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Sunday, July 20, 2014

Colorado Days 5 & 6 (THE FINAL CHAPTER!)

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This is the final chapter of our Colorado trip!

Read about Days 1 & 2 here.
Read about Day 3 here.
Read about Day 4 here.




Today was all about Paul! We were taking a tour of Mile High Stadium! Paul is a huge football fan. I could care less about football. I think it is dumb. There, I said it. (Things I don't think are dumb: Big Brother, Nancy Grace, and Dr. Phil.... So you can determine whether I should be the judge of what is dumb and what isn't!)

We left our friends in Colorado Springs and made the drive back up to Denver. We went right to the stadium. Before I show you lots of pictures, let me tell you that I really enjoyed the stadium tour. We had an awesome guide and he gave us a lot of inside information on the facility. The tour had little to do with FOOTBALL, and a lot to do with the inner workings of the stadium. I don't know if all stadium tours are like this, or if this one was just super awesome.





Paul being silly.




Paul's first selfie. It was a good try.

Hot and cold baths in the visiting team's locker room.
Paul kept saying, "Tom Brady SAT in those!"

The official's locker room not only had braille on the sign (haha get it the refs can't see?)
but it was right across from one of the 6 huge beer refrigerators that hold all the beer for the entire stadium (haha get it the refs are all drunk?)

Visitor's locker room.
Our tour guide pointed out that the carpet kind of made you dizzy when you looked at it (hard to tell from the picture). That is so the visiting team feels sort of off balance when they are in there. Let's not win because we're better at football. Let's win because of the carpet.

I don't know why he took a pic of the visting team's urinals!?

This is the sign right outside the visiting team's locker room. Our guide said it is one last reminder to the visitors that they are going to have a hard time out there on the field.


Paul running out of the visitor's tunnel. A boy can dream!

Paul touching the field. We weren't allowed to walk on it but we were allowed to touch.


That night, we went to dinner at Hacienda, a Mexican restaurant. I got to try my first ever FISH TACO. Fish tacos always sounded disgusting to me, but these had mahi mahi in them, which changed the game for me a bit. I have no pictures because I was too hungry and devoured all three before I could even think of it!

This may be a good time to mention how polite everyone is in Colorado. Whether I was at a restaurant, gas station, hotel... anywhere... people were just so nice. Sometimes I go to grocery stores in PA and the cashier doesn't even look at me, let alone say hello to me. In Colorado, it always went something like this:

Cashier: Good morning, how are you today?
Me: Great, how are you?
Cashier: I am good, thank you so much for asking.

See, isn't that lovely?

Because it was July 3rd, Denver had quite a few fireworks shows at various places in the city. Lucky for us, we could see one perfectly from on top of the parking garage across from our hotel! Happy Birthday, America!




I'll admit that even though I was having a blast on vacation, around Day 3, I started to miss my home and I started to miss my cats. We had an awesome cat sitter staying at our place, but I still worry about them and miss them when I'm gone. By Day 6, I was excited to go home!

I don't fly a lot at all, which means I am not used to flight delay/cancellation issues, so I was extremely annoyed when I got a call at 3:30 am the night before our flight telling us it "may" be delayed due to "crew rest issues". I immediately started stressing. We had a connecting flight in Philly that I did not want to miss.

Note: I feel bad even complaining about the airport experience on the day we went home, as Kristina's clearly tops mine! However, I will still tell you about it. Then go read hers and see what a big baby I am being!

Our first flight ended up departing about an hour late. The pilot came on the intercom and told us we would only be arriving about 20 minutes later than our original arrival time. We would be making up a lot of time in the air. (I don't know how they do that but AWESOME for us!) So I calculated the time in my head, and if we did indeed touch down when the pilot claimed we would, we had about 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight. I think I clenched my butt cheeks the whole flight!

Luckily we were sitting right at the front of the coach section, so it only took us about 3 minutes to get off the plane. Unfortunately, our next gate was so far away we had to take a bus to get there. We were seriously running through the airport "Home Alone" style.



Well, we made our connecting flight with zero time to spare. WAHOO!!!!!!

We were home with our kitties before it was even dark out.

Colorado was fun, but I love my home!

