Skip to main content

Denver High

 Title might suggest a blog for a local school in the Denver, CO area. It is about anything but. A recent work visit took me back to this city located a mile above sea level at the foothills of the Rockies.

Named after a 19th century Governor of the Kansas Territory, James Denver, which included the land mass we know today as Denver. Denver is now a fairly large metro area and state capital of Colorado. Not many American capital cities are as prominent. Atlanta, Santa Fe, Honolulu are some of the other exceptions.

This visit happened as fall was giving way to the onset of winter. Evidence was felt in the mercury barely making it past the high 40s by mid day and a chilling wind would often accompany the deceptive sunshine.

That said, it was a worthwhile adventure. I got to visit with a former colleague from my days in San Francisco. She seemed to have adjusted after moving herself to this weed infused rarified atmosphere from the sea level breezy locale she was accustomed to. We met in the lobby of the second oldest lodging facility called the Brown Palace Hotel celebrating 130 years.

Below are glimpses from that evening and other frivolities with work colleagues that included a stop at the Cigar Lounge called Churchill's in the premises of the Brown Palace.

I fancied and enjoyed an eponymously named 10 year Madeira which is a fortified wine from grapes harvested on a Portuguese island.


Star Spangled display was replaced with the below holiday lights including this massive chandelier before my very eyes.. what a sight!



A chewed nub of a cigar - that my friend seemed to enjoy in the vicinity of like minded smokers. They got to choose their fire stick from a menu of torpedo's and dirigibles and other shapes that appeared to be Hecho en Cuba.


View of the libations and fire sticks aka cigars along with a menu for the rolled tobacco


Denver also was a major commercial hub in the heyday of the 20th century which of course was when they found silver and gold in the local geography.  That precious commodity was then traded and used for bullion and coinage.

The Union Station from that era was also another prominent landmark that eventually fell in disrepair post two world wars and eventually was restored as a hotel and transit hub for local regional authority. A train still runs between DIA (the massive air field outside of town) and downtown.

former department store modeled after Italian architecture


130 year old façade of the Train Terminus









Gold plated dome of the two chambers of the state



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more

Peru, South America - Week well spent

Growing up in India the only Peru I knew of was a tropical fruit (Guava for those whose lingua is English).   Not until high school did I discover that it was also a country in the South American continent. So it was this early April week that we decided to hit up Peru - the land of the once glorious Inca people that lived 500 years ago.  Today Peru is the third largest country on that continent with a diverse geography that stretches from the drier Pacific coast plains to the high mountains of the Andes and the Amazon river valley to its east. Our trip was primarily a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the last remaining, lost (now found and documented), large scale, mostly undamaged, city of the Inca nobility, called Machu Picchu (MP).  The Inca were great architects and builders.  MP is a UNESCO world heritage site affording it high visibility to the tourism trade and therefore crowded year round.  Our timing was not quite high season allowing us...
1 comment
Read more

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...
Post a Comment
Read more