spring break vacation, Day 1

8 days ago Conrad and I headed to Burbank Airport.  Oh yes, I am digging into the blogging of the spring break trip to New England.  Day by day - there's a lot of ground to cover!

Day one was easy.  Burbank to Denver, and that was it.  We had wanted to get to Providence in time for dinner with friends, and to do that, we needed to break the outbound trip in two.  That meant we could leave from Burbank, though, which is always preferable.  Such an easy airport.  And hey, first ones on the plane!

Rather than head into the city (and, sadly, we no longer have Courtney and Robert there)(and Laurie and Marc were busy with family visiting), once we got to the airport in Denver,

we picked up our luggage and headed to the adjoining Westin Hotel.  I love the looks of the hotel.  So cool.  Every time I have been to or through Denver, I admire the design.  And now was my chance to stay.

We had a regular room,

and rather than a view of the tented terminal we looked down on the train station for the metro coming in to the airport. 

That was fine.  The room was for one night, and we had an early Sunday morning flight.  We dropped off bags then headed down to the lobby bar for a cocktail

(appropriately enough, an Aviation for me). 

That refreshed us.  We then headed to the ground floor plaza to wander, take photos of the installations on each side,

get a few steps in.

Dinner that night was at Grill & Vine at the hotel.  Conrad taught the bartender how to make Last Words,

and we sipped them whilst enjoying a shared tuna tartare (pictured)

and genuinely super burgers (not pictured).  Bellies a little too full, it was upstairs with us and on to bed.  That 3:45 wake up was going to come far far too soon....

Saturday morning in NYC, and then coming home

Last.  Post.  From.  The.  NYC.  Trip.

I swear!

Hi!  Eleven days after we got home, I'm finishing off the blogging.  And yes, in some ways, it's just getting home from NYC.  And hey, who doesn't love airport and aerial shots?  But we squeezed in a little more into that last day, so why not blog it?

A shorter early morning walk for me, again alone.  Ah, all my walks alone (10.72 miles this morning here in Pasadena - that was a good one!).  Over our time on the east coast, the weather had gotten milder, less humid, so it was a real pleasure enjoying those walks, seeing NYC.  I set out for Starbucks first, then sipped my decaf latte as I roamed nearby, including Madison Square Park again. 

Back at the hotel, we got packed, and then headed out to meet up with Jeff and his husband, Andy, for breakfast.

I've known Jeff for years online, but I've never had the chance to meet him in person.  I was having a conversation recently with another friend I know from online about how some people get so weirded out by the notion of meeting online friends in real life (and even just making online friends).  I've met dozens over the years.  Some have stuck, some have not.  But it's a perfectly fine way to meet people.  And really, even if this was the first time meeting Jeff, I know far more about his life in NYC than about members of my own family!

All of which sounds defensive.  Sorry!  It was simply great to sit down and have a diner breakfast and catch up.  I'm especially grateful they came to meet us given they don't live on Manhattan and they just got back from Greece the day before.  A lovely time, and I was especially touched that Jeff gave me a small piece of his pottery as a memento.

And then it was off to LaGuardia.  Lounge time, then aboard a flight to Denver. 

I was able to pick out CitiField

and the old World's Fair grounds as we took off out of New York. 

The meal on the plane was entirely reasonable. 

And Denver - the city and the airport!

- was a welcome sight given the delays we had already experienced.  We made it home after 10 that evening, and I was happy to be in my own bed once again!  

DEN

Folks, all two of you, we are in Colorado.  As I write, we are en route from Denver airport to Courtney and Robert’s home.  I’ll take care of some work there, and then we’ll head into Boulder for the game.  So then, more to come!  For now, a view from inside the A concourse at DEN..

M+M

Before I head to bed, and before the clock ticks over to Sunday, I did want to mark an important date. Today marks 5 years since Conrad and I were delighted a privileged to bear witness to Martin and Mark's wedding in Denver.

Martin and I have roomed together at conferences for ten years now. We met Mark in 2006 while I was in the throes of appendicitis. We cannot say enough good about the two of them - as a couple and individually.

No, not a long blog post, but a sincerely heartfelt one: happy anniversary Martin and Mark. We hope we may raise a glass to you both five years from now, and well beyond.

Moose

I think it's been apparent from past posts that I have a HUGE soft spot for dogs, especially big lovable ones. Conrad and I do not have any dogs of our own, but we delight in the ones who live with our friends, and we enjoy sharing what time we can with them on our visits.

There's one less dog to love, I am sorry to say. Moose is gone, and though we haven't seen him in years, he was an unforgettable friend for Martin and Ed and Mark.

This may be shallow of me, but the thing that I first loved about Moose was his name. Moose. Mooooooooooose. A fun name to roll off the tongue, funner still to have that face looking up at you when you said it.

Moose accepted the love of two strange guys visiting from out of town, let us pet him and stroke him, had a very kind temperament for the two of us in his house. I melted, meeting him, and I often asked Martin about him in years after.

It's not been a good summer for Martin and Mark in terms of their animal companions, but this latest blow really hurts. I can understand that it was Moose's time, but a little bit of me won't let the memory of him go.

winter in Denver

Rumour has it that the day before I got to Denver it was 70 Fahrenheit degrees. The forecasts I'd seen had us down for maybe a smattering snow but generally mildly cool temperatures around or slightly above freezing.

And so it was I brought a pair of regular shoes to wear.

Silly me.

Temperatures were cooler than expected, though not terribly cold. Until Monday, that is, when we woke up to this:



Even the chairs on the relatively sheltered porch of Martin and Mark's house were getting a dusting.

Happily for me, my activities didn't involve straying too far from the Convention Center (poor old bear with snowy shoulders). And while I don't at all mind winter - I'm not yet tired of it - I do look forward to the day when the Midwinter Meetings will return to, oh, San Diego or a similarly warm local.

Nobel laureate

How often is it that you get the opportunity to see and hear a Nobel laureate speaking live? I was bummed when I saw that I had a meeting in Denver that conflicted with the President's Program. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Peace Prize winner, was scheduled to appear, and I thought it would be an interesting program.

Well hurray for task forces that complete their work ahead of schedule (slightly) because that snowy Sunday afternoon I was able to take a seat (beside my colleague, Ling) in a ballroom at the Convention Center and watch Dr. Yunus' talk unfold.

From where I was sitting I couldn't get a good photo - I could see him fine, but for a photo I kind of lamely snapped a shot of the widescreen instead. The audience offered some good questions, and Dr. Yunus finished to great applause and an ovation.

Not familiar with him? You can check out the Grameen Bank, his micro-lending operation in Bangladesh here. His dream is of a poverty-free world, and the effects of his work - as he told it - are admirable.

M is for...?

A sign in the Colorado Convention Center.



You know, redundancy rocks.

'mos (and friends of and allies of)

Another quick post from Denver where I'm about to sit through my last meeting of the day. Am I required to be here? The gay agenda suggests otherwise, but oh well. martin won't pick me up until 6.

Speaking of Martin, it was a whirlwind night of following in his wake from one social engagement to another last night. The GLBTRT Social was arguably the high point - ah, the gays, so nice to see familiar faces again (Mark and Courtney - hooray on her EB election!; Jeffrey, John, Steve, KR, Dale) - though the night dissolved into wonderful hilarity at Erin's where we met up with Mark, and I was stripped of my innocence when it comes to using Wii. Jenny was proud when I saw her today.

Some photos from last night (which was Sunday when I first started this post, and, well, considering I'm finally adding photos and posting this on Thursday, that last statement isn't quite true, but... ):