Business Trip Part 2 - The Businessing

[And here's the second part. Still tl;dr but whatever]

From there, we stopped in Estes Park and Boulder, Colorado.  Estes Park was recommended by Ape's dad, and the easiest way to describe it would be to compare it to Gatlinburg, TN of 10 years ago. Lots and lots of t-shirt shops selling the same captioned tees, plus local and chain restaurants. There was a nice river running alongside the main drag, and we were a few days too early for the moose migration.  But I just didn't like it much.

Boulder was just because. We stopped at their version of an outdoor mall and walked around with Creature.  It was sundown and more of a romantic time than commerce-oriented. At 9pm, 12 hours after leaving Nebraska, we arrived at our Embassy Suites hotel in Denver.

Once again, we found ourselves in an Embassy Suites, which always reminds me wistfully of AWA. We got this one on a typical Ape steal-o'-a-deal, and aside from being in a kind of gritty location, the hotel itself was as nice as always.  We watched more TV and then crashed.  Why is it that it seems the nicer hotels have a more limited channel selection than budget places?  Same for Internet - most resorty places charge for it whilst most lower-end stops offer it for free.  Ape said it prolly had to do with each kind's target demographic - business travelers staying in the nicer places could fork out for better amenities.  Still cheesy...

Saturday was a typical whirlwind of activity.  After enjoying a wonderful Embassy breakfast, we went back up, got ready and headed out to Cherry Creek to meet a friend of Ape's.  She met us at the nicer mall there with her two young daughters, so of course there were many girly pictures taken.  We looked around for a bit and ate lunch in their food court.

Aside from a number of uppity stores, there were two highlights: a Lego kiosk, where a guy was selling mostly individual minifigs.  LOTS of minifigs.  Each side of his cart was lined with a wall of 'figs. It sure looked like he had representatives from every series.  I wound up taking pics of all of them and sending them to Younger, assuming he'd want something here as his souvenir.  I let him review those while I moved on.

The other "event" store was a Sony boutique.  It wasn't so much the room full of tech toys that interested me here.  It was the live-fire exercise in restraint, as I successfully maintained my composure and didn't grief the help.  I'm not normally a grudge-holder but the multiple indignities heaped upon me by Sony, or one of its tentacular arms, have put me off them.  But I smiled and spoke politely with ever-helpful salesfolk.  And they did have a few games on sale.

Before leaving, Younger called me back and told me what he wanted, so I ran back to the Lego vendor and  picked up an Admiral Ackbar (nope, not gonna!) and a Green Dragon.  We headed back to the garage, drove a short distance to a Whole Foods where we rejoined Ape's friend, and headed to Littleton.

Yes, /that/ Littleton.  We pulled into the Columbine High School grounds, not sure what to expect.  I know I *didn't* expect a festival and car show.  Our only goal had been to visit the memorial commemorating the terrible events and amazing heroism of that day.  Turns out the school was going to make us work for it.  The path we started on took us behind the memorial plaza, but there was no connection.  We did get a great walking tour of the sports field, the running track, and the nice kiddie park.

So, with two loaded strollers, our procession made a u-turn and eventually picked up the right path.  I must say, the design of the memorial is very tranquil.  I promise I'll get the albums and vids of this trip up soon! ^^  In any case, we all spent quiet time reading the plaques for the fallen students and teacher, as well as a rotunda-style assemblage of quotes spoken by various people during and after the tragedy.

After we took in the memorial, we went back to the grounds and took in the festival for about 45 minutes before we needed to leave for dinner.  Most of what was there (and there was a LOT there) was pretty standard festival/bazaar stuff.  A section of business representatives from the area and from larger outfits.  Food and craft tents.  Merchants of all kinds.  But one tent stood out as offering one of the neatest things I'd seen ages.  A vertical chessboard.

Imagine a frame with 64 small cubbies in it, arranged 8x8.  The chess pieces go in as you'd expect, but the twist is a "button" that marks that last move.  I chatted up the seller and he explained the idea was to allow games between people who can't always play face-to-face.  Think chess by mail, except both players visit the same space.  Each moves when they can and the board can be hung out of the way so that it doesn't take up unnecessary space and the board isn't likely to be disturbed mid-game.

Also, a woman looking at boards was doing so with an albino bearded dragon curled upon her shoulder.

Did I mention Colorado is a very liberal place?

Our last stop on our jam-packed weekend was an Italian restaurant called Cinzzetti's to meet with my first-ever boss and her husband.  However, "restaurant" as a description is totally inadequate.  Our friends got in ahead of us and were able to secure a table a bit before we arrived.  This struck us as unusual, because many places won't seat a party unless most of it is present, and, y'know, Saturday night.  So when we walked in the lobby and met my one-time boss, we had to thread our way through dozens of people.  I was trying to figure out what favor they called in to hold a half-full table so long.

