A Chicago White Sox Update!

As I write this, the Chicago White Sox - my south side heros - are 4 games under .500. Granted, that is not considered very good by most people (the rival north side Chicago Cubs are 7 games over .500 and in 1st place, after all), but for we south siders, being just 4 games under .500 is quite a feat.  After all, the White Sox lost 100 games last year, which is the very definition of a horrible ball club.  And so it is time to bask in the glory of south side baseball.  Yesterday afternoon, walking around the Denver Zoo, I even saw a large number of people (2) wearing Chicago White Sox attire - fans are beginning to jump on the bandwagon! And by the way, I took the above self portrait while I was watching the White Sox play the Cubs on MLB.com. They won that contest, but lost the next day, splitting the series. Which means they are playing .500 baseball against the Cubs. Damn, they are good.

Meow Wolf...

Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe "arts and entertainment group" that features "immersive and interactive exhibits," is coming to Denver.  This organization started out as an art collective in Santa Fe in 2008 and has been wildly successful.  It is most famous for the House of Eternal Return, created with the help of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.  I myself have never visited this Santa Fe icon, or for that matter read the Game of Throne books or watched the television series. All I know is that this art museum prides itself on weirdness (if you don't believe me, check out their website at https://meowwolf.com/about/).  What I want to know is why it is being built in a triangular patch of ground between three elevated highways (as seen in the photo on the left, in the background behind the Ironworks, a local event space)? I find that very strange.  On the other hand, it is right next to the parking lot for Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos play, and Broncos fans are indeed very weird, too.  Maybe it does make sense.

In any case, this is mainly an industrial area, connected to Mile High Stadium's parking areas by Lower Colfax Avenue.  However, just down the street is Brooklyn's, a bar and restaurant that caters to football fans during the season.  I remember going to this place (seen in the photograph on the right) several times - once with my then wife Lisa, my friend Stuart and his then girlfriend, whose name I can't remember but who I remember owned  a huge and scary Doberman named Scarlet. The other time was when I contemplated going to a University of Colorado/Colorado State football game, but wound up watching the game at Brooklyn's when I found out how pricey those tickets were. Just recently, by the way, the Denver Broncos announced a plan  for a major mixed use project in the parking lot that borders both Brooklyn's and the future Meow Wolf. Where football fans will park their cars I don't know, but maybe Meow Wolf is not so crazy after all - perhaps they are wolves in cat's clothing.

Key West Nostalgia

Back in the late 1970s, my sister Susan and I visited our parents (Mary and Nelson) down in Stuart, Florida, where they had moved 3 years ago.  During that time, we took a road trip to Key West, Florida, and visited all the major sights there - Duval Street, the Hemingway House, the Pier House Hotel, and we also took a sunset boat cruise of the harbor, where I took the above photograph of everyone checking out the Mary Renee. I am not exactly sure what the Mary Renee, out of Charleston, South Carolina, was doing docked in Key West.  I googled it and found - nothing!  The internet is fallible after all.  In any case, we got back on shore in time to join the crowd at the Mallory Street Dock applauding as the sun set over the water.  That was a custom the crowd did every night, and I understand that they still do that up to this day.  Got to get back there soon.

The June Mutt Of The Month

There are only a few more days left in June, and so I thought it imperative that I name this month's Mutt of the Month before time runs out.  And out of practical necessity, it is once again Blackberry, one of my sister Susan's two dogs (the other is Tutu), who I wind up walking several times a week when I am up in Fort Collins. I snapped the photograph on the left of Blackberry on one such walk as she was focused on a squirrel that she spotted and chased up a tree.  She kept running back and forth, and seemed convinced that somehow, someway, she was going to catch the thing.

Meanwhile, the squirrel in the tree was giving me a look like I had done something wrong.  Give me a break - you know dogs can't climb trees and you are perfectly safe.  Let the poor dog have a little fun once in a while.  I personally have nothing against squirrels, although my sister complains that they eat all the bird seed out of her roughly 400 bird feeders, and a former Tattered Cover Bookstore colleague used to refer to them as "'tree rats." But not me - as far as squirrels go, I believe live and let live.  And besides, all Blackberry wants to do is play with you.  What's wrong with that?

