Denver, I miss you -second in a series of three

Denver is such a great place to visit that I'm dedicating three posts to it.
I'm going to back up a bit and take you on a little chronological tour. I arrived on Thursday night and ate a very light dinner with Jeannie in the wonderful restaurant Panzano that was downstairs in our hotel. I don't remember the name of the dish, but it was a pasta with feta cheese, I think some dried cranberries, some nuts and something like sour grass, but I really can't remember. It was very tasty.

The next morning Jeannie was at her conference, so I was on my own. I knew it was going to be a great visit, because what can go wrong when you have a wizard wandering the streets of a city?

Later, when Jeannie was out of her conference, we took off on foot to see some of the city. There were signs around the city that said "Organ Trail," and looked blood-spattered. We asked about it and were told the city would be crawling with zombies as they tried to break a record for the most zombies on Saturday.
On Saturday we had a food tour scheduled for later in the day, but first we wanted to walk to a "Made in Colorado," store and pick up a few things. We thought it was not very far from our hotel, but it turns out it was very far from our hotel.

We walked a little more than three miles just to get there. Three miles is a lot for me these days, but I was OK. However, the air in Denver is different. It's a bit thin, and just felt different to walk that far. Some of it was a bit hilly, but nothing like here.

That Made in Dever shop also had a specialty chocolate shop called Roberta's Chocolates. But as we walked and kept checking my iPhone to see if were were getting any closer, we knew there was no way to make it back for our food tour on time if we walked, so we caught a cab back. We only bought a few things at the store, because by the time we got there we were both so tired and hungry we had lost interest. They had chocolate dipped Jalapeno peppers, but I opted for a small box of truffles. I also bought Chuck some chocolate covered bacon.

While we waited for the cab we walked across the street to the Mexican restaurant.
Our taxi dropped us at our hotel just in time for our food tour, and as we walked from one restaurant to the next we saw thousands of zombies, and some zombie killers. There were zombie babies, zombie umpa loompas, a zombie Queen Elizabeth and even a zombie banana. Some of the costumes were very realistic.

Oh, and the food was good. I truly can't remember the names of the restaurants. The first one was a desert place. It was OK. The second one was the best, and they brought out a real spread of foods. I had the salmon, and it was really, really good. And this is coming from someone who is used to very fresh and wonderful salmon. I also enjoyed the side dishes. The others in our group enjoyed a few meats that I don't eat, including pork. The presentation was really nice, and the dishes I had were just perfect.

From there we went to a pizza place. Not my favorite. The vegetarian option was a small salad that was nothing special, and the carnivores were served Trotter Pie, which is made of pig's feet. I didn't hear any of the feedback. They offered a couple of beer samples as well. It was OK, but I'm not a big fan of dark beers.

Jeannie and I met a couple of really nice ladies at our hotel lobby, which hosted a happy hour with something tasty and free wine, as well as a neck massage. They were so nice, and invited us to share lemoncellos with them to celebrate their birthdays.

Denver was a lot of fun, and it was great to reconnect with Jeannie after so many years.
Now I'm back and in the groove of work and life again. But I look forward to another adventure sometime soon.

In my next post I'll provide a list some great things to do in Denver.

Denver, I love you!

Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver.

I'm in Denver, staying in this quaint and unique Hotel Monaco and enjoying myself immensely. There are free massages in the lobby in the afternoon, we have fluffy robes and loads of pillows on the beds, and everyone is friendly.

My childhood friend, Jeannie, invited me to join her here while she's attending a conference. It was so nice of her to invite me along, and tomorrow we'll be able to spend more time doing fun stuff. (This summer was the first time we had seen each other since we were kids.) Today we took a short jaunt to the incredible Tattered Cover Book Store. I felt so at home I could have stayed all day! In fact, I stayed a long time after Jeannie had to leave and get to her conference. I decided to browse and browse, and then I got hungry so I ordered a Tangy Tuna sandwich and a water and sat in the cafe area and took it all in. I have a soft spot in my heart for cafes that serve whole foods, and have their menu handwritten on a chalkboard. I used to work at one of those.

It's been a long time since I was able to hang out in such a cool bookstore. We have them, of course, and have a wonderful one in Seattle, but I haven't been there in a long time. Plus, there's just something about embracing a place you've never been. The wood floors, and the wood shelves, and the books that seem to go on from floor to ceiling, and the staircase that leads to MORE BOOKS! Ahh. Just wonderful.

I eventually did need to mosey on down the street and see what else there was to see. I passed by some really cool looking restaurants and shops, went in to a couple of shops that were way outside of my budget. $499 for a sweater. Umm, no.

Feeling the shock of that tag, I ventured farther and saw the Federal Reserve money museum. It's free! That's within my budget, so I went in. Now, granted, there is not a lot to see once you get in there, but what can you expect for free, right? There is a display of shredded money and dirt, and info on how they put shredded bills that are taken out of circulation into compost. There are some metal insets with raised images you can make your own money by placing the paper over it and rubbing a crayon over the top. There's a display of $30,000,000 in $100 bills, and a newspaper clipping of the robbery in the 1920s and a description and cartoonish drawing of the suspect.

And hey, they give away free bags of money! Well, it's shredded and worthless, but there's $165 in that bag.

Sick Day

Sean is sick today, which means I'm home as well. I find sick days to be a blessing and a curse. Though  I have some time to relax and do housework I wouldn't be able to do if we had a normal day of work and school, I know that this time off will make tomorrow a busier work day.

