US 2011 - Denver

Gerry drove us to Tulsa on Tuesday morning for our flight to Denver. All went well except for a slight altercation over our cheese which was in Dana's carry-on. We now know that kochcaval from Krebs is "soft" cheese (this after a thorough examination by a guard wearing latex gloves) and cannot be carried on. After some conversation, Dana went back down to Delta and was allowed to put it into his checked luggage (despite this making it overweight). The next I knew (as I waited on the other side of security with all our paraphanalia, was that he was being escorted to a side room by 2 guards - it turned out that a Euro coin in his money belt set off the alarms on his second time through (no problem first time ???) and he was taken off for a pat down. I was very glad to find this out, as I thought there had been some problem with the cheese - such as it blowing up?? Anyway, on, uneventfully to Denver.

Lorraine and David met us at the airport, whisked us home, cleaned us up a bit, and took us to a fancy fund raiser at the Denver Aquarium. This was a lovely dinner and silent auction - Lorraine is a bit of a mover and shaker for Jefferson Co. Mental Health, so was mentioned several times - we were honored.

Wednesday Lorraine, Dana and I met my high school friend Mike Beatty and his wife Kathleen in down town Denver. It was a lot of fun and a great reunion.  On left, Mike and MFE; on right:  Lorraine, Dana, MFE, Mike, Kathleen.

After lunch the 3 of us toured around the town a little - very fun and interesting.

 Here are some shots of down town.

Note this interesting "clinic" we passed.

Pat and Michelle came over for dinner that night. We were glad to get to meet her - and not just because she's from Oklahoma :).. And, yes, we woke up the next morning to snow on the deck!

Thursday night we were invited out to dinner by Diane - you will remember lots of blogging about her and her kids when she was the SLT for DS Cork. It was so much fun to see them in the US! We had a great Italian dinner and enjoyed seeing Matt and Kendal (above with Diane and me) and Katie (who we had met in Dingle last year) and also meeting Tony, Diane's boyfriend, and Katie's husband.

Friday John, David, Dana and I went to the Butterfly Pavillion which was fun and beautiful.

That night we met Diane and Tony at the Rockies/Cubs game and had a fabulous time (despite the Cubs loss :(  ). A point of interest -it was Jackie Robinson night, so all players on both teams (and apparently on all major league teams) wore number 42. It must have made announcing the game and adventure, and also makes identifying players in the pictures a challange!

 

On Saturday Lorraine, David, Dana, and I drove through Estes Park - we saw beautiful, snowy scenery and lots of elk and deer. We also visited with a friend of theirs in Estes.