Denver Musings

I realized the other day I haven't written a true travelogue, so if you want to know about Denver read on.  We have been to Denver before, but it was basically just passing through over a day in order to see an art exhibit.  I was very impressed with the city then, and even more impressed this time around.  This is a relatively small city by Texas standards; it has about 650,000 people and is growing.

First, it's redesigning itself into an urban living environment which is favored by the millennials.  Rejecting suburban sprawl and eliminating the need for a car to commute back and forth to work is one of the ways this generation is trying to solve the problem of dwindling resources on the planet.

"Close to downtown Denver" neighborhoods are filled with new construction of both rentals and condos.  Everywhere we looked there were people building something.  If I'd poked around a bit closer, I would have found the urban grocery stores, gas stations and dry cleaners.  They are aggressivly developing a light rail system.

The reason we came to Denver for a long weekend was we were meeting our daughter and son-in-law who live in New York in downtown Brooklyn.  Their high rise is only a few short blocks from a fabulous grocery store, Macy's, a drugstore, the neighborhood restaurant (which will do your baking for you over the holidays with just a phone call), a Target, an Old Navy, etc., etc., etc.  Oh, and their home is surrounded with different subway lines.  This describes exactly what Denver is trying to achieve.

We rented a house in one of these 'close in' neighborhoods for our long weekend The house had a great flat screen TV and all the Olympic channels.  Last weekend, I had to consciously remember how vacation from work needs downtime. We enjoyed lazy mornings of Olympics, coffee, and breakfast.  Not rushing round every minute certainly made our family time more enjoyable.

 We sort of mutually decided each one of us could pick one thing to do.  Drake came to the weekend with baseball tickets, so he was set.  Naturally, I wanted to do a fine arts exhibit, Roots of Rhythm.  Our daughter had the brilliant idea of the Denver Botanical Garden, and we all realized visiting the local flora was something we all liked to do.  Jay took us to a fabulous brewery and restaurant since he and Sarah came with tickets to an 'immersive theater' performance.  Jay introduced me to Breckingridge beer, and I'm a believer.  I brought home Nitro Vanilla Porter, and is it yum.

Coors Field (what else would it be called?) is the home of the Rockies.  It's pretty representative of modern outdoor baseball stadiums, and I was reminded of the Ballpark at Arlington.  Coors Field does have this purple stripe painted on seats in a line all around the stadium.  They are 5,280 feet above seat level; they are the 'mile high' seats.   Now, our daughter likes baseball and I like baseball, and as we all know Drake is way, way beyond like.  He loves baseball, and he's so knowledgeable.    It's as if the best color commentator is giving you a one on one analysis of who and what you're watching.  Jay insisted he wanted that commentary, so he got it.  It was mainly a pitcher's duel (boring to me), but we saw a thrilling come from behind victory in the 9th inning.  I know how mesmerizing Drake can be when he's talking about baseball, so I think Drake might be making Jay into a real baseball fan.

Since the 'kids' live in New York, they usually get first crack at performance theater.  [Why do we persist in this  'kids' designation?  They are in their 30's.  I need to get off the 'mom' train] Anyway, they saw a theater company which does immersive theater.   When they saw this company was doing another performance in Denver, they got us tickets.  Immersive theater is amazing.  Imagine yourself

Sarah in one of the 'sets'

invisible.  Next, put yourself standing right next to the actors during various scenes and acts.  Free yourself of the idea of a fixed 'stage'.  Instead, visualize a large warehouse divided into small completely furnished rooms and areas.  The audience moves through the play through these furnished rooms and places in small groups of about six people.  Each of the small groups see the various scenes in different orders.  It's an experience - especially if you can do it with friends.  On the downside, a warehouse is not air conditioned, so they passed out fans like the one in the pictures to use.  Naturally, I brought my own.  My bonus was I got to 'tour' the play with Sarah.

