Thursday 5/21/09 With a "big picture" plan to explore other areas of the world while we are relatively young and then spend time traveling the USA when we slow down a bit, we are making an exception this trip by visiting Denver, Colorado. Having never been outside of the Denver airport, it has always been on my "wouldn't mind" visiting list. No strong urge, but not opposed to the idea. I have heard so many great things about the city, but nothing yet has pushed me into making the trip, until now. Several years ago some of our dearest friends had moved out to Denver to start a family and coincidentally, my sister and brother-in-law recently made a similar move. It started to become one of those situations that every time you talk to them or email them, the conversation almost always includes the obligatory "hey, when are you coming to Denver?" Of course, we politely shrug our shoulders and say we have no plans, but if we ever did we would be sure to let them know. So, in a perfect timing situation, I recently read with great interest as one of my favorite bands, Jane's Addiction, announced dates for their "reunion" tour. Hoping for, but not expecting to see the itinerary starting in my local concert venue, I scanned the list of tour dates trying to figure out the closest and/or most practical show for us to see. The tour started in Florida and makes its way around the south of the US until finally winding up in the northeast. Knowing the volatility of the personalities in that band, I knew I wanted to see that tour as soon as I could for fear of it self-destructing before it made its way to my part of the country. I saw that about ten dates into the tour was Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre near Denver the day after Memorial Day. After discussing it with El, I changed my Facebook status to read that "Simeon Morrell is considering seeing Jane's Addiction in Denver at the end of May". Within an hour, I was getting responses from all of the people I know in Colorado, and not just Denver. The Denver friends were excited to hear of our potential visit and with that, I started looking into planes, rooms, and automobiles. We had a few frequent flier miles to use up and decided to use them to offset the cost of the plane tickets. The concert tickets had already cost us a small fortune and anywhere we could save was welcomed. This trip is a little different for us as besides the concert, we don't really have any solid sightseeing planned. We are anxious to spend time with Jim and Jenn and family for the first half of the trip, then, spend the second half with Amanda and Brian. I have a couple of other Denver area contacts that I hope will pan out and make for a fulfilling vacation, as that is truly what it is all about...not working and enjoying time off. Our flight leaves from Albany at 4:45pm and connects through Chicago. We are expected to arrive in Denver around 8:30 tonight. At this hour the security check is not very busy. This is good in that you get through relatively quickly, but unfortunately the officer to passenger ratio is skewed in their favor to make themselves feel like their jobs are the most important on earth, each one works their function on you. One example of this is that as you enter the security area a boarding pass checker clears you for advancement. As you step forward not two steps, another officer has inserted themselves into the line and asks you again for your boarding pass full well knowing that if you did not have one, you would not have been waived into the security area. Then, the x-ray machine officer moves your carry-on luggage through the machine, but the other officer whose machine is closed due to a lack of people coming through decides to come over to run your bag through again to see if he sees something the first time through did not reveal. We make it through in a reasonable time and since we were early arriving, now have close to three hours until takeoff. We sit bored in the airport. The time actually goes by rather quickly. The gate representative announces that he may be looking for some volunteers to take a bump to help others on the sold out flight. Of course El and I head up to the counter to avail ourselves since our bump experience has been so positive. Fortunately or unfortunately, they wind up not needing to bump anyone and we board our regularly scheduled flight on time and are in the air within minutes of our departure time. The flight is completely uneventful. We should land in Chicago soon to catch our connector to Denver. After getting a bit of misinformation about our connecting gate, we make our way to another terminal only to find the gate assignment has changed, and head back to the correct gate. When we get there, the boarding has already begun. Again offering ourselves for bumping, they too decide not to ask for volunteers and allow us to board. This flight too, winds up leaving close to on-time which I am impressed by. Of course planes should leave on time, but my experiences have not shown that to be true all of the time. Another sold out flight, and luckily, the seats we picked are the only two in the row as the plane seats are in a 2-5-2 configuration. This is good so we don't have to ask people to move and El gets her aisle and I get my window. The only annoyance is the guy in front of me who insists on reclining his seat to the maximum, which essentially cuts my personal space in half. And with the way coach seats are set up anyway, I didn't have much to begin with. We are told the flying time is close to 2 hours. We hope for a further uneventful flight. We arrive on time and make our way to the baggage claim and car rental shuttle. The line at the car rental place is painfully slow. Trainees and their trainers keeping the line moving at a snail’s pace. And to make matters more frustrating, they have their own version of the frequent renter plan and people in that club can walk up to the front of the line, so every time we thought we saw hope, it was quickly dashed when new "preferred" members arrived. We finally get through the check-in process and hit the road. The GPS comes in very handy and we get to the hotel in fine fashion. Before we check-in, we grab some dinner at a bar in the area. As we drive around, we see a sign for an Indian Restaurant. As we pull up, we see it is closed for the night, as is the sushi place and Vietnamese restaurant all in the same strip mall. The only place open is JD's Bait Shop Sports Grill. For dinner we get an order of onion lures (like petals), and then I get a Reuben sandwich with fries, a salad with a Heineken. El shares the onions and gets a grilled cheese, bowl of soup, and a beer. The whole tab comes out to $26 even! Quite reasonable for our first meal in the Mile High City. We could only be so lucky to find more places this cheap. It's getting on midnight and with the time change it feels like 2:00am. We are both bushed and head to the hotel to call it a night. Friday 5/22/09 It was a nice,
leisurely drive and we take a few hours to make our way back down to Denver
using Route 7 to 72. Along the way we make a couple of stops. We drive up
towards Longs Peak which is one of the tallest peaks in Colorado. It is 14,259ft.
