Denver CO, October 2013

T wanted to attend a gaming tournament in Denver and I was able to tag along. While he gamed, i took the light rail downtown and saw a bit of the town.

Arrived on Friday night, well after dark and spent some time in the hotel's conference room area for T's tournament, meeting some of his Austin friends who were up there, playing Halo 4, and checking out the tournament set up.

Saturday I left him gaming and went out to the town.

View from Hotel room

Union Station, looks like it was being remodeled. Lots of construction in this area; got lost.

Sign on the Museum of Contemporary Art. Didn't go in, but liked the sign.

Sign while waiting for the bus, which I finally found my way too.

Took the bus to the 32nd / Meade area to meet with an "inkstress" at the lovely shop wordshop. to see if she'd be interested in selling my cards. She had a few recommendations of places to see in the area, too- A GREAT area. If i didn't have to be back at the hotel shortly after, and if I brought an extra suitcase for purchased items, I probably could have spent a whole day there.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake from Happy Cakes.

Interested old house being worked on.

Personal rule: Spy an MG, you gotta take a picture. Love it!

Fantastic house, now a realtor's office.

 Then took the bus back to the Platte area for a late lunch.

Walked around the park on way to lunch.

ROAR! Spotted at the park.

This. Was. Lunch.
Cream Tea at the House of Commons.  Perfect, just perfect.

 Walked a little further, then headed back to the light rail to head back to T.

Art installation under the bridge at the station.

Such beautiful fall colors. All over Denver there are splashes of red and yellow amongst the green.

Sunday I took a short trip downtown to check out the Larimer Square area. Walked around the area and saw quite a bit. Was sleepy though (we didn't sleep well in Denver) so headed back to hotel for a nap early in the afternoon.

Snowy mountains in the distance

Wild Mushroom crepe from Crepes n Crepes

Fall trees on the way to dinner with T.

Monday, once the rain passed, T and I checked out and trekked to the train station. His tournament was over and we had a late flight so he could have a little time to see the city. We just headed downtown, sat outside at cafes and people-watched, then took the free shuttle to the capitol building (dome was being worked on so didn't go over, plus, suitcases were annoying), and then went to the bus station to head to the airport, early. Security took 45 minutes, yuck.

Rain rain rain in the morning. It passed in time for us to check out.

Hail leftover from the rain. Doesn't melt immediately like in TX!

On the bus.

Airport lounge, killing time with alcohol. (Might have been the best Pimms Cup i've had!)

Engine wouldn't start. Made for an incredibly nerve-wracking trip once we got it "fixed" and up in the air.

It was a nice, and clean!, city, but I was glad to be home. Would go back, with hopes of staying closer to downtown. Areas I'd like to go back to, and museums/cultural things to see, but enjoyed what I saw.  Glad to be home though.

All of my photos can be seen on Flickr. 

New Mexico & Arizona 6/2010

T and I took a road trip to Arizona for my family reunion. He'd never seen W. Texas+ before, and W. Texas is probably one of my favorite landscapes so I was thrilled. Took SOOOOO many pictures... you can view them all here and here but below are a few.

We drove from Austin to Las Cruces NM, had dinner at my Grandma's favorite place in Old Mesilla, and then headed west in the morning. 

Steins (Ghost Town) off of I10 (NM)

Finally saw the "typical" cactus from the movies! (AZ)

Fortunately/Unfortunately I was driving the stretch north of Phoenix, Interstate-17, and it was the BEST DRIVE EVER- fast, curvy, ups and downs, semis going 65mph with me! Thank goodness I was in a car (Mazda 6) that could a) handle it and b) handle me! My knuckles were white. But it was awesome. Beautiful views, but as the photographer was driving... no pictures to share. I'm thinking that the best part of Phoenix is leaving it. Sorry Phoenix- your traffic sucks and you don't look like too much fun. But I17 until about Camp Verde... well. OMG FUN!

The Reunion was at Mormon Creek Lodge, just south of Flagstaff.

Where we ate many meals. The meeting room is towards the "lake"
behind the lodge.

Our room was the one one the left.
Such an uncomfortable bed and a not-pretty little room.
You'd think for the price paid the bed would at least have been comfy.
And there was a horrid fluorescent light above the bed. Lame.

Went with Dad & Sue for a day trip to the Grand Canyon!

We just did the small walking part by the visitors center, then i believe drove around the south rim.  And it rained off an on. Even hailed which made taking pictures difficult towards the end.

He didn't like it as much as me, poor guy.

See? A little rain out there.

Yes, I step up to the edge; and scared my Dad many, many times.
It was worth it.  He didn't get this shot.

After the Grand Canyon, we stopped and saw a couple gorges. I had no problem with the G.C. but this little colorado gorge caused my stomach to lurch at one point.

And this was that point:

  Just seeing the picture brings it all back!

Then heading home that Saturday, saw a lot of dinosaurs.

Yup, this is historically accurate. Totally.

NM

Very fun trip. Great scenery and fun sights. Looking forward to us getting a new car (eventually) so can explore west TX together.

England, May 1982

Photos from the trip to England with my mom as a baby are HERE.

December 9, 2007 - Las Vegas

Sad to leave but also happy to be going home...

December 8, 2007 - Las Vegas

The bride-to-be was *extremely* hung over so she stayed in bed most of the morning. 

Ashley, Amelia and I did some shopping at the Forum and had lunch. Ashley and I were on our way back to the hotel room to nap when we saw a woman with an H&M bag. As we don't have one in Austin or San Antonio we asked her where it was and trekked over there. All we knew was that it was by Paris...Did some more shopping in that area and then raced back the the hotel to get ready for the evening... we *barely* made it. I think I had enough time to throw on a different dress and comb my hair. 

Ran into Master Chief on the way back to the hotel...

At the taxi area waiting to head out. 

On the way to the Rio

Went to Tony & Tina's Wedding. As we had an extra seat at our table, the characters kept joining us. And as paid for a special package, we had unlimited champagne...

Five or six bottles of champagne later... 

We were *very* amused by the lights and sounds of the floor/air show above the casino. 

At a wine bar, briefly.... Amy called our cells and told us to get upstairs immediately... 

Turns out she convinced the bouncer at Chippendales that $60 a person was too much and that for $20 we'd do it. So we raced up there, paid him under the table and sat around until he led us in.

In the lobby of Chippendales. It was pretty and purple. But the best part?

The chairs had dance poles at the arms! I drunkenly attempted a spin over the chair and into the seat, and, amazingly, I succeeded. Heh. Had I been less tipsy I might have tried a firefly...

Fun show. They had a contest, a dance-off if you will, and our bride-to-be was the first of five contestants... and she WON! It was so exciting!!

The prize for winning. Everyone else who wanted a picture had to pay.

After Chippendales we went up the the club on the 50th floor.... we probably could have stayed there for hours; it was pretty high energy but some of us had early flights out the next day so we called it a night.