The 25th Annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival

This weekend marks the 25th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place at Denver's Sloan's Lake Park each year. I only had an hour and a half to visit the festival this year, but as I recall, once you've watched two of those dragon boat races, you would be good for another year. I arrived as the first set of races were ending and took the photograph on the left of one of those boats returning to the dock, with a drummer in the front encouraging the rowers to row on, and someone at the back to help guide the craft. And then they announced on the loudspeaker that there would be a short break to tabulate the times and announce each boat's position in the standings. However, I have to assume dragon boat tradition requires using an abacus to make these calculations, which were still going on after an hour or so. I stayed as long as I could, but eventually had to leave, with no actual photos of the races or the celebration of the winners at the finish line. Oh well - there is always next year.

One of the most interesting parts of the festival are the boats themselves, which all have a different dragon face on the bow, one of which can be seen in the photograph on the right. Walking around the area, I was amazed at how many different teams there were, and how many people were needed to power each boat. In addition to the races themselves, there were food booths in areas marked "Taste of Asia East" and "Taste of Asia West," as well as an "Asian Marketplace," a "Performing Arts Stage," and a "Band Stage." And the place was packed with people. I was fortunate to find a parking spot just 5 blocks away from the lake.

I took the photograph on the left of a booth in the "Taste of Asia East" area, believe it or not. But in addition to traditional Asian delicacies such as Italian Sausage Sandwiches, Diablo Dogs, Giant Bratwursts, and Bada-Bing Burgers, I was happy to see that they were also selling Giant Turkey Legs. I have a theory that they start serving those giant turkey legs at the Denver Chalk Art Festival in the spring, freeze the leftovers, and then defrost them for each successive festival, finishing up with Oktoberfest at the end of September. Yum! And now I find that you can even get them at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. Great news! And happily, the festival continues today until 5:00 P.M. Be sure not to forget to pick up that turkey leg on the way in.

The 16th Street Mall Renovation Is Almost Complete!

Denver's 16th Street Mall renovation is almost complete. I walked the entire length of it the other day and I must say, the city has done a good job with it. The center island down the middle of 16th Street has been eliminated, and the sidewalks on each side have been widened to allow more room for outdoor patios, seating, art installations, children's play areas, and landscaping. The free busses that go up and down the center corridor of this otherwise pedestrian only street are finally back in service, and I was happy to see a fair number of people in the restaurants and patios on a weekday afternoon.

The only downside is that there are still a lot of vacancies up and down 16th Street, which has now officially eliminated "mall" from its official designation. The 16th Street Mall really suffered during the pandemic, what with work from home eliminating most of the office workers in the area, and, of course, the mandatory closing of shops and restaurants. When things did reopen, office workers continued to work from home, resulting in high downtown office vacancy rates, which currently sits at 36.8%. And once the pandemic ended in 2022, the mall renovation began, making the area virtually impassable. It took 3 years to complete, and many businesses on 16th could just not survive. 

And will all those empty storefronts and restaurants soon be filled with new tenants? The city has plans to make that happen, and after the renovation of the final three blocks, there will be a grand reopening celebration on Saturday, October 4th. Of course, much will depend on the state of the economy, the possible conversion of downtown office buildings into residences, and the always radical idea of actually making people return to the office, which will be strongly resisted due to the fact that those office workers might actually have to work. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Meanwhile, perhaps I should start looking for one of those work from home positions. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Talking Baseball With Stuart At Old Chicago

I had a late lunch yesterday afternoon with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph above, at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in Lakewood, Colorado, a Denver suburb that is in serious competition for being the ugliest in the metro area. But fortunately, inside the bar area at Old Chicago, you can't actually see Lakewood. Although you always know it is out there. In any case, the talk at lunch soon turned to baseball. Stuart grew up on the North Side of Chicago and is, of course, a Cubs fan. Stuart is looking forward to watching the Cubs in the playoffs this year. Although the Cubs are 5 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, they currently have one of the best records in baseball and should be a shoo-in for a wildcard spot. Although they are, after all, the Cubs, and so one never knows for sure. On the other hand, coming from the South Side of Chicago, I am a White Sox fan, and the White Sox, who lost 121 games last year - a major league record - seem to be much improved, showing their rebuilding effort is going well. They came out of the All-Star break going gangbusters, and while that didn't last, they currently have a 5-game winning streak (Thank God for the Minnesota Twins!). As for our adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, they are 2-8 over their last 10 games and are by far the worst team in baseball this year. However, they only need to win three more games to avoid matching the White Sox's record number of losses last season. And everyone knows the Rockies will certainly win at least 3 more games this year, right? Right?