The Golden Triangle

No - not the one in southeast Asia. I am referring to the neighborhood in Denver, currently one of the city's most expensive, and now the home of many high rise apartment buildings and condos, mostly located along Speer Boulevard. Speer is a desirable location because it features green space along both sides of Cherry Creek, and is very popular with joggers and bicyclists. This neighborhood is also the home of the Denver Art Museum, the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts, the main branch of the Denver Public Library, and a smattering of art galleries.  I went to the Denver Art Museum this past week, and after parking some distance away, really enjoyed walking through the area and admiring it's ambiance.

I was tempted to say that the area is free of the noisy bars and nightclubs that populate the LoHi and Rino neighborhoods, but then remembered that the other two sides of this golden triangle are Civic Center Park and South Broadway.  South Broadway is home to Denver's hottest nightspot, Temple Bar, which is only open three days a week, and even then not until 9:00 P.M. or so, while the rest of the time homeless people hang out in front of its non-descript entrance. Homeless people also hang out in Civic Center Park, and so all you have to do is walk a few blocks from your pricey condo and the gritty side of urban life is right in front of you. There is also, by the way, an upscale food court on South Broadway for these hipsters.  As for the homeless people, there is a pawn shop just across the street to help them pay for their gourmet meal.  How handy.

Summer On 17th Street

One of things I miss about working at Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore is being able to walk down 17th Street after work to Union Station and the light rail train home. And so once in a while I take the bus up to the corner of Colfax and Josephine and take that walk anyway, with the added benefit of not having to work all day before I do.  This street is famous for all it's bars and restaurants, and during the summer months the hipster set likes to hang out on the patios, eating their hipster food and washing it down with craft brews.  As I have mentioned before, Dos Santos - seen in the photograph on the left - seems very popular, and I am tempted to try it out one of these days (it is an upscale taco joint). Just down the street is the Vine Street Pub, a brew pub owned by Mountain Sun up in Boulder, which I have indeed patronized.  However, both places only take cash or checks, which I find very traumatizing, so I don't go there often.

There is a huge apartment building going up on 17th, directly across the street from a waffle place with a large, grassy patio, where I very seldom see any patrons (hopefully they do a huge breakfast business), but there are still a large number of late 19th and early 20th century homes and retail buildings on the street, such as the one in the photograph on the right.  This place, by the way, is a "day spa." I have no idea what they do to people in there, only that it probably costs a lot.  Nice flowers though.  Closer to downtown, the buildings get taller and the area much denser,and you come to what I still refer to as the United Bank Building, even though there is no longer a United Bank.  It is distinctive in that it looks like a mailbox on top, and was originally going to be built in Texas, before the developers realized that it might involve Texas, and they built it here instead.  A little bit of trivia to spark up your day - still another service of this blog.

Celebrating Stuart's Birthday!

This coming Friday is my friend Stuart's birthday, and so yesterday afternoon we celebrated this momentous event in advance by first taking a brisk walk at Crown Hill Park in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, followed by dinner and beer at Old Chicago. Crown Hill Park is a very pleasant nature area, with a lake in the center and a view of the mountains to the west.  The day turned out to be pretty sunny and much warmer than yesterday, which was chilly and rainy.  And in the mountains, near Steamboat Springs, they had 2 feet of snow, quite unusual for the start of summer.  In any case, we headed to Old Chicago afterwards, where I took the photograph on the left of Stuart. As we ate, we watched the Colorado Rockies drop their third straight game to the Los Angeles Dodgers, losing all three games thanks to walk off home runs in the bottom of the 9th inning. That has got to be some kind of record.

On our walk, by the way, we ran across the bird seen in the photograph on the right, which has distinctive red markings on it's flanks.  I was not sure what kind of bird it was - that was never my strong suit, growing up on the south side of Chicago, where birds were simply birds.  I checked the internet afterwards, and it appears to be a red-winged blackbird, which I suspect is not very exotic.  I was hoping it would be something like a dodo bird, which I imagine is rarer, but you can't have everything.  Happy Birthday Stuart!

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Yesterday afternoon I went to see the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which has been set up at Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colorado. It rained practically the entire day, but there were still people there looking for the names of loved ones, and quite a few bouquets of flowers, letters of commendation, and photographs on the ground below those loved ones names.  The wall is three quarters the size of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, and has over 58,000 names of the soldiers who died fighting that war. Almost 45 years after the war ended, it still has a powerful impact on  family and survivors.  It will remain in Arvada through today and then move on to it's next location.  The memorial definitely brings back memories of a very sad and traumatic era in our country.  It helps puts today's divisive times in perspective.

