**Apologies in advanced for my long-windedness**
A couple of weeks ago, Hubs and I got to visit Denver. He was going for a conference, and I just happened to tag along since I had never been. I was really looking forward to this trip. A few days off work, an airplane ride, and a hotel stay. Good times ahead.
When I arrived to my gate, I was surprised to see that Hartsfield had installed little walls of outlets, 2 on each side, between every other row of seats at each gate, which is nice, but very hard to come by unless you get to the gate really early, which I did. I was all settled in with my electronics plugged in, happy in my little social media stalking world, when hunger struck. D'oh. The drawback to traveling alone. If you get up, you give up your seat. In the end, the stomach always wins, and I went off in search of sustenance and caffeine. Luckily there was Dunkin' Donuts near the gate that could provide both. Getting food at the airport is always an adventure. For example:
Me: My biscuit was supposed to have cheese (I know, not very Paleo, but I was on vacation dammit).
Server: (Blank stare)- Okay.
Me: I don’t think it’s on there.
Server: You ordered cheese? (Sheesh, I thought I was speaking English, maybe I should have been speaking “text”.)
Me: Um, yes.
Fortunately, I was able to watch her add the cheese and only the cheese.
The actual flight itself was fine; I slept through most of it. Take-off was interesting with all the swaying back and forth in the wind and rain. And I think this was my first flight ever that had a female captain. Girl Power!
I made it to the hotel and got my key from the front desk and had really bad “der” moment. Although, not entirely my fault. I guess I don’t stay in fancy hotels enough, and by fancy I mean the Sheraton. My ass is usually relegated to a Holiday Inn Express. Apparently, nowadays at these fancy hotels, you have to swipe your room key to get to any floor, instead of just the fancy penthouse suites. Ms. Front-Desk-I’m-Only-Working-Here-Until-The-Wedding-With-My-Rock-Of-Gibraltar-Sized-Ring forgot to inform me of this teeny, but oh so important fact. When I got into the elevator, I pressed the button, and off I went. But then I stopped on a floor that was not my own. It wouldn’t have been such a huge deal except for the fact that the doors did not open. Not so good. Leave it to me to get the defective elevator. Talk about an extinction burst. If that 17 button wasn’t broken before, it was now. Luckily, I kept my wits about me and pressed the open door button. I stepped out into the hallway and pressed the up arrow hoping to get a different elevator. No luck, same elevator. Okay, let’s try this again. 17. Doors close. Up, up, up, wait you missed my floor. Again. 19. This time, I finally saw the little room key swiper. Let me give it whirl. I am such a genius.
I was able to meet one of my sorority sisters for dinner at a brewery called Wynkoop where I got to taste my first bison burger ever. It was fantabulous. After dinner, before dropping me off back at the hotel, she drove me around a little bit pointing out different things that I might like to see. She specifically pointed out the capitol building. Remember this. This is the impetus that would lead me on a walking tour of downtown Denver that I am pretty sure that I didn’t want to have.
With Hubs busy most of the day with the conference meetings, I was on my own for entertainment. On this particular day, Hubs had a meeting that was in a different hotel, so I decided that I would walk him to the hotel and then go exploring.
Okay, so I will preface this by saying that when my friend was driving me around, I had no clue where I was in relation to my hotel. So, when I decided to go exploring it was very last minute and very spontaneous, as in, I did not consult Google. I figured, hey it’s a capitol building, I’m pretty sure that I can pick it out of the skyline and head towards it. Well, that might have worked had I actually picked out the right landmark. So to save myself the humiliation of actually typing out what happened, I will let Google Maps illustrate.
So, this is the route that I could have taken had I wanted to be there in, oh, five minutes:
This is the route that I actually took because I was walking towards the wrong building and too stubborn to look at the visitor guide maps:
On the bright side, I got to peruse the 16th street mall and since it was such a great day weather wise, I didn’t mind being outside, and I got some exercise. At the end of the day, I got the picture of the mile marker. Of course, that didn’t stop Hubs from the obligatory pat on the head when I relayed yet another story of my lack of directional intuition.
On an even brighter note, I discovered a great little place to eat that is not here in Georgia. I had actually planned to go down to the hotel coffee shop for lunch and pick up something there, but as I found out, it is a coffee shop in the true sense in that once the muffins run out, they’re out. Now I was in a pickle. And then I happened to look outside and see that right across the street was the 16th street food court and the first thing closest to me? Noodles and Company. What the hell? Definitely can’t go wrong with a name like that. So, I hopped on over, and it was like stepping into heaven. A place dedicated to serving all things noodles. The best part? Their signature dish is macaroni and cheese. Oh. My. Gravy. It’s almost a good thing that there isn’t one here in Ga. I would be HUGE and poor from eating there every day. Which is what I did. Mac and cheese the first day and beef stroganoff (pictured) the second day.
After the conference was over, we stayed our final night with friends who live in a nearby town. I cooked a big family meal, as a thank you for letting us crash and carting us around. And let me tell you, there is nothing more out of your comfort zone than cooking in someone else’s kitchen. Our last morning there, they took us to a place that is known for their awesome brunch and also featured on one of my favorite tv shows, Man vs. Food.
We made it out of there just in time, a foot of snow was dumped on the city the day after we left. All in all, a great city. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time out there and hope to get back there soon. Although, my skin wasn’t so thrilled with the extreme dry air. I am still trying to recuperate from the snake skin that I developed out there.