Reasons To Linger At Linger

Denver's Lower Highlands neighborhood (LoDo) has been a hipster hotspot for years, and right in the heart of that community are two popular venues - Little Man Ice Cream, seen in the photograph on the left, and Linger Eatuaries, seen on the right. Little Man is an extremely popular ice cream parlor. During summer weekends, the line can extend all the way around the block. Linger is an upscale restaurant in a building that was once the home of the original Olinger Mortuary, built in1890. It took me 3 years, by the way, to figure out that they got the name Linger by simply dropping the "O" from Olinger, but that's another story. Putting a hip restaurant in a former mortuary was a bold move, but it turned out to be a great success. And in fact, the place is filled with Denver history. You might even be dining in the room where none other than Buffalo Bill Cody's body was kept for 6 months back in 1917 during a legal dispute over where Cody would be buried. Evidently, Buffalo Bill ran into financial difficulties, and to get some money, agreed to be buried on Lookout Mountain, just to the west of Denver. Cody actually wanted to be buried in Cody, Wyoming, the town he founded, which is what the people of Cody wanted, too. Lookout Mountain won the battle, although some of the citizens of Cody did try to steal his body, but were caught. And if you decide to dine at Linger, be sure to ask for the Cody table, so you can eat on the actual spot where he was laid out. Talk about fine dining.

Orientation Week At The University Of Denver

This is student orientation week at the University of Denver. It officially began yesterday, but in actuality, the freshmen and their parents usually show up the Friday before. My friend Mark, who works at DU's Anderson Academic Commons (the library) and seen in the above photograph (with DU's University Hall in the background), confirms that students were beginning to move into the residence halls this past Friday. I myself worked at the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years, and this was an extremely busy week for us. All Labor Day Weekend the bookstore would be filled with students and their parents buying DU clothing, gifts, computers, you name it. However, I couldn't help but notice that Barnes and Noble, which now operates the bookstore, was closed both this past Sunday and Monday. Were there hordes of angry parents and students banging on the doors this past weekend, frustrated that the store was not open? Or are there just a lot less of them these days? Happily, that is no longer my problem.

Watching The Rockies Play The Giants At Coors Field

My sister Susan and I went to Coors Field here in Denver yesterday afternoon to watch the Colorado Rockies play the San Francisco Giants. It was a very pleasant day, not too hot and not too cold, and we had seats in the upper deck right behind home plate, as seen in the photograph above, which I took during the opening ceremonies. People do not go to Coors Field to watch the Rockies play baseball these days. The Rockies are currently the worst team in baseball, with a 39-99 record. The fans actually go to the game either to just enjoy a day at Coors Field or else to cheer on the opposing team, and yesterday the fans were there to do both. At least half the crowd were wearing Giants paraphernalia, including what seems to be a very popular "Fog City Baseball" tee-shirt. And they went home happy - the Giants won the game by a score of 8-2 and are now back playing .500 baseball. Which means, of course, that they are a mediocre team. But a mediocre team is what Rockies fans have been hoping to see for years now. If there was a 50-50 chance they might win each time you went to the ballpark, Rockies fans would be ecstatic. But with current ownership and management, it will probably never happen. But Coors Field is still a great place to watch a ballgame, right? At least we have that.

It's Labor Day! Time For A Hike!

Which is what my late brother-in-law George, sister Susan, and I used to do every Labor Day when George was still healthy. Most of the time our destination was Rocky Mountain National Park. Susan and George, seen in the photograph above, would drive there from Fort Collins, and I would drive up from Denver. We would meet in Estes Park and then take one car into the park. Our favorite hiking spot was Glacier Gorge, which is where that photograph was taken. It was a very pleasant hike past a very pretty waterfall, with wonderful views of the mountains. And that time of year, hiking conditions were still good, unlike on Memorial Day, when the higher you went, the deeper the snow and denser the fog, until finally everyone agreed it was time to head back down the trail and stop at the brew pub in Estes Park. Of course, we usually did that on Labor Day, too. We just didn't have as good an excuse.