Denver, CO

Denver, CO:  Purple Mountains Majesty

Pros:

• Gorgeous scenery (mountains, yay!)
• Great Airport (Southwest Compatible)
• Good dancing
• Friends 
• Dry weather, blue skies (unless snowing)
• Interesting Downtown
• Possible opportunity to train with a lot of fun dancers

Cons:

• If cold, really cold.
• Isolated from other major cities
• Altitude acclimation (able to overcome)
• Landlocked state
• No family nearby
• Cost of living is moderate
• Limited opportunity to teach

This past weekend I was in Denver, CO for the Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout.  I flew in a day early to hang out with my friend Mike Shroff, a fellow writer from Vanderbilt, who was incidentally visiting a friend of his in Boulder.  After spending 6 hours in the airport (which was fine since I got my NEW MAC! notice "photo booth" picture to right), he picked me up and we spent 18 hours in Boulder before I had to be back in Denver.

I truly enjoyed RMBB.  Mike dropped me off at Caryn's house, a kind and easy-going organizer who housed Nick, David, Denise, Val, Sylvia and me at her home.  She has gorgeous wood floors and a fabulous kitchen.  She and her husband, Eduardo, are incredible cooks, and we all had a comfortable time at her place.  

The event was lots of fun.  Classes were great, and although the band wasn't always on, I enjoyed social dancing in the evenings.  I took a couple of private lessons from Nick Williams, who patiently helped me fill in many fundamental gaps of information I had for balboa and bal-swing.   The privates certainly prepared me for the jack and jill competition...which I won with Patrick Wall!  As one of my first balboa triumphs, I'm excited to know I'm getting better (although competitions are not the best guarantee to understanding progress); I'm at least getting better at competing, which is pretty scary!

Post Script:

Yay for also getting to go shopping with Laura Keat and Nick Peterson, despite the not-so-awesome high waisted skirt at Express with gaudy gold zipper.