A couple of weeks ago, Hubs and I got to visit Denver. He was going for a conference, and I just happened to tag along since I had never been. I was really looking forward to this trip. A few days off work, an airplane ride, and a hotel stay. Good times ahead.
When I arrived to my gate, I was surprised to see that Hartsfield had installed little walls of outlets, 2 on each side, between every other row of seats at each gate, which is nice, but very hard to come by unless you get to the gate really early, which I did. I was all settled in with my electronics plugged in, happy in my little social media stalking world, when hunger struck. D'oh. The drawback to traveling alone. If you get up, you give up your seat. In the end, the stomach always wins, and I went off in search of sustenance and caffeine. Luckily there was Dunkin' Donuts near the gate that could provide both. Getting food at the airport is always an adventure. For example:
Me: My biscuit was supposed to have cheese (I know, not very Paleo, but I was on vacation dammit).
Server: (Blank stare)- Okay.
Me: I don’t think it’s on there.
Server: You ordered cheese? (Sheesh, I thought I was speaking English, maybe I should have been speaking “text”.)
Me: Um, yes.
Fortunately, I was able to watch her add the cheese and only the cheese.
The actual flight itself was fine; I slept through most of it. Take-off was interesting with all the swaying back and forth in the wind and rain. And I think this was my first flight ever that had a female captain. Girl Power!
I made it to the hotel and got my key from the front desk and had really bad “der” moment. Although, not entirely my fault. I guess I don’t stay in fancy hotels enough, and by fancy I mean the Sheraton. My ass is usually relegated to a Holiday Inn Express. Apparently, nowadays at these fancy hotels, you have to swipe your room key to get to any floor, instead of just the fancy penthouse suites. Ms. Front-Desk-I’m-Only-Working-Here-Until-The-Wedding-With-My-Rock-Of-Gibraltar-Sized-Ring forgot to inform me of this teeny, but oh so important fact. When I got into the elevator, I pressed the button, and off I went. But then I stopped on a floor that was not my own. It wouldn’t have been such a huge deal except for the fact that the doors did not open. Not so good. Leave it to me to get the defective elevator. Talk about an extinction burst. If that 17 button wasn’t broken before, it was now. Luckily, I kept my wits about me and pressed the open door button. I stepped out into the hallway and pressed the up arrow hoping to get a different elevator. No luck, same elevator. Okay, let’s try this again. 17. Doors close. Up, up, up, wait you missed my floor. Again. 19. This time, I finally saw the little room key swiper. Let me give it whirl. I am such a genius.
I was able to meet one of my sorority sisters for dinner at a brewery called Wynkoop where I got to taste my first bison burger ever. It was fantabulous. After dinner, before dropping me off back at the hotel, she drove me around a little bit pointing out different things that I might like to see. She specifically pointed out the capitol building. Remember this. This is the impetus that would lead me on a walking tour of downtown Denver that I am pretty sure that I didn’t want to have.
With Hubs busy most of the day with the conference meetings, I was on my own for entertainment. On this particular day, Hubs had a meeting that was in a different hotel, so I decided that I would walk him to the hotel and then go exploring.
Okay, so I will preface this by saying that when my friend was driving me around, I had no clue where I was in relation to my hotel. So, when I decided to go exploring it was very last minute and very spontaneous, as in, I did not consult Google. I figured, hey it’s a capitol building, I’m pretty sure that I can pick it out of the skyline and head towards it. Well, that might have worked had I actually picked out the right landmark. So to save myself the humiliation of actually typing out what happened, I will let Google Maps illustrate.
So, this is the route that I could have taken had I wanted to be there in, oh, five minutes:
This is the route that I actually took because I was walking towards the wrong building and too stubborn to look at the visitor guide maps:
On the bright side, I got to peruse the 16th street mall and since it was such a great day weather wise, I didn’t mind being outside, and I got some exercise. At the end of the day, I got the picture of the mile marker. Of course, that didn’t stop Hubs from the obligatory pat on the head when I relayed yet another story of my lack of directional intuition.
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On an even brighter note, I discovered a great little place to eat that is not here in Georgia. I had actually planned to go down to the hotel coffee shop for lunch and pick up something there, but as I found out, it is a coffee shop in the true sense in that once the muffins run out, they’re out. Now I was in a pickle. And then I happened to look outside and see that right across the street was the 16th street food court and the first thing closest to me? Noodles and Company. What the hell? Definitely can’t go wrong with a name like that. So, I hopped on over, and it was like stepping into heaven. A place dedicated to serving all things noodles. The best part? Their signature dish is macaroni and cheese. Oh. My. Gravy. It’s almost a good thing that there isn’t one here in Ga. I would be HUGE and poor from eating there every day. Which is what I did. Mac and cheese the first day and beef stroganoff (pictured) the second day.
After the conference was over, we stayed our final night with friends who live in a nearby town. I cooked a big family meal, as a thank you for letting us crash and carting us around. And let me tell you, there is nothing more out of your comfort zone than cooking in someone else’s kitchen. Our last morning there, they took us to a place that is known for their awesome brunch and also featured on one of my favorite tv shows, Man vs. Food.
We made it out of there just in time, a foot of snow was dumped on the city the day after we left. All in all, a great city. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time out there and hope to get back there soon. Although, my skin wasn’t so thrilled with the extreme dry air. I am still trying to recuperate from the snake skin that I developed out there.
