things I learned in Colorado

If you read my last post closely, you know that I went to Colorado for a vacation with some girl friends this month to celebrate my friend KVOs 30th birthday. It. Was. Awesome.

We flew into Denver from our respective cities (Minneapolis and LA) on Thursday morning, rented a car, and drove about 2.5-3 hours to Nathrop, Co to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort. On the way, we stopped at Dorothy's Homemade Tamales in Fairplay because it was featured on the Food Network's Best Think I Ever Ate show for their ... well, tamales.

Once we got to the resort, we checked in and then hit the pools. They had natural hot springs, man-made hot tub things with natural hot water, and heated pools. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It. Was. Awesome. We drove "into town" to Buena Vista and had some great Asian food for dinner.

On Friday, we split up from one-another for a while. A couple of the girls got massages, another went for a run, and I grabbed breakfast and then took my camera out. I figured since I took a class last summer to learn what all the buttons on it mean, I should try to practice with it. Here's one of them:

We got back together around noon and sat by/in the pools some more, and then went for a hike into the mountains to see some "falls" - which, when we got up there, seemed to be water flowing down rocks in the hill... not giant falls. But, it was still cool and we got some great pictures there, too.

Friday night, we went to "into (the other) town" and had dinner at the Boathouse in Salida, Co. By this point, I think I can safely say we've eaten some pretty great food. We went back to the resorts, put our suits back on, and headed back to the hot tub/spring things to look at the stars for a while. I SOOO wish we could have gotten a picture of the stars. Amazing. We may or may not have had some wine, too.

Saturday, we took our time getting ready and I took the opportunity to enjoy our view from the patio on our room one last time.

We headed back to Denver to celebrate the last night of our vacation, which conveniently was on St. Patty's day. We took a different route back than we came on so we could see some more things. We drove through Breckenridge and went through the Johnson Tunnel.

I didn't have many pictures on my camera from our night in Denver, but we went to eat at a nice steakhouse and then went to a couple of bars, although I think we were still home by midnight or 12:30 a.m. We are party animals. But, we had fun - we'll leave it at that.

On Sunday, we walked around the 16th street mall that is similar to the Nicollet mall area in Minneapolis, if you're familiar. Then, we headed back toward the airport and stopped at the Denver Botanical Gardens for a bit.

Then, rental car return (in a dust storm), airport, and return flight home.

It was a great trip, and I learned some things, too. All of our experiences should be educational, right?

1. Altitude is weird. We definitely noticed the difference in altitude. Denver is over 5,000 feet above sea level... it's called the mile-high city for a reason. The resort area was nearly 8,000 feet above sea level (if not more in places). For some point of reference, Minneapolis is around 700 or 800 feet. Los Angeles is around 300 feet. It's fine when just sitting or walking level, but going up big hills or steps caused me to be a bit winded... much more easily than normal, anyway. Speaking of which... 
2. There is no such thing as too much water. Turns out it's true that altitude can affect levels of hydration, which I found out the hard way on our first day. I didn't drink much water and ended up with a really annoying headache later in the day... and when you add that to the lack of sleep from the night prior, the altitude (see above), and the dry air there, I was a little crabby for a while. But, we figured it out and stopped at the grocery store Thursday evening and bought four gallons of water for our room. By Saturday morning, we had finished 3.5 of them, I think, and that doesn't include the times we filled up at the water fountains by the pool/spa area. I can't speak for the girls, but the more water I drank, the better I felt.
3. Taking time for yourself is a good thing. Not because we weren't getting along, but we all had a chance to do something we wanted to do without toting everyone else with us. I wouldn't have gotten to take some of the photos I got if we didn't separate for a bit because they wouldn't have thought my geekiness was fun. And they would have had a harder time going for runs or getting massages. But, we also did lots of fun stuff together that we all enjoyed a lot, like the mountain hike, eating great food, and sitting in hot springs.
4. Waking up to the mountains rocks. I got used to sitting on the patio in the morning, reading my Nook, drinking a cup of coffee, and looking at the mountains, even though we were only there for two days. It was difficult to wake up to the townhouse across the street for the first day or two after we got back.
5. I know a lot of country songs. At times, the only station available on the radio was country. I knew way more than I thought I would because I hardly listen to it on the radio here. They must have been playing some "oldies, but goodies" I guess. I think I would have won if there were a contest for knowing the most country song words in our car.
6. Girlfriends are great. We all traveled well together (at least I think so... I hope they thought the same!) and we had a lot of fun. KVOs birthday trip was a success and we all got to do something we hadn't done before. 