The art exhibit was located in the renovated Denver cultural heart.  They have an amazing first class fine arts musuem in a beautiful building.  We all commented on how interesting the building seemed.  My exhibit was all about dance in art from 1830 to 1960.  It's called Roots of Rhythm and consists of paintings representing both dance and famous dancers during that period.   Additionally, they were

exhibiting Pavlova's 'Dying Swan' ballet costume.  Pavlova was the first performer who really got Americans interested in ballet.  She peformed the dying swan ballet solo over 4000 times.  The 'wings' over the tutu are actual wings made out of bird feathers.  Unfortunately, that's not a safire in the center of the gown, but it looks like it to an audience.  Playing next to the tutu is the only existing film of the actual Dying Swan dance - at least part of it.  Naturally, I took oodles of pictures of the other art too.

Notice how the high rises are visually incorporated in the
appearance of the lotus pond

We spent one afternoon at the Denver Botanical Garden.  Now, when you go to a garden at altitude in August, you are seeing it at its peak.  There were flowers everywhere.  It was a charming combination of cultivated and wild.  There were very precise gardens as well as natural gardens.  The Japanese, the English influences were everywhere in the precision gardens.  An example of the natural garden was 'the Plains Garden' which looked like Johnson grass and weeds to me.  I suppose you appreciate least what is ordinary to you.  There were outstanding flowers and the biggest lotus pond I've ever seen.

  This is an ordinary flower, but I was so proud of the picture I wanted to include it.  There were plenty of blooms I couldn't name.  You know, these gardens should have volunteers to follow people around and name the plants and flowers.  The nametags at the Denver Botanical were substandard.
What gave me the idea is I ran into a 20 something guy with either his mother or grandmother, and she was happily telling him the names of all the flowers.  I sighed when I rejoined our group instead of lurking around her.  The whole place was really at peak, though, and we all loved it.

Now, I knew in sort of an abstract way Denver and environs were becoming the center of microbrewing, at least in the West.  Since I've been here, I've drunk beers from about four distinct, easily obtainable breweries, and these are mature brands with excellent products.  Jay really knows a lot about beer, and he has a very sophisticated pallate.  He can instantly evaluate a brewery or be presented with a variety of beers and he always picks exactly what I will love.  He's certainly taught me that knowing beer is very complicated, filled with a bunch of facts, and it's a whole bunch harder to make a really good beer than you first think.  It's really more like making wine.  Yeah, my Uncle Jack could make wine, but it wouldn't be recognized as great wine.  It's the same with beer.  You can buy a 'how to make beer' kit, but that's miles away from the beers I'm drinking here.   Unfortunately, I won't be able to get most of them whenever I leave this region.

Our time was short, but we lucked out whenever we were able to drop S/J at Union Station which now has a train running to and from the airport.  They were able to catch up with a friend, and we headed to a real afternoon ballgame.  It was HOT.  Yes, it was 93 the day we went to see the Ranger game, but we quickly found the shade, and it wasn't too bad.  Not anything like Arlington.  Our experience was a cool day for fans in the Texas ballpark.  Once again, the Rockies jumped out to a significant lead, but we managed to make a five run comeback in the late innings.

We ate at a variety of places.  We walked to two of the meals.  One of them good; the other one great.  (Federal Bar and Grill and the other Sassafras).  Drake and Sarah walked to Safeway, and then she made a delicious breakfast.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant that truly was some of the best Mexican food I've ever eaten.  (La Loma).  Our brewery/pub visit also offerred some good food and excellent beer.  (Farmhouse at Breckingridge Brewer)  Drake and I also had a wonderful meal before the ballgame at some steak restaurant next to the ballpark.  There is a lot of competition for the food dollar.  It reminds me of Austin in that regard.  The chains still hold sway on the outer edges of Denver, but the growing center is home to many individually owned restaurants.

This turned into one of those vacations where when you get the pictures, all the memories they trigger are all about fun.   The attractions we didn't do could fill a small notebook, but that's why Drake and I live the vagabond life.  There are so many places which have so many enjoyable things below the 'must dos' you hit on a short vacation.  As always, I took pictures.  One set is the art museum and the other set is the Botanical Garden.

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