Travels

Well
ladies:

Let me tell you. San Francisco is wonderful. I think we should have a mandatory girls weekend and San Fran should be the first location:

First of all my hotel:




This is the lobby where they serve wine every evening to the guests





The rooms – how can you help but love it.






And finally the sites, shopping and travels





These kinds of homes are everywhere.





Crazy Lombard street which is absolutely beautiful

My hotel was just half a block off the trolley line.














Chinatown





Yes Fran, you better believe it – an H&M

Part 2 . . .

So the first leg of the journey is somewhat uneventful. A whole seat to myself and about the concentration or attention span of my nephews. However, I do manage to get onto a roll and get a bunch of stuff worked through. Denver’s terminal for Frontier is huge and by the time we arrive there I am looking forward to a break from work and eating! I pick up a sub and have a quick lunch before finding a spot to recharge the laptop and get going on more prep work. I put in a CD so that I can listen to music while the lap top is recharging and I am working in the app. I can still totally hear all the boarding announcements – or at least I think I can. But time is ticking away and they still haven’t announced my flight. Finally I hear this woman get up and say this is the final boarding call for Nashville flight 243. Ooops – that is me! Next she comments that they will be closing the doors on the plane immediately. Well I quickly shove my stuff together and head over to the gate where she has to unlock the passage door to let me on. But I made it down to the end and others were still waiting to bored so I didn’t feel too bad.

To keep up with the roll I had going though, I loaded the computer with a couple Third Day CD’s and plugged in my ear phones to enjoy the duration of the trip. I got a tonne done and so the last 20 minutes I let myself play a game to pass the descent. Throughout the flight, whenever any of my favorite songs came on, I made sure to turn up the volume and sing in my loudest head voice. I was feeling so good about all I accomplished! As I am getting ready to shut everything down, I pull out my headphones then quickly realized I hadn’t muted the computer only to realize that I had plugged the headphones into the wrong spot at the beginning of the flight and had actually been playing my CDs so everyone around could hear it too! How embarrassing. And why the ladies on either side of me didn’t say anything – I have no idea. They probably thought that I was trying to subtly convert them.

Then it was off to the Opry Mills shopping spot! After some wrong turns in the airport – I found my way there safely and had a wonderful time doing some power shopping. By the time I came back out to the car with every intention of wandering around the Opryland Hotel (I was only shopping for a little over an hour) I realize it is already dark. So I decided to take a quick drive and see what I can see – an hour later, numerous parking lots, etc. I finally find my way out onto I155 when in the lane beside me I see this mid 80’s mini van that has a cardboard license plate. Yeah – that is right - jiffy marker on a cereal box complete with state and expiry date but no actual license plate in site. How bizarre, hey?! And to think that Jaime (my client contact at Eco) actually had the nerve to say that Canada - Calgary is dated. At least we buy our license plates :)

To Keep You Up to Date on my Travels . . .

Well the day dawned bright and clear but I knew better then to be deceived by the blissful sight out my bedroom window. I was going on an adventure – and all who know me know that when I head out on an adventure it means that laughter and “experiences” arew right around the corner.

Never the less, I bound out of bed and jump into the shower (okay I was pretty tired as it took for ever to fall asleep the night before and I was probably running on about 3 hours of sleep! – needless to say I didn’t bound or jump anywhere!!) and start the day. After my final packing and ensuring I had enough room for whatever little items I may buy along the way, I quickly call my mom to tell her that I will email the itinerary tonight. By this point my hour of the day has gone pretty smoothly. Of course that never lasts as sure enough – Mom questions me as to whether I had heard all about the ‘666’ play that has been in the news. Of course not! I have spent every waking moment doing nothing but prepping for this trip this past week – but thanks Mom for bringing it to my attention now! She then instructs me on where to go to buy fun things for the boys (my mercies – haven’t I proven myself as a valid aunty yet?) and then Fran and I are off.

The trip to the airport is fairly uneventful but I know this can’t last. I get into the terminal, look at my ticket, find the ‘Frontier’ counter and within 2 minutes I am at the desk being serviced. This is where things start to get sketchy!! They can’t seem to get all my info loaded into the computer. Whenever they try to print a baggage tag – some dudes tag prints but he is only going as far as Denver. As much as I love shopping, there is no way I can afford to buy a new wardrobe if my luggage does not make it to Nashville. Finally after 15 minutes and 5 wrong baggage tags, 3 re-rentries of my passport, I have the necessary boarding passes and I am off! Next stop security.

Just as I am about to load my stuff onto the conveyor belt that goes through the xray machine, I am told that I have been selected at random for a search. Of course I have! I always am!! So she pulls me out of line, asks me to empty all of my electronics then sends me through the beepers. And of course I chose to wear the belt with the metal beading on it – it never beeps – I am sure they are plastic beading with metallic finish. But no! I beep away. So then I must undo my belt while she feels around my waistline.

Next it is a complete search of all my bags. That careful packing all put to waste as everything is disorganized once again. Finally – the best part. The “patting” as they so innocently put it. That means that you stand there spread eagle while they feel over my entire body looking for hidden weapons culminating with “patting” my head with their rubber gloves. Of course my hair is now all staticy and being pulled as they run their fingers over my head. Goodness gracious!

But alas I am on the plane and awaiting the next adventure while looking out over the Colorado mountain range – the rockies are most definitely cooler!!

Stay tuned for part 2 because alas the day was not over yet . . .

Another random moment in the midst of my life . . .

My friend Mel and I have established a bit of a fun tradition where we do a progressive dinner when she is up visiting and we actually have more then 2 hours to see each other. The premise is that we choose all of our favorite restaurants with favorite items for each course (i.e. I love the cactus cuts and BP’s but don’t often eat there for anything else) and then order one to share – take our time getting to the next restaurant and do the same.

Well, Friday was the day for this extravaganza –

We started out at El Sombrero’s and had some fabulous tiquita chicken bites of heaven while being entertained to all the famous Mexican love songs by this cute little Mexican man on his guitar. Then we walked down 17th to hit up Fiore’s for their yummy mushroom caps. Along the way we wandered into a couple shops and looked around. Our next stop was Milestone’s where we decided to keep the varieties of ethnicities, etc. going and chose the Red Thai Curry bowl! From there it was back to the car and off for the dessert finale! Well – on the way Mel decides that we should run across the intersection even though the light had started to flash. Just as we take off I notice the hand no longer flashing and the light turn yellow. In my mind I am realizing that I am never going to make it as my flips do not allow for sprinting very well but I decide to at least give it my best shot when my back foot fully runs out of my flip flop. Now, please do not forget that I have a 36” inseam – this means a full 3’ of toned muscle (okay maybe not so toned but still a 3’ span of leg) per leg and as Fran can attest to a very long stride. So now to jog back to where my shoe lays is a good 10’ with one bare foot and a light that is definitely red for me which means green for the four lanes of traffic 3 deep per lane anxiously awaiting to cross through the intersection. I then realize that my best bet as I don’t want anyone running over my favorite flip is to take my other flip off thus freeing my body to uninhibitedly sprint to the flip and back to the sidewalk. I didn’t dare look up at anyone waiting in their cars as I am sure my face was beet red to the point that the drivers thought their light had turned red again.

My my - what a laugh – enough that we had no problem working off our first three courses and making plenty of room for dessert!