gOSH! So many good things have been happening! I know I still need to fill in the details between Austin and KC, but for now, I just want to talk about now. :D
We are currently in Denver for the second night, actually staying at separate friends' houses tonight, but Aparna and I both got to watch the awesome fireworks show in Civic Center Park downtown...along with hundreds of thousands of others so we didn't actually see each other...that was held tonight in celebration of Independence Eve. It was a cool event in the middle of downtown in the park between the State Capitol building and the City and County building (which face each other). There was a big stage set up and the Denver Symphony played great patriotic music for about an hour before the fireworks show. I especially appreciated it since tomorrow we'll be spending most of the day in the car, and typically the 4th is my favorite holiday (as it should be growing up in Molalla!) and I've been bummed about driving for most of it. But we are hoping to also catch some SLC fireworks tomorrow as well, so we'll see how that goes.
Khara, an SDO alum/sister of mine, is living in Denver now, so we met up earlier after Kelly W. gave us a great driving tour of the city earlier. Oh! and we also had an amazing brunch of roasted parsnips/asparagus with fried eggs and hashbrowns. Yum! But Khara took me downtown on the light rail to the 16th st walking mall. My favorite part is all the public pianos they have available on the center walk...though not super in-tune, they are all painted very nicely, so I snapped some photos of some of my favs. :) I was going to play a song after the show, but they were all occupied by the time we were walking through. Next time, Denver!
We walked all the way down to the art museum, and saw some really cool sculptures. Ok, there are a TON of sculptures in this city which gives it a very unique flavor, I think. The best ones, though, were the broom/dustpan, the horse on a red chair, and the cows (which I rode, even though I probably wasn't supposed to) ;) Then we hiked back through the SUPER windy streets, and Khara treated me to dinner at the Yardhouse (named for the yard-tall beer glasses they traditionally served in, even though nowadays, you can only get up to a half-yard). They also have the (supposed) world's largest selection of draft beer, so I tried a white ale that was indeed pretty tasty. Then concert, then looong rides on the light rail back "home".
Yesterday was another 3-state day as we drove from Kansas City, MO, through the ENTIRE state of Kansas (and through a crazy thunder/lightning storm that I was convinced was going to turn into a tornado, pick us up, and carry us away!) ...I've seriously never seen THAT much lightning in one storm...and into Colorado which mostly looked like Kansas until we got close enough to Denver to watch the sun set behind the Rockies. :D But yeah, we basically drove directly into that storm, though it proved to be good photo opp. And after all was said and done, we landed at Kelly's super cute apartment, ate some yummy "Kelly food" (as Aparna calls it) and slept REALLY well. We didn't get out of bed til about 10:00 (a first for this trip?) but it was so nice. I like that Colorado isn't super hot all day AND night.
Alright, it's time for a blessed shower and a snuggle-in. LOVElovelove!
-Alia
We are currently in Denver for the second night, actually staying at separate friends' houses tonight, but Aparna and I both got to watch the awesome fireworks show in Civic Center Park downtown...along with hundreds of thousands of others so we didn't actually see each other...that was held tonight in celebration of Independence Eve. It was a cool event in the middle of downtown in the park between the State Capitol building and the City and County building (which face each other). There was a big stage set up and the Denver Symphony played great patriotic music for about an hour before the fireworks show. I especially appreciated it since tomorrow we'll be spending most of the day in the car, and typically the 4th is my favorite holiday (as it should be growing up in Molalla!) and I've been bummed about driving for most of it. But we are hoping to also catch some SLC fireworks tomorrow as well, so we'll see how that goes.
Khara, an SDO alum/sister of mine, is living in Denver now, so we met up earlier after Kelly W. gave us a great driving tour of the city earlier. Oh! and we also had an amazing brunch of roasted parsnips/asparagus with fried eggs and hashbrowns. Yum! But Khara took me downtown on the light rail to the 16th st walking mall. My favorite part is all the public pianos they have available on the center walk...though not super in-tune, they are all painted very nicely, so I snapped some photos of some of my favs. :) I was going to play a song after the show, but they were all occupied by the time we were walking through. Next time, Denver!
We walked all the way down to the art museum, and saw some really cool sculptures. Ok, there are a TON of sculptures in this city which gives it a very unique flavor, I think. The best ones, though, were the broom/dustpan, the horse on a red chair, and the cows (which I rode, even though I probably wasn't supposed to) ;) Then we hiked back through the SUPER windy streets, and Khara treated me to dinner at the Yardhouse (named for the yard-tall beer glasses they traditionally served in, even though nowadays, you can only get up to a half-yard). They also have the (supposed) world's largest selection of draft beer, so I tried a white ale that was indeed pretty tasty. Then concert, then looong rides on the light rail back "home".
Yesterday was another 3-state day as we drove from Kansas City, MO, through the ENTIRE state of Kansas (and through a crazy thunder/lightning storm that I was convinced was going to turn into a tornado, pick us up, and carry us away!) ...I've seriously never seen THAT much lightning in one storm...and into Colorado which mostly looked like Kansas until we got close enough to Denver to watch the sun set behind the Rockies. :D But yeah, we basically drove directly into that storm, though it proved to be good photo opp. And after all was said and done, we landed at Kelly's super cute apartment, ate some yummy "Kelly food" (as Aparna calls it) and slept REALLY well. We didn't get out of bed til about 10:00 (a first for this trip?) but it was so nice. I like that Colorado isn't super hot all day AND night.
Alright, it's time for a blessed shower and a snuggle-in. LOVElovelove!
-Alia
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