HaynMade hits the states Day 7...Part 1

The next morning,

I barely woke up, lol, and we headed on over to my goddaughter's apartment to say goodbye before she headed to class.  Unbeknownst to her, good ole Uncle HaynMade decided to throw some creativity and arranged for a special surprise.  I had her go on a scavenger hunt (a lot of people who know me know that I'm infamous for this stuff, lol) in her crib, haha and texted her some clues that lead her to a lil spending cash.  So here's the verbage to the scavenger hunt, along with the photos my goddaughter took upon finding everything, haha, hilarious.

"Uncle HaynMade, the creative one, ya that's his name.  My dear goddaughter are you ready to play a game?  5 little clues will be told so you'll need to use your mind, but by following them nice n carefully around your home 5 little rewards you'll also find.  The reward to your first prize should be easy to handle, go to the dining area and look under the tall pillar candle."

"Prize #2 to the bathroom you must go n be on it like a fox, your reward can be found there under the cornstarch box."

"To the kitchen you gotta head to for clue #3 you must look, glance at the counter there in one of the little books."

"I hope you're having fun with all of my clues, for prize #4 to your bedroom you must go n look for one of my favorite authors Dr. Seuss."

"I hope this has been fun for you from the very start, for your final reward to the living room you must go and look under this console home of Call of Duty and Kingdom of Hearts."

Needless to say, the goddaughter had a nice time with her lil surprise.

HaynMade hits the states Day 6...

After a nice rest,

We all woke up and headed to the hotel's restaurant (like the day before) for some buffet goodness, mmm, damn it was good stuff.

With my stomach nice n full n ready to explode I felt the need to go walking around and while doing so, I snapped a bunch of pics around the hotel's lounge n lobby area.

This eagle carving was jus' hella unreal, it's about 4 feet tall.

Photos above from the lounge/bar area...

And back to the restaurant I went n fiddled around at the table, lol...

After breakfast was done, we all went cruising in the area to check out where my friend's mom grew up in Colorado.  It's hard to describe, but the air is so crisp there.  And you gotta jus' love the landscape.

We arrived in a little town called Georgetown, an area super close to where my friend's mom grew up.  I was jus' amazed at the artistry in the architecture of many of the old skool homes and buildings.

One particular spot we toured to in Georgetown was the Hotel de Paris, now a historical museum in the heart of the area.  It was once owned from a Frenchman Louis Dupuy who ran this 5 star back in the day hotel.  Many of the hotel's furnishings from that time are still in the Hotel de Paris.  One pretty cool n trippy thing was that my friend's grandmother was once a docent for the Hotel de Paris, and when we went to check in, there was a bunch of stuff you could purchase in the lobby area.  One of the things we came across was a book on the history of the Hotel de Paris.  How's this, my friend's mom opened the book and to her surprise the page that she opened the book on was a photo of her mom.  How's dem friggen apples?!

After the tour was done we cruised around the little town, and there was such cool stuff to check out. There was an old hardware store, antique shops, little art shops, restaurants, etc. etc.

One shop that caught our attention was the Georgetown Valley Candy Company.  Man, it was almost like stepping into one of Willy Wonka's franchise stores.  There was jus' goodies everywhere

After visiting Georgetown, we checked out of our hotel and made the trek back to Fort Collins to continue our adventure.  On our way, we made a quick stop to where my friend's folks got married some 50 years ago, unreal...

We then stopped for some dinner at Panera, oh man, good stuff.

We then dropped off my friend's folks at the hotel in Fort Collins and by then it was pretty late.  Was the adventure over?  Hellllllll no, lol.  My friend, my godson and I headed to Walmart to get our shopping on for my goddaughter who needed a few food items for her apartment.  In true fashion of how my friend operates the word "few" is not in her dictionary, lol.  She totally hooked her daughter up with some major grub, haha.  Man, I was sooooo tired, I was leaning against the shopping cart in Walmart and fallin' asleep.  Haha, but I forced myself to stay awake jus' to make the most out of my trip.

After that was all packed away at my goddaughter's place n done nearly 3 or 4 in the morning, I totally crashed out, good times.

HaynMade hits the states Day 5...

Quite the exciting day today,

The morning started off with an awesome breakfast at our hotel's restaurant.  Ya baby, I'm all about the buffets, lol.

After that was all said n done, we did a few last minute errands (again, lol) for my friend's folks' anniversary party comin' up later that evening, and then took a quick cruise around the nearby neighborhood where we were staying, pretty interesting.  There were like these huge office building and near every building and even near the housing duplexes, there were statues/sculptures to be admired.

The duplex style housing area were pretty impressive, I really like the stone n plaster look to it...

A little up the way from the housing area there was also a natural energy lab, it totally looked like an X Files secret top mission location...

