Blake Shelton - A Benefit of Retirement (Thursday, July 28th, 2016)

Yesterday afternoon, Blake Shelton looked out his tour bus window and took a picture, and tweeted it to all of his fans.  He said that he was on his way to an undisclosed location to do a surprise concert. The picture he tweeted was a hint about where he was going.

This morning at about 9:45, Blake Shelton tweeted that his surprise concert would be at the Grizzly Rose in Denver, Colorado.  Our wonderful next door neighbor, Jean, knows that we are huge country music and Blake Shelton fans, so she texted us to make sure that we knew about it.  

We had our day planned full of activities, so of course, at first we thought we can't do that, we don't have time. But then as the thought about it a little more, we thought, why not! Let's make this happen!  
We had one commitment that we couldn't break.  Our sister-in-law had hip replacement surgery yesterday, and we told Steve's brother that we would bring over a nice healthy dinner for them, so we dropped everything, and started making the quinoa mango salad we had promised them.  We packed the car, delivered the meal, and by 11:00 am, we were on our way to the surprise, free, Blake Shelton concert at the Grizzly Rose.

All concerts at the Grizzly Rose are general admission, so if you want a good spot, you have to get there early.  And we wanted a good spot!  We got to the venue at about 12 noon, and people had already started lining up.  So we jumped in line for our six hour wait until the doors would open for the concert.

The front of the line is on the right hand side of the picture, and we were right behind the lady with the blue umbrella on the right side of the picture.  Not bad!

The line looking through the parking lot, back toward the building

Steve in line with our classic "CU Concert Line" umbrella

The tour buses hiding on the side of the building 

I walked through the parking lot to see how long the line was, and after leaving the lot, I still couldn't see the end of the line

We waited in line with the sweetest girl, named Asia.  She's the same age as our oldest daughter, and we had such a great time with her.  One of the Staff at the Grizzly Rose got this picture of us waiting for the concert and posted it to facebook, so I borrowed it! Thanks Grizzly Rose for making this possible!

It was a warm six hour wait, but luckily we had come prepared with food, water, beer (which we weren't allowed to drink) and sunscreen.  They would escort desperate people into the bathrooms if necessary, but basically there weren't any restrooms or anything.

When they opened the doors at 6:00, we followed the line toward the entrance, and just as we got to the entrance, they opened a new turn-style, we jumped into it, and were inside the building.  We quickly made our way to the stage, and to our surprise, we found a spot behind a nice couple, right under Blake's mic-stand.  We were in the second row, right in the middle.  It doesn't get any better than that!



We still had another 2 1/2 hour wait until the concert actually started, and once your up by the stage, you can't leave, or your spot is quickly taken.  

While we were standing in line, there was a woman about three people behind us that was kind of mouthy to the people around her. We all just ignored her, but as we were waiting for the concert to start, we noticed that she was fairly close to us again.  We couldn't hear her from where we were, but apparently she continued her antics inside the building.  About 30 minutes before the concert started, she made a raucous again, and security came and escorted her out of the building.  Can you imagine waiting 8 hours for a concert and then getting kicked out before it even started?  

The crowd for this particular concert was pushier than crowds we have encountered at other concerts we have been to at the Grizzly Rose, but once the concert started, everyone settled down and just enjoyed an amazing concert.

The play list

The playlist was only used as a guide as Blake and the bass player, Rob Byus, would quickly huddle after each song and decide what they were playing next.  Rob used a microphone that was set-up in the area where he generally stood to relay the message to the other band members and the stage-hands through, their ear-pieces.  The stage-hands would quickly set the guitars and deliver them to Blake and others that required a guitar change.  While this was all happening Blake was talking with the crowd.  It all worked seamlessly...what professionals to be able to pull this all off!

The concert lasted about three hours, and was one of the most intimate concerts I have ever been to.  Blake has a way of connecting with people that I have never seen before.  If you are in the front few row, I swear that he sings directly to you. 

At one point during the concert, a woman who was close to the stage held up her cell phone.  Her husband was in the military and was deployed, and she was face-timing the concert to him.  Blake saw the phone, and grabbed it from the woman.  He talked to her husband and thanked him for his service, and then held him (via the cell phone) up for the crowd to see.  The entire crowd started chanting USA-USA. It was such an incredible experience!  I wish this could happen to every deployed soldier!

It was an amazing night, and worth every minute of the wait.  Even if we had paid for tickets, we would have been out there early to get a good spot, so the free tickets were just the icing on the cake.  If you ever get a chance to go to a concert at the Grizzly Rose, you have to go.  It is one of the few small places that big country artists will do concerts.

And at the end of the concert, Blake Shelton tossed a pick he had been using.  Steve caught it.  Priceless! 

