Gimme all your Denver, pretty please!

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

Glad you're feeling better!

Good articles - made me chuckle. From what I've seen and heard, I could quite happily live somewhere like Golden or Wheat Ridge, but Boulder would just be a nice place for a day out. I'm not sure I'm quite granola enough for the place.

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Me neither, but fun for a visit. It's a weird juxtaposition of granola-heads, hippies, and college students.

Mr Good Guy thanks you for the sneaky way to work. I tend to look for back ways if I think/know the main routes are going to be busy. Saving the $$ was the main reason I got the light rail/bus in, although it also served the purpose of letting me have a good look around my surroundings, which you can't really do when you're driving.

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I really liked taking the lightrail. I worked at times when it wasn't super crowded and I could get a window seat and just look/watch. If Mr. Good Guy takes the lightrail, he could park at the Broadway center (one of the biggest parking lots) and ride in to downtown. But that's a little out of the way. When I lived in WR, I just took 32nd avenue. My parking was paid for back then by the company. I only started taking the lightrail when I moved south of Denver.

My googling tells me Colorado Mills was built in 2002. I think the earliest I refer to it is in 2008, but I'll double check during the edit. Somebody in Golden told me there's a foreign foods place nearby where her half-English boss stocks up on yummies from this side of the Pond. I've googled, but can't find reference to it.

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Yep, 2002 sounds about right. It was a HUGE deal. And it's one of those malls that still seems to thrive--where many malls have gone the way of the dodo. Don't know about the foreign market, though. Hmmm. I know Asian markets off Federal and Mississippi (Little China) and Mexican markets off Federal and Evans (Little Mexico) and Persian/Middle Eastern/Indian markets that are off Broadway and Yale(ish). But I don't know Golden quite so well. I can ask. I have pals who graduated from Golden HS.

I know they say everything's bigger in America, but those hailstones are ridiculous! Do they dent cars/damage property? ...just scrolled down... dented cars and houses with chunks knocked out of them. Ouch! How often do hailstorms like that roll in?

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I'd say hail comes daily in Colorado in Spring and early Summer (May/June), but most of the time, they're just little pebbles that are here and gone in a few minutes. About once a week, you might get enough to make you run outside and pull your favorite potted flowers in to the garage for safety. Maybe once a month, you're raking up fallen leaves and branches in your backyard the day after. This year, though, has been super wet in Denver and Northern Colorado. We only had one super-hailstorm that dented cars.

Oh, and here's an interesting little blurb. The day after the BIG hailstorm here? We had at LEAST 15 roofing companies knocking on our door, asking if we needed an estimate for our potentially damaged roof. (Our roof wasn't damaged, but they try to sell you on that.) At least 15. The next day? 10 more. It's been THREE MONTHS and we still get 1-2 a week. We also get a lot of flyers on our car for dent removal for the hood of our car. It's annoying. We finally put a sign up saying, "We do not need a new roof," and the solicitors have stopped.

Yeah, Cherry Creek shopping mall was an exercise in wandering around thinking "How much?!" No wonder Mr Good Guy rolled his eyes when his missus mentioned stopping off there when he'd gone to a hospital* appointment! Apart from my magnifient cupcake carrier I found a lovely card for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary in Papyrus, but I'm one of those folks that likes to get a bargain at Colorado Mills or on a sale rail.

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Yep, that sounds very much like Cherry Creek. They do have sales now and then, but for the most part, no, I don't want to buy a $400 gold-plated fountain pen.

* The old St Anthony on Colfax, not the shiny new one which from memory I think is nearer Colorado Mills.

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It's not that close to Colorado Mills. There is a closer hospital. Lutheran. It's in WR.

http://www.lutheranmedicalcenter.org/

A very popular hospital, too. Takes most insurances. I lived in WR for many many years and never went to St. Anthony's. It was always Lutheran.

Like the FBI field office was on Stout Street during this story, rather than that shiny new one they've moved into at Stapleton. AND when my first family fly into Denver in 1990, they arrive at the old Stapleton airport, rather than DIA. I do my research. Glad to find a fellow Blucifer fan.

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I remember that FBI facility. Used to see the dog training park (and sometimes the dogs being trained). Didn't know they moved to Stapleton.

