larimer Square Bear!
20 minutes passed and our waiter came back. “I screwed up your order,” he explained. What. No. He went on, “Instead of putting your order in as a pancake flight with three smaller sized pancakes, I accidently put your order in as three full sized pancakes.” What. YES!!!
LOOK!
It was the most incredible thing I had ever laid my eyes on – each pancake was two times the size of my head!
The Blueberry Pancake was a light buttermilk pancake, packed with fresh blueberries, topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and served with a side of real maple syrup. omg.
The Fall Classic Pancake had caramelized pear and apple slices cooked right into the pancake batter. Drizzled with maple cream, sprinkled with crunchy streusel topping and dalloped with fresh whip cream – OMG.
The Pineapple Upside Down Pancake had caramelized chunks of fresh pineapple and was drizzled with homemade vanilla creme anglaise and cinnamon butter. O.M.G.! I literally could not stop myself from eating bite after decadent, sweet and fluffy bite of this pancake. Like Heaven on earth I’m telling you!!
I have never had a better breakfast than this trio of pancakes. Absolutely incredible!!!
Ben and I did what we could to polish these babies off…
But ended up asking the waiter to take them away because they were SO delicious that we would have eaten them all…and nobody would have wanted to see that…!
A serious pancake coma ensued, but there were things to do and people to see, darn it, so off we went to see our friends Drew and Meredith who live in Denver! Here’s a view from their balcony – isn’t it incredible?
We caught up until Meredith had to head out to see the Denver Broncos play at the nearby stadium. Drew, Ben and I headed to a local bar, Govnr’s Park, to watch along on tv!
Govn’r Parks is super cool, not at all what you think when looking at it from the outside, and in a residential area – I like that!
It was all decked out for the Holidays, too.
The Broncos ended up losing at the very end, but we didn’t mind (well, Ben and I, the out-of-towners didn’t mind!) because it was so fun to hang out and catch up.
And drink crispy cold Coors Light!
Later that night we met back up with Meredith to catch some dinner. We headed to Lime - an American Cantina. I ordered the Tres Enchiladas – three corn tortillas filled with shredded chicken, cheese and shredded beef. Amazing!
Also amazing was my Mojito (my favorite specialty drink) and Lime’s chips and salsa. The chips were almost like thin pita chips – great texture!
With full bellies, we parted ways, headed home and crashed. It was a day full of sweet eats, cool drinks and fun times with friends. What more could you ask for on vacation?!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s 2-part recap of day 3 of our Denver vacation, which includes views like this:
And slides like this?!
Have a good night!
omg those pancakes are HUGE! Those are the best kind
Holy pancakes. That is seriously amazing. Even though I’m not big on sweet things for breakast even I can appreciate those beauties!!!! And your mexicana fare looks scrumptious as well
what a perfect mini vacay!
This may be a weird comment – but do you dye your hair? It’s SUCH a nice shade of brown, all over lol. I haven’t dyed my hair in over a year and a half and the ends are so brassy and almost red/light brown and they’re super ugly, but I’m trying to grow my natural hair out to see what color its been for the last 15 years – literally!
Sorry your Colorado trip was cut short, what a bummer.
Sorry your trip was cut short, Kristen. Alas, at least you got back before weather became horrific.
Govs. Park – my liver does not let me go there anymore, thankfully:)
wow those pancakes look amazing! kudos to you for asking the waiter to take them away – I don’t think I would’ve had the same willpower!
Holy cow, those pancakes are insane looking! And that waiter by no means made a mistake by putting in the big order, he merely gave you an early Christmas present! Jackpot!!
Glad you had a great trip but I am happy to see you home safe and sound.
SO glad you’re home safe and sound! Better to cut a trip short than to go through a debacle like we went through… seriously ridiculous, check my last post if you want a jaw-dropping laugh!
aw sorry your vacation was cut short!! Those pancakes look amazing though!
