“I Am The One Who Buys That!”

Day Three 6/07/09
“I Am The One Who Buys That!”

Even though we went to bed a little earlier last night we were still pretty tired. We slept in until 10ish and then packed up our stuff. We had skipped breakfast so when we left the hotel around 11:30 A.M. we decided to go and get lunch. We again headed downtown on the lookout for a brewery. We were trying to go to the Flying Dog but evidently it is out of business. Instead we ended up at the Breakenridge.

Breakenridge Brewery was a super cool place. One of the best surprises was when we walked in the door they were showing the Prefontaine Classic on a 100” screen. I had forgotten I was missing the meet while we were in Denver so this was a super welcomed surprise. The pulled pork sandwich I had was fantastic. I tasted Amanda’s beers and not surprisingly I wasn’t a huge fan. She liked them though and we both liked the pint glasses. We ended up getting four glasses for ten bucks, which we thought was a pretty good deal.

After a long and leisurely lunch we decided to spend our remaining two hours or so exploring more of downtown Denver. We went to see the classic “Denver” sign located on the 16th street mall. We browsed around a few shops on the promenade and then wandered into a big festival that had been causing us traffic detours for days. The event turned out to be the “People’s Fair of Denver”. It was actually kind of cool. There were tons of food and arts and crafts booths. The people watching was fantastic. Two highlights included a large man roller blading in spandex and full pads and a girl who appeared to be wearing a thin terry-cloth tube dress that was not hiding ANYTHING from the imagination. I also enjoyed one of the amusement rides. It looked like a large jumpy chair for adults. I’ve always wanted one of those. When I make my version of Neverland Ranch, I am going to have one. I’ll post a picture of it at the bottom of this post.

Our trip out to the airport was quick and efficient. Denver has a nicely located gas station right by the airport so filling up the rental car’s tank was no problem. We loaded the Avis bus and were in the terminal an hour and half before our flight was scheduled to leave. On the way out we had a little trouble with the location of the seats, so I decided to head straight for an agent this time. I was hoping to upgrade us with e-coupons, so I decided to get in the 1K/First Class line. This was not technically correct but the agent was super cool about it. She couldn’t confirm any upgrades for us but she did put us on the waitlist. She thought the odds of us getting one upgrade was good but two was unlikely. Again it sucked that we were on separate itineraries because if we were on one, this would have all been easy.

My first stop once getting through security was Wolfgang Puck’s. On our way to the restaurant my phone rang. That is never a good sign when one is in an airport. It was United calling to tell us our flight was a half hour delayed. It could have been worse I guess. We continued on our way to find my secret treat for Mandy. The Wolfgang’s in the Denver airport has the most incredible vanilla pudding with berries on it. Just typing this makes me hungry. I heard about it from my friend Joel and now I get it every time I am in Denver. Amanda is now a huge fan too.

The departure time boards within all of terminal B were malfunctioning. This obviously prevented us from knowing the status of our flight, which was pretty annoying. We decided it best to just go out and hang at the gate. When our flight was finally posted on the board I decided to go and ask the agent about the possibilities of upgrades. While I was in the line she paged me to the counter. I cut the line, told her my name and she said I had been upgraded. I told her I was also traveling with a friend and I asked her if Amanda was likely to get upgraded as well. She said no, there were going to be two more names called and her’s was the third on the list. I decided to take my upgrade anyway. Amanda had never flown first class and seemed as though she really wanted to try it. I didn’t mind sitting in coach by myself, so I took the one seat and went back to Mandy. Within a few minutes we boarded the plane with the first batch of passengers.

I was seated in 10C which is two rows behind First Class. I could see Amanda climb into 6A. A few minutes later I saw Amanda move to 1D. It looked like a gentleman had asked her to move so he could sit next to his wife. The plane continued to fill but the two seats next to me were remaining empty. One of the last few people on board sat in the middle seat next to me. Her husband sat in the middle seat across the isle. She seemed to me like the type of old lady who was on her way home from a lifetime of smoking in Vegas. She was whining in her raspy voice about all of her delays and yada, yada, yada. In an attempt to lift her spirits I told her that I had upgraded my friend to First Class, so the window seat was likely to stay empty and her husband could probably move into that seat. She liked this idea and asked the flight attendant if he could move yet. The flight attendant wanted to make sure no one else boarded before allowing the shift. She also wanted to know why I upgraded my friend and if I would be willing to upgrade her. I laughed a bit and said I would but I couldn’t because there wasn’t even a seat for me to upgrade myself. At this point the flight attendant told the old guy he could move over. I got out of my seat to make it easier on him. His wife got up too and he shuffled across the aisle. I sat down again and started to get comfortable. At this point the gate agent came on the plane with the passenger manifest and said something to the flight attendant that I couldn’t hear. She then came over to my seat and asked me if I “wanted to ride upfront”. I said, “Why yes thank you, I do.” I stood up and grabbed my backpack from under my feet. The old lady said, “where are you going now?” I said, “I’m going up front.”