All in all, I recommend it. It was relaxing, beautiful, and full of laughs. It's not Vegas, but it's not supposed to be. It was exactly what we were hoping.

For those of you not on Facebook, you can check out the pics on this Kodak Gallery album.

me? angry?

It may surprise you to find out that I'm not always sunshine and rainbows. Well... for those of you who know me well, you may not be shocked, I guess. :)

I mentioned at the end of my vacation post that I'd tell you about our flight experience later.

Everything was planned to be perfect. We flew through Houston where we met up with Julie to take the same flight to Florida. We left on time for our first flight. And our layover was short. ... Apparently too short. This is where things got ugly.

I'm not sure why, but our flight that departed Minneapolis on time landed in Houston 15 minutes late. Our layover was only 35 minutes, so we hauled bum to get to the other terminal where Julie was waiting for us - so we had to run through Terminal C, take the tram to Terminal B and get to our gate. As we rushed toward the gate, I see our plane backing away. It left without us. It left 4 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. I know this because above the door to the walkway it tells you what time they left: 9:51 a.m. It was supposed to leave at 9:55 a.m. [Insert wave of anger here.]

The conversation with the guy working the gate went something like this (at least as I recall):

Me: That's our plane.

Guy: Yes, you all arrived 15 minutes late on your other flight. I already re-booked you on the next flight, though. Guy smiles.

Me: So, you knew we were late and on our way, but didn't wait.

Guy: I asked them if they could wait and they said no...

Me: But they could leave early?

Guy: ummmm...

Me: They took off early. Without us.

Guy: They said they couldn't wait. But you are re-booked for the next flight.

side note: next flight is 4 hours later. This does not please me, either.

Me: Please help me understand this. My flight on your airline took off on time in Minneapolis. Your airline got me here late. But your airline wouldn't wait for us even though you knew we were on our way. Correct?

Guy: I'm sorry ma'am.

Me: Instead of waiting, your airline decided to take off before the posted time. The time that is on my itinerary.

I give Guy a confused, unhappy look.

Guy: I'm sorry ma'am.

Me: I put my phone number in the reservation for a reason. It would have been nice if someone from your airline would have called to see where we were so I could have told you we were close.

Guy: I'm sorry ma'am.

Me: Fine. Whatever. What do we need to do now?

Guy provides re-issued tickets for next flight for me and the guys; gives me two exit row seats because I had upgraded when we originally checked in for 3 seats with extra legroom. He explains the next flight only had two available.

Me: I paid for three. I assume you will be refunding the third.

Guy explains to me again that there were only two (yes, I understand that - I paid for three) and then tells me the information desk located directly behind us should be able to help.

Julie: What about me?

Julie was on a different original flight so did not get rebooked with us automatically.

Guy: Well, you could have made it - you arrived over an hour ago.

Julie: Um. No, I didn't.

Guy: Well, you could have made this flight either way.

Me: Yeah, no. She is travelling with us and we were meeting here. She arrived just before we did. It was not over an hour ago. She was waiting for us and your airline decided to leave early.

I become afraid we will begin the cycle again and take deep breath while Guy looks at his screen again and types a bit.

Guy: Looks like I can do something for you.

Guy issues ticket for Julie on the next flight, also, with no extra fee - probably because at this point he likely doesn't want to deal with me anymore. Who would?

At some point during this debacle, I think the guys had backed away and just let me go. Then I went to the information desk and, long story short, got all three of my upgrades refunded and got to keep the exit rows. I relaxed a bit with the woman at the info desk, presented my documentation, and took a few deep breaths. Not sunshine and rainbows, but I was well-behaved.

Now, you might be thinking Whoa, Crazy Lady - I'm glad I wasn't there with you! Or you may be thinking Haha, I would have paid to see that! In my defense, I didn't yell, stomp my feet, or cry (almost, though). I like to think I held my ground and voiced my displeasure with the situation in a way that got the point across but they didn't have to call security (barely, perhaps - it's all a bit fuzzy).

I think that Belva will especially appreciate this post because she was with me the one and only other time I was that irate girl at the airport when we were delayed and then almost stranded at the airport because of a snowstorm - that was my second or third time flying ever. This is probably my... I don't even have any idea - 40th trip? I've flown a lot.

