Maps are useless in Denver

My brother is totally kick-ass and flew into Denver Thursday morning for a concert. A CONCERT!! But the concert was later in the day. It'd be best to tell the story from the beginning.

Let's start at the airport. Good ol' DIA. I met Shawn inside the airport and on the walk back to my car he asked "What, are we walking to Greeley?" Not particularly interesting, except that two weeks earlier I was picking a friend up at the airport and he asked the EXACT SAME THING! So we're off to a good start:) I've never had to head towards Denver from the airport before so I missed the exit to head South on 25. I turned the car around and nearly missed the exit again! But my "big-city" driving skills kicked in and I cut a few cars off to make the exit.

REI was our first stop of the day. It's apparently the flagship shop and it was huge and cool. An outdoor enthusiasts Mecca. We hung there awhile; looking around, watching the rock climbers, warming up. Shawn packed warm weather clothes and considering he was leaving in the morning, it wasn't enough to layer up to keep warm. So we headed to the 16th St. Mall to eat and find a jacket for woosey-boy Shawn. But first I drove down a road that cars weren't allowed on. Only the shuttle buses were allowed. I almost hit a lady standing in the middle of the road. Apparently b/c I'm a car and not a shuttle she's invincible. ?? After driving down and down and down in the garage we find a spot. Shawn didn't think I would be able to get my car in, but my mad skills kick in and I fit with room to spare. My brother has little faith in me. This scenario repeated itself a few times that day.

Alright, so we lunch (cool place), we buy a jacket, we meander, we get cold, we grab the shuttle back, we hit an awesome book store, we get the car, we head the wrong way to leave the garage (thanks Shawn), we get out of the garage, we (I) get confused trying to get out of Denver. The LODO area is entirely made up of one way streets. Then the streets diverge into other streets and the road I want all of a sudden doesn't exist anymore! This scenario also repeats itself. Alot. There was much high pitched verbal frustration. But I digress.

Thornton was our next stop for frisbee golf. 18 holes. Nice sized park. Somewhat ghetto. Every time I went into the trees for my disc, I wasn't sure if I was going to come out! I thought I'd get stabbed or shot or just fall into a hole. Awesome. Shawn wanted an Adventure and I did my best to give him one. Afterall, it's not an Adventure until someone almost dies! While golfing we did a geocache, which Shawn has no patience for. It was fun finding it, but it's almost ridiculous to geocache in the fall with all the extra camoflage.

The aforementioned concert doesn't start till 10:30 and it's 5:00 when head to the car. Hmmm...we drive the long way through Thornton back into Denver and try to find the Cherry Creek shopping center. It's a high-end place that's suppossed to be really cool. It wasn't. It took forever to get there. My directions to get there start at REI so we drive there and try to find the right roads. I think we drove by REI four times before finding the road. More high-pitched verbal frustration. And b/c of stupid Denver roads we inadvertently end up back at REI after the shopping center!

We aren't hungry but we know we need to eat a little something so we decide to stay near the concert area (LODO) and just grab an appetizer. Have I mentioned how much I hate Denver roads. And Denver in general now?! We can't find a place to park, we keep getting on the splitting roads, and guess where we end up? That's right! REI!!! I'm flipping out, Shawn is laughing, and I'm just plain fed up. I park and we go into REI (again) and eat at Starbucks. Awesome.

Here comes the best part. This blog is REALLY long, so take a break now so you aren't distracted by a bulging bladder and miss out.

Jamie Lidell came to Denver. We both really like him, but now, I think we both love him. This was the best show I've been to, and I've been to some dooseys. The opener was named Snax and had a white mans afro. He was super thin and wore sparkly shirts. He was hilarious. The music wasn't great, but he got the audience hyped. Just so stinking funny! Then we wait forever. Totally worth it! We were pretty close to the front and the venue was definitely "intimate". Jamie was amazing. He was mixing on stage, dancing around, came into the crowd...It doesn't sound like much, but he was just amazing! He had such great energy the entire time and the audience had great energy and...yeah. I'm still grinning ear to ear. Shawn's actually at his concert in Minneapolis as I'm writing this. His wife is with him, so I'm glad she'll get to experience the Snax/Lidell.

Our story ends where it started. At the airport. Adventure-boy Shawn crashes on some benches at the airport and I get home about 2:30am. Up for work at 6am. Work till 7pm.

Fantastic!

That's it. You can get on with your life now. <><