We drove up to the ranger station that services the mountain. From this point
you could hike up, but cars were prohibited from higher climbing. We walked
around a little and took some pictures, but unfortunately the station was not set
up as scenic overlook and there weren’t many great photo ops there. We got back
in the car and descended. A few minutes later we passed a small chapel by the
side of the road. The parking lot, from the road, appeared to be the scenic
spot we were looking for. We turned around after passing it and went down to
see if we could get some snaps. This worked out well as there was a family in
there who were going to visit the little chapel. El and I asked them to take a
photo of us with the peak. We did pop onto the chapel, but did not stay long. Soon
after, we were on our way. From the road we call our friends who we are
visiting this evening to solidify plans. We make a quick stop at the hotel and
then head a few miles up the road to their house. The Stephens Family are some
of our dearest friends and we have been looking forward to seeing them (and
meeting their new additions) since they moved out here several years ago. We
went and spent the entire evening catching up and spending quality time with
the family. We ate a nice home cooked meal and talked for hours. Then, we put
together our preliminary plan for tomorrow which we will be spending with the
Stephens' again. We are a little beat, and decide to call it a night. We head
back to the hotel, check email, catch up on our journals, and get to bed to
hopefully get an early start tomorrow. Funny sign in the bathroom: "please do not throw cigarette butts into the urinal; it makes them soggy and hard to light". Saturday 5/23/09 Red Rocks' stage Walking up the steps in and around the Red Rocks I really started to feel the effects of the thin air- thankfully I don’t smoke any longer and don’t have that challenge to contend with. The next stop for us is back to Denver to see the LoDo (lower downtown) area. LoDo is a nice little walk-around area with plenty of shops and food places. One of Jim's favorite spots is a bookstore called the Tattered Cover. We make this our first stop so everyone can browse around. I am not much of a used book guy and opt to sit outside in the light breeze to update my journal. We have a lunch plan to go to Duffy's Cherry Cricket for burgers around 3:00pm, so we feed the meter for two hours and stroll around seeing what is available. Right this minute as I look around I am reminded a little bit of Montreal and how walk-around friendly that city is. I picked up a copy of the local entertainment paper and see that a singer I am interested in seeing is playing tonight at a bar in this area. So if it works out, I may be back through this area tonight. We then scoot across town to the Cherry Creek district which is another walk-around shopping area with a lot of shops and eateries. Our original plan is to eat a late lunch around 3:00pm, but as we get out of the car to walk, it is obvious that the kids are ready for lunch closer to now than then. We find Duffy's and are a little surprised by the amount of people waiting outside. We put our name in and told of a fifteen minute wait. We walk around for a few minutes to kill time. We have had good luck with most of the places we have seen on the Food Network and all indications are that this place will do the job. Fast forward to two hours later, and it certainly did. It is a dive bar without the stench of stale beer and graffiti on the bathroom walls. Everyone ordered their fancy and the table split a sampler platter. The platter was standard and since I don’t particularly enjoy fried, breaded out of a box menu items (cheese sticks, onion rings, poppers etc.), I didn’t eat much of it. Also, I knew I was in for a big burger as I had planned to get the burger named for the show that brought me here. I got a Fat Tire amber and the Man vs. Food Burger with a side of Spanish rice and beans. When The television show: Man vs. Food came to Denver, he went to both Duffy's and the Buckhorn Exchange (where we will eat tomorrow). Adam (the host), gave his waitress six darts and a dartboard sectioned into every burger topping. She threw the darts and fate created the "Man vs. Food burger". It is a 1/2 lb burger with smoked cheddar, grilled onions, bacon, salsa, guacamole, and a fried egg. I ordered it as is without adding or removing any of the toppings. The burger was messy, although I think I handled it pretty well. My only major complaint was that the fried egg was over easy, so obviously with the first bite of the burger the gush of yolk is slightly reminiscent of Freshen-Up gum. Because the toppings were added by chance, I couldn't really fault anyone, including myself, for the fact that I did not think the flavors melded