Getting Nostalgic About Chautauqua

Every summer my mother Mary would fly up (via airplane) to Denver from her home in Stuart, Florida to visit for a few weeks and escape the Florida heat.  And at least once every trip we would try to have brunch at the Chautauqua Dining Hall in Boulder.  It is located in the park of the same name, right up against the Flatirons.  You eat outside on a wraparound porch, where you have breathtaking views of the mountains, the park, and Boulder itself.  They have been serving meals there since 1898, and checking the internet I see that they still are (www.chautauqua.com/dining-hall/overview/). I took the photograph on the left of my brother-in-law George, mother Mary, and sister Susan somewhere around the year 2000 (remember Y2K?). It was always an exciting morning.  My mother and I would drive up to Boulder from Denver, and Susan and George would drive down from Fort Collins.  My mother and I would arrive first, and sit out in front waiting for Susan and George.  Susan is not a morning person, and brunch ended at 11:00 A.M.in those days, and so it was always a question whether Susan and George would arrive before brunch ended.  I would stand by the edge of the park drive, looking for their Smart Car, hoping against hope they would arrive soon. They always made it in time, but just barely. Living life pushing the outside edge of the envelope, as usual.

The Summer Solstice!

Today is the Summer Solstice, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.  At Stonehenge, modern day Druids, Pagans and New Agers celebrate this day with gusto (and are even allowed onto the grounds of this 4,500 year old site).  And celebrate they do - they open the grounds at 7:00 P.M. on June 20th, and allow people to remain there until 8:00 A.M. the next morning. However, since I could not make it to Stonehenge this year, I instead decided to simply feature a self portrait of me at sunset on the Summer Solstice, looking solefully out the window of my condo at the University of Denver campus, where I worked as the Finance Manager of the Bookstore for almost 30 years, until we were outsourced (and I am no longer bitter about that. After all, do I look bitter?).  And I have to add that I did search the newspapers and the internet for Summer Solstice celebrations here in Denver that I might be able to photograph, but could not find a single one.  Evidently the Druid and Pagan population here is pretty thin - probably too many hipsters in Denver for their liking.  In any case, Happy Summer Solstice Everyone!

Monet Is Coming To Denver!

I just purchased tickets to the big Monet exhibit that will be coming to the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) this fall.  Despite being a cheapskate, I decided to buy these tickets as soon as possible, just in case the show is a sellout.  It will feature 125 of Monet's paintings, on loan from some of the most prestigious museums in the world, and the Denver Art Museum will be the only venue for this exhibit.  The show will run from October 21st, 2019 thru February 2nd, 2020, and I am especially looking forward to it since my sister Susan and I just toured Monet's home and gardens at Giverny last month.  The brochure seen on the left advertising this exhibit shows one of Monet's famous paintings of the Japanese Bridge, located in his garden at Giverny.

And coincidentally, just last month I took a photograph of this very same bridge, as seen in the photograph on the right.  It is not quite as tranquil as in Monet's painting, since it is jammed with tourists.  In fact, all of the major tourist sites my sister and I visited in Europe were overrun by tourists.  It really detracted from the trip, and this over-tourism is becoming a major issue not only in Europe, but all over the world. And the solution?  Travel in the month of February, like my friends Bill and Renee.  Just remember to bring a very warm coat to help stave off hypothermia when sitting in the sidewalk cafes on Paris' Rue Cler (my favorite street in that wonderful city). On the other hand, what a way to go.

The Light Show

It was a dreary, rainy afternoon yesterday, and so I decided to head over to the Denver Art Museum (the DAM) to see if there was anything new to see. And there was! The DAM has a new exhibition called The Light Show, which features photographs, paintings, sculptures, and even a corridor of mirrors, all of which demonstrate the concepts of light and shadow.  On exhibit are photographs by Ansel Adams and Man Ray, religious paintings by European and Mexican artists, and many other works of art from the museum's collection. All of these items on display have been in storage, due to the renovation of the museum's North Building, and I have to say this exhibit is well worth seeing.  The only discordant note is that I read in the museum brochure that the North Building will not reopen until the fall of 2021, which means there will be no free buffets at the museum's Final Friday events for at least 2 years.  Talk about a bummer.

