Boulder & Denver

November 11 ~ 19

 The Jim Cunnigham family has kept us hopping for the last 10 days!  To get to Boulder we spent  three very dreary days driving through Oklahoma, Kansas and the Colorado plains.  'Nuf said!

Immediately upon getting there the party began!  Rick's almost 95 year old father was grinning from ear to ear and Jim and Linda were definitely the hosts with the most!

Where to leave Tor in a Boulder suburban setting could  have been a real challenge.  Fortunately dear friends of the family, let us park it on their ranch outside of town. A terrific offer!  It's nearing 70 degrees when we arrive, but a frigid spell is on the way and Rick worries about Tor's pipes bursting and various other not good things.  Gail and Harley let us plug Tor into their garage power so we can run the heat...then it gets really cold and we're greeted with 9" of snow.

Rick comes up with an elegant solution which, in short, means placing exterior garden lights in each underneath storage area on a timer....these 50 watt bulbs keep things from going very awry!  Maybe he gets these brillant ideas while zoning out in the hot tub!

The Kyer family has been, in essence, a part of the Cunningham family since Rick et al were very little.  The Boulder contingent is coming to dinner, but first we host a cocktail party out at Tor for everyone to see.  Unfortunately, we were having such a good time, we forgot to take pictures.

Actually, the entire visit in Boulder is one big party...had a great time with Jim and Linda's kids, Jason and Erin and met my nephew, Nicholas, at a great restaurant named The Kitchen Cafe (thekitchencafe.com) near the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder.  The area is filled with bars, restaurants, boutiques and street musicians...it is vibrant and definitely appeals to a youthful, free-thinking crowd.

As many times as we've been to Boulder, we never "do" Denver.  I hadn't been there in over 15 years when it was a rather depressed, very quiet little city.  That has changed quite a bit.  Construction is going on everywhere, the streets and sidewalks are filled with people and pockets of restaurants, galleries and boutiques have sprung up.

One thing that was very striking to me was the large number of public sculptures scattered throughout the city.  They are really welcoming and dot the landscape with interesting pieces.  To appreciate the scale of this one, look at the runner in the foreground behind the fence.

The Denver Art Museum was a public relations client of mine many years ago. It was a pretty weird looking structure then and I was very interested in seeing how it had/hadn't grown.  Well, it's monumentally large now with a new wing designed by Daniel Libeskind that is quite startling.  The original fortress-looking wing is on the right.

Stopped at the Capitol, an absolutely gorgeous building.  As in Texas, there is not a full time legislative body, so it's rather deserted and perfect for wandering about.

Opened in 1894, it is based on the design of the National Capitol and  features building materials from throughout the state; granite, sandstone marble and rose onyx are generously used with the exterior dome finished with 200 ounces of Colorado gold.

We sadly leave Boulder after a terrific visit...but we're very excited to get to Santa Fe where we've never been.