On The Hunt For Wildlife In Colorado

Living in Colorado, I have always been on the hunt for wildlife to photograph. I have searched high and low for moose, bears, and unicorns, but have never seen one. The best I have done is the occasional deer and elk. I have even driven to the Colorado Center for the Moose, located just to the east of Walden, Colorado, which is no short drive from either Denver or Fort Collins, to see moose, without success. Some weeks the only wildlife I see, besides the hipster's in Denver's River North (RINO) neighborhood, are squirrels, such as the one in the photograph above that I took across the street from Observatory Park. Observatory Park is located in Denver's University Park neighborhood, just east of the University of Denver campus, where faculty and staff built large Victorian homes after DU moved to its current location back in 1892. DU's Chamberlin Observatory is in the center of the park. Not surprisingly, this area is a very desirable and expensive place to live. Even the squirrels seem to be fat and happy. But still no moose or bears in sight.

Pizza With Stuart At Grabowski's

My friend Stuart - seen in the photograph above - and I had a late lunch yesterday afternoon at Grabowski's Pizzeria in Lakewood, Colorado. They started out at The Source Hotel and Market Hall in Denver's River North (RINO) neighborhood, and after closing that location, moved to a full-sized restaurant in Lakewood. Grabowski's serves Chicago style pizza, with names like the Classic Chicago and Old Comiskey - definitely our kind of place, since Stuart grew up on the North Side of Chicago, and I grew up in the Brainerd neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. We shared a Classic Chicago, a fennel-heavy Italian sausage thin crust pizza, covered in cheese and cut into squares, just like the ones back in Chicago. And it was really good, with plenty left over to take home. I can definitely recommend it to Chicagoland transplants who are searching for authentic Chicago style pizza. And since Grabowski's has a pizza called Old Comiskey, I have high hopes that they will be televising all the Chicago White Sox games next season. It will be great to have an entire roomful of people to commiserate with.

Mustard's Last Stand - Great Minds Evidently Do Think Alike

Mustard's Last Stand has been in business here in Colorado since 1978, with an outlet in Denver near the University of Denver, and one in Boulder near the University of Colorado. It was started by a Chicago native who "kept running into Chicagoland transplants who couldn't find an honest-to-goodness Chicago style hot dog to save their lives." Although they specialize in Chicago-style hot dogs, they serve hamburgers and other items as well. Working for almost 30 years at the University of Denver Bookstore, and living in the neighborhood, I have eaten there many times. In any case, I was watching the WGN Chicago News online, and there was a story about Northwestern University wanting the city of Evanston, Illinois to approve a new stadium that, in addition to football games, would host 6 concerts, which many neighbors strongly objected to. Business owners were more supportive, including the owners of Mustard's Last Stand, located in Evanston, near the Northwestern campus. And was this place connected to the two Mustard's here in Colorado? I checked on the internet, and no - it was founded by a different owner back in 1969. I also found out that there are two Mustard's Last Stands located in Melbourne, Florida, started back in 1987 by still a different owner. And what does this all mean? For one thing, great minds do think alike, and since all of these operations are successful, Chicago-style hot dogs must be very popular everywhere. Also, I have learned that I have no idea how copyright laws work in these situations, and am too lazy, and uninterested, to find out. And by the way, the mayor of Evanston broke a tie during the city council meeting, and voted to allow that new stadium and those 6 rock concerts, too. Time for Evanston residents to start pricing noise canceling headphones.

A Bad Time To Be Homeless

It got down to 12 degrees the past couple of nights here in Denver, and that made me think about the homeless tents I saw across the street from the British Bulldog Pub this past Friday. These days, the homeless include not only the mentally ill, and people with drug and alcohol problems, but also the many migrants that have been bussed here from red states like Texas and Florida. There have been stories on the local television news of people trying to collect warm clothing for these migrants, many of them from Venezuela, who arrive here wearing only sandals and tee-shirts. The mayor of Denver has made finding housing for the homeless a priority, but due to such overwhelming need, it is not an easy task. Hopefully, during these extremely cold days, the city and non-profit groups can at least get these poor souls into temporary shelters. Common decency requires it.