Bummer about the weather, but you stumbled upon a fluffy heaven for sure
So glad you made it safe and got there!! THere were tons of winter storms messing up flights!!!
Looks like you are having a great time, Pancake flights!!! omg!! Never seen that before, wow!! And lucky you guys the waite messed up and gave you Pancake Flight around the world! lol!! THe pancakes are huge!!! Looked so good!! Enjoy the holidays !!!
So glad you enjoyed Snooze…there’s nowhere else like it!
I am sorry to hear that you had to cut your trip short, but I am sure that you will be glad that you are HOME for Christmas!! Also, I hope that everything in Denver was tasty and relaxing!!
Those pancakes are awesome
. Breakfast is the best thing ever, haha. Your trip looks like an amazing time…can’t wait for the rest of the recap! 
I want to go down that fun slide! I’ve always been so excited by slides.
holy cow! those pancakes loooked AMAZING!!!!!! that is one thing i never do is go out for breakfast, and i seriously have a huge craving for pancakes now!!!
OMG those pancakes look amazing!!!! That stinks your vacation got cut short but it looks like ya’ll had a great time while you were there.
Did you take that second to last picture??? It’s gorgeous…definitely a framer!
Everything looks great…I’d eat all of those pancakes in a second! Too bad your trip got cut short!
and not to butter you up or anything, but you are a gorgeous girl!
Oh my gosh, those pancakes look to-die-for! Yum, yum, yum!
Pancake heaven indeed! Which one was your favorite?
Snow put a damper on our trip home too as well. But at least that means snow will be on the ground on Christmas Day and you gotta love that!
Yeah those pancake simply look delectable! YUM! Pretty sure my whole wheat pancakes i had yesterday couldn’t compare…
Question: Is Coors Light better than Bud Light? Random I know, but I’m honestly curious.
That sucks that your trip got cut short. Booo
Three words regarding those pancakes: Oh My God
I love Govs. Park! They have the best burgers!
Let me tell you how much I love pancakes. A LOT. I am having a serious craving right now…I’m going to Denver in February to visit a friend and we are totally going to have to go eat those pancakes!!! Glad you made it home safely – we are supposed to drive from KC to western KS on Christmas Day and we’ll see if the storm gets in our way. Have a Merry Christmas!
Don’t you just love COLORADO!!! I was born and raised part of my child hood in Auroroa, CO and love/miss it so much! We were there in March and it looked exactly the same but had a bit of snow as there was a Blizzard while we were there. They have such great places to eat there and amazing mexican food, something that is so hard to find here in Florida.
totally random question, but what chocolate place did you work at when you lived in MN, again? My parents were mentioning which place we buy our chocolate from over dinner the other night, and I could have sworn it was the same place you worked at.
Just curious
[...] about a meal I had on vacation, ohhh two months ago. It’s true – I have been replaying Snooze’s Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes over and over in my head since I devoured them in Denver this December! Well, tonight, it was [...]
[...] (boo!) and I was looking for a place to eat on our last morning. God bless Iowa Girl Eats for this post about this restaurant! I am salivating looking at this menu. I don’t care if the restaurant [...]
I am so glad I saw this because I will be in Denver tomorrow!
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[...] by my favorite place to get breakfast in the ENTIRE country – Snooze – these pancakes were off the [...]
LOVE those pancakes at Snooze… and now I am officially homesick for Denver (and wicked hungry for breakfast food). Beautiful job creating your own yummy version!
“Bummer about the weather, but you stumbled upon a fluffy heaven for sure”
You didn’t have the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes? How tragic! Haha they’re not on the menu but next time, ask for them – they’re to die for. We LOOOOOVE Snooze and miss it so much since we moved to San Francisco, ’cause you know there’s such a shortage of foodie fare out here.
I found your post whilst looking for a copycat recipe for Snooze Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. So I’m off to continue my search … but I really enjoyed your photos and gushing about our beloved Snooze!