Had lunch with Bethany at La Loma, we put Jack in daycare (he hasn’t been in a while and the lady said, ‘Hey bossy butt’, so that’s Jack’s new nickname.)
But you can’t stay mad at Jack, just look at that face.
I took Jack on a photo/sniff walk along the Highline canal, lots of things to sniff.
We chilled at Mango Tree Coffee for a bit.
I taught a class on Romero Britto and the kids did a great job on their pumpkins in his style.
Jack went balloon Shipt’ing with me.
Weekend – we took Jack to Growl-o-ween so he could trick or treat, he wore the costume almost the whole time, but it got hot because the sun was out, so in the end he was just Jack.
We had brunch at My Neighbor Felix, the margaritas are large and the churro french toast is so good.
Fall fest at Connections, Grace was doing face painting.
Hannah has been driving to and from work every day, I don’t have to tell her where to turn now, she has 2 routes going and 2 routes coming home. The view near Culver’s after dropping her off.
We got a new German restaurant and they have more than just beer (thank goodness), as we drove up we saw what is going in next door to it – a Lazy Dog! Now we won’t have to drive 30 min to get some of their food and drinks.
Jack approves their patio.
Not gonna lie, this week has been lazy. I slept 19 hours on Sunday, was still tired on Monday, just sat around on Tuesday and was just as lazy Wednesday. Today I have an outing with some of our HS group to Hudson Gardens, then I’ll drop by the doc.
If Jack looks worried it’s because he was boxed in the backseat for a bit. We decided to drive out to Kansas to see Joel’s house, tour around and bring a few things out for his house (he’s going there over Christmas break to fix up some stuff and check out the area more.) Kansas, lots of sorghum and it’s windy.
Made it to the hotel, Jack was so happy.
We went touring around, St. Joseph church, Frontier park, and Ft. Hays. Then downtown Hays, wine at the Paisley Pear and dinner at Whiskey Creek. St. Joseph church (Parish built in 1876, church in 1901, limestone, built by German immigrants from the Volga Russia region.)
Frontier park,
Downtown Hays.
Ft. Hays (built in 1865.)
Sunset. I really like hotel pillows. I had a wonderful sleep and I think the pillows had something to do with that. We had breakfast and left the hotel…then had to go right back because we forgot Jack’s toy in the mini-fridge. (When we play at a hotel we have to hide the toy in a safe or fridge or he won’t go to sleep.) Today we were headed to Joel’s house, we spent the night in Hays because it’s the closest city with a hotel. First stop, the original Boot Hill, so says Hays, KS.
There are still bodies buried in the hill, but no markers. They moved most of the prominent people to the new cemetery and I guess we should have stopped by there too. Next stop, St. Anthony’s kirche in Schoenchen. Built in 1900 by German Catholic immigrants from the Russian Volga region, tended to by Capuchin priests and visited by a Russian Bishop in 1992 who is descended from the same family that settled the town, however his line did not leave Russia and were eventually exiled to Kazakhstan.
And just down the road from there is the town of Liebenthale, another town started by Catholic German immigrants from Russia. So, of course, another church.
And just to the right of the church is Joel’s house.
We dropped his stuff off, looked around, moved some stuff in the car so Jack had the backseat to himself and headed toward Dodge City. It started raining, so anytime we stopped it was a quick in and out. Lots of old falling down barns and houses on the way back.
We stopped at this place because it had a train, church, Santa Fe trail markers and sod house, but the building was closed for the season, still we peeked in through the window – a real sod house!
More random side of the road stuff.
We went through little main streets in little towns as we whizzed along. Dodge City was smaller than I thought it would be and their Boot Hill was a tourist trap. Still, we drove by and took a pic with Doc Holliday. More fields.
Santa Fe wagon trail ruts.
Got to Colorado, was going a bit too fast to catch a good pic of the sign.
Petrified tree gas station (1932) in Lamar.
Bent county courthouse and jail, you always find out interesting trivia when you stop and read historical signs. For instance, we found out that the actor that played Festus in Gunsmoke lived in the bottom of the jail with his family (his Dad was the sheriff) and that he started the longest continuous High school event, the Santa Fe trail parade.
Finally, it was a long drive, we made it to Pueblo for dinner by the Riverwalk and it was prefect weather. Jack says he can wait a bit before the next trip!
Doors Open Denver is virtual, again, but there is a photo contest, so I took Jack to check out some of the sites. The first one, a Hostel, is only open for hard hat tours. Built in 1903 – 1913 by architect Fred Sterner. Revamped in 1988, ongoing construction since 2020.
The Zig zag building (my words) 999 Curtis and 17th st. Started in 2017 by architects Davis partnership. 6 different angles of glass create different reflected views when you walk past.
Outside of Colorado National Bank built in 1915 by Arthur and William Fisher. Neoclassical style, built to look like a bank! Renovated in 2014 to be the Renaissance Denver Downtown hotel. The interior holds 16 murals by Allen True that were also renovated.
The Triangle building was built in 2015. It sits on a triangle piece of land near Union station and at certain times of day (especially with clouds) the building disappears into the sky. Architects Anderson, Mason, Dale.
Denver’s Union Depot built in 1881 and renovated by architects: Gove and Walsh, J.G. Johnson architects, Tryba architects and William E. Taylor. Gutted by fire rebuilt in 1894 40 feet taller. In 1900 the depot was demolished and a Beaux-arts and Renaissance revival Denver Union Station was built. The ‘travel by train’ sign was added in 1952. In 2001-2014 the building underwent revitalization work that included shops, restaurants, bars and the Crawford hotel. Other outside add ons to the train line included underground access and a covering reminiscent of DIA. Jack appreciates the carpet.
Picnic lunch at the lake and we fed some of the Stellar jays.
Hannah went to the DMV again to take her written test and passed!
I got my knee shots, but this time with the help of an x-ray – they might last longer!
James and I went to a Teacher’s night out at the Aquarium, we won a door prize and it was happy hour, so food and drinks were cheap.
Because we were so close (and because last time the inside wasn’t open) we went to My Brother’s Bar, the oldest bar in Denver proper and a watering hole of Jack Kerouac.
The coffee shop in Cherry Hills church has a really nice view and nice rocking chairs.
We were racking our brains to think of a lunch spot and figured a drive out to Loveland for some BBQ sounded good, nice view there too.
Grace and I had free seats to the Dress rehearsal for Valor’s You Can’t Take it With You. There was no music, but I think the kids did a great job and there were a few funny fails, you know, live theater stuff (like a wig falling off.) They had an awesome set.
Hudson gardens has a light up pumpkin patch with 5,000 carved pumpkins, but I found out you could just walk around during the day for free. I like free and sure it’s not the same as being there at night, but so what?
Keeping with the pumpkin theme, James and I went to Ironton’s harvest fest. I am going to make the butternut squash chili I had there, it was really good.
He’s such a cutie and with my new camera I was ready to get some good pics. We hung out at the park for a few hours, then went home for a few hours. His parents were having a day date at Meow Wolf, they said it was fun.
Jack was guarding Quinn.
I had just bought pumpkins a few days before, so I had to do a pumpkin photo shoot.