together nicely. When I said this to the waitress who solicited my impressions of the burger, she said that I was the first person to say that. Maybe I have a more sophisticated palate than others, or a less cultured one, but it was what it was. Everyone at the table enjoyed their lunch and we all leave the Cricket full, if not overly so. Us with the Stephens Family at Duffy's With the weather still holding up, we are able to stroll a little and digest a bit before pressing on. It is close to 4:00pm now and I don't think we have anything else on the agenda, so beers on the porch might be our next stop. El has agreed to join Jenn at a spa party (that she will discuss in her journal!) and I will spend the evening catching up with Jim. We got back to their house and dropped off Jenn and the kids. Then, Jim took El and I to see the school where he teaches. Jim is a high school teacher in a charter school in Denver and is incredibly passionate and excited about teaching and learning for himself and his students. He gives us a brief rundown of how charter schools work and how they differ from other public schools. He walks us through the small school and takes us to his classroom. It sounds like his school is enjoying tremendous success and has a 100% graduation rate. We don't stay long and the weather is very bad. The rain is actually causing flooding on the streets and the visibility is very poor. After we leave there, we head to two different used CD stores. One is called Wax Trax and the other is called the Independent. Both have a nice selection of stuff, but I don't see anything I can't live without. We head back to the house so that Jenn and El can go to their spa party. Jim and I take the boys out for ice cream to a local shop called Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. I get a dish of Bonnie Brae Signature flavor. It is coconut ice cream with caramel swirl and fudge pralines mixed in. It is quite decent and the boys love their cones. We get back to the house and I update the journal while Jim puts them to bed. Jim and I spend some quality time enjoying some Heinekens and catching up and talking about people from our past. Jenn and El get back to the house around 10:15 and we get the rundown on their evening. It is soon obvious that everyone is getting tired and we set up our plan for Tuesday when we will see them next and head out. Even though it is late and the weather is crappy, I think I still want to try to catch the show at the Larimer Lounge in the downtown area. The act is a one man band named Scott H. Biram, who I have heard about for years, but have not seen or heard. Once in the car El calls the club to see if Scott has already gone on, and he has not. The cover is $12 and he is scheduled for a midnight stage time. Ever in agreement, El is game and we press on through the down pouring rain to the club. The opening band is still on and they are decent enough. They finish around 11:45 and Scott H. Biram is on by 12:15. One man bands usually impress me on some level- and I don't mean a guy with an acoustic guitar, but when a guy can play a guitar, a harmonica, a bass drum, and sing the song, I have to give him respect. The tunes are really decent even though I do not know any of them. However, it has been a long day and we are now both very tired, so we decide to leave after about 50 minutes. I would have really liked to stay, but it was just too late for me to enjoy it any longer. I will definitely look to catch Scott again, and hopefully he will play earlier next time. We head back to the room and call it a night. We get to bed close to 1:30am and I am out immediately. Until, in a first for us, we are rudely awakened by a guy yelling and screaming in the hallway waking everyone in the motel up. The ramblings of the drunken loser are loud and boisterous. El and I lay awake, not daring to venture out of the room under any conditions. We wait, hoping he will take his idiocy to another floor. After several minutes we hear more voices trying to calm the loudmouth down. It becomes apparent from the new tone in his voice that the new voices are that of the police officers trying to calm him down while arresting him. The episode is over in a matter of 10 minutes and we return to slumbers without further interruption. Observation: I could not believe my eyes to learn though, that Denver does not have a citywide residential recycling program and that glass, paper, plastic, and cans are not picked up for recycling. Rather they are tossed in the garbage. Sunday 5/24/09 Manitou Springs Cliff Dwelling Park We get our pictures and head on to Pikes Peak. The Pikes Peak access road is only a few miles down the road in the town of Cascade, Colorado, and we are there in no time. The maps say that it is a toll road that leads up to the summit, but in