Annual Trip to Tampa, Florida - Part 1

Fingers were crossed, prayers were said, Covid tests were taken (remember last year's attempt to go to Florida?) and we healthily hopped on a flight to Tampa in early August!

We weren't sitting in our usual 2 Baileys in front of the other 2 Baileys position, so we forgot to take a selfie before takeoff.  Instead, Todd snapped one when we landed!

My mom and I went to get our hair done at Monique's the morning of our first day there, while Todd and the kids hit up the neighborhood pool. In the evening, we went to the Belleair Country Club for dinner.  We had to do some shuffling of the cars, and Grant got to drive the golf cart, all dressed up!

We had a great dinner at the Club and had the waitress take our family picture after dinner. Yes, Grant is that tall now.  He towers over my mom and Aunt Sara, but only just passed his sister this week, believe it or not (they were the same height at their physical in mid July!  Literally two weeks prior to this!)  Those new kicks make him *a bit* taller though.  Don't think he'll ever pass his dad!

Afterwards, we swung by my mom's old condo, just in time to see a really pretty sunset over Clearwater Beach at low tide!

On Friday, we took the kids out to Honeymoon Island, which is a state park I had never actually been too, despite living here for 18 years.

It's a great beach - not a huge beach, but not overly crowded either.  And the water is really green here!

Gotta have beach snacks!

We also enjoyed watching the (thankfully) distant rainstorms that were down toward Clearwater and Hurricane Pass. Interesting story about Hurricane Pass - the island you see across the water is Caladesi Island.  Honeymoon and Caladesi used to be connected, but a hurricane in 1921 created a break in the barrier islands (errr um, probably why you should never build structures on barrier islands).  Rumor has it that there was a casino in Indian Rocks Beach at the time that got wiped out in that hurricane!

The man loves a good dribble castle!  The sand here is very different than the whiter, softer sand down by Clearwater Beach.  This sand was much darker and we joked that it was like volcanic sand!

Well, one kid was paying attention.  And can I tell you how happy we were that Honeymoon Island had chairs and umbrellas?  This was $30 well spent.  The cooler and snacks stayed in the shade, and so did the kiddos.

Eventually she emerged from under the umbrella to look for coquinas in the sand.

And they both emerged from the umbrellas to get a little vitamin D.  I remember one time Todd and I were out to eat dinner (alone, when the kids were small) in Clearwater, and he looked at me and said, "Man, I'm so glad you didn't grow up in Schenectady!"  That has always stayed with me because a) it's funny and b) it's true because I grew up in a beautiful part of the world! (No offense to Schenectady!)

Friday evening, we met up with my amazing friends from middle/high school - Kim and Bethany - for dinner and drinks at Big Storm Brewing (I see what you did there) tap room.  Kim was thrilled to finally meet the magical unicorn, which is what she always calls Todd because he's so awesome.

My brother joined us later for a beverage and I forgot how everyone called him by his whole name when we were younger! "Hey, it's Cory Swales!"

This photo is just so funny to me - he really is a magical unicorn! (Although he always gets mad when Kim, Jessica, Tanya and I call him that!)  He doesn't think he's that special, but for my dear friends who have spouses who are terrible at marriage, he definitely stands out among the masses!

Saturday was a GREAT day, where the cousins all finally got to hang out after years of not being able to see each other!  Greta practically tackled Grant!  We even had special appearances by Aunt Sara, Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Dave!

There was charcuterie and cousin discussions to start the afternoon.

There was *gestures hands frantically* THIS.

There were hugs - wait these are my kids, what is going on here?

I think Pop Pop would be proud of his pretty girls.

And his boys too! I know Nana is!  The boys with the bluest eyes!

Grant was playing some game on his phone, probably Subway Surfers!

There was also a conga line, led by Miss Hattie, followed by Natalie, who is taller than Aunt Rhonda.  The caboose was Greta, who will be taller than Aunt Rhonda very soon!

