Twelve Years Ago Today...

...melissa and i got married in denver, co; same chapel inside saint johns where my in-laws got hitched. to celebrate our anniversary, we spent it last night at a hip, boutique hotel in lodo (lower downtown) called the oxford hotel. here's their lobby...

here's their christmas tree in the lobby...

our room wasn't art deco or anything just very elegant and luxurious (tiny!) where we could dock our ipod to a bose stereo and watch tv a la a flat screen lcd (we don't watch a whole lot of t.v.). i love the way the sheets on our king size bed smell. not too fragrant but with a slight, non-chlorine, scent diffusing old-school clean. the crazy tungsten-powered light fixtures cast a funky, yellow glow in our room (no flash for shot)...

our goal was to chill. no laptops, but listening to jazz from the ipod while reading our books and newspapers. they did have a really cool fitness center where i rode their stationary bike, lifted some free weights, and core strengthening exercises while melissa ran the ellipticals. we had to calorically earn our 4 star dinner...
...which was at a 5280 recommended place-across from the oxford-called the venice ristorante & wine bar (if they can't spell restaurant r-e-s-t-a-u-r-a-n-t, you know it's going to be pricey). they had an amazing wine collection in their centrally-located-for-spectator's-glee area. melissa had the gnocchi al pesto and i, the dinner special atlantic salmon (because thems pacific salmon are bad, bad, bad!) with asparagus drizzled with some tangy lemon sauce. oh man, the portions were huge and the intoxicating vino were imbibed via multiple glassfuls.

to sober up, we walked over to the market on larimer square. we shared a chocolate oblivion cake (3 layers of gelatinous chocolate sandwiched between very dense fudge-like chocolate bread, with a chocolate, cream cheese icing packed with semi-sweet chocolate chips. can you say insulin shock (i knew you could)? melissa washed that down with some very potent looking decaf latte, where i settled for a much creamier, frothier triple shot cappuccino. served in large cups, not mugs or glasses. it was a great way to wind down an already wound down day.

to reinforce my dedicated love to melissa she now wears the universal symbol of our partnership-an anniversary platinum band, encrusted with wee diamonds complimentary to her wedding band (it's the one closest her knuckle). purty aint it?
in the morning we had room-service breakfast washed down with a latte and a cappuccino from a tasty coffee joint across the hotel called common grounds. we requested a late, 1330 check-out time. in the meantime we worked out (again), showered, and read some more whilst lounging in our scrumptious, oxford hotel bathrobes. it felt like we just got through a swimming workout: relaxed, skin taught, clean, decompressed, and lazy (deservedly so).

ahhhhhhhhh. well, it was fun while it lasted; time to pick up our chilluns from grandma's.

note to selves: we're doing this again, hopefully more soon than later...