Denver, CO (Friday)

Ok, so maybe camping in mid-October wasn't the best idea: it was FREEZING cold (as in actual frost on the tent!), and VERY noisy -- a train by our heads and the freeway traffic by our feet. Lacey was able to sleep. Me, not so much. Still, I'm glad for the experience; it's something we both had really wanted to do.

So, we packed up the tent and headed to Denver, which was only about a half hour away. We needed to check some things out online, so we ended up at Bruegger's Bagels for breakfast -- one of the places Lacey likes. And, to be honest, my spinach & cheese omelet thing on an asiago cheese bagel wasn't half bad. And the pumpkin spice coffee was REALLY good! Unfortunately, their router was down, so so much for going to a place for Wi-Fi.

So, instead, we found the Denver library. Lacey looked up the stuff she needed to find, and, after much hassle (but a very nice librarian), I got a password that allowed me to use the computer, too. (The computers were old, didn't use tabs and the fonts were so tiny that even making them extra large didn't help.)

After the library, we did a couple errands that Lacey needed done, ending in picking up a prescription at Walgreen's, which turned into a MAJOR ordeal: they told her it would be 1/2 hour but ended up being more like an hour and a half!! But, we did have a rousing game of catching a light up koosh ball in the toy aisle.

Lacey then drove me around the Denver area, showing me her college, places she liked to frequent and other points of interest. She
is an amazing tour guide and knows the story behind everything she showed me. I think maybe she should be a tour guide, as she remembers the backstory on everything, and tells it with great enthusiasm.

Since being at Walgreen's ate up so much of our day, we decided we should look for a hotel. We drove around a while, trying decide where we wanted to be. The first place we stopped didn't have anything available, so we drove around a bit more until we found another one. This one was quite a trip: we went into our room and, on Lacey's bed, bits of ceiling dust was on her bed, along with the back of a smoke detector. We went into the bathroom and noticed a huge,ugly chip/stain in the bathtub. We could've dealt with all that, but we didn't like it. But then, I sat on her bed so she could show me something, and the bed collapsed! At that point, we decided the room was unacceptable, so we went down to the desk and got our room changed. The next room was MUCH better -- even had a stacked refrigerator/freezer and modern microwave! It kind of made of us wish we'd had some food we could prepare in it!

After we changed rooms, we went to downtown Denver. They have a light rail there that actually goes further than just a loop around a tiny downtown area! What a concept! We walked around a bit while Lacey pointed out some more of the local color, and then went to one of Lacey's favorite restaurants called Rodizio's Brazilian Grill. It's an amazing, fairly upscale restaurant that has a 2-tiered prixe fixe menu -- except that there's not actually a menu. When you first sit down, they bring appetizers. That night, they had polenta with parmesan cheese and hot, fried bananas with cinnamon and sugar They also have this huge salad bar that I wanted some of everything from. But, Lacey warned me not to do that because the way they serve there is that you get a 2-sided spindle with a green side and a red side. When you have it with the green side up, waitstaff comes around with different types of meat from fish to pork to steak to poultry, ask if you want some and then cut off a piece for you which you then grab with tongs. You can have as much as you want, as many times as you want. The place itself was very attractive, and the food was really, really good. It was quite a splurge for us, but well worth it.

After the amazing dinner, we walked around downtown Denver for a long time. It was so nice to be out in a city, walking around and not being afraid that we shouldn't be there. Lacey showed me the area where all big events take place, including the recent national Democratic convention. They were also getting ready for a marathon that's on Sunday, so we got to see a bit of the setting up for that.

We took the light rail back to Lacey's car and drove back to the hotel, collapsing happily exhausted into bed.