Live Right And Find Happiness

I found a copy of Dave Barry's book Live Right and Find Happiness at the Fort Collins Library Resale Store, and bummed $2.00 off my sister Susan to buy it.  I took it to Europe with me and read it as we traveled through France and Italy.  It has been out a few years now, but is still pretty funny, and I was damn glad I took it with me.  I strongly recommend that you get hold of a copy and read it, even if you are not going to Europe.

The Highlands Street Fair Is Going To The Dogs

This past Saturday was the 37th annual Highlands Street Fair, and I have to say that  it has gone to the dogs.  I have never seen so many dogs at a festival before, and there were a significant number of booths catering to the needs of today's hipster dogs, too.  I try to attend this fair every year.  It is a very large festival, extending over 4 blocks down 32nd Street, the main drag of the Highlands neighborhood. This is one of Denver's oldest neighborhoods, and was once an independent town before Denver swallowed it up in the late 1800s.

When I first moved to Denver, it was promoted as the "affordable alternative to Washington Park," which is one of Denver's premier neighborhoods. These days the Highlands  is just as unaffordable as Wash Park, if not more so.  And for good reason - it has lots of beautiful Victorian homes, plenty of nice restaurants and bars, a great used bookstore (West Side Books), and even a brew pub - The Oasis - located in a former church, which makes perfect sense, since beer has become almost a religion out here these days.

In hindsight, it is probably good that I never bought a house here when I had a chance.  After I got divorced, I would probably not have been able to afford the mortgage payments.  Plus, I notice they have shops around here such as "Kale Me Crazy," which must do a good business or they wouldn't be around.  Which means a lot of California transplants must live here now. Scary.

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day, and so I am featuring a couple of photographs of my father Nelson, who would now be 110 years old if he were still alive today.  The photograph on the left shows my father and I together back in 1953, when I was at my charming best.  We were sitting in the backyard of our house  in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago.  This was before we built the enclosed back porch that later became my sister Susan's room.  Step out the back door back then and watch out.

The photo on the right was taken by me of my father in Charleston, South Carolina, probably in the late 1970s, when my sister Susan and I visited our parents down in Stuart, Florida - where they moved to in 1976 - and we did a road trip to Savannah and Charleston.  Both of those cities are truly beautiful, and if you have never visited them, I advise you to head on down there.  In any case, we had fun taking that trip, as well as several others around the State of Florida.  They were always short trips, since my father absolutely loved Stuart, and hated to be away from there for long.  He only had 7 years of retirement down there, but I am glad he was able to at least enjoy those years after a lifetime at a job he hated. Happy Father's Day!

An Official (More Or Less) Return To DU

I got an e-mail from my friend Mark telling me that there would be a retirement party that afternoon for Rebecca Chopp (seen in the above photograph), the Chancellor of the University of Denver, who is leaving her position due to health issues. Feeling that I needed to be there to represent the original University of Denver Bookstore staff (who worked there before it was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group) and also sensing that a free lunch might be involved, I decided to head right over, where there was indeed a free buffet. Soon after I arrived, the speeches began, and I must say that the university community seems to have a very high opinion of the outgoing chancellor.  The head of the Board of Trustees actually broke down in tears during her speech. This is the first time in 6 or 7 years that I have actually attended a non-sports related DU event, and I was kind of surprised at how many former DU colleagues I met and who actually remembered me ("It's crazy old man Hoyt!").  I even spoke with the Vice Chancellor of Business and Financial Affairs (under whose auspices the DU Bookstore, where I worked for almost 30 years, was outsourced) for a few minutes, exchanging pleasantries. Finally! Back in the good graces of the DU community, just like the past 7 years didn't even happen.

Doing Dallas In A Day

As I mentioned in a blog post last week, my sister Susan and I had a hell of a time getting back to Denver from Rome.  We wound up having to spend an entire day in Dallas, Texas.  Mark Twain once famously said that if he owned both Texas and Hell, he would live in Hell and rent out Texas, and I think he had Dallas in mind when he said it.  In any case, Dallas does have a good public transportation system.  We took a shuttle back to the airport from our hotel, checked our bags for the 10:30 P.M. flight, and then headed downtown on their light rail train.