fact, it is not, as you pay by the person, whereas a toll road, I think is a pay by the car system. As we pull up to the gate there is a sign that says that the road is open 18 of the 19 total miles, it tells us to allow two hours for the round trip, and reminds us to drive the entire course in low gear. The ranger at the gate who collects our $10 each gives us some more details and sends us on our way. The views were pretty good and the drive was easy, for the most part. Eventually, we make it up to mile 18 where a ranger it set up motioning for everyone to turn around and head back down. At that point the outside temperature was a cool 34 degrees. I can't say that I was at all disappointed in the closed road since at the point we were completely cloud covered and there was very little visibility. As we descended, the fog cleared and that was what we wanted to see. We were well above the tree line and the ground was pretty covered with snow and ice. view from Pike's Peak Luckily, the roads themselves were not icy, since there is no
guardrail for most of the way I could easily see a car sliding off the edge if the
conditions were less than ideal. After getting most of our photos on the way
up, after the turnaround we are able to head right down and move on to our next
destination: Garden of the Gods Park. Again, just a short drive from the bottom
of Pikes Peak. The “garden” is basically a natural collection of rock
formations with a road that winds around the area. There is no fee (a nice
relief) and you just drive through at your leisure pulling off at any of several
parking areas and overlooks. We spend about an hour driving through and getting
our pictures. One of the highlights is a balanced rock that is a striking
image. We arrive on
time for our 6:00pm reservation, but our table is not ready. We are asked to
wait in the upstairs bar area where I get a Dewar's to start the night. The
first and most striking thing you see is the wall filled with trophy mounted
heads everywhere. The taxidermist must have been able to retire after working
on this place. While upstairs, we browse the menu and catch up with Amanda and
Brian while we wait. The table is ready shortly and we are seated. We pass on
the appetizers of rattlesnake and alligator and choose to start off the meal
with a plate of Rocky Mountain Oysters. They are a house specialty and I
figured that if I am going to try them anywhere, this would be a good place. Having
never eaten testicles before, I wasn't sure what to expect. They arrive
deep fried with a side of horseradish cream sauce and a side of traditional
cocktail sauce. The consensus as the four of us dig in is that there is nothing
gamey or unpleasant about them. They are little on the chewy side- with a
texture reminiscent of calamari and they taste like popcorn shrimp. When the
sauces are added there is nothing odd about the food. It was a nice
introduction to something we have never had. We all order our entrees which
come with a soup or salad. I opt for the garbanzo bean and buffalo chili soup
which is really fantastic. I have never had buffalo before and it was good-
tastes like chicken (strike that, tastes like beef). We order a bottle of Malbec
to go with our meats. The selection here is quite unique. We are offered items
ranging from Colorado farm-raised yak steak to ostrich medallions to roasted
quail. I choose the combo plate of a 12 oz. buffalo prime rib served with au
jus and a horseradish sauce and a 4 oz. elk steak served with a garlic butter
sauce. A baked potato rounded out the meal. I have never had elk before and my forée
to bison came just ten minutes earlier in the chili. My quick review of the
dinner is that the elk steak was very decent with no gaminess to it. The
buffalo prime rib, although decent, I thought was wrong for the cut. One of the
appeals of eating buffalo is the leanness. It is so much leaner than beef and
can be easily substituted for beef in almost every way...including prime rib. However,
the reason to order prime rib is for the rich flavor which comes from the fat
content within the meat. Being a bit short on fat, I thought the rib lacked
just a little in terms of flavor that I would have gotten had I ordered the
beef prime rib. It was certainly good enough and the taste was fine. I will be
happy to try buffalo again, but will probably get it in a burger or meatloaf
instead of a prime rib. I pass on dessert and my dining experience is finished
off with a cup of coffee. We wrap up and head back to the house to do some more
catching up and enjoy Amanda and Brian’s hospitality. We put together a basic plan
for tomorrow (which being Memorial Day will include places that are not
affected by the holiday closings). We head in to bed around midnight and work
on our journals for a little while- then call it a night.
