The (other) Mile High City

For most of the first semester, Patrick and I spent our Sundays watching the Packers on the big TV's at Howie's Sports Page in NE Albuquerque. However, there were a couple of weekends when Patrick abandoned me to spend time with his girlfriend Chelsey in Denver. Apparently, Denver has a Packer bar that puts Howie's to shame. According to Patrick, hundreds of Packer fans show up, Green Bay is the only team on the TV's, and the drunken bar owner sits up in a crows nest and leads the fans in Packer chants during commercials.

It seemed like a pretty exciting place, and I've never been to Denver, so when Patrick suggested that we should go up to Denver together sometime to visit Chelsey and watch a Packer game at the Best-Packer-Bar-Ever, I was all for it. Little did I know that Patrick and Chelsey were scheming to surprise me with a roundtrip airline ticket to Denver for Super Bowl Sunday! 

Despite the fact that both of us were pretty busy with our artist collaborations, Patrick and I set out for Denver on Friday afternoon.



The flight was short, but not so short that Patrick couldn't fall asleep on the way there. Chelsey picked us up at the airport and we dropped our things at her apartment. I was greeted by Chelsey's roommate's dog, Roo, who was very excited to meet me.



She was also excited to see Patrick. So excited, in fact, that she peed on Chelsey's bed. Awesome.

Chelsey lives near the capitol, and not too far from downtown, so we headed down that way to find somewhere for dinner.



It was a bit chilly, but we walked down the sparkly main drag and picked a restaurant randomly. The restaurant was a bit of a letdown, but we went home and saved the evening with a game of Monopoly. Patrick hadn't played since he was a boy, and I ended up winning with nearly $10,000 in my hand!



Roo slept with me on the air mattress which was weird and comforting all at the same time. Saturday morning we went to a City O' City for breakfast and enjoyed english muffins with tasty toppings and various baked items. I also had a hot chocolate which was one of the better hot chocolates I've had in a long long time. I guess I'm just used to Swiss Miss though, so my standards aren't too high.



Somehow it happened that Patrick's cousin and some friends were visiting Colorado from Wisconsin during this same weekend. We drove two hours SW from Denver to a cabin that they were staying in and hung out with them for the afternoon. Patrick and his cousin are like brothers from another mother.



The drive through the mountains was pretty and got even better the higher up we got.



Chelsey brought stuff to make Spring Rolls and after shoveling some snow and trying to heat up the cabin and enjoying the spring rolls, we all headed over to Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort.



When Patrick talked about going to the hot springs, I was expecting something similar to the "Hepatitis Ponds" that the Tamarind kids frequently go to near Albuquerque. But this place was a lot fancier, with a changing and shower facility, real swimming pools filled with hot spring water, and then hot spring ponds nestled in next to a freezing cold river.





We skipped the pool and headed straight to the river, nearly killing ourselves as we tried to climb down the cold wet rocks and into the hot spots. It took a bit to transition from the cold into the hot water, but once we settled it was pretty great. The best part was when it started snowing on us. It was pretty surreal to be laying in a river in my swimming suit in the mountains with snow all around and snow falling on my face. I loved it. After the hot springs, everyone was pretty tired and relaxed. It was starting to get dark and we had a long drive through the mountains ahead of us, so we decided to take off around 5:30. 

When we got back to Chelsey's, I got right in to my pajamas and we ordered Thai food and played another round of Monopoly.



Patrick is one of the most competitive people I know and he was determined to give me payback for my $10K win the night before. Of course, he won.

Sunday morning we went to a restaurant called Watercourse. Watercourse and City O' City are apparently run by the same people and they were both delicious. We started with a crazy fantastic sampler appetizer and then I had the Buffalo Tofu sandwich, which turned out to be a little too spicy for me. Chelsey had pancakes with homemade granola and fruit and bananas and real maple syrup. It looked pretty phenomenal.

Of course, Sunday was Super Bowl day and we were a bit indecisive about where we wanted to go to watch it. It seemed a little depressing to go to the Packer bar if the Packers weren't in the Super Bowl. Also, we figured it would be crowded. So we ended up watching the game at a tavern down the street from Chelsey.



Despite their beating the Packers in the NFC championship game, Patrick and I were rooting for the Giants to win. Tom Brady and the Patriots just get under my skin a bit and I didn't want them to have a perfect season. Because I'm mean like that. Here I am savoring the Giants victory and Patrick is in a state of shock.



Our flight was early the next morning and then it was back to Tamarind for a week of crazy hard work.



I was a little nervous that I'd gotten behind during my trip to Denver, but I'm glad that I went. I had a great time.