Italy Reunion in Denver

Last summer I met Chelsey and Liz while traveling in Italy.  Since we had returned home, we stayed in contact and decided we should get together one weekend.  We decided to head to Denver!  Chelsey lived in Denver, so Liz and I decided to pack our bags and head out to the mountains.  Denver was absolutely breathtaking!  We arrived Friday night, and we immediately headed into the city.  We went to Jacksons, a bar right across the street from Coors Stadium.  There Chelsey, Liz, and I got to catch up while meeting Chelsey's fiance and sister.  After a night of drinks and laughs, we headed back to Chelsey's place where we got a good night sleep before a trip up to the mountains.

We got up early Saturday morning and had a road trip to Copper Mountain, where we would snowboard for the weekend.  The drive was absolutely breathtaking!

Cheapest gas I have seen in years!

View from our car where we got ready for boarding

All ready to go snowboarding... Liz, me, Chelsey

The view from Jack's Bar where I sat and drank Day 2 of snowboarding because snowboarding is just not for me!

Denver was absolutely beautiful!  The only thing I could barely believe is that a lot of the snow was man made because they had not had a lot of snow this year.  At Copper Mountain, I had my very first snowboarding experience ever.  It did not go too well.  The girls took me down the intermediate slope, which you could say looked like a black diamond for us east coasters.  It took me a whopping 3 hours to get down the hill.  Thankfully, ski patrol was not needed to deliver my body down the mountain, even though I did have one nasty fall.  Good thing I wore a helmet :)  I had an awesome time meeting Chelsey's friends and wandering around the Copper Mountain Resort for two days.  The fresh mountain air was perfect.

After two days on the mountain it was time to head back to Maryland.  We woke up really early Monday morning because we had to drive back down the mountain to Denver International Airport, which I think definitely looks like a building out of Russia (and no, I have never been to Russia).  On our way home, we drove through what I thought was a blizzard, but the people from Denver said it was nothing.  As I checked on my flight, I found out it was cancelled!  I immediately got on the phone with the airlines, and I found out there was something wrong with the plane.  They booked me on a new flight to Baltimore which would send me through San Francisco.  That was a flight I definitely did not want to take.  As soon as I got to the airport at 7:30 am, I got to the counter and asked if they could get me to the Baltimore/DC area in the afternoon.  As luck would have it, a direct flight to Dulles was leaving at 8:20.  I raced through security and through the terminals.  When I got to what I thought was my gate, I realized I had mixed up my seat number 27B with the gate number B43.  Again, I went running through the terminal.  Finally, I made it to B43 with a few moments to spare as they just began boarding my section.  Before I knew it, I was in my seat and headed back to the east coast.

The Denver weekend was wonderful, and it was awesome to meet up with the Italy girls and to meet all of Chelsey's friends.  One thing I will definitely do the next time I am in Denver is stick with skiing.