Does Denver count as a trip?

Is a Colorado Rockies game reason enough to go to Denver?

I know I should take a trip when I have started dreaming about travel. Obviously, I have been at home too long (hmmm, at least since April)! Now when you live in a summer resort it does not make a lot of sense to leave during the best part of the year. I guess I am just hooked on a change of scenery on a very regular basis. This spring we did get away for long weekends to Vernon, British Columbia and Hood Canal on Puget Sound, but that hardly counts as real travel. Thus wonder woman and I began discussing maybe a 4 or 5 day trip.

We did not want to preempt a real fall trip, so how about using up some frequent flyer miles, and go to a city that for some reason we had never spent time in? In all our American Bar Association trips and multiple crossings of the country we never spent any time in Denver. Summer would obviously be a great time to enjoy a long weekend. So the great travel planner goes to work. For some reason Mary Ann always has more travel miles than me. Huh, maybe she used her credit card more than me? So first I had to transfer miles from her account to mine. This cost $100. We decided to fly from Spokane as we never have used Spokane International. I booked my ticket on United, stupidly not booking both frequent flyer tickets at the same time. I immediately went back in to book Mary Ann’s ticket and uh, oh, the next available free ticket was at 11 p.m. and routed through San Francisco. I was flying at 2 p.m. For some reason Mary Ann just did not think much of this plan. I could buy a ticket on my flight for her, but I am cheap and found a nice ticket on Frontier Airlines for a $150 less than United. The only problem was that she left two hours before me on both the departure from Spokane, and returning from Denver.

I now knew I was in big trouble, especially when my next purchase was for tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. So lets see now, with the cost of transferring miles, and the $90 for baseball tickets, my clever plan to save money seemed to be a bit suspect. In the long run, I was sure Mary Ann wouldn’t mind traveling separate from me, waiting for me for hours in airport terminals, and surely would come to love baseball, just as I do. I really fear a serious payback! To top it off, neither Mary Ann nor I had ever flown on Frontier, but fortunately she really liked her flights. The planes had more roomy seats, are clean, and gave you free refreshments. So even though they were in bankruptcy, everything went just fine. Whew!

To start rebuilding my credibility with my travel partner, I did book a very nice suite in a Residence Inn very near downtown Denver, with easy access to the freeway (thus avoiding getting lost and having travel direction arguments), and a very cute and colorful Chevrolet compact rental car. Am I out of the doghouse yet? I will fill you in on the details of our very nice visit to Denver in the next article.

Comment from Mary Ann: After spending 8 additional hours in airports and having to handle all the luggage by myself I feel I deserve a first class ticket on the next trip!