The flight attendant told me to grab “the empty seat”. Both 3C and 3D were empty. I set my backpack under 3D and then went to grab Amanda out of 1D. I figured if 3C was empty also she might as well sit with me. So after three moves for Amanda and two for me we were both comfortably seated together in First Class. Not a bad deal.

One nice thing about going First Class from DEN to PDX is that they serve you dinner. Amanda had the ravioli and I had the roast beef. I enjoyed mine and believe she enjoyed hers. I also believe she enjoyed her wine, bloody mary, vodka and cranberry, and whatever else I missed in between.

After dinner I worked on the blog and Amanda read the “Skymall” catalog. Every so often she would tap me and show me a crazy item. The first, fittingly, was a floating pool bar. She thought we needed it for the yard. I can’t really disagree with that. I would enjoy a Diet Dr. P. while swimming. The next item was a traction device for a person’s neck. It had a hilarious picture of a guy hanging in a doorway. Even better was the sumo looking doll table. I should have taken a picture of this. It looked like a sumo wrestler sculpture hunched over with glass on top. When Mandy showed me this I had to ask her. “Who buys these things?” We pontificated that for a while and got a good laugh out of it. Another ten minutes or so passed and she tapped me again. This time she pointed to an item in the lower right hand corner of the catalog. When I saw it my eyes lit up. I said, “I am the one who buys that!”. It was an air gun that shoots marshmallows and yes I am in fact the proud owner of such a gun. We both started laughing hysterically.

Before we knew it we were on the ground in Portland. Chris was waiting directly outside the doors of baggage claim for us. I wasn’t sure when we left Denver if I wanted to sleep at Chris and Amanda’s or drive back to Eugene. We ended up getting back to their place by 9 P.M. so I decided to drive home.

It’s now late and I’m tired from a super fun action packed three days. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from a weekend with Mandy Moore, OAR and Red Rocks. Until the next adventure…

Katy

I’ve always wanted an adult jumpy chair.

Garden of the Gods

Day Two 6/06/09
Garden of the Gods

Even though we went to bed super late last night we decided to get up at a decent hour to make use of our time in Denver. We ate breakfast, got ready, and set out on our adventure to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs was about 60 miles from our hotel so we anticipated an hour drive. About 20 miles outside of our destination we ran into a ton of traffic. There was bridge construction on the highway so Amanda and I decided to go on a detour. With the help of Mertle we saved ourselves a solid hour of stalled highway time.

Garden of the Gods was very cool. It is place that is clearly better described with pictures than words. I will post a picture or two after this blog entry. One thing I really enjoyed was the diversity of people wandering around the garden. There were singles, families, school kids, old people, asian tourists and everything else in between. Mandy I spent roughly an hour and half taking pictures and exploring the gardens. During this time I realized she has an irrational fear of rattle snakes and any noise coming from the wilderness. I’m certain at some point in the future I will take advantage of this knowledge.

After our hike we were both a little hungry and really thirsty. Conveniently it was a little after 2 P.M. which meant happy hour had started at Sonic. We both thought slushes sounded amazing, so that was our next stop.

On our way back from Colorado Springs we stopped at the outlet mall in Castle Rock. We both purchased a dress for Ms. Jones’ upcoming wedding. We also each purchased a few other clothing items. Once we completed our whirlwind tour of the mall we were hungry yet again. We decided to hit another of Mandy’s favorite Denver restaurants. We went to a cool retro 40-60’s place called Steuben’s http://www.steubens.com. I ordered what the waiter recommended which was this strange beef dish. It was phenomenal. I’d definitely go there again the next time I am in Denver.

We finished eating dinner around 8 P.M. and we were both beat. We thought about going to a comedy show or something but we decided that we would rather just go back to the hotel and watch a movie there.

We are in the hotel now and it is super cool. Our 42 inch plasma lists the most popular youtube videos as part of our on demand programming. We have spent the last 45 minutes watching some of our classic favorites like “Charlie” and “Evil Eye Baby”. If you haven’t seen those, you should surf over to youtube and watch them.

