Dazed in Denver

I’m not going to lie. When I arrived in Denver I felt like hadn’t just hit the wall, but had smashed into it withs such a force that I resembled a flattened cartoon character, a mess slithering down the red bricks into crumpled defeat.

In just one month I had visited seven different cities. Make that twelve if you count flight connections. Yeah, it was all catching up to me. But, I had to press on!

I had a work gig scheduled in Denver, but I arrived several days early so I could log some family time. I have some fam that lives in the area and, as luck would have it, more fam was out visiting too. So it worked out quite well! It was great to see aunts, uncles and cousins that I hadn’t seen in more than a year. We certainly kept ourselves busy: delicious cajun-style breakfast near downtown Denver at Lucile’s Creole Cafe, a tour of the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO, Lyle Lovett spotting at Red Rocks Mountain Park, pottery painting and Mexicano dinner. I have to elaborate on Lucile’s really quick. The creole joint is excellent. It served beignets, or hot, homemade New Orleans style donuts. A first for me. The homemade butter milk biscuits were heaven. Especially when paired with one of the restaurant’s delicious homemade jams: strawberry, rhubarb, orange marmalade, pepper and apple butter. Pepper was my favorite. The blueberry pancakes were the best I’ve ever tasted. A sentiment I echoed from others in the family. Oh man, now my stomach’s growling…

The conference I worked proved to be quite fun too. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Agriculture is an industry that’s full of warm, intelligent people who are quite certainly changing the world. Ag isn’t just about farming or food. It’s about engineering, business, marketing, science, computer science, sustainable living and, most certainly, cutting-edge innovation. The more I delve into agriculture, the more I realize that every single other industry out there plays a role in agriculture. It’s also quite the lucrative industry. People I’ve interviewed are leaders of companies that have millions of dollars. Yet, I have not once run into the pomp and posturing that’s almost guaranteed from world class leaders in pretty much every other industry out there. Farmers work the earth, and it seems, everyone in the ag industry is completely “down-to-earth.” This last conference on precision ag was quite the international one. Representatives from more than 40 countries were present. There was even a magic act during one of the luncheon’s. Guess who got picked to be the star assistant… ahem… yes, your very own Laura McNamara. My friend Tanay has video of my amazing sword-through-the-throat performance. I need to get a copy of it and get it posted.

Tanay was quite the sweetheart. He was one of the few attendees who was my age at the conference. He came all the way from New Delhi, India to receive an international award for his work with precision ag in horticulture. Impressive.

During the evenings while covering the conference, I managed to hook up with some Denver couchsurfers. Somehow, in three days I was able to collect more than 30 audio interviews for work, go out and see two IMAX movies (on Greece and Alaska), eat at a local Ethiopian restaurant (awesome btw!) and enjoy a local pizza joint… all thanks to couchsurfers. All were quite impressionable. A couple were standouts though, like Josue, an ultra marathon runner who set up his own ultra marathon in Nicaragua. The race is a charitable event that benefits local farmers. This year, Josue has attracted a couple world class runners. (I hope to have a more in depth post on him and everything he’s doing later.) Nikki was traveling while on short leave from the New Zealand navy. Joni was just all-around energetic and rivaled me in all the activities she was involved in. Tanay, who tagged along most of the time, was just as impressed with these people. Tanay is quite the kindred spirit and I’m rather fond of him. He’s got such a sweet innocence… one that’s rarely encountered. I already find myself missing his company.

My cousin Rachel, Tanay and I also managed to catch a final lunch at Paris on the Platte. I also got to peek into the huge REI headquarters. In case you didn’t know, REI is a leading supplier of outdoor/adventure equipment.

And that’s a quick wrap-up of Denver!

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 6:17 pm. It is filed under alive, Denver, Inspirational, Play, Travel, USA, Work and tagged with features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.