Denver Daze

There is so much to do in the Denver area.  This is our 8th summer in Colorado, and we are still seeing new things.  On Saturday, we joined our daughter, Lisa and her husband, Ken, in a min-tour.  First on the agenda was a whiskey tour at Stranahan's.  This is a small, local distillery located in a former beer brewery.  The roasted barley goes through the same process as beer at the beginning, but then goes through two additional distillations.  After the second distillation it comes out at 110 proof.  That is some potent stuff!  Pure Rocky Mountain spring water is added to bring it down to 94 proof before it is sold.  Although there was a free small sample at the end, I passed on the opportunity.

Next stop: Steuben's, which was featured in Diners, Drive ins and Dives.  This converted auto garage is in the downtown area and the place was packed when we arrived around 5 PM.   Ken, Lisa and I all had the lobster roll which is one of their specialties.  Every other day, they fly in fresh lobster from Maine.  It was delicious, second only to the lobster roll that we inhaled at a Bar Harbor restaurant 4 years ago.  The calories I "saved" by not having a drink of whiskey were consumed here.  Oh well, we all have our weaknesses.

Last, but not least, we followed Lisa and Ken to the Voodoo Doughnut Shop.  The walk was about 3/4 of a mile each way, but well worth it.  

This place is open 24 hours a day, so anyone wanting a "doughnut fix" can always get one of their delightful treats.  We barely made it inside the door since the waiting line was all the way back to that spot.

Lots to choose from, so it is best to go to their website BEFORE you get there and make a decision.  Otherwise, you'll probably wind up with at least half a dozen doughnuts.  Good for the taste buds, but absolutely horrible for the waist line!  Is this where they get the phrase "waist not, want not" (or something like that)??

Of course, breakfast on Sunday morning was a cup of coffee and a Voodoo doll doughnut.

On Tuesday, we drove back downtown to take a tour of the Molly Brown House.  Margaret Brown (know to her friends as Maggie) never was referred to as "Molly".  That was the invention of Hollywood and the movie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".  She was quite a woman, and planned to run for political office even before woman had the opportunity to vote!  As I read more information in the museum store, it said she died "a tired, worn out woman at the age of 59".  Good grief, 59 is young!  At least from my perspective it is.  I just wish I could be 59 again....and still be retired.  Guess that isn't going to happen. : (

And it just happened that we had to drive past the Voodoo Doughnut store on our way back to Cherry Creek State Park.  Shucks.  The truck almost seemed to automatically know that we were within striking distance and pulled over to the curb.  The $1.00 in the parking meter and the few block walk to the store was well worth it.  

At least you'll be glad to know that I didn't eat the peach fritter all by myself.  Don and I split it for lunch.  With the peaches and the cream cheese frosting, we covered all the basic food groups:  fruit, dairy, starch and sugar!

Father's Day in Boulder

For Father's Day this year, both Bret and Don did something entirely different.  Bret did an Ironman 70.3 Event in Boulder, and Don was there as part of his support staff.  It was definitely a much more tiring day for Bret than it was for Don!

Bret looks happy before the 1.2 mile swim in Boulder Reservoir.

And he was still smiling after doing the swim and biking 56 miles in the foothills around Boulder.

We waited for him as he started out on the run, which was 13.1 miles, equal to running a half marathon.   

Tatum and I had worked on the signs the day before.  Ella was short and succinct: Run Fast!

Bret gave Don a high five (or something similar) as he passed us by.  Later he said he put too much peanut butter on the sandwich and not enough jelly.  Hard to chew when you have no water with you!

                                   Almost at the end....

He still had enough energy to smile after doing the 70.3 miles.

Time to put some ice cubes down your back and lay down on the grass.  Nate also took advantage of the shade after the race was over with.

Scoping out the Sculptures

If you are ever in Loveland, Colorado, take time to take a walk around the Benson Sculpture Park.  It's located in a neighborhood behind Lake Loveland, and is there is no admission.  Every year, more pieces are added to the collection.  Even though we were here about 4 years ago, we still enjoyed walking around the park.

The park has been here since 1985 and currently there are 139 pieces of sculpture located here.  I'm not a lover of modern art, so sculptures, such as the lady below, are more appealing to me than one that I can make no sense of!

Had to post at least one horse picture since two of my granddaughters are "horse crazy".  This sculpture was on two posts high above our heads.

Don was stopping to take a sip of water as I took a picture of the blackbirds (also sculptures).  Boy, they sure looked real, especially at a distance.  At least we didn't have to listen to them squawk at each other.

The one of the octopus is named "Pacific Giant".  At the top, it has a lobster clutched in one of it's tentacles.  This was added to the park in 2012 and is one of my favorites here.  The details were amazing.

The one below is called "The Bell Keepers".

The "Circle of Life" is an older piece, and was added in 1998.  If you look closely, there are 3 eagles contained within this bronze sculpture.

Towards the end of our walk, I found this man of steel, even though he wasn't Superman.  I wondered if he ever was a participant in an Ironman event?  He was a man of few words.....or should I say he was the silent type?  

