Travelblogging: Denver Colorado.
So, another work trip recently came and went. This one was out to Denver, Colorado. Another node install, for which we were in and out of the facility in a grand total of right around 3 hours. Neat facility, but it was a cage colo, so I shouldn’t really elaborate on it beyond saying that between 36 inch raised floors, probably 14-16 foot ceilings and ample power and cooling, I was quite satisfied with the facility and wish I had one of my own.
The flight out sucked about as much as expected. We flew United out of Dulles. Outbound, it was a 757, complete with miserable 17 inch seats with no damned legroom at all. Very uncomfortable until the person sitting next to me found a seat where she could talk with her husband, so I got to spread out a bit which made life a bit happier for all parties involved.
The flight back was on a 777, which was exciting. That’s a damned nice plane, let me tell you now. Seats are wide enough for me, belts are big enough to accommodate someone a fair bit bigger than me (versus the 757 and older jets that I just about max out). Headroom to spare, adequate legroom even in economy. It was a good experience. The 777’s takeoff is gentle, and the landing is really smooth…. you could barely tell we touched down, no big jerk or impact sound like smaller jets get. And the cruising speed…. with our ~50mph tailwind for better than half the trip, we were cruising in the 600mph ground speed range at 39000 feet. It was pretty awesome. It’s also neat that it’s just as ridiculously huge as it is. If you get the choice between other Boeing jets that currently exist or a triple-7, my recommendation is the 777, hands down.
Wednesday dinner was nothing special, went out to the Applebees near the Denver Airport Marriott. Hotel had reasonably good free wireless, friendly service, nice decor, but a sort of lower-middle-tier concierge lounge offering. Didn’t get a chance to check out the exercise facilities though. Interestingly, that hotel is sort of out in the middle of nowhere, in a little campus that’s basically 5 or 6 hotels, maybe two other commercial buildings, and a couple restaurants. I guess there’s other residential stuff nearby, but it definitely felt a bit desolate.
Thursday, after the install, we went to downtown Denver and hung out there for a while, ate at a restaurant called Racine’s. Pro tip: if you order the “Mile High Nachos” there, make sure that you’re splitting them with at least one other person (probably more), and that the only other thing you order is beverages. They are literally like a foot and a half tall, just a mountain of nachos and toppings. Rest of their food was pretty decent — we all had southwestern-type fare, but it was hard to appreciate after filling up pretty much entirely on the nachos.
Denver and Aurora (Co) are interesting. Downtown Denver is basically as built-up as cities get. Even fairly late, it seemed like there was a good amount of life on the streets, like people were out and about and there were things to do… like it was a walkable/drivable/bikeable city with lots of mixed-use sorts of areas that just totally vitalize a city. I liked it, thought it was a neat setup… and it’s apparently REALLY bike-friendly. Like, there’s cyclists freaking EVERYWHERE. It pretty much felt like the diametric opposite of Phoenix, which was a ghost town after 6 pm even in very comfortable weather.
The other interesting counterpoint to Denver’s presence of night life is Aurora, and the associated Denver suburbs. They’re basically the textbook definition of suburban sprawl, the very antithesis of urban life. It definitely didn’t feel close, or walkable, at all. Definitely very …. separated, and much more sparse.
The other interesting thing about them is that those cities are sort of right on the edge of the rockies. They’re not quite mountain cities, inasmuch as they’re relatively flat, but out east of them there’s nothing _but_ flat, and out west of them there’s well-defined mountains all over the place. Sorta neat, I guess… it makes it hard to lose your bearings. Confused where you’re facing? Find the mountains!
We didn’t really go out and do much outside of driving around, so I don’t really have much more to say about it. The airport’s main terminal is a neat design, and there’s some other pretty cool architecture and scenery around, which are worth looking at. And solar panels in surprising quantity. But yeah, the trip was pretty ordinary. I’d definitely go back and try to find stuff to do if I had a week or two out there though.
On the flight out, I read about half of Terry Pratchett’s “Carpe Jugulum”. It was pretty good… finished the rest up Saturday or Sunday night (don’t remember which). It’s fairly standard Discworld fare, but if you’re into that, it’s pretty good. Also picked up “Outliers” on the way out, but haven’t had a chance to crack it open yet.
At some point I’ll post some pics from the trip, but … for now, nothing, ’cause of the lazy. HaHA!