Observation: the term Columbine is very common in this area and was long before the school shooting incident. Being an outsider, you can’t help but take pause each time you hear or see the term used. As we passed the Columbine Medical Associates building and the Columbine Plaza strip mall, you realize it was and is a common name for any number of things. Monday 5/25/09
(Memorial Day) quote from Columbine Memorial The setting is peaceful and a fitting tribute to those who perished on April 20, 1999. One of the poignant aspects of the memorial is that at no point is there ever a mention of the two teenaged perpetrators of the massacre. The memorial is strictly dedicated specifically to the "innocent victims" including 12 students and 1 teacher who perished. The wounded and otherwise traumatized are also remembered in some of the collective verbiage. Life is fragile. After spending a few moments of reflecting time, we press on. We head back to Amanda and Brian's to change into our walking gear. El and I decide to walk around the area of their home and set out for an aimless walk. They live in a planned community where there does not appear to be much of a leisurely stroll path. They do point us in a direction that we hope to find some walking paths. The game plan being that El and I will give them a chance to get caught up on some errands that the wanted to complete during the holiday weekend. We will go out to dinner with them tonight and try to see the "5280 step" at the capitol building. They are both in the LoDo area and that is our evening plan. El and I start to formulate a plan for tomorrow. I think that we will try going to the U.S. Mint in the morning, hoping to get into the tour. If that fails, or afterwards, we will then head to Boulder for the Celestial Seasonings factory tour. In the afternoon we will head back to Jim ad Jenn's place and go to the Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails show tomorrow night. I do not think we will need to make any more trips out of the city and will just wind down on an easy note before heading out on Wednesday afternoon. Finally today, just to see if I've missed anything urgent, I was able to check my email. I sadly learn of the death of an acquaintance these past few days. Her funeral is today. I take a moment to reflect on my time with her. Brief, but good times. She was my age and again I am reminded that life is fragile. As El and I walk around, we spot a second location of the Tattered Cover bookstore. This one looking larger than the one Jim took us to in LoDo the other day. El goes in for a browse while I sit outside in the breeze updating my journal. This part of Denver reminds me a lot of the area of Dallas that I used to live in. Even though there are sidewalks, it is not necessarily a "walk around" part of town. You would need a car to get anywhere in this town, and even though we live in a scaled down version of a development like this, I like the environment of the downtown area better than the suburbs. We walk around in a complete circle and make our way back to the apartment. We have gone about 3 miles and find an activity path that is a paved trail through the development across the street from Amanda's development. As I sit down on a bench to rest and update my journal, it looks like there are four distinct subdivisions that each radiate from a central courtyard-like park. There is a basketball court, a dog park, baseball diamond, and trails that serve as bike path, walking path, and dog walk. The trails seem to go off in every direction, winding around and eventually leading off into each of the different housing developments. I wish we had something like this where we live instead of having to share the road with the autos. El and I sit and enjoy the scenery and update our journals. It starts to rain, but luckily we are prepared for it with our rain gear. It's not hard enough to discourage the basketball players or dog walkers, so we stay put and enjoy the downtime. We will leave shortly to go back to the apartment and get ready to leave for dinner. When we get back, Amanda and Brian have a plan. Because of a basketball game in town, we will take the commuter rail into the LoDo section to avoid parking hassles. They have made dinner reservations at a place that they like for us. Our first stop in the downtown area is the capitol building. There is a landmark here called the “5280 step”. It is so named because one of the designated steps leading up to the building has been measured to be exactly one mile above sea level. Actually there are three steps with that designation. When the height was originally measured, they inscribed a step with the words “one mile above sea level". El and I on the "5280 step" Then, it was remeasured in 1969, and a small brass plaque was installed on a higher step that says "1969: this step is one mile above sea level". It was remeasured again and a second plaque a few steps down was installed that says "2003: this marker is one mile above sea level". The plaques are small and the etching is difficult to read. The original step is much more photogenic, so we opted to take our pictures with it. So, technically, our pics are on the “5282 step”, but they look good. Many people get their pictures taken there, and we were no different. After a few minutes we were on our way to the restaurant which turned out to be in LoDo just where we had been with Jim and Jenn two days earlier. We arrive on time for our reservation at a place that says "look for the pig" when they are giving you directions. As we walk up to the door and the pig is pointed out to me, Brian explains that the small hoisted statue of the pig had eluded them for a while the first time they came here. The place is called Osteria Marco. We all order a before dinner drink, and I start with a martini. It was fine, nothing special. After a brief look at the menu El and I go for the "Monday special for two". We start with a salami and cheese plate. It comes with slices of beef salami, pork salami, a dollop of fresh made ricotta; a small wedge of house made mozzarella drizzled