We are now going to watch the Ben Stiller movie Heartbreak Kid on HBO. I have a feeling we will both be asleep before too long. So I am going to sign off until tomorrow.

Sleep well!

Katy

OAR Live at Red Rocks

Day One 6/05/09
OAR Live at Red Rocks

3:30 A.M. felt extra early this morning. Our goal was to leave for the airport by 4:15 A.M. so I wanted to have enough time to take a shower as well. Chris, Amanda’s boyfriend, was nice enough to get up and take us to the airport. Her friend and neighbor Adie also had an early morning flight so she rode with us as well. The trip in from Beaverton was quick and we were to the airport a little before 5.

Mandy and I chose to just pack carry-ons. We checked in at the automated machines but ran into a problem. I had called a few weeks ago to get Mandy seated in Economy Plus with me. When she pulled up her reservation, she was seated in 23E, which is not only a regular economy seat, but a middle economy seat at that. Unfortunately there was no way to fix this problem on the computers, so we had to get in a different line where an actual agent could help us. Fortunately this didn’t take too long. The agent was able to put us together in 9E and F which are nice seats on a 757.

Within 30 minutes of our arrival at PDX we were through security and sitting at our gate. They kept announcing that the flight was super full and that some passengers would need to gate check their rollaboards. I wonder if the guy who decided to start charging for checked baggage realized the increase in carry-ons the fees would cause? Mandy and I boarded with the Executive Premiers and had no problem storing our stuff. Even better, we ended up having an open seat in our row. We chatted for the first little but of the flight, and then in typical Katy fashion, I fell asleep.

After landing a couple minutes early in Denver we made our way to the rental car bus stop. It was sitting there just waiting for us. Mandy took care of booking our car and got us a fabulous deal with Alamo. I typically rent with Hertz but this experience made me want to rent with Alamo again. As previously mentioned we didn’t have to wait for the bus at all. There were popcorn and lattes free for the taking. The service was friendly and efficient. We even got a nearly brand new Subaru Legacy all for $14 a day. Who says there is not a silver lining to a down economy?

Before long Myrtle, my portable GPS system, was hooked up in the Legacy and we were on our way to the hotel. We found a pretty sweet deal at a Hyatt Place at the Denver Tech Center. The hotel included parking, wi-fi, breakfast and a very large hotel room for $80 a night. I had never stayed at a Hyatt Place previously but I would certainly stay there again.

Amanda and I were both pretty hungry from our travels, and lack of breakfast, so after checking in we decided to go to a brewery in downtown Denver called the Wynekoop for lunch. Mandy likes her beer and her sister, who used to live in Denver, said this was a fun place. We sat at the bar and had fun chatting a little with a handsome bar tender. I had a pulled pork sandwich that hit the spot. I don’t remember the beer Amanda ordered but I believe she liked it. Her salad looked pretty good too. I purchased a pint glass to commemorate the stop.

Post lunch our lack of sleep caught up to us and we decided that a nap before the concert would be a good idea. We went back to the Hyatt Place, took naps, and then cleaned up for the show. The show was scheduled to start at 7 P.M., so we decided to go to the cute little downtown in Morrison for dinner. It is clear on concert nights that the town is rocking, so parking was a little bit difficult. Needless to say though, we eventually drove to the front and parked. We lucked out and got one of the last tables in a cute little Mexican restaurant called The Morrison Inn. The service was fast and the food was good. It was just what we needed.

Before we knew it we had parked our car and were marching up a rather large hill to “Red Rocks”. The views were truly remarkable. I will post a few example pictures at the end of this blog.

One of the first things I wanted to do once getting inside the venue was purchase a limited edition poster made exclusively for this show. I like to get concert posters and they are particularly cool when they are limited edition. We decided to hit the merch booth at the top of the venue so we could both buy our poster and check out the view from the top of the amphitheater. Just as we were getting helped with our posters a massive Denver lightening storm blew in. It was seriously like God turned on a faucet. Fortunately I had on a gortex trench and Mandy had her super Target blanket that had a vinyl like side. I brought a tube with me to keep the posters nice while we were at the concert but it turned out to be a good moisture barrier as well. The guys helping us did their best to keep the posters dry. They needed a little guidance in this area but I did my best to do it tactfully. Just as we were walking away from the tent half of it blew over as did both of the tables located to our left. We decided to seek shelter at a nearby tent/beer garden that was a little more substantial. We made friends with the couple closest to us and within ten or so minutes the storm was over.

The opener for the concert was a fellow named Brett Dennen. Sadly for him he is not the most attractive guy in the world but he has an incredible voice. His music can be heard here http://brettdennen.net/. He played for roughly an hour and I honestly found the whole thing quite enjoyable.