And yep, I remember flying from Stapleton as a teen. It was a fairly nice airport. That area has a new mega-mall now. Very nice little shops.

GO TEAM Bluficer! You know that Denver Bronco fans are fanatics, right? Like, do not talk smack about John Elway, or else. I worked at a telecommunications company back in the day. We sold cable channels to current subscribers. And one woman who worked there, well, she lived in a not-so-nice part of town. (5 Points) Her 3-year-old son was shot in the head by a drive-by. They weren't aiming at her or her house, but the bullet went through the window and struck her child. He miraculously survived. Had some trouble with motor skills for a bit, but recovered. When John Elway heard about this and heard that this woman's 3-year-old son was a big Broncos fan (and an Elway fan), he paid all of her hospital bills and bought her a new car. He's like a demi-god here in Denver.

My route from the La Quinta to Colfax used to take me down Kipling, so I'll have seen the park in passing. If you're driving south it's on the left I think? Seems like a nice quiet area around there, where the new in town mid-20s Mr Good Guy would like back in 2001.

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Actually, the best way to Colfax from La Quinta depends on where you want to go. If you want to go WEST, you take I-70 and it intersects with Colfax near Colorado Mills. If you want to go EAST on Colfax toward downtown Denver, you take Youngfield south. Past 32nd, past 26th, around a little bend and you're right there on Colfax. (That path also takes you past an amazing Mexican restaurant--Tafolino's. Mr. Tafolino started out making burritos for Bronco games, got enough money to buy a small shop in a strip mall, and did so well that he bought the whole mall.)

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

Do people generally put snow tyres/chains on their cars in the cities/towns if they're not going into the mountains? Are all the roads in Denver kept clear of snow, or just the main roads? That's what happens here - they grit the main roads, but side roads only get done (if at all) if the snowy weather lasts for more than a few days. No snowploughs as we don't get snow every year so it's not worth the investment.
...
How close do bears get to places like Golden? I saw one run across the road between Fairplay and Breckenridge - like I said, Colorado's wildlife needs lessons in pedestrian etiquette. I've seen lots of mule deer pretty much everywhere (they give me the heebie jeebies), a few magnificent bushy-tailed foxes, elk near Evergreen (and in RMNP, and on I-70 (yuck)), a couple of moose (one humungous big daddy in the road near Berthoud Pass and a little girl in RMNP) and some fat chipmunks (so cute).

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Generally, the main streets get plowed first, and it's pretty efficient unless there's a major snow storn. Side streets can be messy until the snow melts, and places can stay icy a long time. But usually after a heavy storm, the plows do make it to side streets, just with a lower priority. If not much snow is on them, they might just get an application of gravel to improve traction and hasten melting. One small detail that might be useful to you: on the highway from Denver to Boulder, there's a high point before dropping down that gets high winds at times. After the highway has been treated with gravel, the dry gravel gets airborne by those winds, causing windshields to crack.

People I know got snow tires if they planned to do much driving in the mountains in the winter, but lots of people use chains for really bad weather (it's required to have one or the other during snowy periods in the mountains). Many people also rely on SUVs or Jeeps and don't necessarily use snow tires... though they've gotten stuck when ordinary cars carrying snow tires get through fine. Many people won't bother with snow tires if they're staying around town, which most years isn't an issue.

Bears are occasionally spotted as far east as Wheat Ridge. Foxes are pretty common, though lately they've suffered from mange.

Some brewery information in Golden:

-You can take the "express" tour of Coors Brewing to go straight to the free taste center. It's popular for people on a budget or for some free drink after work/class (students from School of Mines in particular; of which my wife belongs)

-Golden City Brewery (GCB) is by far more popular for after-classes drinks. It's a small shack and a beer garden.

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

I wore a pair of Broncos socks on Superbowl day (am I a jinx?!) - I know nothing about (American) football, but I had to buy a pair of Broncos socks - haha!

LPH.

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Seattle thanks you.

Ah, this makes me nostalgic and wishing I still lived back in CO. Instead, I now live somewhere in which I can commiserate with CrastersBabies' Professor: Your snow melts. *sigh*

Los Pollos, I don't know how much you actually have set in RMNP and Estes, but feel free to ping me if I might help. That was my old stomping grounds (albeit a few decades ago), and I still visit/hike there on a regular basis.

