Rocky Mountain High

Spent the weekend in Estes Park, Colorado celebrating Kim's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. The folks at the "Y" wanted to throw a little party for them, so we flew up and joined in the festivities.

MIL is still a little under the weather, so she and FIL were not able to join us for as many activities as they would have liked.

We flew into Denver Friday afternoon, grabbed a rental car and drove into the mountains. They were gorgeous, as always. We visited with MIL and then grabbed dinner at Sweet Basilico Cafe, a great Italian joint in town.

Saturday morning, we went geocaching around the area and found 8 caches. We tried a couple more but didn't realize they were disabled until we'd driven to the general area.

Saturday evening was dinner at Orlando's. My steak was good, the lobster was not terribly impressive. I've got to stick to my usual prohibition of eating seafood too far from the coast.

Sunday noon was brunch at the Pine Room on the "Y" grounds. Quite nice.

A relaxing afternoon, and then the party at one of the lodges on the "Y" grounds. 60-some-odd folks signed in, so we think around 80 or 90 folks were actually there. Cake, ice cream, etc. were served. Tons were left over.

Monday morning: packing and visiting with the folks.

Monday afternoon: drive to the airport.

I had a nice, pleasant encounter with TSA while going through security. I was in my minimal traveling set up: shorts, t-shirt, and Teva sandals. I had no keys on me. No wallet. No coins. Just driver's license and boarding pass. My carry-on luggage was a computer and passed through the scanner just fine.

The lady directing folks through the scanners recommended that I take off my shoes. Having gone through the scanners in Houston in the same getup with no problems, I said "no." She told me to walk through the scanner, and no beep occurred. She then directed me to the wanding prison and called for someone to "wand" me.

Kim heard the guy, as he was walking over to me, state: "I'll make him take off his shoes" in a rather aggressive tone of voice.

He came over to the prison, escorted me out and told me to sit down in one of the handy-dandy chairs. He then told me to take off my shoes. When I did, he handed them off to one of his flunkies to run them through x-ray. After handing over my shoes, he instructed me to lift both of my feet so he could see the soles. Next came the standing wand session. He ran the wand over me a couple of times, getting nary a blip on the wand. He looked disappointed.

My shoes were returned to me and I was allowed to put them back on. I should have grabbed the guys name and badge number, but I didn't think of that until later.

What I thought of to do for future travel is to write, on the bottom of my feet, "Hey Sexy" just in case it happens again.

At times during the weekend, I felt like an aikidoka: we kept driving around in circles. (aikido humor)

tag : Travel ::: Aikido