Todd and Cory cooked a bunch of burgers and dogs for everyone - please note: it was a thousand degrees outside and Todd was enjoying one of my mom's neck fans (those aren't headphones!)  Natalie also loves her cousins very much, and memorialized it in a message for everyone!

After everyone left, the kids wanted to drive around the neighborhood on the golf cart, perhaps their favorite past time in Largo.  Thankfully the one driving at least has a learner's permit!

OK fine, you guys can go out without an adult.  Please don't run anyone over.

And there was a beautiful sunset Saturday evening!

Why does his phone look like his old iPhone 7 took it??? Well, it was cute anyway! 

And that concludes part 1 of our trip to Florida!

Trip to Denver, Colorado

 The rest of the time I spent in Denver was very busy with work and work related activities, which left me no time to really do much else. I was super sad about this because I really wanted to go to Coors Field and see a Rockies game (the Dodgers were in town) and I have a few friends out there that I wanted to see as well, that I did not get to see.

But I did get a little taste of the Mile High City and all of it's fun local art.  Love and guns and horseshoes (magnets?) and mountains, I guess.  Maybe some American flags and fire hydrants thrown in for good measure.  This one is actually called, "Cowboy Pajamas" because it looks like he has his PJs on!

I stayed at the Embassy Suites near the Convention Center and had a decent view toward the southern end of the Rockies.

During our meetings, we got to take a field trip out to the Community Forms.  This is a rainwater drainage system designed by an artist to look like a skate park.

It also sits in the area with reduced flood risk because it's protected by a levee.  We all think this is really funny for obvious reasons!

All of the water is collected in the skate park (which is not a functioning skate park at all) and drains out to a stormwater drainage system.

The water is then absorbed and slowed down by the vegetation before it drains into the South Platte River (which you can't see here but is on the other side of the street, just past the elevated swimming pool on the left - and yes, that is what that is!)  Not a bad use of art!

They also had some colorful cows around the city!

After our long first day, a few of us decided to go out and get some Mexican food for dinner at La Loma.  Which of course, was legitimately hilarious given our field of work.  Right next door was the beautiful and iconic Navarre building which was originally built as a school for girls back in 1880. 

It operated as a gambling house and a brothel from 1889 to 1904 when it became a fine dining establishment until the 1960s. Then it evolved into a jazz club and in the 1980s, it became the Museum of Western Art which it has operated as such since then.

We enjoyed a great dinner (and drinks!) at La Loma before walking back to the hotel.  Just outside of La Loma is the Trinity United Methodist Church which dates back to 1887.  At just shy of 184 feet tall, this modern Gothic building was one of the tallest stone towers in the United States at the time it was built.

16th Street is getting a makeover right down the center of the street, but it still looked pretty at dusk.

Our second (and last full) day in Denver started with more meetings, but we were able to escape for lunch at the famous Sam's No. 3!  On our way there, we passed a smoke stack disguised as a giant #2 pencil which is 15 stories tall!

We all ordered our meals at Sam's No. 3 to go so we wouldn't be late for our afternoon meetings.  This great diner was founded in 1927 (originally across Curtis Street from where it sits now) and was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network in 2011!  Their ice cream selection was MOST interesting.  Green Nerds or Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip???

This place has a really cool diner vibe and a menu that goes on for miles!

Mmmm. Grilled cheese on Texas toast and tater tots. Am I a child, or WHAT?

Finally, our day of meetings ended and I walked back to my hotel (just two blocks away) to freshen up to meet everyone for a later dinner.  I LOVE this Big Blue Bear who appears to be peaking in the windows at the convention center! He is 40 feet tall and weighs 10,000 pounds!

This mural at the Telephone Building is known as, "City Telephone Construction."  The building was built in 1929 and was the headquarters for Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph, which later became Mountain Bell.

This Gothic Revival building was, at 237 feet (and 15 stories tall), the tallest office building in Denver.  The entryway to this building felt SO European to me. 

