Denver

It is football clinic time of year again!  If you don't recall, it's when Coach broadens his knowledge of football by attending clinics.  These clinics are offered in many different parts of the U.S. and we take advantage of these opportunities to go on one trip together by ourselves - make it a mini-getaway, mix business with some pleasure and add a little 2.5 month old baby into the mix as well.  We must take little Max with us since he needs to eat, right?

This year we chose Denver, CO as our destination.  The last time I was in Denver was for World Youth Day.  I remember really liking the city and wanted to return.  I also know from reading Facebook, that my friends that live there love it.  It's another state with a lot of beautiful outdoorsy stuff to do and to see.

This trip began the day after Lent  - no TV, no sweets, no alcohol.  Also, we left on Valentine's day.  Not that it's a big deal because Valentine's day is every day in the Patterson house, right?

I didn't take a lot of pictures of this trip again.  It's pretty tough to take photos when you're cuddling a little baby - all the time!  I was pretty nervous about the plane ride because Max is a little harder to soothe when he cries compared to my other babies.  I didn't want to make national news being kicked off the plane due to an inconsolable baby. 

We survived the plane ride, but it was a long 4 hours sitting in a cramped seat with a little one.  I couldn't watch the movie being played to pass the time nor could I read comfortably either.  I did try, but I also got annoyed with the author of the book and had to put it away.  My flying buddy seemed to be very productive on his lap top next to me.  Max and I were able to get some sleep - Max more than I.

We picked up our rental car and zipped off to our hotel which was about 15 minutes away from downtown Denver.  We stayed at a really nice hotel, wish I could have shown you with my camera!  We were pretty tired and went from getting dinner out, to celebrate Valentine's day, to just eating at the hotel which ended up being a great dinner!  No wait, no crowds, great service and yummy food.  We even got some chocolate covered strawberries, on the house, from the waiter.  We went ahead and ate the chocolate part - it was given to us, we didn't ask for it and it was Valentine's day!  Max cooperated and slept through dinner. 

All of a sudden, I felt really tired!  It just hit me like a brick!  I was feeling the time difference - uggh!  A bit tough in the evening, but when you end up in the Fitness Center at 6 a.m. wide awake and ready to get a workout - jet lag seems to come in handy.  Here I would insert a picture of the treadmill - way cool.  It was a nifty machine to use with all these cool features to make it the best jogging experience.  Meaning, while I was walking/jogging, I spent time pressing numerous buttons to figure out how to use everything, thus the time flew by.  Also, since I forgot my accessories for my iPhone, I felt I could walk/jog until my phone had a full battery!

After working out, Max was still sleeping, Joe went to his clinic and I enjoyed a very long, long hot shower.  Max and I hung out in our room for a while until it was time to go meet a really good friend of mine that I went to high school with.  She now lives in Denver with her husband and three kids.  I'd insert a picture here, too if I had taken some.  We had a good time catching up with each other.  She also gave me some ideas as to where we could go while in Denver.

When Joe & I met up later that day we decided to get dinner downtown.  We had heard about the 16th Street Mall with shops and restaurants.  This is where I started to take pictures.

We parked near the Clock Tower.  I started just taking pictures of things I saw without a thought since I didn't want to go home with nothing! 

I was reading the tourist guide at the hotel and decided that going to the 16th Street Mall was a good place to start to get a flavor of the city.  It was cold - we walked toward Denver's Capitol looking for places to eat.  It was Friday, so we were looking for seafood.  I also felt like Mexican food and found a little place called Diego's.  Food was ok.

We headed back to the hotel and plotted out our plans for the next day.  My friend had recommended going a place called Garden of the Gods out near Colorado Springs.  It seemed like a great idea since we wanted to see more of the outdoorsy stuff rather than the city itself. 

Garden of the Gods is National Park that has these amazing rock formations made of red and white limestone that came out east of the Rocky Mountains.  My friend said it was just really beautiful to see.  We left before noon and enjoyed a beautiful drive through Colorado Springs.  We were blessed with such perfect weather.  It was 60 degrees with blue skies!