Then we made it into the restaurant.  Or at least part of it.  The place was gargantuan.  They could hold a partial table because the place holds 600 people.  Not a typo.  I found a newspaper article in the back explaining that the location was originally a movie theater and office supply warehouse.  They specifically cater to groups, boasting "2 or 200, come on in!"  For once, I don't think it's advertising hyperbole!

So anyways, we all sat and spent a good while catching up.  Like 30 minutes catching up.  We haven't seen our friends since they moved out here though Ape's kept up via Facebook.  Finally, it was time to eat!  In addition to being ridiculously scaled, Cinzzetti's is a buffet and features five main "food bars" - soups, pastas, meats, breads and desserts.  And it was really really tasty!  So we spent a long evening eating and talking, until we just *had* to go.

It really was nice catching up with them, and getting to see recent pics of our respective kids, and hearing some interesting stories about college-bound teen parenting!  They are a really lovely couple, and like us, aren't afraid to be affectionate in public.  Ape and I would have done so as well, but Creature was sat between us /sigh  Oh, one other thing - normally, I feel reasonably clever, world-aware, and well-spoken.  Being with these two though makes me feel like a chronic underachiever.  Never mind a pair of Master's degrees - they're the most ambitious all-conquering people I know.  I really should seek inspiration, but, lazy Mithra.

We make a latish return to the hotel with plans of a little wind-down time before beginning the airport process early in the morning.  Two things stood in our way: a young lady was having her quinceañera and the parking lot was overfull.  So was the lobby.  I sent Ape and the baby up while I camped for an in-lot spot.  I got lucky pretty quickly and headed up, hoping the revelry wouldn't keep us or Creature up.

My other challenge was to get all our junk to fit our meager bag space.  Ape told me what was clean and what wasn't, and I set to work folding and stuffing.  It took an hour but I got all the bags sorted and ready.  Next time I vote for FedExing our dirty laundry back and using the new space for souvenirs.

The morning's drive to the airport and processing therein went much better than when we left home.  We had our "Amazing Race" moment as we went the wrong way out of the hotel and lost a little time getting turned around.  And dropping off the rental was interesting as there was no one to check us in and we were worried about a pre-existing rock chip that they covered in blue painter's tape.  All would be well though.

And our run through the airport was much much smoother.  This time, we got the scanner loaded like pros and I didn't get so much as felt up.  The flight out from Denver was uneventful but we had no time to eat.  So we'd planned to grab food in Houston and eat on that plane.  Do you remember the Amazing Race ep where one team just misses a flight, causing those on the just-rolled-back jet to cheer?  And then they went back to the gate?  Yeah, we very nearly had one of those.

Let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.  (Princess Bride!)  Our flight into Houston arrived on time, but for reasons that were never explained to us, our aisle passenger had MS and needed boarding assistance.  No worries there, as we have an aunt with MS and know how awful it is.  BUT...they unloaded all the other passengers first, then her, before us.  So we lost about 25 minutes of our layover/run to gate time.

So, on finally reaching the terminal, riding the tram and reaching the departing terminal, we looked for our gate.  B84 it said.  And look, the 80s are just over here.  At the end of a football field long hall.  Ok, ok, we're here.  No we're not.  Another hall, to just 80-84.  One more field later, we're in an elevated tower with our gate marked.  But there's no one there.  Ape stayed back to get breakfast so I looked around and eventually got in a customer service line.  The friendly girl told me 84 was downstairs.  O-kay.

I walk down the stairs and find myself in another terminal, with its own gate numbers! Aaargh!  So I find ours and lo and behold, it leaves in 5 minutes.  There's a guy there trying to get a standby seat and it doesn't take a high MND stat to realise he's about to get our seats.  The gate agent keeps asking me if I'm going to board and I keep telling her not without Ape.  We both watch the stairs for signs of her, and the agent continues to make final call announcements on her mic.

When Ape appears with literally seconds to spare, I frantically signal she needs to bolt, which she does as best she can with the stroller.  We get checked in and hustle with Creature plus all our junk to the gate.  Which is at the end of ANOTHER long hallway.  I was really getting aggravated by this point.  I mean, really, we had to be in Dallas by this point!  So we make it to the plane, which is on the tarmac with a rolly ladder next to it.  We quickly break down the stroller and bags and leave them and board.  I think one person got on after us but all eyes were on the disheveled couple with the wee one.

To make matters worse, I really need to go to the bathroom, having had no time since leaving the hotel some 4 hours earlier.  So the flight attendant graciously let me run back to the minuscule lavatory where I hoped they'd let me leave prior to takeoff.

After that near-miss, we had no further trouble with our return.  Ape's sis met us at our airport with the Clones and her mom.  Elder very nearly knocked me over, blindsiding me with a surprise bear-hug ^^  From there, it was lunch with most of our extended fam at Red Lobster, then home to recover and sleep.