Just a couple of random goodies before I turn in for the night:
- The elk bugling in the fall in the park (eerie, yet beautiful)
- late at night, coming home from the valley, you might occasionally see a mountain lion (but very rare)
- The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park was used as the location for Stephen King's film, The Shining
- Long's Peak is a 14teener in the park that is doable without climbing equipment (and you have some fun campsites like "Goblin's Forest")
- You can always tell a local versus a tourist driving up and down the mountains from how they ride their break the entire time (or don't shift into a different gear), as well as how they break during turns rather than into the turn
- All kinds of gorgeous hikes in the park (especially in fall when the aspen turn that gold for sometimes an all too brief period before the winds strip them). Many beautiful lakes if you want to depart from the crowds a little and work for your view beyond Bear Lake and other front country spots
- an old fashioned salt water taffy shop in the main street touristy section with taffy pulled right in the front window.

Thanks to the other folks for sharing!

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

They don't mind giving away free beer for those who haven't been on the tour?! Don't tell the English! We have Coors Lite* over here, but the water comes from Staffordshire (I'm sure I read that somewhere).

Is there anywhere in town which gives away free margarita/mojito*?! I'll make a note for next time...

* Do the locals refer to it as Colorado Kool-Aid, or is it a media term?

** My roadtrippin' tipples of choice.

Cheers,

LPH.

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You have to drive up to the entry shack (not take the bus tour) and request "the fast tour". You'll be given a paper slip that you hand to the tourist info counter inside and you head straight to the tasting room.

Sorry, I don't know about any free margaritas/mojitos.

I've never heard of Coors Lite referred to to as "Colorado Kool-aid", but I've only been living in Colorado since 2010.

Hoplite said:

I've never heard of Coors Lite referred to to as "Colorado Kool-aid", but I've only been living in Colorado since 2010.

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I'm going to second never having heard Coors called "Colorado Kool-aid."

I remember when Coors was only available in the Rocky Mountain Region. My mom's relatives would request cases when we drove to Missouri for family reunions.

I also have never heard of Coors being referred to as "Colorado Kool-Aid."

lacygnette said:

About the little rain. In college we always knew who came from out of state - they had umbrellas. I never owned one in all the years I lived there.

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Seconded. The only Coloradans with umbrella's are transplants. I've never owned one, but my grandma did. It sat in her glove box for thirty years and was never used.

Now if I were going to get rid of a body I would go up the South St Vrain, Northwest of Lyons. The river is turgid there, and there are pull offs for people to fish and kayak. On weekend nights these pull offs are full of teenagers watching the submarine races, which I can tell you are spectacular.

But if you dropped a body into the water it would get bashed to pieces by the rocks, till the cops weren't sure what had happened to him.

Oh, and people may use "republic of boulder," but I've always liked, "nine square miles surrounded by reality."

And bears are prevalent but don't forget mountain lions! They manage to take down a jogger on the front range every five years or so. Bears are really only a threat when you surprise them, or corner them. Cougars will stalk you, and if you are distracted (read: on your iPod) they won't hesitate.

Edited to Add: Why has no one brought up Casa Bonita yet!

You are probably not going to get mountain lions in downtown Denver but they have been seen in suburban places like Morrison, Lone Tree, and Golden.There is urban Golden and there is less urban Golden. You'll see the cats mostly in the foothills, except they are very good at hiding so you won't see them. But they will see you.

No umbrellas except non-natives? This is crazy talk. They keep off snow as well as rain and you see lots of them. (I have not done a poll or asked people with umbrellas where they came from, and there are a lot of non-natives here, but there also are a lot of umbrellas. In fact most of the people I know are non-natives. But my husband is a 3rd-generation Denver native and while he doesn't have an umbrella now, he's had and lost a lot of them. Leaving them on the bus is the usual excuse.)

The food at Casa Bonita is dire. It is not just not-good, it is sickening. Although there are people who eat it, and probably even people who say they like it. You have to pay for a meal (all you can eat, a thought sickening in itself in this case) to get in, but fortunately you don't have to eat it! If you want sopaipillas there are other places to get them. For one, Little Anita's. (They are a New Mexican thing, not a Mexican thing, although you do see them at Mexican restaurants.)