After our little cruise, we returned to the hotel and I snapped away at a bunch of pics around the area...

In the lobby area...

So we grabbed our ish together in preparation for the party I was about to setup, and we had a "lil situation" where the toilet and shower got backed up.  I won't get into the specifics of how that all happened, lol, but the hotel's management hooked us up with an apology and a little gift, with some goodies and bottled water...

We headed on out to Mount Vernon Country Club to set things up for the party, and on our way, I got some killer scenery shots...

Setting up the party was a big reason why my friend wanted me to come along for this trip because she knew this creative head would come up with something classy for the party, and being that this is the 1st of three upcoming anniversary parties, I really wanted to make something special.  So this is how it all turned out.  Near the receiving table we displayed some of their fond memories from 50 years back.  Below is a photo of Uncle's CSU college t-shirt, and to the left, Aunty's skirt from back in the day...

Some photos of when they got married...

Their wedding photo album, and you see those dolls right above?  These were made as replicas for what the groom, bride and bride's maids wore, pretty cool stuff.  Oh and in the right photo of the photo album, Aunty's dad is putting a penny in her shoe.  According to Aunty she said it might be an Irish tradition to assure that the married couple would never go broke, I thought that was pretty cool.  It's kinda true for this couple of 50 years too, lol...

The wedding planning list, which cost a lil under $350 for the entire shindig and in the upper lefthand corner, Aunty's garter belt.  (I guess she held on to it instead of tossing it to the single men like we do nowadays)...

Orchid lei for all of the guests...

The receiving table...

Table decor for all of the guests...

I had my friend order these "Filthy Farm Girl" handmade soap from Hawai'i as favors for all of the guests.  It's a pretty cool brand, and I really like how they name all of their scents (you gotta check out their website for a complete listing of their soaps, it's pretty hilarious), and they smell pretty awesome too.  If you're interested in ordering from 'em, here's their link: http://shop.filthyfarmgirl.com...

The dessert cake which included the couple's cake topper from 50 years back, how cool is that?!...

Guests were treated to pupu's aka horderves, some of which included California sushi, char siu/sweet n sour meatballs and shrimp cocktail.  Checkout how big those bad boys were, man, I so wanted our waitress to leave that entire tray at my table, lol...

Some of the photos I snapped away at...

After the pupu sesh, everyone gathered for a little slideshow, Dr. Phil (Aunty's brother) put together.  Okay, jus' a little quick note, yes, his name is Dr. Phil, and yes he's a doctor.  He's one cool dude, he's a chemistry professor and get this, he's the guy who came up with the vibrant edible colors for M&M's.  How friggen cool is that?!  He also worked as an advisor for CSI and has been called in for a number of forensic court cases.  But ya, he also led the prayer for dinner...

As you all know, I don't normally post pics of people's faces in my blog, but this is too killer of a photo to pass by...

Aunty and Uncle did their thank you speeches, man, it was super heartfelt, and everyone in the room got choked up.  Imagine, 50 years these two wonderful people have been together.  What I didn't realize was the location where we had the reception, was the exact place Aunty's folks celebrated their 50th anniversary party, you seriously gotta love it.  Uncle sang "Beautiful 'Ilima" to Aunty, and because it was such a special and intimate moment, I made the personal decision to not post any photos, sorry folks.

And then it was time to eat, one word...yummy.  Bread basket...

Salad...

Prime rib...

Dessert...

The guests many of which was Aunty's family from Colorado thanked my profusely for setting up the party so nicely and really making the evening a special one for Uncle and Aunty.  For me, it was an honor to put something special together for them, the entire family are really special people.

After the party was done and everyone went their separate ways, we went cruising near the outskirts of Denver, in search of custard (ice cream) from Good Times.  Get this, we went to four of 'em in the area, and they were all closed, lol, DAAAAMN!  We had to settle for McDonald's cones, but it was all good, I still got some shots from our evening cruise.  Ohhhh, we hit up this outdoor mall (which was closed), Belmar Mall.  Check out how friggen huge their Target store is, amaze balls.  Their Whole Foods store is also friggen two stories tall, double amaze balls...

When we returned to the hotel, the front desk sent chocolate covered strawberries to Uncle and Aunty, how cool of them to do that...

At the party, my goddaughter introduced me to one of her close college buddies, a 7th generation Colorado native.  She was hella cool and dropped lil factoids left and right (for those of you who know me, I too like to drop random 411 about whatever).  But ya, she's a Fine Arts major at CSU.  I noticed the necklace she was wearing man it was KILLER!  She made it all by hand out of silver, copper and quartz.  Check out the chain, she made that link, by friggen link, which took her about 11 hours total to make.  I'm seriously contemplating having her make me a chain...

What a day/evening it was, and again an honor for two very awesome people.  Much congrats to Aunty and Uncle!