On May 21 Cody had to fly to Denver for a conference/work trip. He has to travel about every other month, but it is usually out east. However, this time he was going to Denver and since it is so close to where we live, airfare was reasonable for me to tag along. Cody's parents came in to stay with the older three kids for the weekend. Devin of course tagged along, and he proved to be the perfect traveler! This was his first airplane ride, and depsite an unknown ear infection, he was amazingly good.
Cody works for a great company and they always put him up in nice places when he travels. And he gets all the perks that go along with working for a great company. We stayed in the Marriott, right in the heart of downtown. In fact, it was called the "City Center Marriott". It seemed that the whole city revolved around this gorgeous sky scraper hotel. I had never stayed in a place that fancy and at first it seemed a little intimidating, but I soon fell in love with being treated so nicely by the classy people dressed in classy suits. We had the most beautiful view from our room, overlooking the city and all it's splendor. However, one of the down sides to staying in luxery is that your are expected to tip EVERYONE who helps you do ANYTHING. That was kind of annoying.
After getting setteled in our hotel, we hit the streets in search of a place to eat. I love going to new places with Cody because he always insist that we do it like the locals do. "We can eat at Chilis anytime where we live. Let's find a place that is only found in Denver." We found this awesome Irish pub to eat at. We got there right at happy hour and they had live Irish music and everything. Wow, those people can drink! We had some great food and it was nice just getting to talk. We never do that anymore.
I had a hard time with Devin on our first night there, so I slept in pretty late on Saturday. Cody had to be at his conference early that morning but Devin and I lazied around until it was time to meet Dad for lunch. Aaaahhh, luxery! It's amazing how the fancy soaps and lotions magically re-appeared every time we came back to the room after being away for a period of time.
Denver is a very pedestrian friendly city, so we walked everywhere (even though we had a nice rental car equipped with GPS). I quickly fell madly in love with the city. I loved walking everywhere! We met Cody at Bubba Gump's for lunch. I'd never eaten at one of those restaurants before, only been inside the gift shop in Long Beach CA. It really is a neat place, so I highly recommend eating there if you ever get the chance. I had the most AMAZING cajun chicken sandwich with avacado, swiss cheese, and bacon. Seriously, I am still talking about how good it was! On the way out I just had to pick up a copy of "Forrest Gump". It's one of my all time favorite movies and I can't believe we don't have it in our collection.
After taking Devin back for a nap in the hotel, we met up again to explore the city when Cody's conference was done. We decided to head out in search of the aquarium because we'd heard good things about it. Well the map we looked at was very decieving and we ended up walking MIILES to find it. Devin fell asleep in the stroller and even thought the walk was very long, we didn't mind. We got lost in great conversation and again, such a cool city to walk through. By the time we got to the aquarium, it was dinner time to we decided to eat in their VERY nice restaurant. So cool, completely surrounded by fish tanks. And we had a fabulous "shark cake" which was just a molten chocolate cake of sorts, but really great.
When we finally left the restaurant, we decided it was so late and would not be worth the $50 to go see the fish. Instead, we started walking back toward downtown. What a beautiful evening! It was dark and I loved seeing the city all lit up woth night life. Cody suggested we take a street that we hadn't walked on yet. Again, he's cool to visit new places with. We stopped and listened to street performers and gave a dollar or two away. During the trip we got a real kick out of people assuming Devin was out only child. It's uncanny how few children we saw out there. And babies were a real novlety, so we got a lot of comments from friendly passer-bys. Sometimes Cody and I would clue them in that he was in fact our fourth child, but sometimes we would just share a funny glance with each other.
The next morning we slept in very late. Since it was Sunday, Cody didn't have any work things going on. How I miss sleeping in with him! By the time we finally got up and at 'em it was lunch time. Yes, it was Sunday, but it's hard to keep the Sabbath Day holy when you are traveling and have to pay for meals. We ventured out again and found a quaint but fancy French cafe. They had a complementary pastery bar that was oh so good! Our waitress and I clicked right away because we imediately realized we were both from HOUSTON!! We both squealed with delight. And Cody sat there and mocked us. She signed our receipt in a cute way, and yes, she got a good tip.
That afternoon before heading to the airport, we went to the Denver Museum of Science and History. Very cool place. But the main reason we wanted to go was to see the Body Worlds exhibit. It had been in Salt Lake a year or so before, but we never made it out there to see it. It was expensive, but well worth the money. I could not believe that all the bodies and body parts were from REAL people. I was a little disappointed by the irreverence that some people showed. As I looked at each body, I tried to imagine who they were and what they were like when they were alive. And I developed and evern greater appreciation for the magnificant machines that our bodies are. And I gained even more admiration for the Ultimate Creator.
Then it was off to the airport and time to say goodbye. Thanks to the ridiculous way that the Denver airport is laid out, Devin and I had to race to make our flight. But we made it and it was nice to be back at home with my three other babies. It was such a great trip! Again, I can't express how much I love Denver. I really feel in love with the city. It was so full of culture and life and I loved seeing all kinds of people. If Cody ever got a good job opportunity up there, I'd definitely consider a move to the Mile High City!