There is a summertime thing where it tends to rain--usually not much--almost every day just about the time people are getting off work. Usually a light sprinkle. You can hear thunder and see lightning in one direction or another almost every night in summer.

I know there are some big differences between 1986 and 2009 but it's mostly along the lines of landmarks that have disappeared, and now that they're gone the places seem like different places. Speaking only of Denver, in the Cherry Creek area in 1986 there were mostly what would be called starter homes--two bedrooms, one bath, maybe a basement, a yard, maybe a fireplace. Very functional, not at all posh, but comfortable and affordable. In 1986 they were mostly owned by people who had lived in them for years and liked being close to Cherry Creek, which was a happening place, or they were holding onto them for investment. Now they have mostly been replaced by very expensive condo buildings, duplexes, and large houses. There is much less yard. Every once in a while there is still a little modest house which means someone is still holding on for appreciation.

Denver winters--ah, snow. It can snow a lot, but if it's in a place where it gets sun it will also melt quickly. If it's in an area of tall buildings, it will not melt quickly. (There ought to be some solar surcharge if you block the sun from the street because those streets will get the kind of ruts you can't get out of, and those ruts stay there long after other streets have cleared. So, of course, a week after the snow you can be driving along on a perfectly dry street and then quite suddenly you're on black ice.)

The Cherry Cricket is a GREAT hamburger joint in Cherry Creek. It was there in 1986 and it's there today. (And hopefully will be there tomorrow, next year, etc.)

There are a lot of good places to dump a body, even in town.

I think the biggest change between '86 and '09 is all the development of LoDo. In the mid-'80s there were old warehouses, empty lots, the train station (which had a restaurant that looked like it had been there since the '30s), railroad tracks, the post office Terminal Annex, and a couple of edgy dance clubs. By '09 there were microbreweries, bars (lots of bars), condos, lofts, new office space, Coors Field, Pepsi Center, Elitch's, a skateboard park. What was a lone bike path along the river is now a teeming urban environment. A place called My Brother's Bar, which was always good but used tobe often deserted is now very, very popular, still has no TVs, and plays classical music. (I may be stretching the boundaries of LoDo here.)

Odd fact I have noticed in the last few years. In any office I've worked at since, say, 1990, let's say out of 10 people 2 will live in Denver proper (by which I mean City & County of), 2 will live some totally outrageous distance away (Evergreen, Greeley, Windsor, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne [yes, really]), and the rest think they live in Denver but actually live in Aurora, Highlands Ranch, Centennial, Littleton, Englewood, Lakewood, Westminster, Thornton, Broomfield, Wheat Ridge, Commerce City or some similar suburb.

Rhymes with Clue said:

No umbrellas except non-natives? This is crazy talk. They keep off snow as well as rain and you see lots of them. (I have not done a poll or asked people with umbrellas where they came from, and there are a lot of non-natives here, but there also are a lot of umbrellas. In fact most of the people I know are non-natives. But my husband is a 3rd-generation Denver native and while he doesn't have an umbrella now, he's had and lost a lot of them. Leaving them on the bus is the usual excuse.)

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I make it a point to ask every umbrella carrier I ever see if they are from Colorado, and the answer is universally "no." I have never seen one in the snow.

The really biggest change is the Denver Tech Center in southern Aurora/Englewood. In the past 10 years it's bloomed into a sprawling office utopia, where rent is cheap, and little fountains are everywhere. There's a huge move from downtown Denver into the Tech Center, the companies that stay are for the most part financial. The bigger companies like to be able to have parking lots.

The most important weather information you can possibly have is this: Our default setting is sunny. It can be warm and sunny, it can be cold and sunny, it can be windy and sunny. Last year we had a whole week in the negatives and the sun shone every day. We get 300 days of sunshine a year, kind of like an anti-England*. Sometimes it snows or rains or hails, but when the weather resets to default at night it's Sunny again in the morning.

