Monday, January 11, 2010

Weekend Update #41: (part 2) Happy New Year!!

Saturday was a good day. It was my birthday!!!!!!!!! The boys had hotel staff bring up a balloon bouquet for me while we were out the night before.



After eating a small breakfast at the hotel...we headed out to Margaret Brown's house. AKA, the Unsinkable Molly Brown.




The house was gorgeous!!!!!


The tour guide was the most annoying creature. I mean, she knew her Molly Brown facts. But....her delivery was very.....um......terse.

Over the top.

Rehearsed to the point of uncomfortable.

I appreciate the information she had to give us. But if felt as though we were taking her away from her life. That she was making time to show us around Molly....I'm sorry, Margaret's house.

Apparently, the writer of the show didn't think the name Margaret was lyrical...so she changed her first name to Molly.

Like I said, the guide had all kinds of interesting information. But she delivered it down her nose. It got to the point that Mot was actually doing things to make her nervous. Wandering around, hovering over things like he might just touch them....but had no intention of doing so in real life.

"The only rules of the tour are no photography and no food or drink. But I have my own rules. No cell phones, no calls, no texting, no tweeting. No gum chewing, no touching. You are guests of Margaret. You see, her real name is Margaret, and that's how I refer to her. I will never call her Molly...her name was not Molly."

Now, at the end of each sentence, she drags the last word out...and the pitch of her voice dropped.

"You seeeeeeeee. Her REAL name was Maragettttttt...and that's how I will refer to herrrrr. I will nnnnnever call her Molllllyyyyy....her name was not Mollllyyyyy."

(sigh)


The day before, we'd passed by a local bar....and the name caught our attention. We had to check it out. The place was actually quite amazing. It was three stories, with an outside patio on the roof. And, apparently, it's an Oklahoma State bar. As we were getting ready to leave, the place was suddenly full of people wearing orange. :-)

Oh, and the food was wonderful!!!!!!!

Oh, and we got a parking ticket. $25....ouch Denver!!!



From there, since we had some extra time, we drove further downtown to check out Union Station.



I love train stations. There's just something so open, so exciting about them. To think about the people that have passed through that building. Trooops being sent to war, people going home to visit family, and travelers experiencing the joy of going somewhere new, or somewhere they love.







At the train station, we jumped on one of the free 16th street mall buses that runs routes through the mall all day.



Our final destination was the Brown Palace and Hotel. The run tours at 2:00, and the place is gorgeous!!!!











Apparently, they changed the times for their tours to 3:00, but have not bothered to change any of their information. Websites, and brochures. The hockey game that afternoon started at 4:05, so we didn't have time for the tour.

All of us were pretty bummed. There is quite a bit of history to the building.


Next door is a building named The Navarre. While we were waiting for the tour that didn't happen, I googled the building. It was at one time, a brothel. Under the street between the hotel and the house of woman are railed tunnels....so businessmen could visit without being seen. And the tunnel was railed, so they didn't have to walk.


The Beatles stayed at the hotel.....says this plaque on the sidewalk outside.


On our way back to Union Station, we stopped at a bookstore.

Come on...Mot, Steve and I not stopping at a bookstore? Not going to happen. :-)




I think the boys need to play in red from now on. They won. It was a much more pleasant game to watch!!! :-)

I was nearly booted from the arena.

Was I causing a commotion? Was I picking fights? Was I defacing property?

Nope, nope and nope. I was taking pictures of the game.

Which is, by the way, perfectly acceptable per their website.

They tried to remove me because the lens on my camera was too professional.

Yep, too professional.

All of my pictures were either taken through the net, or the dirty glass. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not selling my pictures, nor would I know how to go about doing so. Yet, I'm a threat to professional photographers everywhere.

I just think it was because we were from the opposing team. :-)

After the game, we walked across the street from the hotel to Safe Way to get some snacks for the night. On the way to the grocery, we passed a liquor store. We had plans of going up to Estes the next day, and were going to pack a lunch. Danny and I thought it would be a good idea to also pack a bottle of wine to go along with lunch.

While there, we found a set of those lime squeezers things.....the ones that Natalie uses at our favorite tequila bar in Omaha. We're constantly threatening to steal her set.

You'd think we'd won the lottery.

When we asked how much they were....the employees of the store had no idea.

"$2.99??"

Um...sold!!!! We walked up to the counter with just the squeezer. Nothing else.

"Seriously?"

The look on the guys face behind the counter was priceless. After all of our looking, that's all we were getting. :-)

From there we wandered over to the grocery store. The guy working at customer service told us the Chinese place next door was good food....and Danny needed dinner (the rest of us ate at the game).



It may have been next door, but unless you walked all the way out to the street and around....you had to scale a small wall, then over a fence.

Danny and I walked around. :-) :-)

The food wasn't worth the walk. :-(

Back at the hotel, we asked them to open up the breakfast room, so we could play cards and munch on some snacks.

It was a great evening...and the end to a great birthday!

(to be cont)

To see all the pictures I took in Denver, check out my Webshots page.

9 comments:

Elliott said...

Happy birthday! Um...someone is bringing in your mail, if you're still in CO, right? I'd hate to think someone else has wandered off with your winnings.

Nej said...

Thanks!!!

Nope, I got my winnings in the mail the day before we left...now I just need to sit down and try it!!! (This week is much less busy than last!!!) I have to have time for this one.....must document the experience!! :-) :-)

Brook said...

Looks like you guys had a great time as usual! That camera thing is pretty darn funny, reminds me of a story...another time. I hope there was a comment card for the Molly Brown house tour-what a way to mess up a cool place. And....did you have cake? For your birthday I mean.

MJenks said...

You should have really annoyed the tour guide by constantly referring to her as "Meg" or "Peggy" or "Mags" or something like that. See how long it would take to cause her to 'splode.

A much-belated happy birthday to you. Looks like you had a pretty good one...bad Chinese food (is there any other kind?) excluded.

Nej said...

@ Brook - we didn't go back into the tour office, so I don't know if there was a comment card. I think we all just wanted to escape the gaze of that lady!! :-)

No cake...we got some snacks at the grocery store, and celebrated a little more low key. Which is always good by me! :-)

I forgot to mention, after we ate Chinese, we had to walk past the liquor store on the way back to the hotel. We stopped in and bought the other two lime squeezer things. Steve set them on the counter and the guys working just looked at them and said "really?"

They didn't quite know what to think of us. :-)

Nej said...

@ mjenks - yeah, there is a place here in town that serves some pretty good Chinese chow. :-)

You know, I'm bummed that I didn't think about calling her Molly....er Margaret...something else. It would have sent her through the roof. She'd have kicked us all out. :-) The woman would go to a new room in the house...and then talk for 20 minutes. On, and on, and on. I think we were all trying to stay awake honestly.

Badass Geek said...

Happy late Birthday! And yeah, it seems like you had a great weekend!

Unknown said...

I am sure Molly, no Margaret, no Molly would have wished you a happy birthday, too!

Nej said...

@ Moonspun - Maahhgaret would have laaahved that it was my birthdayyyy. :-)