Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Location: Denver, CO

Our first official order of business today was tea at Hotel Boulderado at 2 p.m. We considered having something for breakfast earlier in the day, but it was a good thing we didn’t.

Julia drank English Breakfast tea while I had Earl Grey. I don’t generally enjoy tea, or most varieties of hot drinks, for that matter, but it was nice to have the full “teatime” experience. We were served three courses with our teas. First came cranberry scones with clotted cream and raspberry preserves, which were quite good, despite the fact that neither Julia nor I like cranberries all that much. Second, we were brought finger sandwiches. Normally, they serve cucumber and hummus, egg salad, salmon and chicken sandwiches, but we explained to the waiter that we are vegetarians, so the waiter substituted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the kids’ menu for the salmon and chicken. Finally, a dessert plate containing all sorts of cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries and other treats was brought out. By the time we left, we were both stuffed and feeling great.

I had only experienced a traditional tea once prior to today – on a Caribbean cruise with my family when I was about 15-years-old. I don’t recall too much about the first one, but we had fun this time around. Julia was especially thrilled by the experience, which was the whole idea in the first place.

After tea, we drove to Chautauqua, but the sun had already dipped below the mountains, so we only had time to drive through the park, which was beautiful. We then visited the house where JonBenét Ramsey had been killed.  The address has since been changed, but it was definitely the correct house.  We didn’t linger long since it was dark and I can imagine that people who live nearby don’t like seeing photographers hanging around in front of the house.  We picked up a pizza from Abo’s and ate it as we drove to Denver.  It was slightly undercooked, but good.

We got back to Denver at about 7:30 p.m., 30 minutes before doors were set to open for the Wu-Tang Clan concert at the Ogden Theatre.  We picked up the tickets we had purchased earlier and entered the show at 8:30 p.m., 30 minutes before the show was set to begin.  I was able to obtain a photography pass for the concert, so we began looking around for the best location.  We settled on an elevated, central location about 25 feet from the stage.  The opening act was a local rapper who was decent, but flailed around on stage as though he was having a seizure.  Wu-Tang Clan was about an hour late to the venue, but the crowd stayed fairly respectful and engaged regardless.  For the first few songs, I stayed in the “pit” between the crowd and the stage.  I then moved back to our original location, where Julia was holding our place.  The rest of the show went fairly smoothly, although Julia nearly flew off the handle at a nearby couple.  The man was about 6′8″ and had extremely long dreadlocks.  The woman was just annoying.  Both were clearly under the influence of something and were flailing around, shouting and slamming into everyone around.  They settled directly behind us and repeatedly smacked into both Julia and I.  Despite having asked them to step back and be careful repeatedly, they refused and seemed to get more physical just to instigate.  Julia managed to hold it together and we left the show without a serious altercation.

The show itself was good, but not as good as I had hoped.  One of the group’s most famous members, Method Man, was not present (Ol’ Dirty Bastard was also absent, but that’s because he died in 2004).  Some members forgot the lyrics to some of their older songs.  Generally, having nine people shouting into microphones at once can sound an awful lot like noise, so the show was best when they performed one-at-a-time.  Still, it was a good experience for both of us.

Now, I am finishing up this post at a Courtyard hotel in Denver.  Julia has gone to sleep in the car while I wrap up this post.  Tomorrow, we hope to visit Great Sand Dunes National Park, weather permitting.

Here are today’s photos.  Click “there’s more to this” to see them all, or visit my SmugMug.

A member of the Wu-Tang Clan.  I don’t smoke, nor do I condone smoking, but I like this photo. Continue reading ‘Day 159: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot’

Location: Boulder, CO

The Suburban is back in action.  I was able to vacuum most of the car, which was very satisfying.  It cost just over $220 to repair the door, with $218 of that being labor costs.  That’s right … the cost of the part that needed to be replaced was roughly $2.

We left the dealer and immediately began making our way from Denver to Boulder.  We stopped to take a photo of the Denver skyline before continuing on.  We hadn’t eaten all day, so our first mission was to find some food.  After parking the car and strolling around the downtown Boulder area, we settled on Cafe Gondolier, an Italian restaurant.  The food was very, very good, especially the spicy marinara sauce, into which we dipped garlic knots and bruschetta.

We are now relaxing at the Millenium Hotel, which is pretty nice, except for the fact that the only couches and tables we could find are in the cigar bar.  Luckily, no one is smoking in here.

We have quite a busy schedule for the next two days:

• Visit Julia’s former home – she was born here in Boulder.
• Hike with Data at Chautauqua.
• Explore Boulder itself.
• Go ice skating.
• Visit the Celestial Seasonings tea factory.
• A few other secrets and surprises.

Hopefully we will get everything done in a timely fashion!

Here are a few quick photos from today.

The Denver skyline.  Click on the above image to see a larger version.

A pink-haired poodle in a hair salon.

Julia playing around at Cafe Gondolier.

Location: Denver, CO

After going to bed at 6 a.m. or so, we were happy to sleep until 2 p.m. today.  We didn’t have anything special planned for the day, so we took our time putting our things together and heading out.  Our first mission to was get Data a workout.  We tracked down a nice off-leash dog park called Grandview, where Data was able to romp around with about 20 other dogs for over an hour.  We left when he was too tired to run for more than a few seconds at a time and the sun was well below the horizon.

