SMASHVILLE for PLAYOFFS!

I worked 2 days mon and tues, then packed my bags for NASHVILLE again!
Trish and I drove tues night after my basketball game. Left around 10:20pm.... drove through the night, stopped in southern Ohio at 4:30am to get a hotel! Slept for 5 hours or so and was up and ready to drive to my fav place on earth.. SMASHVILLE!
We arrive just after 2pm Nashville time (3pm at home) and drive straight to TIN ROOF for lunch on the patio, hot sun was awesome to sit in and enjoy the food!
Drove to Romans to unpack and get ready!
Headed downtown at 5pm for PREDS PLAZA party.. met friends for a drink at Rippys!
We got our faces painted and went inside the arena. got our pics taken and went to say hi to friends at Auction table, then went to get our free GOLD shirts!
Our seats were high up but great view of the ice!
micheal W Smith sang with the band during first intermission! lol crazy
We moved down to section 103 to sit near some friends cuz there was empty seats! THANKS THOMAS!
GREAT view, great seats, with HOT row of men behind us.... one or 2 from Australia :)
GREAT GAME PREDS WIN GAME 1 with the score 3-2!!!

EXCITED! I stood on the seats and whipped my gold shirt around and cheered SO LOUD it hurt:)
Game 2 is fri!
We went out to Flying Saucer for a drink and food!

Thurs- up and ready to shop! Bring on this beautiful SUNNY day! did I mention that I LOVE THIS CITY??? lol


GO PREDS GO!

Denver the hippy land that I now love

Thurs morn I got up early to get ready... we drove to ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK! it was amazing. So beautiful and I took heaps of pics of mountains but they were breath taking in person!

We drove south through LYONS and down into Denver to meet Adrienne for lunch at a cool place called SNOOZE! Very rad vibe to it, I have Curious George Pancakes that came with banana and nutella- YUM!
It was great to catch up with Adreinne, who I met in Florida YEARS ago! so fun!
We then drove to buy some tickets for the SUNS basketball game vs denver for fri night! I bought them from a guy off craigslist! $20 for the pair..... heck ya!
We drove over to Russ' house so I could change and get ready! Kev, Russ and I went out bar hopping. we went to Park and Co, Falling Rock tap house, Baracuda, thin man and then ended at El Diablo!
Each place was VERY different, some better then others but a great way to see around the city.

Preds played that night in Dallas- they won 2-0!!
With the high elevation and time difference I never did party all night, we were usually home by 11 or 12! lol but so much fun!

FRI- woke up and went to breakfast with Russ, we wanted to try a new place and boy was it SHADY (penn st perk) it was weird with no real decor idea, just random things all over, spider man doll, plants everywhere, chinese wall hanging and placemats, then it had a movie projector and a big white screen showing tv/movies... random! Food was ok, not great and Russ hated the coffee, and the tea to me was not great either! oh well... live n learn!
Russ went to work and I played online looking for Preds tix for sat night.
Emily came to pick me up and we headed down to 16th street pedestrian mall. So cool, lots of stores all outside and restaurants and stuff. nice place to walk and be outdoors!
We drove to Russ' so I could change again and we headed to OBLIO'S pizza with Kevin, his budy from COllege owns it. Small pizza joint but so fun and GREAT food! The owner bought us shots and Emily couldn't take one cuz she was going to work, so i took 2!
Kevin and I headed downtown for our Denver Nuggets vs Phoenix Suns basketball NBA game!
We got there to the PEPSI centre and Kevin ran into an old friend who gave us 2 tix for the 3rd ROW!!!
THANKS CHE! Those tix were worth $150 each!! It was amazing to be close, I was cheering for the SUNS cuz they have my boy Steve Nash!! nuggets won by 3 but what a fun game!

We went to some dive bar on the corner that had a guy on piano and a girl on drums doing requests... was fun actually when it got busy! We had a girls vs boys competition for singing and girls won- we won free shots! There was tons left over so I took another 4 shots :P
Home to bed!!

