Luminarias On First Friday

I drove down to Santa Fe Drive last night for the First Friday Art Walk that takes place there every month. I read in the paper that the street would be decorated with luminarias, and so thought that would make for some good photographs.  I have to say, however, that the luminarias scattered around Denver's Santa Fe Drive were not quite as impressive as the ones that decorate the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico the day after Thanksgiving, but let's face it - Santa Fe Boulevard is no Santa Fe, New, Mexico.  However, I was able to take the photo on the left from the curb, promptly getting honked at by the passing cars.  That NEVER happens in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe Drive is a commercial street, and many, if not most, of the storefronts are not very picturesque.  A number of them are vacant, too, and I have never found vacant stores especially pretty, even with luminarias in front of them.  John Fielders's old photography gallery, also still vacant, had a number of unlit luminaries in front of it - no doubt some sort of message from the neighborhood organization.  I did not see many people out and about last night, but then again I went early, so that I could find a parking space, and left just a little after 6:00, long before the hipster crowd would arrive. Although the temperature was pleasant enough during the day, once the sun sets in Denver in December,  it gets damn cold, which is one thing the city does have in common with the real Santa Fe. I was able to take the photo on the right on the way back to the car, however.  As Flip Wilson often famously said, "what you sees is what you gets."