Things to do in Denver when you're not dead yet...

Denver's lovely. Not knowing what to expect, Denver's lovely.

Denver is:
- A hustling and bustling metropolis! With an actual usable ped-mall, free shuttles up and down it's downtown, and restaurants... so many restaurants
- A nice city - friendly & unpretentious
- A midwestern city, but also a 'middle-western' city. People care less as you head west (i.e. more laidback, don't have their noses up in everyone's business, literally don't care in a very nice and friendly/accepting way), and that's nice to see.
- A relaxing city.. at least so far, and at least when you're staying downtown (and are from out of town)

I've gotten to play planner/lead a bit so far. Sunday night involved boarding a shuttle, helping a gal from Columbus OH with no cash get to where she needed to go (It all worked out fine), and then crashing (with the help of Museum friends) the "Shipper's Party". This conference is open to every museum in the United States, and museums in the United States need to ship things. There was a lot of museum-folk-wooing going on. This was also our first encounter with Finnte, a 70 something Finnish man who just wants to sit and buy drinks for "charming ladies". He's like your rich, well-manicured foreign uncle - - who just wants to buy drinks for ladies. :)

We headed back to the hotel, and then followed a group of Brazilian/NYC/Japanese/French shippers to a room at the OTHER Hyatt (there's two), as our Hyatt doesn't have mini-bars. Exhaustive surrealness. We bailed quickly.

Monday, we slept in. And after a rehabilitating breakfast at "The Delectable Egg" (and they were), Steph and I decided to rent a car (fancy hotel concierge's are amazing!), and drive to LookOut Mountain (where we indeed looked out), Buffalo Bill's Grave (ahhh...), Red Rocks (which was stunning), and then Boulder. Boulder's like Iowa City, but on richer, cosmopolitan happy pills. Everyone's relaxed. The homeless, of which there are many, are relaxed. The college students are relaxed. The rich, who support the beautiful boutiques that line Pearl Street, are relaxed. The only people who aren't relaxed are the Tourists, who don't know how to process this much beautiful bustling leisure, next to so many mountains. We ate cheap bountiful sushi, and drove our rent-a-car home.

I love driving. I love driving in places I've never been. Our poor little Chevy Aveo had a hell of a time freeways traveling up mountains (there's no air up here, to support it's poor four cylinders). If I can drive it, I can take the time to see it, and know it. Weird.

Then, I disappeared to my friend Becky's house. Becky moved to Mpls before I did; she's now fallen in love with Denver. There are reasons to fall in love with this place. It's predictable but... Hey look - - nature! Fresh air! Things! I haven't felt this close to the outdoors in years. There hasn't been the chance for it, and I miss it.

We caught up, and there's a certain woman in NYC I need to get ahold of very soon.

Becky has a silly husband who makes me laugh, a dog who is good, a cat (that I remember her getting in college.. who is now 13. errrrgh), a beautiful house.. and finally, a scooter. Her grandmother passed away last year, and Beck used some of the money for a beautiful orange scooter named Buddy. Becky scooted me around. Scooters are flipping brilliant.

Becky sometimes talks in superlatives, which makes me laugh. Unbelievably good to see old friends, and good to see them doing good. :)

And then, back to hotel, hanging out for a bit, and sleep.

Very lucky. Very very lucky. I like Denver. I like concierges. I like walking. I like breakfast. Today will be my first foray into the conference itself. Time to put on a game face, and go get some caffeine. 1,000s & 1,000s of people are attending this ginormous thing, and I supposed to go get lost in them now. We're hoping there's time tomorrow, pre-flight, to take in the Denver Botanical gardens. And I just want to go look at some more mountains.

Last night involved weird dreams about people I know and mattresses.

Onward.