Before we knew it, we were standing in Dealey Plazza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated back in 1963, a day I still vividly remember. I took a look at the grassy knoll, and was approached was a strange guy carrying JFK memorabilia and a duplicate of the camera Zapruder  used to record the murder, who I think wanted me to hire him for a tour.  I did not intend to do that unless he could produce a second shooter in the flesh.  In any case, I took the photograph on the right of my sister Susan, no doubt calling me to come look at the Texas Book Depository (seen in the background of the photo), where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots.  We then walked around downtown Dallas for a while, and found it to be ugly as hell. Surprise!

I went into a tourist office to get a map of the area, and found that the Dallas Arboretum was reachable by public transportation. We headed off there by light rail, only to find that the tourist map was not to scale, and we could not walk to the arboretum on foot.  A very kind woman called the transit line and told us what bus to take, and the driver of that bus told us what bus to transfer to in order to get to the arboretum.  Amazingly enough, it was all worth it, for the Dallas Arboretum is absolutely beautiful.  My sister Susan - who is a fanatical gardener - told me that it was the most beautiful garden she has ever seen.  We had lunch there, and took the bus right in front of the garden back downtown, where we took the train back to the airport and our flight home.  Downtown Dallas might be ugly as sin (and probably most of Texas as well), but they sure know how to put together a garden.

Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Rockies Lose!

Now that I am retired and don't have to show up for a job any more, I decided to go to the rubber game between the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs at Coors Field yesterday afternoon.  I took the light rail train to the ballpark, and was surprised to find all the rail cars packed with Cub fans.  I was somehow able to squeeze into one of the cars, and disembarked at Denver's Union Station relatively unscathed, taking the photograph on the left of those Wrigley Field denizens marching to the ballpark. The local sports columnists seem perplexed about why there are so many Cubs fans here in Denver.  One writer speculates it is because the Cubs were televised on Super Station WGN (with Harry Carey and Steve Stone announcing the games) for many years, and that the Cubs built a following through that.  I myself think that all these fans simply moved to Denver from the north side of Chicago, considering it just part of the far western suburbs of that city, and continue to cheer on their team from here.

As I entered Coors Field, I could not help but notice that there was a significant Denver police presence, and that they had a bomb sniffing dog with them (Cubs fans are crazy, if you don't already know that).  I took my seat in the upper deck right field corner (as seen in the photo on the right) and listened to the announcer tell us that "if we see something, say something," and then watched a video on the scoreboard screen about emergency exits from the stadium.  I think that Colorado Rockies management is beginning to suspect what we south side Chicago White Sox fans have always known about these Cubs fanatics.

It was pretty damn hot sitting in the upper deck in the sun Wednesday afternoon, but that is the price you pay for daytime baseball. Somehow, the Rockies managed to win the first two games of the series, but unfortunately lost the Wednesday contest by a score of 10 to 1, and it was not as close a contest as the score indicates.  The most exciting part of the game was the race between the dental implements, as seen in the photo on the left.  The idea for this contest was stolen from the Milwaukee Brewer's (they hold a race between sausages), but these days there is no honor among thieves, or for that matter ball clubs.  Which brings me back to the recent concept of "dynamic pricing," where baseball organizations raise or lower prices depending on the demand for the tickets.  And let me tell you, Cubs fans will pay through the nose to watch their team.

Sunday Afternoon In Mooseless Nederland

I drove up to Nederland (located in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado) this past Sunday afternoon on my continuing (and most likely hopeless) quest to spot a moose out in the wild. I read in the newspaper that a man had been attacked by a moose up there because he got too close to it's calf.  I also read that someone had recently spotted two rather "mangy" moose on Ridge Road (the one in Nederland, not the one that runs through Homewood, Illinois, back in Chicago's southern suburbs).  Armed with these insights, I drove up there and cruised Ridge Road from top to bottom (literally), but saw no moose. It was a very pretty area, however, and I was able to snap the photograph on the left at the point where Ridge Road went from a paved to a dirt road.

Since moose no longer seemed to be hanging out on Ridge Road, I decided to drive through Nederland to the small town of Eldora, and beyond that to the Hessie trail, which runs along Boulder Creek and is the place I would hang out in if I were a moose - lots of water and vegetation and woods.  I did find a lot of hikers there, and once again, the scenery was very pretty, but no moose. I have reached the conclusion that if I truly want to see a moose in Colorado (if they do indeed exist here, which I am not convinced of), I would have to stay up in the mountains for a week or so, either renting a cabin or camping out, thus allowing me to be around in the early mornings and at dusk, when they are most likely to be seen.  Kind of like author Bill Bryson spending weeks in the northernmost town in the world to get a glimpse of the northern lights. Ain't gonna happen.