with a house made grapefruit jelly. Some toasted ciabatta bread and two ribbons of fried dough tossed with salt and cayenne pepper. Everything on the plate was very tasty and the red wine marinated beef salami was my favorite on the plate. The next course was individual salads. I was going to choose the Caesar salad, but when I heard crumbly bleu cheese was an option on the house salad, I changed my mind- and a good choice it was. The salad came pre-dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and some sliced, marinated strawberries. Included in the meal was a bottle of house wine. We chose white, which was fine. Then the menu allows us to split one wood fired pizza with toppings of our choice. There were about ten varieties to choose from and we opt for "carne", a thin crust pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and dollops of fresh ricotta. The crust turns out to be a little soggy, but the sauce and toppings are well flavored and make for a good pie. In addition to this "Monday special for two" (for a very reasonable $40), we also get one entree plate of seared sea scallops to split. The plate arrives at the same time as the pizza, as requested, and El divides the plate. Two scallops each, half of a fried risotto cake and some field greens for presentation. The scallops are about 15 seconds underdone for my taste, but the taste was fine (it is the texture that is affected but the short cook time). The risotto cake was good and we were glad we got the dish. For dessert, which is not included in the dinner price, we each get a butterscotch bread pudding and a coffee. The bread pudding is fantastic, and the coffee a nice compliment. An excellent finish to a great meal with great company. After dinner we head back to the rail stop and take it back to the car. We get home and do a little more chitchatting and eventually Amanda and Brian have to go to bed. They are both working tomorrow and need to go. We are planning to try to get to the U.S. Mint for a tour and will hit the Celestial Seasonings tour before trying to meet up with Jim for the concert. We decide we need our sleep to and say our goodbyes as we may not see them before we leave. Funny moment: we visited the "5280 step” on Monday. It is a single step leading up to the capitol building. It is a free thing to do and a good photo opportunity. As we arrive, there is a family already there taking their own pictures. When they are done, we jump in to take our own pics. El and I together with the step, then Amanda and Brian with the step, then we ask one of the people there to take the four of us. We all take a few minutes to gather around the step and strike our best collective pose. We thank her for the picture and we head down to the restaurant. When we get some time, we review the pictures that we had taken over the day- we see the one from the steps, a nice result with one small flaw...she cut the "one mile above sea level" step out! It's kind of like going to get your picture with the Statue of Liberty and cutting her head and torch off. I guess some people are oblivious to life- even if they are in the same place as you for the same reason. Tuesday 5/26/09 Observation: In Boulder there do not seem to be any crosswalk lights (at least where we are). The traffic is just instructed by state law to stop for pedestrians. This feels odd as a pedestrian as you wait for the one car to pass before crossing, but at the same time the driver is stopping for you. This adds a new element to driving in an unfamiliar area where you are trying to read signs and avoid pedestrians at the same time. Luckily I didn't drive there much. Wednesday 5/27/09 In conclusion: Wyat Stephens and I with a T Rex jawbone I cannot ever recall anyone saying a bad word about Denver...and more often it is in the context of people's favorite places. After being out here a few days, I asked our hosts what they thought of the city. Some are in the "love it" group and some are in the "it's OK" group. My observations, some of which may have had seeds planted by said hosts, are that I understand the weather is really good (we had some rain every day, but are repeatedly assured this is a freak anomaly). I did notice that the air quality seems really good, especially in the non-downtown areas like Morrison, Boulder, and Colorado Springs that we visited. This city is proof that urban sprawl is alive and well. The amount of new housing construction reminds me of an early 1990's Las Vegas. The city does not feel congested which was an observation I made when comparing it to my experience living in Dallas, Texas, a very congested city. At least it seems like the urban planners are taking the traffic into consideration and making it easy for people to get around. This makes for a more tolerable commute and contributes to a more positive look of the city. There are bike lanes on almost every road we saw, which is a good thing. It looks like Denver has a lot of redeeming qualities, but I think our love for New York City makes entertaining the idea of moving to Denver impossible. I think I will just enjoy hearing why other people like it, rather than trying to come up with my own reasons. El and I are lucky to have so many great family and friends in our lives. Not only in Colorado, but everywhere. This trip to Denver reconnected us with some of those people that we love dearly, but see far too infrequently. We have been saying for years that we would make it out here one day and the concert last night was the catalyst for this trip. If that hadn't been scheduled, or if the tour was announced to play at Saratoga or some other closer venue, we might still be saying we will make it someday. I think we spent some good, quality time with all of our hosts, saw everything we wanted to see, and stuff we didn't even know was there. As we leave Denver, I am confident that we did everything we needed to do. Would I return? Sure, the next time Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails play at Fiddler’s Green. Otherwise, I think we can both cross Denver off of our list of places we need to go. sim |