Thinking About Florida After A Denver Cold Snap

It has been a pretty nippy Thanksgiving Weekend here in Denver, with the temperature reaching a high of only 20 degrees yesterday. And then, after the sun sets, it starts to get cold. Of course, with the wind chill, it felt like 9 degrees out there, which always reminds me that my sister Susan and I actually own a condo in Stuart, Florida, which is predicted to have a high of 84 degrees today. Of course, we currently have renters occupying the place, who would probably object if we drove down and asked to "crash" there for a few weeks, and so we will just have to tough it out up here. According to the internet, Florida is now the fastest growing state in the union, the first time that has happened since 1957. And if it is on the internet, it must be true. The photograph on the left, by the way, was taken of my mother Mary and Susan on the Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale back in August of 1995, where we spent an afternoon after driving down from Stuart.

We drove down to Fort Lauderdale a number of times, and once took a cruise on the Jungle Queen, which docks at Bahia Mar Marina, where author John D. McDonald's hero Travis McGee docked his houseboat, the Busted Flush, at Slip F-18. The photograph on the right was taken of the three of us as we boarded the Jungle Queen for the cruise up the New River, past the mansions of the super rich, who these days are no doubt even richer. After the cruise, I had Susan take a photo of me in front of the plaque at Slip F-18, honoring Travis McGee and the Busted Flush. Sadly, I recently read that that plaque has been removed from the site, and is now located in the gift shop. The article mentioned that the person running the shop says visitors stop in all the time to see it. However, she doesn't understand the fuss - she never read the books. Very sad, as famous Florida resident Donald Trump likes to say. 

Watching Leeds Play Rotherham With Leeds United Colorado!

I went to the British Bulldog pub here in Denver yesterday afternoon with my friend Mark to meet up with Leeds United Colorado soccer fans, and watch Leeds play Rotherham (located in South Yorkshire). For quite a while, I kept hearing Rotterdam instead of Rotherham, and wondered how Rotterdam wound up in the UK's Championship Soccer League. However, I was soon set straight. The Leeds United Colorado group are a very genial bunch, and very enthusiastic about Leeds soccer. Sadly, Leeds and Rotherham tied, but happily, Leeds is still in third place, with dreams of being promoted back to the Premier League dancing in their heads. I took the photograph on the left of Mark, who is doing well and as enthusiastic as ever about soccer, in front of the pub right before we went in.

It has been a while since I was last in the British Bulldog. The building started out back in 1885 as a house, and was turned into a pub not long afterwards. Back then it was called The Punch Bowl, so named because they would hold prizefights there, and bets on the matches would be thrown into a punch bowl. The bar, seen in the photograph on the right, is original to the place, and used to feature bare lightbulbs in a half circle, since lightbulbs were the new technology, and it was trendy to display them. The place remained the Punch Bowl, minus the boxing matches, until it was taken over by new owners and became the British Bulldog. They remodeled the place and cleaned it for the first time since 1900, but it still retains its Victorian ambiance, and is now the meeting spot for many Denver area soccer fan clubs. Nice to see that the place was able to escape urban renewal, at least for now.

The 50th Annual Mile High United Way Turkey Trot

Yesterday morning was the 50th annual Mile High United Way Turkey Trot, which took place in Denver's Washington Park. I have lived in Denver for over 42 years, and this is the first time I have attended this event, even though the starting line is a mere 15 minute walk from my condo. I did not do any running, but simply watched from the sidelines. And, I must say, it was a lot of fun. For some reason, I always thought this event was just one run that started very early in the morning, but in fact there are 4 "waves" of runners, beginning at 9:00 A.M. I arrived at the starting line in time for the 2nd wave, as seen in the photograph on the left, which consisted of 3,000 runners (attendance averages 9,000 a year, and judging by the traffic all around Washington Park, I can believe it).

The crowd was in a great mood, and a lot of the runners were wearing turkey suits, turkey caps, tutus (beats me), and other assorted outfits. As I have mentioned many times before on this blog, people in Denver just love dressing up in costumes, although this is the first time I realized they did it on Thanksgiving, too. Many people were also running with their dogs, and pushing baby carriages. And a lot of people were just walking the route, which is what I would have done if I had wanted to take part and pay the 50-$55 registration fee. And I must say, if an average of 9,000 people attend the Turkey Trot annually, this must be a huge fundraiser for Mile High United Way. Which, of course, is a very good thing.

At the finish line, Great Divide Brewing Company had set up a beer garden, which was doing a booming business, even if it wasn't even 10:00 in the morning yet. It reminds me of an old beer commercial from back in the day: "Pointer Beer - Not Just For Breakfast Anymore." There were food booths around, too, as seen in the photograph on the left. I was actually tempted to make the dog in that photo the next Mutt of the Month, but what the hell - he or she added to the general ambiance of the Turkey Trot, and needed to be included here. Dogs, by the way, also had to register for the event, at $10 each. Surprise!