So today I'm puttering around, doing some laundry, monitoring my email in case I can do some work from home, and watching TV. I can't even say how long it has been since I watched mid-morning television.

I'm also chugging Airborne and taking vitamins because I feel a little scratchiness in my throat and that sickish feeling in my head.

What do you do on sick days?

Going around in circles

I think about circles a lot. I really seem to connect with squares, and I love diamond engagement/wedding rings that are princess cut, but I believe circles are what hold everything together.

This may sound really strange, but I'm not drunk or stoned, and I haven't gone over the edge. I want to get these thoughts out though, so I'm just going to put it out there.
The earth is a sphere. It is round, and there is no beginning or end to it. Same with the other planets out there. I'm not an astronomer, so this is a very simple observation, I know. I have never seen an oval planet or a rectangular planet.

Our sense of time is circular. The seasons come around again, and I see this as more of a spiral, like a spring. Time began when time began, and we are now at some point on that spiral.

If we live to old age, our beginning and our end circles back around to meet in some way. Elderly people, and even those who are terminally ill, have some characteristics of infants, or children at least. And I don't mean that in a negative way. Along the way we are introduced to experiences and situations and people, and later in our lives we revisit these. Sometimes we revisit them multiple times and build upon them.

I'm not a biblical scholar, so I don't remember the exact book and verse, but there is a verse that says the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

I used to think it meant that finally all of those arrogant, rich, selfish people would have to get to the back of the line. All of those bullies who pushed the less fortunate out of the way and trampled on people to get to the top would pay.

I don't think that anymore. I know this would not be a popular viewpoint with a lot of people, and most likely not very popular with a lot of my friends and even some of my family. We tend to want people to be punished. But I've changed my mind on this one.  I think that verse means there won't be a line. I believe at the end of this life we join others in a circle, where no one knows who is first and who is last because we're all equal.

Those who were first (those with everything) will not have everything, and they won't have nothing. They'll have love. And those who were last (homeless, starving, poor beyond belief) will not have nothing, and they won't have everything. They'll have love. No one will have more love than the other, and no place in the circle will be more prestigious or important than the next.

And maybe I'm wrong. But I hope I'm not.

Summer bargains

I am all about the bargain, and this summer I spent quite a few weekends on the hunt. I visited a lot of yard sales and came home with several great finds. I tried to carefully choose, because the last thing we need is more "stuff."
We had been talking about a new backyard grill. The one we have is really for camping, and when we try to cook for a large group it doesn't quite do the job.
So we started looking and what we found just wasn't to our liking. They seemed flimsy and cheap, but the price tag told a different story.
I was at a yard sale and spotted this one.

I barely noticed it, and then remembered we were looking for one. The price was kinda high. I called Chuck and he wasn't so sure. That evening we took a trip to Costco for some stuff and happened to walk through the area where they had some really nice grills. They were all over $1,000!

Suddenly the price tag on this one didn't seem so high. I went back the next day to see if it had sold yet and it was still there. They threw in the heavy duty utensils, some oven mits and trays and we have a Vermont Castings grill! For $250! It has a rotisserie and a separate area for smoking chips. We used it a lot this summer, and we're getting ready to use it one more time before the season closes down.

I love yard sales!

A boy king

Last month we took advantage of our membership to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and got deeply discounted tickets for the King Tut exhibit.
It was so very cool, and there were so many interesting things to see. I took way too many pictures. No flash, of course, but my cell phone took surprisingly good photos.
I think we were the last stop on the king's tour of North America. The kids were disappointed that the mummy wasn't the real one, but we made up for it later. We took them the Ye Ole Curiosity Shoppe on the waterfront and they got to see TWO mummies. Sylvester, who has been there since who knows when. I remember seeing him as a kid when we came to visit my grandparents, and now there is a female mummy there. I want to say her name is Sylvia, but I might be wrong. I can't remember.
So, at the King Tut exhibit the kids weren't quite as into it as Chuck and I were, but then I guess when you're 10 and 11 it wouldn't be as engaging to look at statues and old stuff.
Here are a few of the highlights.

An Egyptian bed found in the tomb.

Thousands of years ago they had games. These were in
his tomb.

Statues of the tomb builders.

The boy king.

Ramesses II

Sarcophagus for his cat.

The fake mummy. They were interested, but disappointed by the fake.

After the exhibit we went to eat at the Crab Shack.

Two Harts

We had the best time at David and Grace's wedding!
It was so beautiful.
Our trip was really great, and I was surprised at how nice the humidity and warm temperatures felt. But more about that and the rest of the trip later. Here are some pics of the wedding!

We arrived a little early. This is where they stood
for the ceremony. The glass jars held candles. 

The reception area was beautiful in daylight, but as night
began to fall it was absolutely gorgeous.

It was a carnival themed wedding and there were games
to play while we waited for the couple to appear at
the reception. Grace did such a beautiful
job with all of the details.

Isn't this cutout adorable? Grace is so creative. 

Guests were invited to create a page of art
in the guest book. A calendar of
photos taken by David and Grace had
instructions for each guest to find their birthday and
sign their name beside it. A great idea for keeping
track of birthdays!

The groomsmen and bridesmaids sauntered down
the aisle all smiles, animation and silliness. 

Each bridesmaid dress was red, but they all chose a different
style. The Man of Honor was dressed like the groomsmen.

A more serious moment.

Waiting.

The bride.

The vows.

The kiss.