I stopped by Denver's Washington Park yesterday afternoon after work to check out the late summer action. It was pretty mellow, to say the least. One couple shoved off in a canoe as I was arriving, and I snapped their photo as they headed for the middle of Smith Lake. It was not quite as peaceful as it looked, however, since there was a wedding reception in the Washington Park Boathouse, and various party goers were letting out loud whoops after each song the band played. Cute.
I spent about an hour walking around, and passed the Eugene Field House, where the author of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod lived back in the 1800s. It was bought by the Unsinkable Molly Brown (a Denver icon) as a memorial to Field, and was given to the City of Denver on the condition it be moved to a local park. There are several of these 19th century homes in the park, one of which was - and possibly still is - occupied by a policeman paying only several hundred dollars a month rent. This was written up in the newspaper and caused a minor stir, since this is one of the priciest neighborhoods in Denver. The city explained that the low rent was to encourage a police presence there 24/7. I don't know what happened after the publicity hit. You will have to look it up yourself.
The happiest visitors to the park are, of course, the geese, who as I have mentioned frequently on this blog, were on their way to someplace else and wound up staying here permanently. They wander around willy-nilly, continuously eating, and making a mess of the place, just like all those Californians who have moved here in recent years. You would think the city could do some kind of spraying to get rid of these horrible pests, but being Californians, they would probably just sue.
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