Here's the thing: I've been stranded overnight a couple of other times and have been delayed a bunch, too. It's bound to happen and it's part of flying. Given this story, you may not believe me, but I normally don't care. Stranded? Find a hotel. Delayed? Find a book. Not a big deal. In fact, the first time I was stranded overnight, I thought it was great! It was an opportunity to prove to myself that I could take care of myself because I was travelling alone and stuck overnight in New Hampshire. And on our way home we were delayed for 3 hours because of the high winds back home. I didn't really care - I had a book to read and we were still getting in that night. And Julie had a long layover so we were there with her.

So what happened this time? I put a lot of work into coordinating this vacation. My second real vacation in 5 years. I was looking forward to this, planning for this, and not only did it affect me but it affected 4 other people. And they left without us.

That being said, I probably should not have been mean to the guy at the gate. It wasn't his fault personally. So, Guy, I'm sorry. But I'm still mad at the airline.

In the end, the vacation was totally worth it, though. I had a blast and I relaxed and I was happy and nice and sunshine and rainbows. :)

 

Disclaimer: This post reflects my recollection of the events which may have happened completely differently - but this is my story and I'm sticking to it. Even though it's a bit unflattering.

and p.s. if it makes me sound any less ridiculous, we (the 5 of us) were 10% of the passengers who were scheduled to be on that flight. It was a small 50-seater plane.

vacation & family

As some of you know, I went to Florida on vacation with my brothers and cousin Julie to visit our aunt Gail and uncle Duane - we left last Saturday and got back last night (Wednesday). It's funny because when you tell someone that you're going to (or just returned from) Florida, they give you this look of jealousy and get excited for you. I think they assume that you went to Miami, Orlando, Key West, or one of the other usual suspect vacation spots in Florida. But when you tell them you went to Tallahassee, a look of confusion overcomes the jealousy. Why Tallahassee? Because that's where our family is. And to be honest, I would take that over Disney any day.

An overview of the trip:

Saturday
Travel day from Minneapolis to Houston (where we met up with Julie) and then Houston to Jacksonville. We rented my cool mini-van there and drove to Tallahassee, stopping in Live Oak at Big Daddy's for dinner.

Sunday
We went to the beach house and enjoyed great food, drinks, views, and company. We took an intermission to our sitting around and visited St. Mark's lighthouse, saw some gators there, and then returned to the beach house where we continued to relax and had a great dinner there.

Monday
The boys swam a bit in the morning. We split up for the day and the boys did the antique car museum (which actually held a lot of other things - pianos, boat motors, motorcycles, etc...) and then they went out for wings/beer with Duane. Julie and I went shopping with Gail and we only made it through Bealls, which was great - but we then had to figure out how to pack for the way home. Gail made appointments for me and Julie to get massages, which was awesome.

Tuesday
Duane took the guys and Julie to Wakulla Springs to do a boat tour to see more gators and other wildlife. I stayed behind at the house and sat in the sun by the pool with a book and some coffee. One of my goals for the trip was to relax - so this was perfect. Gail could do her thing for a while and I did mine - and then we had some nice one-on-one time. That night, Russ did a test-run with Duane's new smoker and we had smoked pork chops that were awesome.

Wednesday
Another travel day. We left early in the morning and drove back to Jacksonville and then back to Minneapolis. It was cold when we got home and were all ready to go back to Florida weather.

What I Learned
Something I learned from Duane: y'all is singular; all y'all is plural. :)

That's the brief version and I'm happy to tell you more if you want more. All I can say is it was amazing - we all thought so. We all appreciated Gail and Duane letting us invade their home and their lives for a few days. We ate in for most meals (awesome food, including the best key lime pie I've ever had) and spent a lot of time just hanging out, relaxing, and having fun. We can't possibly thank them enough for their hospitality and generosity.

I've mentioned before that last year was a rough one for us. Among other things, it was the year we lost both of our grandmas. And it was the year we became grandparent-less. One of the things that I worried about (and still do sometimes) is that extended family came together for holidays and events so that our grandparents could see everyone... so what now? That was part of the reason this was important to me. And we've never been to Gail and Duane's to visit and it's something I've talked about and wanted to do for a long time. So, why Tallahassee? Because that's where our family is. And that's why I head to Caledonia regularly, and have visited Becky in Atlanta, and hope to go to Colorado again.

And without further adieu, here are the pictures:



More later on our flight stories... :)