First of all, I don't know why, but I didn't take hardly ANY pictures on our trip this weekend. By hardly any, I mean we took exactly three photos...and two of them were almost identical. So basically...I have two photos to share in this post, and for that, I apologize. (Because I know you want to see tons and tons of pics of our oh-so-cute faces, right? Right. ;))
ANYWAY...onto the tale of our weekend.
Our flight left Saturday morning at 10:15-ish and arrived in Denver around 11:30. By 12:00 we were at the rental car place picking up our car. I have a couple of things to say about rental car dealerships: 1) It's lame that they charge an "under-age" fee until you are 25. Wes and I both have completely clean records...no wrecks...no tickets...no nothing...and yet we had to pay an additional $15.00 a day on top of the normal $25.00/day fee. Lame, right? 2) ON TOP of that, when they take you out to your car, they try to sell you on their "insurance" that they offer. For another $20.00 a day (now remember, we're already paying an additional $15.00 a day) you can get insurance through the car dealership that will make it so you are not liable for any damages done to the vehicle while it's in your posession. Well, we already have comprehensive car insurance that includes renter liability...so we figured we'd take our chances. After all, we're safe drivers...we weren't going to do anything wreckless...so why drain our account another $60.00?
So then they take you out to your car and they do a quick look-around...marking on a sheet of paper any major scratches, dents, chips in the windshield, etc. so that they know what kind of condition the car is in when you leave the lot. By "quick" look-around, I'm talking he was all the way around the vehicle in less than a minute....and the "chart" they have of the car is...well...it looks like a monkey drew it. It's basically a square printed on the paper with headlights and tail-lights....and they put little "x's" where they see damage. Scientific, eh?
So we hop in the car and drive away.
Little did we know.....
Almost immediately after getting the car, when we were getting stuff out of our trunk, we notice that the tail-light is broken....and there are scratches on the bumper beneath. Knowing it wasn't us that did it (since we hadn't been in an accident...and it was clearly the work of backing up into something), we frantically get out our copy of the pink slip and check to make sure it's marked on the oh-so-detailed chart. It wasn't. This began the three-day gray cloud that would hang over our heads. We were SO scared all weekend that we were going to be held responsible for this broken tail light, and that they were going to take us for our whole $500.00 deductible because we hadn't paid their stupid insurance. Let me tell you, that insurance is a total rip-off...but I would've paid every penny of it in a heartbeat had I known how it would really taint our weekend with worry.
We knew there was nothing we could do about it until we took the car back to the dealership...so we just went about our weekend....spending countless minutes examining that stupid tail-light at every angle to see if there was any way we could prove it wasn't us. Finally, we noticed that there was hard water down inside of the tail-light. It hadn't rained...we hadn't taken the car through a car-wash....there was no way that water got there while we had had the car. It was our only evidence....and THEN we worried all weekend that it would rain and wash it away! Oh the stress!
Saturday afternoon we strolled along the 16th Street Mall (thanks for the tip, Jess Tarbet!) We browsed through the stores...spent a pretty good chunk of time in Barnes and Noble...and then we ate lunch/dinner at Bubba Gumps. You know, they just have really good food. :) I got the BBQ pork sandwich and it was delicious! And of course, we topped the meal off with their Mud Pie dessert. Basically, it's a HUGE ice cream cake that could feed 6 people...for $6.00. Yeah. Pure Awesome.
On Saturday evening, we went to the mall nearby our hotel. I hadn't taken my purse with me to Denver...only my wallet...and since I didn't want to lug my backpack around the mall, I put my debit card and my driver's license inside my camera case. Let's just say that was dumb move number two. We milled around the mall for a couple of hours...and as we were about to leave, I looked down and realized my camera case had fallen off of my camera! My case, my i.d., and my debit card were GONE. So we re-traced our steps (frantically) searching for the case...hoping it had just recently gone missing. We trekked back and forth across the huge mall...looking in every store we'd walked into and talking to every cashier. No luck. No one had seen it. The mall lost-and-found hadn't had it turned in...it was gone. We figured at this point soomeone had probably swiped it off of me, or that it had fallen off and someone had picked it up and kept it. I called my bank and cancelled my debit card.
We finally gave up and went back to our hotel. Defeated, I went to the front desk to ask them where the ice machine was. (When you're stressed like that, you need some ice-cold Diet Pepsi.) The guy at the front desk asked me what my name was...I told him...and he proceeded to tell me that someone from the mall had called saying they had my camera case. Hallelujah! Apparently at the last second I had decided to put my hotel key inside the camera case as well. Without that hotel key, they wouldn't have had any way to get a hold of me.
So the next morning, we gladly went and picked up my camera case from the store that had called. Apparently, it had fallen off of my camera right outside their store, and someone had brought it inside. We hadn't asked that store if they'd seen it the night before because we hadn't gone in there...but we had gone in the store right next to it...the Apple store. At this point, my debit card was useless...but I was so relieved to have my drivers license back (so I could fly home the next day.)
We went on Sunday (my actual birthday) to brunch at a place called "Racines." We had read online that they had great food for a good price, so we thought it sounded great. :) I'm sad to say it's the only time our trusty Garmin GPS has failed us thus far. It took us to about 3 blocks from where the restaurant actually was and kept insisting that we were "Arriving at Racine's Restaurant...on Left." Yeah...no...we weren't. It was a hospital.
So we circled the surrounding area for a good half hour...and FINALLY found it...3 blocks away...just sayin'...it was worth it. I had AWESOME French Toast (one of my favorite things), and Wes had a big ol' breakfast burrito. In a word: Yum.
Wicked was A-MAZ-ING. The highlight of the trip, for sure. :) We had AWESOME seats--Orchestra section...26th row. It. Was. Awesome. And I think Wes liked it a lot more than he cares to admit. *wink* It was incredible. A great show. My only disappointment was that Fiyero wasn't really the powerhouse I was hoping he'd be....but the rest of the cast didn't disappoint. And did I mention the AMAZING seats?!?!?!?
Monday morning we slept in...then we went and ate lunch at Mimi's Cafe. I had pumpkin pancakes--they were delish! ;) Even though our flight didn't depart until a little after 6:00 that night...we left for the airport around 2:30. We didn't have any idea how long it would take to clear up the car situation, and we wanted ample time before our flight.
We pulled into the car dealership, and the minute we pulled up, the first thing the inspectors noticed was the chunk missing from the tail-light. I got out, tried my best to explain the situation...that we had noticed it almost immediately after leaving the dealership...that we hadn't been in an accident...that the hard water indicated it had been rained on or washed and that we hadn't been around for either of those things....and could they look up previous records on the car and see if it's ever been documented? Bracing myself for the inspectors to be difficult and say "Tough Luck," imagine our delight when she said, "Yeah...the guy who inspected this car before it went out did a terrible job!" She looked up past records, and within 2 minutes we were cleared to get on the shuttle to the airport! We were SO relieved!!!!!! Our whole weekend we had been paralyzed with fear that we had a huge car bill (that we didn't deserve!) in our near future...and the relief of getting onto that shuttle with receipt in hand was awesome. :)
So then we just had 4 hours to kill at the airport. Good thing we had free internet access. I watched some 30 Rock, played some tetris, read my book....and Wes got a lot of homework done. We boarded the plane on time, and had landed safely back in SLC by 8:00.
So except for the car...and except for the frantic few hours between losing my i.d. and knowing it was safe and sound....our trip was great! It was an AWESOME birthday gift! I think we should make it tradition to go cool places on my birthday. What do you say, Wes? ;)
