Denver Doings

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to Denver, Colorado for a work conference for NHPCO which stands for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. My work signed me up for this conference back in the spring, and we were not sure at that time if Wade was going to be able to join me or not. It turns out it worked out where he could join me which was wonderful. We ended up having to take two flights because of the last minute ticket purchase, which neither of us particularly were thrilled about. But it turned out to be fine. We flew out of Charlotte, North Carolina because it was cheaper than flying out of Columbia. A friend of mine from college lives in Charlotte, Chad Carter, and we were going to try to meet him for a quick breakfast at 7:30am. That didn't work out because traffic was so crazy getting up there! I had several 'character moments' as I like to call them on the flight on the way up ---- couldn't find my itinerary, trying to make me pay $200 extra dollars, having to go all the way back out to ticketing and back through security in my 45 minute connection in Milwaukee..... and so on and so on. I was happy to be on solid ground once I got to Denver! We also were thankful we got to Denver the day AFTER the terrorist who drove the airport shuttle bus was captured.


The hotel was fabulous. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center which is in the heart of downtown Denver. It was beautiful.

This is a view of the Hotel from 15th Street

Our cute little room.  So many pillows!!

While I was learning about all different aspects of hospice care, and meeting some really cool people from all over the country (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' son is a name you all may know), Wade was having some fun of his own exploring the great mile high city.  He took a tour of the Bronco's stadium....

... and Coors Field, where the Colorado Rockies play...

Wade also spent a lot of time relaxing and looking at all of the great things there are to see in Denver, like the snow capped Rocky Mountains. The convention center was located across the street from our hotel. There were all sorts of various things happening over there. Some, I will not mention on here, but one was the annual beerfest. There were all different types of people walking around the streets with dental floss necklaces on, strung with pretzels and string cheese. It was interesting. Also, Wade and I noticed there were lots of people with very large and colorful tattoos on the most interesting parts of their bodies. Lots of blue star tattoos on the necks of young women. Very different than the majority of the southern east coast.
Below is a picture of a HUGE bear outside of the convention center. I am located at the base so you can see the enormity of this bear. There are laws in Denver that for every certain amount of city owned property; you must have some sort of art. I really like that idea, because it perks the city up. This, I guess, is part of the city art for this area. I loved this bear. I think he has a cute little booty :)

My conference ended on Saturday around noon, so Wade and I got to have some fun of our own around downtown Denver.  We took a walking tour of a lot of the neat places to see.  We got some really great pictures thanks to the new camera Wade got me for our anniversary that came recommeded by my Dad.

Great picture of the hotel at dusk.

I love this picture outside of the Capitol

I like to call this one "Blades of Glory".  I was trying to take a picture of the capitol through the blades of grass, but all I got was the grass and sky.  It does look kinda of cool though :)

 

Bucking Bronco - Lighting turned out neat.

      Man this buffalo had a HUGE booger.  I had to help him out.

Outside of the Capitol

Veteran's Memorial      

Wade got to be John Elway for a day :)                                        

                    

                                            

We went to the Rockie's game which was pretty awesome.  We sat in what I like to call the 'pop rocks' section with our $4 tickets.  We had a really good time... and we caught a fly ball which I was pretty stoked about as you can see in the below pictures...

                           

   

One of the funniest things that happened was on our public transportation ride to the Rockies game.  We got on the bus, and Wade sat next to this older man, and I sat next to Wade.  I looked over at the man as he made eye contact with me and I started to laugh.  He had in a set of billy bob teeth with a straight poker face on.  Wade was freaked out sitting next to this man which made it even more funny.  Then he started with the jokes "I bet you want to know who my orthodontist is" and "This is your grill" (smiles with pretty natural teeth), "this is your grill on drugs" (puts billy bob teeth in).  It was pretty dern funny!!  All in all it was a fantastic trip.  Great city.  We will have to go back sometime and go skiing.