Talking With Joe At The 2019 Summer Art Market

I visited my friend Joe at his booth (as seen in the above photo) at the Art Students League of Denver's 2019 Summer Art Market this past weekend.  Joe is an artist, teaches at the Art Students League of Denver, and also still has time to work at the University of Denver Bookstore on a part-time basis.  I talked with Joe for a bit, who is in the enviable position of doing what he loves for a living, and then walked around the art fair, which is my favorite of all the art festivals in Denver.  It is held over a four block area right in front of the ASLD building at 2nd and Grant, in a beautiful old residential neighborhood.  On my way back to my car, Joe seemed to be doing a brisk business selling his prints, and so I didn't interrupt possible sales in progress.  Joe does truly amazing work, by the way.  Be sure to check out his website at http://www.joehigginsmonotypes.com/.

Stuart On The Trail In Golden

I drove out to beautiful, exotic, and amazingly boring Lakewood, Colorado last week, where I picked up my friend Stuart (seen in the photograph on the left) and headed to Golden for a short hike along Clear Creek. It is a very pretty trail, right in the heart of Golden, and it truly makes you think you are actually out in the wilderness. Afterwards, we headed to the Table Mesa Inn for burritos, and then went to the Golden City Brewery (located in the backyard of an 1870s era house, which I featured in a blog post a few weeks ago), where we had another beer.  It was a very pleasant evening, and the outdoor beer garden had a very mellow crowd, no doubt already in summer mode, as am I - my first summer without a job in many decades.  As Jackie Gleason used to say, "How Sweet It Is."

Soccer AND Photo Day At Coors Field With Mark

I went with my friend Mark to Ester's Neighborhood Pub to watch the European Soccer Championship Game between Tottenham and Liverpool last week. Liverpool won the game 2 to 0, and after the presentation of the trophy we headed straight to Coors Field for Photo Day, where Colorado Rockies players (both past and present) meet the fans and pose for pictures with them.  I took the photograph on the left of Mark with Colorado Rockies legend Vinny Castilla.  Castilla was one of the original Colorado Rockies back in 1993, and was always a fan favorite.

I also took a photograph of Mark with Mark Reynolds, a current Rockies player who is one of my favorites. He plays first base for the Rockies, and always seems to get the clutch hits. However, because of his age (35, which of course means he is almost dead in baseball years) he does not get the respect he deserves.  The Rockies keep trying to replace him with younger players, but they just aren't as good as Reynolds, and he remains in the lineup most days. 

I myself had my photograph taken with the Colorado Rockies manager, Bud Black.  However, this photo was taken less than 24 hours after I returned home from a trip to Europe, and it definitely shows.  I look like I am not sure what country I am in, and perhaps not even sure who I am, either.  I vaguely remember asking Bud if he took euros, at which point he just walked away.  Can't blame him, I guess.  The Rockies won the game against the Toronto Blue Jays 3 to 2, and wound up sweeping the series. Could this be the year the Rockies return to the World Series?  I myself am waiting to place bets until the jet lag wears off, probably around December or so.

The Horror, The Horror (Of Air Travel)

My sister Susan and my flight back to Denver from Rome did NOT go smoothly.  It was a long flight to begin with (eleven hours), and as we approached Dallas, where we needed to change planes, a bad storm resulted in the Dallas Airport being closed.  We circled it for 2 hours before the captain decided to land in "sunny Houston" instead.  There we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours before a customs agent cleared the aircraft for deplaning. After going through customs, we had to stand in a huge line to get re-booked, and then go through security all over again.  When we got to the front of the line, we were told we would fly to Dallas that night and return to Denver the following morning. I asked if we would have to stay in the airport all night, and was told yes, and so made reservations at a Best Western near the Dallas airport. Once we arrived in Dallas, however, we were told we had a voucher for a hotel room, but by then it was too late to change plans (they had my credit card), and so we took a cab to the Best Western.

