The next morning, John had to go to work. Mary and I had the whole day to ourselves...after we drove him to the office.

The local Banner Health payroll office was located about two miles north of the hotel, at the North Colorado Medical Center. John's staff was in a small office on the ground floor, within the hospital building, unlike the facility in Phoenix, which was in a Corporate Center across the street. At the Greeley office, John had a small payroll team that was led by one supervisor - Jennifer, who reported directly to him.

Instead of taking us into his office to meet his staff, John had us drop him off at the door; he would introduce us later in the week, when we came to meet him for lunch. Besides, Mary and I had plans that morning...

Okay, they weren't grandiose plans, but they were fun, nonetheless. During the morning, we were going to go shopping to buy all of the supplies that we would need for our backpacking adventure (which would begin on Thursday morning). Then, after an early lunch, we were going to see the new Disney-Pixar movie Cars.

Cars had just opened in theaters a week before our trip to Colorado, and we all really wanted to see it. The weekend it opened, though, I had flown to San Francisco with my friend Debbie to attend my best friend Suzanne's conversion ceremony; she had converted to Judaism. While I was gone, John took Mary to see Cars without me.

"Darn it!" I said when they told me. "You couldn't wait for me?"

So Mary promised to take me to see it while John was at work. She didn't mind seeing it again anyway, because it was "sooo good!"

And she wasn't kidding!

We went to see the first showing of Cars at 11:30, at the movie theater across the highway from our hotel. Since it was Monday morning and early in the day, we almost had the entire movie theater to ourselves, so we had our choice of seats. We sat near the back of the theater and waited for our movie to begin.

The movie was incredible - one of the best Pixar films ever to be made! The story was funny and touching, the animation was excellent, and the inside jokes were laugh-out-loud funny. After it was over, I thanked Mary for taking me to see it; I couldn't wait for it to come out on DVD, so that I could watch it again and again.

After we left the movie theater, we returned to the hotel to go swimming. The Country Inn & Suites had an indoor pool, so no matter how cold (or hot) it was outside, inside, the water was perfect. We spent hours in the pool, soaking in the warm water and playing. Mary also worked on the techniques she had learned during swim lessons, including jumping off of the side of the pool and swimming with big scoops. It pleased us to see how far she had progressed from being terrified of the water only a couple of years ago, to being a fish!

Later that afternoon, we returned to our room to dry off and change clothes; then, we relaxed and watched television until it was time to pick John up from work. He was done working right at 5:00, so we picked him up curbside and went out to dinner from there.

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