SAT-last full day in Denver! Russ' schedule changed sadly so he had to go to work early. Kevin and I went to the Denver Zoo- I LOVE animals I just hate them in cages! but i wanted to see them.  Many pics from here!
Then we drove to meet a guy to buy tix for the Preds game. we headed on I-70 to go find the buffalo bt they were hiding :(
We drove to RED ROCKS which is an outdoor stage in the rocks- incredible place! I need to go back and see a show there!
We drove to capital hill area and went to CAFE BAR where Russ is the GM, we had a nice early dinner and drinks! Was great that Russ could sit and chat with us, I love him!
no time never anytime we had to rush downtown to the Pepsi Centre- I got changed in the parking lot and we headed in for the PREDS vs AVS game. Detroit had already lost that afternoon so Preds already had 4th place clinched with home ice advantage! :) :) :)
Seats were high up but so fun to be there! My Preds won 6-1!!!! amazing. nice to have a big W going into playoffs wed!
headed back to El Diablo for drinks and chips then home to bed. Russ was still awake when I got in- so I got to see/chat with him before my early flight in the morn.

SUN-up early, dressed and ready, all packed and NOT ready to go!!! I love this city of Denver and I WILL BE BACK!
Russ was great and drove me to the airport :) My flight was at 815am. Sad to say bye to my friends and to this new place that I love.
2 flights home and I was back in my car driving from Buffalo to ontario.
Drove to my cousins house just in time to eat some Easter dinner and dessert with my family!

HAPPY EASTER!

PUGS on a plane... to Denver

Travel again.... drove to BUF flew to DET then flew to DEN.... There were 2 pugs on my first plane sitting behind me- FOR REAL... one was asleep and the other barked a lil.. cute though!
Finally arrived in Denver Colorado and Kevin picked me up from the airport!
We drove toward the mountains and it was awesome, it snowed as i was landing but the farther north we went the sunnier and brighter it got and there was no snow!
We arrived at his place to unpack and refresh for a moment! We changed and headed downtown Fort Collins to Coppers Schmit for dinner and a beer. I ordered a nice black bean burger-yum and we had beer SAMPLES. I tried the cider and the apricot beer- both good. I drank LOTS of water too cuz with living at this elevation you have to be careful and not drink too much!
Fun times, we met up with 4 of his friends and had a great night! MY PREDS won in a shoot out 2-1- SO HAPPY!
Ryan, Jacob, Kev and I played table shuffle board and it was close games but Kev and I lost both times!
Time for bed! 2 hours behind ONT time.... so I was sleepy come 12 midnight here.
Blew up the blow up mattress, took a shower and hit the bed! ahhh good night!

Wed- woke up at 6, slept again til 7.. got dressed and headed to Verns for breaky... small town lil joint, local place, looks like its from 1960 and still run by the same family-cute. Local breaky place with cute old men up here for daily food.
They had dead/stuffed animal heads/bodies all over... very country!
I had veggie breakie and OJ, then we headed to the Canyon to Poutre (poot her) lol we drove in the mountains/canyon and it was really cool, lots of cows n horses then we saw deer and that made me happy! tons of pics of mountains to show later!
Drove home to get gas and call on neighbour Candace, we drove to a hiking trail and walked a lot. up huge trail to the top to see the water and the other side. great view, was warm n sunny, i think we all got a lil wind and sun burn!
I took my pic with the local PARK RANGERS!! i was such a tourist it was great.. even wore a TO maple leafs shirt... which i wore for the FIRST time today... lol just so people know I am Canadian!
Home to grocery shop and get a starbucks smoothie. Changed and headed to ONE of the 21 local breweries... great lil samples of beer. I tried 3 glasses of different types but only liked 2. I sipped a few of Kevs n Candaces- yum. Great pics and great times! fun place.
Total HIPPIE land here... I love it, everyone friendly and eco friendly and some even wearing tie dye! yup- awesome
We drove into downtown Fort Collins to walk/shop and take pics. Headed home as it got dark and cooked an amazing stir fry with tofu! yum
Candace came over for drinks and we watched Frozen planet and Goon!
Great day..... shower and ready for bed!

ROCKY MOUNTAINS and DENVER bound tomorrow!!!!
Excited to see ADRIENNE, RUSS, JOHN and EMILY!
Good night Moon