It was too late to get dinner - plus, there did not seem to be any restaurants in the area that were open that late. We each headed to our rooms, where I was awoken at 3:00 A.M. by a very loud, weird sound.  I could not figure out what it was. I turned on the light, and finally realized it was my cell phone going off.  I answered, and listened to a message that said the flight we were booked on had also been canceled. I did not get all of the message, and was forced to fire up my laptop and check my e-mail, where I discovered about 10 messages from American Airlines (they evidently expect all passengers to keep in constant contact with their e-mail account), the latest of which said our new flight would be leaving at 8:45 A.M. instead of 10:45. Great.  I would have to get Susan up even earlier. However, I suddenly realized that we were booked to leave on Friday, not Thursday, and spent the rest of the evening switching the flight to Thursday night at 10:30 P.M. (we had to pick up Susan's two dogs Friday morning in Fort Collins). We spent the day in Dallas, caught the 10:30 P.M. flight, which was naturally delayed enough to arrive just after 1:30 A.M. in Denver, when RTD (the light rail train) stops running, and took a cab to the RTD parking lot to pick up the car for the drive to Fort Collins. And just the other day I received an e-mail from American Airlines wanting me to tell them how they did. Don't tempt me, guys, don't tempt me.

Naples

Tuesday morning my sister Susan and I took the Circumvesuviana train (which winds around Mount Vesuvius) to Naples, checked our bags, and headed to the Naples National Archaeological Museum, which when we got there found was closed on Tuesdays. Instead, we took the first half of a Rick Steves walking tour of Naples, which I myself found pretty fascinating. Naples is the densest city in Europe, and even more frenetic than Rome. The sun was out, thank God, and Susan found a hole in the wall pizza restaurant with outdoor seating in front of an art school and museum. Susan had a glass of wine, I had a glass of beer, and the waitress brought us a large tray of snacks, bless her heart.  The place was filled with students taking a break on a sunny afternoon, and was a very pleasant respite from our walk. Afterwards we continued on past Piazza Bellini, the place where Bellini got his start, walked through an area made up of bookstores and bookstalls, and wound up at Piazza Dante, where the Metro stop was located and where I took the photograph on the left.

We took a rest in the piazza before heading back to Naples and then on to our hotel near the Rome airport. During this time I was very fortunate to be able to take a photograph of the Crazy Pigeon Lady of Napoli (who turned out to be my own sister Susan), as seen in the photograph on the right. After resting, we returned to the train station and bought tickets back to Rome.  I don't think the clerk spoke much English, or else he was just plain mean. He told me there was a train that left for Rome at 3:05, but since it was already 3:00 I told him I didn't think we could make that one.  He wound up selling us tickets to that train anyway. Why? Why why why?

I had to immediately collect my sister and rush her to the soon to be departing train.  Not only was it leaving immediately, it was also a high speed train that cost 36 Euros per ticket more than the regular one.  Plus, our tickets were for the very last car on the train (car eleven).  Once we got even with the first car, the whistle blew, signaling imminent departure, and so we had to climb aboard and make our way through narrow aisles, carrying 4 bags, through eleven cars.  I wound up falling once, and was helped up by fellow passengers.  As we headed for the next car, a woman ran up to me with our tickets, God bless her, which had fallen out of my shirt pocket when I fell. We finally got to our seats, where I sat panting for  45 minutes or so of the one hour trip, but was still able to summon up enough strength to take the photograph on the left of Susan (aka The Pigeon Lady). Once in Rome, we headed to the airport, where we caught the shuttle to the Best Western Rome Airport, and our flight back to Denver the next morning.  It was definitely time to head home.

Sorrento

My sister Susan and I arrived in Sorrento at a reasonable hour, but it took a while to find the bus stop, which naturally turned out to be on a hill that we had to climb with all our luggage. The hotel was located on the Via Capo, and was supposed to be just a short walk from the train station, but since we were carrying all our luggage and "short walk" seems to have a different meaning in Europe, decided to take the bus. Sorrento sits on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples, and although it has some Greek walls and ruins, it is all about the view here, one of which can be seen in the photograph on the left.

Sadly, it rained most of the time we were there, which is always a drawback when it is the town itself that is the attraction and not museums or other tourist attractions.  And I also have to add that it appears the British have taken over the place lock, stock, and barrel.  There are British pubs all over the place (the English Inn, the Celts Bar, the Irish Pub, etc., not to mention that half the hotels in town have British names).  The night we arrived we checked into the Hotel Britannia and had dinner at the Mannequin Piss, named after that delightful statue in Brussels and filled with English patrons watching the soccer game.  Considering that it seems to rain almost 24/7 here, they should all feel right at home. Our hotel was located above the fishing village of Marina Grande, seen in the photograph on the right, which we passed each time we headed to the center of Sorrento.  And yes - that is indeed Mount Vesuvius in the distance across the Bay of Naples.

