I wasn’t even home from Europe when my friend Marci Smith started e-mailing me - "Do you think you’d want to go to Colorado when you get back? Ann Covalt’s said she would go. Julie Ruther is flying in from Fort Worth, Texas. I saw some great flight deals on the Internet."

I had varying versions of this message off and on for two weeks. When I flew into Lincoln that Sunday night from Ireland, I e-mailed Marci the next morning, "I have to be home at least a week before I bring it up to Bill."

But then I started checking the deals on the Internet; every other day I would find a great deal.

Finally, it was a week, and then one of my sales staff quit and I thought, "Okay, that cooks it, I can’t go." I won’t even mention it to Bill, but then I checked the Internet and there it was - another great deal on flights with Southwest Airlines. Only $160 to fly a round trip from Omaha to Denver, Colorado. I had to mention it and, surprise, Bill was all, "You go girl, life is short, have fun." And yes, he gets the husband award of the year in my circle of friends.

I mentioned the great deal and great time to another group of girlfriends and two of them - Nancy Bumann and Marj Newcomer - decided to join us even though they didn’t know the other three.

For the past five years, I’ve traveled with a group of girlfriends - Julie, Ann and Marci being part of the core group - to Gulf Shores, Alabama, Crystal Beach, Texas, Cape May, New Jersey, and Jeffrey Lake in Brady. You name it - if there is sun, fun and water, we’ll go. I had just spent a week in Rome with Laura, an old college friend from New Hampshire, who has taken to joining us on most of our girl trips (she was the only one of the group who was ready to go international).

So then I did a little more checking on Travelzoo.com (my favorite Internet vacation website for deals) and found a downtown Denver Ramada with a nice outdoor pool on Colfax Avenue (the main street that runs east and west through Denver) for $71.10 a night that included a shuttle within three miles of the hotel. We would only need to pay for a shuttle to and from the airport and we wouldn’t need a rental car, which would save us a bundle of $$ and a lot of headaches. I booked it.

We rendezvoused in Lincoln; Ann drove to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, arriving an hour and a half early to check in under sunny skies leaving on Southwest at 5:25 p.m. I was fortunate to get the last seat on the plane; it was packed.

I always like to board last despite the poor seating choices left due to an unfortunate experience several years ago. A traveler who was obviously too important to trust his baggage to be checked brought a huge suitcase with wheels and tried to stuff it into an overhead compartment. But not before hefting it above his head and smacking me in the forehead, leaving a welt the size of a golf ball and a severe ouch, followed by a headache and lingering pain throughout the flight. I now wait to board until everyone has shoved their way ahead of me, giving them ample time to swing their luggage overhead. The man did say, "Oh, sorry." That really made me feel better.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I too once brought an unwieldy carry-on to a flight - it was on one of our girl trips when I brought a souvenir palm tree back from Crystal Beach. Although I purchased it, Deanne Printz is the one who actually carried it on for me because I was recovering from a shoulder injury. I thought she handled the glares from the other passengers quite well as she stuffed a five-foot palm tree into the overhead compartment without striking anyone.

Anyway, back to our trip. We no more than got comfortable, packed in snug as a bug, when we learned there was a big storm in Denver and that all incoming and outgoing flights from Denver were cancelled indefinitely. How could it be? It was a perfect day in Nebraska. After a 10-minute pause to consider what condition our condition was in, the flight attendant gave us welcome news - we would deplane (not like "De plane, De plane" like Tattoo shouted in "Fantasy Island"), but she meant we could get off the plane and wait in the comfort of the airport bar/cafe/waiting area.

Two and a half hours later, after a few refreshments and games of pitch, we were welcomed back on board. The Southwest crew was so pleasant and plied us with refreshments and a quick 90 minutes later we were in Denver.

But not so fast. So was everyone else who had been delayed. We spent a little more than an hour waiting on the tarmac for our turn at the get-out-of-the-airplane gate and then waiting for our baggage. Actually, considering how many planes had been delayed in those two hours, the airport staff did an excellent job getting everyone on their way in a timely manner. It could have been worse...it is the 10th busiest airport in the U.S. It has been worse on some of our girl trips - but that’s another story.

And that is what these girl trips are for - great stories, great memories. And now we have two new "extra" friends to share these memories with. I refer to Nancy and Marj as extra friends as I went looking for some new friends when I realized Asa would be going off to college and I needed more outlets for friendship, creative projects, charity work and of course, travel. I told them I needed some extra friends soon after I met them and they agreed to sign on for the task.

Anyway, we took a 45-minute shuttle ride to our hotel and checked in a little before 10 p.m. and ran across the street to the Irish Snug, a great place for late-night snacks or dinner, then we went for a nightcap across the street at Kinga’s Lounge, a Polish bar, which was a beautiful old refurbished home.

On Friday morning, we were up and hittin’ the pool before taking the shuttle to shop at the 16th Street Mall. We had lunch at the Rialto Cafe, very nice place, great food, but lousy service from a waiter who said, "You’re really making me work here," when we asked him what the daily specials were, and he wasn’t kidding.

A little more shopping - spent some time at a Ross store; never heard of it - a little crowded, but tons of clothes pretty cheap. We then rested at the Rock Bottom Restaurant so we could listen to some live music outdoors - it was a beautiful night, no flies, no mosquitoes - and great old rock from Funkiphino and a waiter from Lincoln, who was one of Marj’s students at Lincoln High - how crazy is that?

Then thinking it was Free First Friday (but it wasn’t; it was August 8), we walked over to the Denver Art Museum, beautiful building, but since it was closing in 30 minutes, we did not splurge for the $13 tickets - maybe next time. We waited awhile for our shuttle and enjoyed the night air and visiting with Marci’s daughter Erin, and Julie’s daughter Molly, who joined us off and on throughout the weekend. The two college girls were a fun addition to our group and are welcome on any future girl trips.

On Saturday morning, six of us (minus Nancy who slept in and plus Erin who joined us) visited the Denver Botanic Gardens at 10th and York. It was absolutely awesome inside and out and I saw so many new plants. I am always amazed at how many new plants I see whenever I visit a botanical garden - and each one in every city is so different. They have a Jurassic Gardens Exhibit going on, but I didn’t need the dinosaurs to be impressed.

Our shuttle driver recommended a little-hole-in-the-wall diner - only outside dining - called Bourbon Grill - really good and tons of food for the $6.50 it cost - on Colfax Avenue, not too far from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Marj and Nancy headed to the mall for shopping and the rest of us headed to the pool for some relaxation.

On Saturday night, we all got our groove on and headed to the Denver Civic Center Park for a free concert with Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band at 5:30. It was so much fun!

We then splurged on a big Italian dinner at Maggiano’s at the Denver Pavilions. We had some of the best food of the trip, but we also racked up a big dinner tab - oh well, you only live once.

Although I never got up early enough to make the coffee run, everyone else commented on the friendly guy at the Caffe Sanora on Colfax. Coffee was usually breakfast for us except for Sunday when we went back to the Irish Snug for brunch.

After brunch, we asked the shuttle to take us to a play at the Garner Galleria Theatre with two very funny standup comedian women who totally put on a "For Girls Only" show - men just wouldn’t get it or would think it was weird or not that funny.

We had time left so we headed to the movie "Julie & Julia," which was great and made us hungry despite the popcorn lunch.

We hiked over to the Whole Foods Market for dinner and spent a good hour or so browsing - most of us had never experienced the sample-everything huge organic/homemade grocery store.

We got back to the hotel in time for a few card games on the patio.

On Monday, we left the airport at 1:45 and were in Omaha on time at 4:30 p.m. and home in Panama by 6.