*The assumption would have to be that if our two regions were to touch they'd create and explosion large enough to annihilate the solar system

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

Would you see mountain lions in Paradise Hills (one of my settings)? I saw a few psychotic looking mule deer* around there, but no overgrown kitties. Do they eat domestic pets?!

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Well as mentioned you probably wouldn't see them, but they are there. One of my grandfather's friends living in Boulder Heights heard a noise on his porch one night. Absentmindedly snapped a picture though the porch window and went back to bed. When he got the film developed he found a picture of a cougar dragging a dear carcass across his lawn.

It's interesting that you bring up the pets thing. My aunt recently lost one of her dogs to a mountain lion. He didn't come back one night and when they went looking for him they found his body half eaten and half buried. Cougar's bury their kills and come back for them later.

Los Pollos Hermanos said:

Haha! T'was a rushed reply between getting in from work and going out again. I meant to say "Do you get mountain lions in Paradise Hills?" but my fat fingers had a mind of their own.

Poor pooch, and your poor aunt finding him like that. Are there ever incidents of people in rural areas taking out the trash (or similar) late at night and getting attacked? Joggers/hikers have been mentioned. I'm glad the most savage wildlife on my road are the local cats and the occasional hedgehog!

Casa Bonita's food - is it dire as in just tastes dire, or dire as in it'll give you Montezuma's revenge for a few days after you've eaten it? My colleague has told me where to get proper "cooked like my grandmother used to" Mexican food in Manchester - next time I'm in the city centre I'm going for a feast!

Cheers,

LPH.

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Casa Bonita's food is just awful. It wouldn't make you sick like Montezuma's revenge, it just tastes bad and might give you a tummy ache. It's like going to 7-11 and buying a frozen burrito and heating it up in the microwave. It's not really Mexican food. The only time a local might go there would be to bring an out of town visitor who really wants to do the tourist thing.

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience in Texas. As a native Texan and someone who went to school in Colorado for years, I can say that generally Texans and Coloradans are friendly. Native Coloradans do have a slight aversion to Texans that transplant up there, but Texans in general share no animosity towards Coloradans or anyone really except for maybe the Okies. Hopefully you'll give Texas another try sometime. Colorado has us beat on the beauty of the great outdoors, but they can't touch our great Mexican food!

And a note about The Shining. The novel was written by King after a 1974 visit to the Stanley Hotel, but none of the movie was actually filmed there.

"After having chosen Stephen King's novel The Shining as a basis for his next project, and after a pre-production phase, Kubrick had sets constructed on soundstages at EMI Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, Britain – to enable chronological filming and changes during production, he used several stages at EMI Elstree Studios in order to make all sets available during the complete duration of production. The set for the Overlook Hotel was then the largest ever built at Elstree, including a life-size re-creation of the exterior of the hotel.[14] Some of the interior designs of the Overlook Hotel set are notable for being based on those of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. While most of the interior shots, and even some of the Overlook exterior shots were done on studio sets, a few exterior shots were done on location by a second-unit crew headed by Jan Harlan: Saint Mary Lake with its Wild Goose Island was the filming location for the aerial shots of the opening scene.[15] The Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon was filmed for a few of the exterior shots of the fictional Overlook Hotel, and notably absent in these shots is the hedge maze – a nonexistent feature at the Timberline Lodge." -source wikipedia

My wife reminds me about Cheesman Park in the capital hill area. It's a beautiful park in the day time, and a great place to pick up a hooker, or get stabbed, at night.

But it wasn't always like that. You remember a while back when that guy got on a plane with super-tuberculosis? They took him to National Jewish Hospital off of Colfax and Colorado. The dry and cool air of the mountains are great conditions to treat consumption, and Colorado has been the go to vacation spot for 150 years or so. (That's actually why my great grandmother came out here.)

Back on track, Cheesman Park wasn't always a park, for 60 years it was Prospect Hill Cemetary, which actually covered much more then the Cheesman Park area of today. It was used primarily for the unclaimed bodies of tuberculosis victims, whose families couldn't afford to ship their remains back to where ever they came from. They dug up most of the bodies when the changed it into a park in 1907, but the "population" of the cemetary was over 5,000 so it's much more then likely that they missed a few.

Sorry to disappear for so long, we had some big stuff going on. Are there any unanswered questions you were still wondering about here?