Crawl Into The Wave

When the sunshine creeps from behind the haze of winter clouds...it's hard not to get a little inspired!
Maura picked me up to meet Mrs. Jess - a trio of awesome ladies on a bright March morning!

Mrs. Jess used to be Jess Maydan, but her marital status is officially attached! Congrats, my friend!
Maura, on the other hand, is single, hilarious, and totally lovely! Gentlemen! Email me about her!

We met at DJ's Berkeley Cafe - home of the dream breakfast burrito!

We met for a specific reason - Mrs. Jess had a gift for me.
Yes. Click on the pic.
Yes. It is a shirt with kittens dressed in American Indian headdresses and moccasins.
Stop being Jello.

If you want to start your morning right...
And by right, I mean with laughter, these are the ladies to hang heavy with!

Super buddies!


The breakfast burrito really is their crowning achievement over there!
Go there - try it!

Actually, call me, text me, email me, twitter me...I want to go with you!

After brekkie, Maura and I drove around doing summer scouting.

Basically, that means taking pictures of places that we want to go this summer!

This is to remind us to go to Rosalinda's...
Don't forget!

This is an ice cream joint!
We'll be going there too!


I found a mirror behind Maura's house and got crazy excited about it.

I put it in the back seat of her car and then later forgot that it was back there and reclined onto it.
It broke, of course, and I'm feeling doomed.

Maura had a meeting down town and she asked me to accompany her...it gave me an opportunity to wander around LoDo early enough in the day to avoid the annoyance of people who enjoy hanging out in LoDo.

The day was absolutely gorgeous.
I felt really fortuitous that the day had unraveled the way that it had and I was given the chance to meander.

It's hard to be in LoDo without hitting the 16th Street Mall - and honestly, I hate it.
It reminds me of going to the mall in Cheyenne when I was a teenager.

Still, there are fluters down there...and if you know me, I'm super into that!

If you get away from the spectacle of the tourist traps...there's lots of interesting architecture and little secrets.




It's hard to walk without constantly looking up.


So many lines for your eyes to follow and get lost in...
Tracing the silhouette of buildings into the sky.

Sometimes it confuses you and you lose your footing and feel compelled to find something to steady yourself with.


Real talk.


Do you think she did?

There is a little oasis on the outskirts of LoDo called Sakura Square.

A quiet Japanese garden in the midst of all the hub bub.

Buddhist priest keeping things cool...

Where have you left your name lately?

There's the obvious stuff downtown...

Stuff that you're expected to photograph when you're down there...and if I remember correctly, I haven't taken pictures of this stuff yet.


Pegasus...for my Montana and Binghamton ladies.

Remember the 15th St. Tavern? Remember how it smelled like a toilet and how awesome bands played there? Yeah, me too.
The first show I saw there was The Swanks before I moved to Denver...the first time I met all those people and they became my life long friends!

I also saw one of my all time favorite bands play there with a local band.
It was like a private Oblio Joes show just for me - I'll never forget it for the rest of my days!

The Tavern is gone now...and this is what is in it's place. Gross. Shame on you, Denver.

I'd been exploring for almost 2 hours...

And started to steer myself back toward meeting Maura again.


Here's another place to visit this summer...if you're interested let me know.
One should always be a tourist in their own city or town.

And I've got a rad partner in crime who makes me laugh so loud and always peeps cute gentleman with me!
SUPER BUDDY!


And me, I like to think I'm sort of kick in the pants as well...

Summer of the Buddies 2010!
It's coming!

You Have Got To Be The Last One Standing

The remainder of my trip I did my way.
No silly bus tours, no guided walks, no forced smiles and complacent nodding.

I wandered out beyond the hotel, back to Trafalgar square, where people congregate and take in the beauty of this center spot in the city's heart.



The National Gallery.






I maneuvered my way through Soho, Covent Garden, and over through Piccadilly.