After leaving the park, we began heading downtown for dinner.  We had seen Rio Grande, a Mexican restaurant, the other day, and it looked good, so we decided to go back in an attempt to atone for the disaster at Benny’s.  The salsa had an unconventional taste to it, but it was very spicy and very good.  Our dinners were also quite good, making our meal a great success.

We have spent the last few hours at a Hampton Inn, using the internet.  We don’t have a place to stay tonight, so we will probably just sleep in the car.  The temperature isn’t supposed to drop below 30ºF, so we should have no problems.

Tomorrow, we are going to wake up pretty early and head to Boulder for the day.

Here are some photos from the dog park and one from the city.  Click “there’s more to this” to see them all, or visit my SmugMug.

Dogs vying for a ball at Grandview Dog Park. Continue reading ‘Day 156: Dog Park’

Location: Denver, CO

Shortly after my earlier post, Julia, Data and I left to have dinner at Cafe Jordano. The drive took about 30 minutes and we had to wait another 30 for a table, but it was worth it. We shared garlic bread with cheese and bruschetta for appetizers, both of which were great. Julia’s enjoyed her pepper fettuccine alfredo and I had cheese tortellini with a tomato cream sauce that was also very good. The only downside to the restaurant was the horrific burps we had for hours after eating.

We had hoped to catch the 9:45 p.m. IMAX showing of I Am Legend, but it was sold out, so we settled for the 10:15 p.m. regular showing. Being a Saturday night, we were surrounded by annoying teenagers, but that’s no surprise. The movie started out well with the first trailer to contain footage from The Dark Knight, the new Batman film. The movie looks great, although the trailer focused heavily on The Joker, which makes me hope that the movie isn’t too one-sided. I Am Legend was disappointing; mostly because it started off wonderfully. The first half of the movie was quite gripping, but the second half was awful and filled with cheesy allegory and annoying messianic references.

We are now getting ready for bed at Sarah and T.J.’s former house. Just about the only stuff left here is ours, which is a bit odd. Since Julia is nearly completely finished with her work (really), we are going to spend tomorrow exploring Denver. We want to bring Data to a dog park before we set out to see the sights downtown. We’ve also made plans to meet Sarah and T.J. for dinner at Maggiano’s at 7 p.m.

I apologize for not having taken very many photos since arriving here, but it was far more important that Julia have a chance to knuckle down and finish her work. Hopefully, there will be photos aplenty tomorrow!

Here are two shots from Cafe Jordano.

Location: Denver, CO

Most of today was spent at Sarah and T.J.’s house.  We weren’t sure what today would look like because Sarah and T.J. are actually moving out tomorrow (Saturday), so if we would have been forced to leave the area, we would have spent the day sightseeing.  Luckily, we will be able to stay in the empty townhouse until Sunday or Monday.  As a result, Julia spent all morning and early afternoon doing the last remaining schoolwork of her undergraduate career.  She hasn’t completely finished her work, but she’s nearly there.

We made dinner reservations at Maggiano’s (the same place we visited in Las Vegas) for 6 p.m., 90 minutes before the start of The Nutcracker.  Sarah was nice enough to offer to look after Data while we were gone, so we didn’t have to worry about him sitting in the car all night.  We left at 5:30 p.m., but traffic was unusually bad due to the snowfall, so we had to cancel our reservations when we realized there was no way we’d make it in time.  Instead, we had a few Big Macs with no meat from McDonald’s for dinner, which was a wise decision in terms of timing.

We arrived at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at just about 7 p.m., but spent a solid 15 minutes parking and waiting in line to pay for parking.  When we finally made it inside, we found the facility to be very nice.  The patrons, however, were straight-up bonkers.  Of course, there was the usual smattering of overdressed women, underdressed girls and corny-bow-tie-wearing dudes, but one couple really stood out.  As we were waiting in line to enter the auditorium, a middle-aged woman wearing way too much makeup kept bumping into us.  Go figure, she and her husband (I presume) ended up sitting directly in front of us.  They spent the entire first act talking and giggling.  Julia thought they were drunk, I just think they were idiots.  After the first act, I asked them to keep it down for the rest of the show, but the woman mumbled something about being uncomfortable before they both got up and were never seen again, much to the relief of everyone around us.

The show itself was good.  Ballet isn’t something I have much knowledge of, experience with or interest in, but we both had a good time.  Julia has been to see The Nutcracker a number of times, so it was nice to be able to do something that has sentimental value to her as well.

The drive back from the performance was significantly less tedious, which was nice.  We have been relaxing at the house for a while and will probably turn in soon.  Tomorrow, Julia will continue to do her work and I will help Sarah and T.J. finish moving out.  Depending on how long it takes Julia to finish her work, we hope to see some of the city in the daylight before getting dinner at Maggiano’s and seeing I Am Legend in the evening.

I was only able to take a few (three, total) photos during The Nutcracker due to a strict no-camera policy at the venue.  The photos I did manage to get were terribly overexposed beyond repair, so I apologize in advance.

The Nutcracker.

The ceiling of the auditorium.

The Nutcracker.