shards of something else.

Denver Day 1: This place is all sorts of magical.

It really is! I had a wonderful first day here, and eventhough work was still involved for big parts of the day, it is incredible how refreshed I feel.

The day started with some hard knocking on my room's door at 8 am, jarring me awake. I hurried to open it, thinking that perhaps I had locked out one of my coming roommates by accident. I opened the door, groggy and hair completely askew, and instead of a roommate, a member of the cleaning staff looked back expectantly at me. She asks, "Are you ready [for me to tidy your room]?" I was so confused. Why was this happening now?? I mumbled that I wasn't ready, and she told me to put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my door next time so she would know not to wake me up, then left.

Weird, right? Oh well. I was inwardly thankful that something had gotten me UP at a decent time! I wasn't about to sleep my free day in Denver away.

First things first: Coffee. Caribou Coffee, to be exact. I can't describe how excited I am to have one a short walk away from my hotel! Spent a little time here sipping on coffee and reading beside a fireplace. How long has it been since I've done that?!

Coffee was followed by a little exploring and shopping. I got a bento box to-go for lunch, and headed back to the hotel to catch a webinar about arsenic in groundwater in Vietnam (TMI? My name is Stephanie and I am a groundwater dork.), and spend some time working on my GSA talk. Around 7:30 pm I made my way to this place for some dinner:

The Market at Larimer Square. What a beautiful, classic spot; full of decadent cakes, delicious coffee and tea, and muffins as big as your head. I had 1/2 a sandwich and soup, thinking I would save room for one of their ginormous pieces of cake...... nope. The cake didn't happen. Probably in part due to the split pea soup I had - it was as thick as I remembered split pea soup could be back home in The North! Haha.

With an after-dinner tea in hand, I ventured back outside to explore Larimer Square. The lights and golden aspens. Be still my heart!

There were mostly eateries open at this time.... most shops had already closed for the day. But then I came upon an old-time-y hat shop complete with live music..... I could have stayed there for an hour listening to them! 

A lovely first day in Denver! Excited for tomorrow.