I don't think I've ever seen a city quite like Denver where you can literally find art on every corner.  This is the All Together Now landmark, which is a 42 foot tall sculpture composed of children's toy blocks next to a yellow bench attached to the building next to it.

You can't come to Denver and NOT see the Daniels and Fisher tower! Built as a part of the Daniels and Fisher department store, this 375 foot tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi when it was built in 1911!  Although the department store went out of business in the late 1950s, it has housed residential and office spaces since 1981.  If the taller buildings were not in the way, you could visit the 21st floor and see for 200 miles (or so they say!)  Another fun fact - it was modeled after the bell tower in St. Mark's Square in Venice!

I walked down to Larimer Square where I was going to meet some other folks for dinner.  They're welcoming us during Pride Month!

We also got a welcome from this little cherub in the Bull and Bear Courtyard.

This was such a lovely little quiet and peaceful square in the middle of downtown Denver.  There were a lot of shade loving native and non native grasses, herbs, ferns, flowers and shrubs here.

Finally, my coworkers showed up and we were off to get something to eat.  But not before stopping for a quick happy hour at Garage Sale Vintage. Yep. A vintage store with a bar inside and out.

But we couldn't find something we all agreed upon (that wasn't a billion dollars like Capital Grille or Ocean Prime) so we started walking toward Union Station to try to find a decent restaurant.  We were wildly surprised by how many poke place there were here! 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess this was a result of the pandemic.  "We need outdoor seating so let's just go ahead and build this around the meters!"  Or perhaps you need to feed the meter to sit here???

We finally found a place to grab dinner at the Wynkoop Brewing Company.  This was Colorado's FIRST brewpub (well... since Prohibition!) which had it's first beer poured in ... get this... 1988!

Everyone was so mad at me for this.  If you're wondering, I had the Über Lager, a lovely German Helles.

After dinner, everyone parted ways. Some were tired, some had to go to the airport for midnight flights.  But Trevor and I wanted to see the Confluence Park area (speaking of Green Nerds...) so we headed in that direction!  Union Station was just so beautiful at night!

We passed the Union Station fountains, all lit up and dancing.

Across from the Museum of Contemporary Art (and almost under a railroad overpass) was some really beautiful and colorful art. Such an odd place for something so cool!

We finally reached our destination - Confluence Park.  This area is at the confluence (!!) of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek.  Shoemaker Plaza sits on the right (wait, is that in the floodway?) and a ginormous REI store is above it. The Speer Boulevard Bridge sits above the South Platte in the background.

Well, I mean we DID see that there was still melting snow up in the mountains.  The river was kind of high!

Interestingly, along the north-northwest side of the South Platte River, there are a lot of plaques that tell you about the historic floods that have occurred and how "government officials did not deal with the river's miserable state."  The area had been a polluted dumping ground up until the 1970s which exacerbated the flooding issues.

Thankfully, the South Platte River didn't take me on this day!

We walked back into the downtown area and past the Old Prospector, a statue dedicated to the gold mining history of Denver.

The Denver Gas and Electric building was all lit up - it felt like Christmas!  Built in 1910, it has 13,000 lightbulbs on it's façade! And we were pretty sure about a quart of them were out.  Who replaces these, anyway?

After another good night sleep (I got 13,000 steps the previous day!), I headed out to Union Station to catch my train to the airport. And what did I spot? Tupelo Honey! Another gem from my days of traveling for work in North Carolina. I'm kind of sad I didn't know this was here until this moment.

Auf Wiedersehen, Denver!

And goodbye mountains. I promise I'll come back!

But first, a pit stop in New York before I head home.

This summer has been incredibly smoky due to wildfires all across Canada. But it did make for a super cool, almost Hollywood-esque (read: fake) NYC skyline. Is it me, or are the NYC buildings getting taller and skinnier?  

Until next time, Denver!  And I'll be seeing you soon, NYC!