Yesterday was a looong day. After staying up late getting ready to go to NASIG, I was up early and driving to the airport. The flight was nice, and I was very impressed with the plane and amenities. Frontier must be one of few airlines still giving out snacks for “free” on flights. We landed about fifteen minutes early, which was nice, but I still had about an hour wait until J’s plane landed. We waited a little while for B & M’s plane to arrive, but then decided to get our shuttle tickets and go the hotel. Just after we purchased them, C and M arrived, so J and I hung around chatting with them. They were waiting for JG to arrive with coupons for a discount on the shuttle ride. (I somehow missed this option, but it was only $4 off.) B & M got there before JG arrived, so by the time everyone had their shuttle tickets, we pretty much took over a couple of shuttle vans, which was amusing to me.
After getting settled in my hotel room and taking a shower, I met up with E, B, M, and L, and we all went out to a brew pub for dinner. The food was excellent (fried chicken! with gravy! and a biscuit!) and the beer was quite good, with the exception of the beer brewed with herbs instead of hops. It was some old recipe, and if you like beer flavored tea with lots of lemon, you’d probably enjoy it. I didn’t care for it so much. My favorite of the ones I sampled (I tried six of the twelve available) is the Sagebrush Stout. It was very creamy with a nice almost chocolate flavor, and it took a bit longer than usual to get to the slightly bitter hops taste.
The evening ended in the hotel bar, as most evenings end at NASIG. I like this hotel bar best out of all of the hotel bars I’ve been in since NASIG 2003. It’s an open space with lots of sound absorption, so we could all sit in couches and chairs around a large square coffee table and still be able to hear each other. There is another conference in the hotel that is ending today, and after that we’ll pretty much have the bar to ourselves. Yay! The NASIG social evenings are back!
Oh! One more small amusing thing. Keep in mind that when I arrived at the Denver airport, I was functioning on about four hours of sleep, one of which I got on the flight. As I’m beginning to wonder if I missed Jeff’s arrival and I can’t remember which airline he was on or exactly when it was supposed to arrive, I start thinking about heading to the hotel on my own. At which point, I realize I can’t remember the hotel name and I don’t have any documentation on me (for once I didn’t print out my confirmation). I tried calling Emily, but she didn’t answer her phone. Bonnie is still in the air, and the number I have for Jeff isn’t working. So I called Shana, who seemed to be quite amused at my question. “I’m at the airport in Denver, and I can’t remember the name of the hotel where the conference is – Do you know which hotel I’m supposed to be at?”