"The Potato Man" is so realistic, that when I posted a picture of him on Facebook, it asked me to "tag" him as a friend!  

Will Ride for Food

Have you ever seen a sign like this?  You most likely have, especially if you live in a large metropolis where homeless people (or ones pretending to be homeless) are on heavily traveled corners.

Well, we knew that one of the easiest ways to get our 3 grandchildren on a bike ride this morning was to promise them lunch at Sonic.  They did agree to ride for food!  Bribery works just as good for the grandchildren as it did our own children.

I wondered when we started out if we would even make it to Sonic and back before the storm hit.  The clouds were turning darker and the wind was picking up.  We had to ride half way around the lake before picking up other streets on the way to fast food restaurant.

 

Tatum watched as Ella, Don and Nate figured out what to order.

The bribery.....er.... reward worked.  Maybe it isn't the best thing to entice them with fast food, but the other meals we've fed them since staying at their house this week have all been healthy.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  It is one of the perks of being a grandparent!

Nate even filled up Ella's water bottle with the leftover raspberry slush.  She was one happy kid at that point.

 

As we biked back home, I stopped to look once again at Windsor Lake.  For those who have inquiring minds: yes, we did make it back with nary a drop of rain on us!  All is good on the home front today.

Be a " PW"!

What, you say is a "PW"?  Prisoner of War? Personal Waiter?  Nope, what I'm referring to is a People Watcher!  This is what Don and I became yesterday afternoon in Ft. Collins.   It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for the Colorado people to emerge from their homes and enjoy the Old Town area. 

 

 The Old Town part of Ft. Collins is loaded with sidewalk cafes, antique and gift shops, one-of-a-kind stores, mini-breweries, candy shops, and my most favorite place, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!  I'll take a Cherry Garcia or Chocolate Fudge Brownie cone any day over beer.

Scattered around Ft. Collins are upright pianos, brightly painted with different scenes.  They all are playable, but I can't attest for the tuning.  How about playing on one that looks like a vegetable garden?  All you have to do is "turnip" to play, and you'll be "un-beet-able".

Also dispersed around are various whimsical statues, like this dancing lady who has a perpetual smile on her face.

This little girl was attempting to play the piano in front of Ben and Jerry's, even though she was way too short to reach the pedals.  Didn't matter to her at all.  Her piece was short and sweet (sort of).

For a while, there was a young gentleman entertaining people by playing his violin.  This allowed us to multi-task.  We watched people strolling by and we listened to him play. That can be considered multi-tasking, can't it?  Like walking and chewing gum, which Don says I can't do.

In front of us, another young man came along and started playing.  That didn't surprise us.  But when he started, the lady in the background started dancing around with her hula hoop!  She waltzed and "hula hooped" at the same time, the hoop going from above her head to down around her feet. Neither of us could figure out whether these two were together or his music inspired her to start up.  Our stint as people watchers was becoming even more entertaining!

The only downside was missing the picture of a young guy, carrying a skateboard and dressed in a tie dye jumpsuit!  It was "interesting"....  never before have I seen an outfit like his.  All I hope is that never, ever, will any one of my grandchildren ever dress like him!  You could say he was a real "head turner"!

Whine or Wine?

What happens when you mix wine, women and song?  And then add in a canvas and some paints?  Do you come out with something recognizable, or a painting that looks like it was done with fingers by a seven year old?  Fortunately for me, it was the former after I had spent an evening at Picasso and Wine with my daughter-in-law, Kim, her mother (Char Beyer) and her friend (Tammy).

Kim and Tammy perused over the paintings that are done on different days at the specialty shop in Windsor.  Both of them are "old hats" at this and have nice paintings hanging in their homes already.  Char and I were "first timers" ....at painting....not drinking wine!

Hanging on the wall was the painting we were supposed to do that evening, along with a cute sign. Just by chance, I had my camera along and I had to get pictures of both before I started to imbibe and paint.  I know they say, "Don't drink and drive." but should I have worried about drinking and painting?  Maybe, since my alcohol tolerance is very low: half a drink and my head feels fuzzy.  

Kim, Char and Tammy stopped painting for a moment so I could get a nice pic of all of them.  Nothing bothering them, they all were happy!

And what else is there to do while waiting for the first layer to dry?  Drink wine and walk around, checking out each other's pictures.  During that time the shop was playing music, so some participants were even dancing, wine glass in hand.

Half way through, the bikes were beginning to take shape.  I never knew how hard it was to make a round tire until then!  If I set up the picture across the room and squint, it doesn't look too bad.  I just have to focus on the whole picture, not the front tire. (Maybe if they had kept the store open another 2 or 3 hours I could have worked on it some more, but it was already 9:30 and past the official "quitting time".)  If you don't realize it by now, I can really be anal at times!

The finished product!  The best part was when we got done with the bike and could do the basket and flowers.  Flowers of all colors appeared in the grass and in the baskets that we had painted.  

P.S. Don't tell anyone that I didn't even get half way through the small glass of wine that came with the course.  What became of the rest of it, I don't know.  Some of my close relatives would consider that wasteful, but at least I was able to walk a straight line at the end of the evening!