We have always really liked Blake's music....we now can honestly say we like Blake the person....what an amazing experience.....one we will remember for a lifetime...especially now that we have it captured in this blog!

Colorado Rockies vs Atlanta Braves (Saturday, July 23rd, 2016)

It has been a gorgeous summer in Colorado this year.  We had a few early hail storms, which is very common, and now the weather has settled down into our warm summer pattern.  The mornings are in the low 60's, and the days are reaching the 90's.  We sit on our back deck each morning, and have our coffee and breakfast.  Some mornings I have to wear a jacket because it's just not warm enough to go without.  But by about 9:00, it's warming up and turning into a beautiful day.

We sleep with our windows open this time of year, and then close up the house at about 8:00 in the morning.  It stays cool all day, with no need to run the air conditioning.  Such a cool change from Arizona where AC is mandatory at all times of the day and night in the summer.

We called all of our kids earlier in the week, and asked them if we could all get together for a baseball game.  Everyone agreed that it would be fun.  So today our youngest daughter drove down from Fort Collins.  It usually takes about 80 minutes from her place to ours, but a beer truck had overturned on the highway, and today her commute took over three hours.  She was very glad and very hungry by the time she arrived.  So we quickly shoved some food into her and headed downtown.  Parking is usually $10-$20 on event days, but somehow we lucked out and found parking for $3. It was about a seven block walk, but it was a gorgeous afternoon, so no problem.  

We bought tickets at the ticket window and then waited for our oldest daughter and her husband to arrive.  While we were waiting, it started to sprinkle, and then to rain, so our youngest daughter and I headed into the stadium, out of the rain, and Steve continued to wait outside for them.  



After just a few more minutes, they arrived and we all headed up to the Rooftop Bar for some beers before the game started.  The Rooftop Bar sells 12 oz beers for $3 until the first pitch, so it was good cheap entertainment while we were waiting.  Once the game starts, the price of beer goes back to normal price stadium wide. Steve also grabbed us some nachos from the stand around the corner since it had been a rush for everyone to get to the stadium. We certainly didn't want any hangry (hungry-angry) children while we waited for the game to start.

View from the RoofTop

Before the game even started, we had a rain storm come through. They covered the field and waited for the game to start.

It's always kind of fun to watch them take the tarps off the field.  There's quite an art to it.

Our seats were on the third level, behind home plate, looking directly down the first base line.  


We hadn't really planned it this way, but they just happened to be covered seats.  We were only about five rows from the top, so we had the overhang to protect us a little bit.  That ended up being a good thing.  We had another rain delay during the game, and lucky for us, we really didn't get very wet.  The wind was whipping around, so sometimes we would get damp from the front, and other times we would get damp from the back, but for the most part, we were very comfortable throughout all of the rain storms.



It was Star Wars night at Coors Field, so they had a costume parade for anyone that wanted to participate.  We were amazed at how many people wore costumes!





It is always such a treat to get all of the kids together.  They have such busy lives that it's not that easy any more, so when we get the opportunity we have to take advantage of it.

The second inning score was 2-1 Rockies

Part way through the game we all decided to go find some dinner. Our youngest daughter looked up the location of the gluten free stand at the stadium and was planning on heading there for her meal, but as we were walking around the concourse, we saw a burrito stand that makes burrito bowls (similar to Chipotle or Qdoba), and that looked better than anything she could get at the gluten free stand (and it was still gluten free as long as you don't get a tortilla).  So we all had some wonderful burrito bowls for dinner, and they were only $8 each.  That was a bargain for Coors Field!

About 6 rows from the top of the stadium is a row of seats that mark one mile high.  They are purple instead of green and at this particular game, they were right in front of us, so we had to take the obligatory "Mile High" picture.




It was another really good game, considering that the Rockies have not had a great year.  It's always exciting to go to a game when your team is winning.  It was also fun for our oldest daughter and son (in-law) to see a Rockies/Braves game since he spent a year in Atlanta for all of his Army training.  About half way through the game, the thunder storms moved in again.  It went from clear to very rainy in a very short amount of time.

And the tarps came out again

So glad to be under our little cover!!!!

The stands slowly started to empty out as everyone looked for shelter

You can see exactly which seats were covered and which ones weren't.  There are a few brave people sitting in the uncovered seats, but most of them are gone.

But in the end, the weather cleared again, and the game resumed.  It turned out to be a gorgeous night at Coors Field, and the seats once again filled up for a great game between the Colorado Rockies and the Atlanta Braves!

And in true Colorado fashion, mother nature treated us to a beautiful sunset!  And it just kept getting better until it finally gave way to night fall.

The 6th inning was a definite turning point for the Rockies.

And in the end, the Rockies managed to take the game from the Braves.  It was a wonderful evening with our kids at a great venue in beautiful downtown Denver.

It just doesn't get any better than this!