FINALLY HERE!

Hello from Denver! Wow – I’ve only been here a short while and I can already tell it’s a great place. I can also tell that one word will be able to describe my experience: overwhelming.

I thought today would be simple – travel, go to the welcome reception, go to bed. Oh no.

I am staying at the Doubletree Denver Tech which is pretty far south of downtown. North Carolina is staying here along with Kansas. The Raleigh law firm Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein sponsored a welcome reception for both states that included an open bar, ice cream bar and other small food. I got to the hotel after it started, so I quickly changed and headed down to it.

While there I talked with Dr. Beth Jones, Chair of Caldwell County and Jim Morgan, Chair of New Hanover County (who I knew from my time at UNCW). I saw a number of other folks and mingled around with them for a good while. Then, I was walking while texting and bumped into a volunteer from Kansas, Chris. He’s in town to help with security, etc. downtown at the convention site. He’s also much more social than me and somehow convinced me to go with him downtown to where he thought were some parties and bars.

After getting a nice but unexpected tour of downtown, we found a few places, one of which, I think, was sponsored by the Young Democrats of America. Congressman Kendrick Meek of Florida and the YDA President both spoke while we were there, but mostly we just met folks. I fully expect that if I hang around Chris for the week, I’ll have a lot more on my plate than originally planned.

But, tomorrow starts early – we have to get our credentials every day at our delegation breakfast to get into the Pepsi Center for the sessions. There’s all kinds of receptions, forums, and parties to go to before and after each session. So, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

Below are some of the few pictures I’ve taken so far. I fully expect a lot more tomorrow showing a lot more convention activity.

Welcome reception for the North Carolina Delegation.

Dr. Beth Jones, Chairwoman of the Caldwell County Democratic Party

Jim Morgan, Chairman of the New Hanover County Democratic Party

Young Democrats event downtown

Just coming into Denver. We had to go west to come around some pretty rough storms that were to the south.