The OAR performance was amazing. Red Rocks is the biggest venue I have seem them play to date. Their sets were much more elaborate than I am used to and I enjoyed the additional elements. Another highlight was their cover of U2’s Bloody Sunday. In the four previous shows I had attended I had never heard them cover another band. The fact that they chose one of my favorite songs by an incredible band was an awesome perk. The only negative thing about the concert was the drunk and high guy next to me. He kept trying to dance with me. My personal space was being violated on a constant basis. I was doing my best to ignore it… and then he grabbed my ass. That was the last straw. I threw his hand off of me and told him, “you need to keep your drunk ass hands off of me. It would be impossible for me to be less attracted to you. If you touch me again, you are going to have some serious problems.” He didn’t touch me again but he did continue to get in my space. Mandy wanted to take him on but thankfully she didn’t. She did yell at him once which was kind of funny, but no punches were thrown.

After the concert Amanda and I decided to wait a while to exit because there were going to be 9,000 drunk people marching down the hill and we were in no hurry to join them. We also weren’t in a huge hurry to sit in traffic behind them so we took a few more pictures and went to the bathroom. OAR offers recordings of their concerts on thumb drives roughly 15 minutes after their shows end. I decided that I wanted to get one of these so Amanda and I got in the back of the line and waited for the last batch of thumb drives. By the time we started hiking down the hill it was after 12.

On our way down the hill we saw the band’s bus. When OAR played in Eugene in January of ’09 Amanda and I met most of the band. We even went out with Michael Paris and Benj Gershman after the show. As we passed the bus we saw that Richard was talking to some fans. He was one of two band members we hadn’t met, so we decided to stop and introduce ourselves. I also wanted him to sign a poster that I had the other guys sign in Eugene. The only band member we had left to meet was the drummer Chris. We decided to hang out and wait to see if we could catch Chris on his way to the bus. While we were waiting Michael came by. To my shock and amazement he remembered Amanda’s name from our night out in Eugene. We had fun talking to him for a little while until he had to go and meet up with his cousin. Shortly there after Benj came by. Benj too remembered us from Eugene. We talked about the show. Amanda told him it was all awesome except for the drunk and high guy grabbing my butt. Benj then checked out my butt and said he understood the guy trying. I thought that was pretty funny and Amanda enjoyed it too. I told Benj we were waiting for Chris so that I could finish my poster. He offered to go and get him for us. Within a minute Chris was there. Like every other member of OAR, Chris was a super nice guy. It is really easy to love a band that creates awesome music, puts on a great show and treats their fans like they are long lost friends.

By the time we made our way down the windy road to our car it was 1 A.M. There were not many people left in the area at this time but we did pass one group of people. There were five guys and one girl playing beer pong. As we walked by they asked Mandy if she wanted to shotgun a beer with them. Anyone who knows Mandy knows the automatic answer to this question was yes. We ended up hanging out for roughly two hours with mostly Matt and Brian. They were Airforce guys that came from Colorado Springs for the concert. I had fun talking to Matt about his experiences in the service and Amanda had fun keeping us all entertained with lines like “My jeans are sweating!” and “Want some coooooooookies?”

When 3 A.M. rolled around I realized I was pretty dang tired. I think Amanda was getting a little tired at this point too so we decided to say goodnight to our new friends. We walked the rest of the way to our car. We had parked next to a porta potty and Amanda was super excited to use it. Once she completed her business we got on the road back to the hotel. We arrived at the Hyatt Place around 3:45 A.M. exhausted from nearly 24 hours of activity but very pleased with our action packed day of fun.

Until tomorrow,

Katy



OAR playing “On My Way” at Red Rocks on June 5, 2009.

The view from the top of the Red Rocks Amphitheater before the show started and the sold-out crowd filled in.

Itching to go…

Day Zero 6/04/09
Itching to go…

I’ve worked in an office for the last two weeks. For those of you who know me well, that has to be some kind of record. I’ve only been home for two and half weeks since my last trip but it’s time to roll again. Tonight I am driving up to Portland to meet my friend Mandy Moore, and no, not that Mandy Moore, an even cooler one. We are off to Denver in the early A.M. to see one of our favorite bands, O.A.R., live at Red Rocks amphitheater. I’ve heard lots of really incredible things about this venue, so I am pretty stoked to have the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands there. We are going to spend the whole weekend in Denver, but the show is tomorrow night. I’ll write tomorrow about all my adventures and to let you know if Red Rocks lives up to the hype!

Katy