How could you not miss this face?

Jelly missed us so much he needed some Emo dry...
(Emo dry is when Jelly eats a lot of dry food because he is feeling very emotional.)
Have you ever done a stadium tour?
Tell me an airport horror story!

18 comments:

  1. I've never done a tour of a stadium before but I did get to run through the tunnel at U of M stadium as part of a 5k run. Growing up going to the games, I thought that was pretty cool, and I'm like you, not even a football fan. I try not to recount airport horror stories because it's reliving something that is almost always out of your control. I try my best to be grateful that I at least got to my destination safely. Yes, its hard sometimes to do that when you are in the thick of things! Sounds like a fun vacation overall, and yes, Colorado people are really nice, and fit too!

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    1. That is a really good point- not jut being thankful to have made it to the destination safely, but to have the money and means to be able to take a vacation in the first place! I shall try to remember that next time my butt cheeks are clenched in an airport.

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  2. Omg I would have been worried about them just using duct tape as well! That would have required at least one extra Ativan. :)

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  3. I've never even thought of taking a stadium tour before! That sounds awesome for a football fan. I need to schedule one at Dolphins stadium!

    Is it sad that whenever I see 5280 I always think "FIVE came to dinner, TWO EIGHT NONE"? I guess I learned something in math class, haha.

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    1. LOL that is an excellent way to remember it!

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  4. Now that we never check bags, my airport nightmare is the fear that there will be no room overhead for my bag! Vacation is fun, but nothing beats coming home!

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    1. I have never checked a bag but sometimes they take them anyway when there isn't room! Luckily, I have always gotten my stuff back right away. :)

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  5. I haven't ever toured a stadium but I think it would be fun - seems like they are almost small self-contained cities. Funny ref story - 2 years ago when the refs were on strike my twin brother was a replacement ref. He did over half of the season - it was a pretty awesome experience for him.
    I'm one of those people who love airports and flying - if I'm by myself and not in a huge rush I usually volunteer to give up my seat when they ask for people because they overbooked - I have taken some great trips for free thanks to that!!!
    But, I agree - home is best!!!

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    1. That is the best way to put it- they are like small cities! The stadium even had a 3 jails that fit 20 people each and the guide says they get filled each and every game! That is really cool about your brother getting to be a ref. Talk about a once in a lifetime experience!

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  6. How badly do I want a hot & cold bath side by side (with Tom Brady in it...)?
    I haven't toured Mile High Stadium but I have been to both the new and old. Love my Broncos. Thanks for showing an insider view, Meg! Paul looks happy. Totally in his element.

    No matter how much fun I have on vacation I am always, always ready to come home to my life, my dog, my space.

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    1. I bet you would like that! ;) That is cool you were also at the old stadium. The tour was very fascinating. Most of the stuff they told us wasn't even about football.

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  7. Man oh man, I hate the stress of flight delays! Especially when I'm travelling to/from Australia and if I miss my connection it means I have to wait another 6-10 hours for the next one!

    I had fish tacos for the first time last month. I was always grossed out by the idea (as meat always>fish) but they were actually amazing!

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    1. I was pleasantly surprised as well. I like fish, sushi, and seafood, but the thought of it being in a TACO sounded gross to me. I ended up also having crab tacos when we went to the beach a few days ago. I think all I need to have now are pork tacos and I'm covered.

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  8. I could not care less about football either. You're a very good wife for going on that tour. I think I might have died from boredom! I absolutely hate everything about flying. I never check my bag because I am terrified that they will lose it and I will be stuck in a new area with absolutely no underwear and running clothes!

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    1. I never check my bad, either! I liked the tour because I liked learning about the facility... but that could just be me being "old" hehe. Luckily there wasn't a lot of football talk.

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  9. We love football! I didn't realize they did stadium tours...that is SO cool!!!!! :)

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  10. I didn't even know Mile High did stadium tours. Looks like that's a lot more interesting than watching a game there. :) Sounds like something the husband would like, though!

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    1. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate football and have no desire to watch it. My cousin even played in the NFL for several years and I never watched his games on TV (though I took my husban to two) My point is, if I enjoyed the stadium tour, anyone would!!!

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