We stopped to get a good look at those mountains.  I'm assuming those are the part of the Rocky Mountains?  Absolutely beautiful!  I don't get to see something like this every day.

 
I was so excited when we drove up, because I was certain I was going to enjoy this.  We headed to the Nature Center first to see what info we could get there.  I took a picture of the rock formations from afar.  We skipped the movie, but watched a small portion of an animal presentation geared towards kids.  I was wishing my kids were with me since they love animals. 

While at the Nature Center, we saw a celebrity sighting!  How exciting!  It was Smoky the Bear!  We got a picture taken with him.  I dig him in those jeans!

I was immediately drawn to the contrast in colors.  The sky was so blue and the rocks were so vibrant red - stunning.  I took a lot of pictures.

Do you see the little guy rock climbing on the right?

I stood there watching this guy climb.  It was like watching paint dry.  I kept wondering how rock climbing worked.  Look at this picture.  How did this guy get the ropes to stick to the rock like that?  He had to climb there to get them on, right?  Why put them on if you can climb without the ropes?  Did he shoot a gun of some sort that would fling some sort of hooks into the rock?  Wouldn't that hurt the rock?  If rock climbing happened all the time, wouldn't we see a bunch of man-made holes in the rocks?  How could that be allowed?  How would you get them off and then get down the mountain?  It looked like the guy was climbing up, but didn't he just come from that direction?  I didn't get it.  What if those rope hook thingies didn't hold you securely?  Hmph...  I guess I could read up on rock climbing.  I didn't stick around to find out how he did everything.

We did a little rock climbing of our own until we saw this...

Joe quickly climbed down the rock.  Joe didn't need any of the fancy gear, he's just very talented.  Almost made it to the top, too ;-)

This looked like shark fin, right? 

So neat!  Joe was telling me how he wanted to see the Balancing Rock.  The what?  Where did he hear of that.  He saw a picture of it at the Nature Center while I was in the bathroom.  I immediately thought of  a balancing rock in my head.  I've seen a picture of it, too - but where?  Not from the Nature Center, but from the Disney movie, Cars.  So, as we drove around following the signs to the Balancing Rock, I kept thinking of the movie Cars and expected it to look like this.




It ended up looking like this.

There were so many neat hiking paths and rock formations to see, but we didn't have time to do it all. 

I asked Joe to move the rock over so I could get a picture of the view behind it. 

See, the view was definitely worth it.  Don't worry, Joe put the rock back.

Thanks again to my friend who suggested Garden of the Gods!

Ooops, one more picture.

Oh, another one.  They are all beginning to look alike.

We left very satisfied and headed towards Denver to go to a vigil Mass downtown.  Afterwards, we met with one of Joe's coach's (also attending the clinic) friends who own a restaurant in Denver.  Forgive me, I forget the name of the restaurant right now.  I can't even tell you what part of Denver it was in, but it was a really quaint and snug part of town.  That's how I would describe it, anyway.  This restaurant had a fire pit outside and a lot of lively people inside.  It was busy, full and seemed like a great place to gather and eat.  The owners of the restaurant were so friendly and made us feel like special guests.  They ordered all this yummy food which were all your normal sports bar kinda food, but had such a unique and modern twist to them.  All done really well, too.  All exciting for me since I'm such a food lovin' kinda person.  Joe was in heaven because the owner had such a love and knowledge of beer not to mention a beer cellar in the back of the restaurant.  He shared his favorites with Joe and brought him to the cellar.  Joe was like a little kid at the candy store.  All in all, a great evening.

We were up early the next day to make it to the airport.  This was the sun rising.  We don't get sun rises like this in DC. 

I'd be happy to wake up to this every morning.

We were very pleased with our trip to Denver. I know there is a lot more to see and do.  Looking forward to visiting again.