But I didn't feel like taking pictures of stuff I've seen a million times before...
Places, that in person, aren't half as interesting as what's going on around those places.

While in Soho, a black cab almost killed me.
I was listening to something unpleasant on my iPod, started fiddling with the switches, and turned to see the hood of the sleek, boxy vehicle halfway up my ass.
I shouted out a "Woo", waved apologies, and skulked to the other sidewalk. I never really felt like I got the hang of the streets there.
Silly American.

When I managed my way back to the hotel, there was a protest going on...

They were holding hands and shouting.

I stayed for a moment and observed...

It was nice to see a little civil disobedience.




Here's where things get a little sketchy...
I stopped taking pictures. It was too much of a hassle. I wanted to see things - Not line them up in the display of my camera.

Brandy came and rescued me again...one night...
We went back to the Dublin Castle and just talked and drank Bulmers and it felt like I was "there"...not just a tourist.
I was sitting on a bar stool, slumped in bad posture liked the rest of the people, occupying the bar - just being.
It felt good.

We stopped at The World's End too.
Some drunk German fellows hit on Brandy and I overtly...stuck their tongues out at us...and then left.
It was legitimately a lot of fun!

My last day in London was sort of bittersweet...obvs.
I spent a good portion of the morning repacking and getting my belongings in order.
I forwarded postcards to people back in the States.

I wanted everything to be in place because I had super special plans for the evening and knew that I would be dragging ass in the morning on the way back to Heathrow.

I had a date with my rad internet friend Catherine!
We had never met. My mom told me to be careful - if she was a nut...BAIL!
Funny - Catherine's husband Sean had a similar sentiment!

Luckily, I adored Catherine!
She has the sharpest wit! She's real, lovely, and my kind of people! I was lucky have an opportunity to meet her.

We stopped back at the World's End for a drink while waiting for Catherine's equally fantastic friend Lynn to show!
It was a supreme lady hang!

We all wore our best finery.
Clearly, Catherine took it to the next level with these really divine shoes - I'm pretty sure I told her 15 times that I was madly in love with her!

Catherine & Lynn
We had decided on having some Indian food, as Camden is known for it...and I'm mad about it!
On the walk over, Catherine had to pause - those shoes may be divine, but they were super brutal.
Beauty hurts.

Dinner was amazing.
I would have taken pictures, but the preliminary ciders I had before dinner had me too tight to focus on anything but naan and my unbelievable Chicken Xucatti!

After dinner, we hit the Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park for Dirty Water Club!

We got busy checking out the scene, looking at the gentleman - in particular, one Johnny Guitar, and listening to the bands that were playing that evening.


New, old friends.

This band was called Suzy & the Quattros! They were from Spain and were really fun!

Later, My Drug Hell played...

They were older, greasy, mysterious rockers.

I think we liked them...

I was having so much fun! The scene was so perfect - all kinds of different people for people watching, great company, music, and my favorite past time - HATIN'.

Throughout the night, Cat, Lynn, and I were all mystified by this truly terrifying girl in a black and white striped dress.
She was a beast and not a one of us could tear our eyes away from her hideousness.
Trouble is, she was drunk as a skunk and was all over the joint getting in everyone's eye.

Suddenly, Catherine had a realization...she said, "If I take a picture of her, will you post it next to a picture of the zebra from Madagascar?"...
And that was a promise that I could indeed keep.



Scary, right?

As the night drew to a close, the three of us jumped into a cab, the ladies jumped out at Euston Station for a long ride back to Hemel Hempstead, and I...back to Charing Cross.
My last night in London - pretty perfect.

I won't bore you with the recap of the flights back.
They were boring and tedious - I didn't watch 'Twilight' again though. Promise!

It's sort of hard to reflect on where you've been when you're back where you were.
Still, I had an amazing trip and am so lucky for the opportunity!

I want to thank my Mom, Brandy, Catherine, and Lynn for making the trip such an absolute delight!

There's more adventures to come...