The day after we arrived in Sorrento we took a bus ride along the Amalfi Coast to Positano, seen in the photograph on the left.  The bus was so crowded we had to stand, but fortunately we were at the front and could look out at the scenery, or at least what we could see of it, considering it was pouring down rain and you often could not see more than a few feet.  Susan did get to experience driving along cliffs that plunged down hundreds of feet to the Bay of Naples, with the bus coming within inches of the edge. Of course, the entire time the bus driver would be driving with one hand and gesturing with the other.  You can't beat fun like that.

We were hoping to take a boat to Capri from Positano, but the weather was so miserable we decided to take the next bus back to Sorrento, where we had lunch and then went back to the hotel.  Susan needed to rest, and so I went out on my own to take photographs and explore a bit. That 4 hours was the one time I saw the sun in that town.  I took the opportunity to take the photo on the right of one of the more luxurious hotels there, hugging the cliffs above the port. When I collected Susan to walk into town for dinner, it started pouring again.  The restaurant we ate at was very nice, however, with good food.  It was also very popular - there were even people waiting in the rain to get in. The next morning we considered taking a boat to Capri, but since it was still raining off and on, decided to head to Naples instead.

Rome

By the time we got to Rome, I think my sister Susan was getting a bit tired from dealing with the hordes of tourists and all the walking.  We took a three hour bus ride from Siena to Rome's second largest train station, and from there to our hotel, which involved taking a metro train and still another bus to Largo Argentina (a major transportation hub in Rome). From there we walked to the hotel, located near Campo de' Fiori, one of the nicest piazzas in the city, where we had dinner that night. By this time, of course, I don't think Susan cared if we were at Campo de' Fiori in Rome or Smokestack Alley Plaza in Gary, Indiana.  She choose the first restaurant we came across, and insisted on heading back to her hotel room right after dinner.  The photograph on the left, by the way, is of a statue of a heretic burned alive in Campo de' Fiori back in the middle ages.  Jules Caesar was also assassinated in this piazza back when the Theater of Pompeii was located here.  I mentioned these fascinating tidbits to Susan, but she didn't care.

Rome, I must admit, is a huge, very frenetic city, which during ancient times required chariots to get around in, which sadly were not at our disposal during this trip (I do remember seeing them around town the last time I was there, however). While Susan rested, I took advantage of the time to take some photographs around the hotel, such as the one on the right I took from the hotel's rooftop bar. I personally like Rome a lot, with it's narrow streets and buildings going back to the birth of Christ, if not earlier.  Granted, it is crowded, but still fun (I know, I know - they don't call me "Crazy Old Man Hoyt" for nothing).

The next day we took the bus to the Vatican.  We had reservations for the Vatican Museum at 12:00, and found we had to circle the Vatican (which is an entire country, I must remind you) to get there. The neighborhood was very nice and enjoyable to see, despite the long walk. However, when we approached the entrance, a number of tour guides warned us that unless we took their tour, we would have to exit the museum and walk all the way back to the front of St. Peters and stand in a long line to get into the basilica.  I finally gave in after the third or fourth sales pitch, and we took the tour. I later found out from reading Rick Steves guidebook that this is technically true, but if you just confidently go through the tour guide's door you should be able to get into St. Peter's anyway. The crowds, by the way, were massive in the museum.  When we finally got into St. Peters, we looked around a bit and then immediately headed to the Travestore neighborhood (which is very historic and old), where we had wine and beer on the main square to recuperate.

That night (after a long rest period) we took Rick Steves Night Walk Across Rome, which goes from the Campo de' Fiori to the Spanish Steps, and laces together Rome's nicest piazzas and urban spaces.  Susan was a trooper, and we made it all the way to the Spanish Steps (which we didn't climb, by the way). We also passed the Trevi Fountain (seen in the photograph on the right), but the crowds were so huge we didn't linger, and headed instead to a nearby cafe for dinner. The next day I had planned for us to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, but Susan was in no mood for any more sightseeing.  We did, however, take the bus there and looked at the Arch of Constantine, walked around the Colosseum, and spotted the entrance to the Forum , but then headed directly to the Metro and the train to Sorrento. Arrivederci Roma!