This year Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention during the last week of August. I know it was good for our city, but I was NOT crazy about it. Politics bring out the crazy in some people! Okay, some people.
I didn't really think too much about it until we started getting e-mails at work about road closures, additional building security, possible building lockdowns, etc. The rumor was that there would be a lot of high-profile people staying in the hotel that's attached to my building (I think Michelle Obama ended up staying there at least a couple of nights), and the same thing with Brad's building. We later found out that Senator Obama was staying at the hotel attached to Brad's building. I started freaking out the week before the convention because my entire family would be super close to all this potential chaos. You just never know what could happen! Especially when democrats are involved. hahaha Just kidding, Republicans are just as bad. It's just politicians in general. :)
I overreacted, which was okay with me! Everything was busier than normal, traffic SUCKED, most of the roads we used were shut down during different parts of the day (at least downtown), but for the most part it was no big deal. What normally took us 5-7 minutes to get to daycare ended up taking us about 20 minutes one night. It was so frustrating! And while we were sitting in that endless traffic, tourists would just absentmindedly walk across the street without paying attention to the signs. Are you kidding me??? That was the worst for me - it drives me nuts when people walk across the street when they're not supposed to.
We saw some cars/trucks that had signs and banners posted all over them saying crazy things with horrible, horrible pictures. There people were "rioting".....they weren't actually doing or saying anything though! I saw some stuff on the local news in the evening of some protests that got a little out of control, but nothing that was close to either of us during the day, so that was good. I saw this truck one day when I was leaving my building - it says "Today is day # 1099 since Katrina", and gives a location for a service honoring the victims/survivors on the 3rd anniversary of the hur
ricane.
ricane. On Wednesday of that week, I had left work a little bit early and was walking down to Brad's building to go home. (This was out of my way - he normally comes and picks me up, but with the street closures it was easier this way....sigh.) As I was coming up on the corner that I needed to cross to go inside, there were tons of people crowded around. So of course I pulled out my camera! It was Senator Obama arriving with his motorcade at his hotel. Lots of cars, an ambulance, lots of motorcycle cops, huge vans. They had the streets blocked off, so people were just standing in the street. I didn't see him, but I heard people start cheering, so I'm sure some of them caught a glimpse as he rushed into the hotel.
I didn't get a good picture of the motorcade going in, but here is the end of it under the hotel's awning.
The walkway connects The Westin on the left to the Tabor Center where Brad works on the right.
Luckily the big event of that week was Nolan walking for the first time and not something crazy or scary happening while we were downtown. This will be one of the most historic elections, so at least I can say that I remember being a part of it. With the state our country is in, we can only pray that the right person will be elected and things will start to get better. I know how I'm voting, I just have to figure out where to go to vote now! Hopefully you'll all do the same.....even though Brad says if he votes for the person I'm not voting for, they cancel each other out. We have this discussion a lot.....haha
Oh, I almost forgot! The best part about the convention for Brad, in his words......
"Every day for the past 2 1/2 years I've hit the same pothole on the same street until now. Suddenly the week before the convention, it's fixed!"
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