Full Day in Denver

Friday, July 6, 2012--Denver

The Super8 where I stayed last night is one of the best hotels I have stayed in for a while.  The management and the employees were all friendly and great.  The room was large, clean, and nice.  The breakfast was bigger than most--biscuits and gravy, freshly-cooked waffles, 4 kinds of cereal, oatmeal, toast, bagels, pastries, fruits, juices, coffee, tea, etc.

I arrived at Cherry Creek for the Arts Festival at 10:00 when it opened.  There were already crowds there, but it wasn't bad.  The selection of artists was maybe the best I have encountered at any arts festival.  They came from all over the US and Canada.  Although some of the art was not to my taste, most of it was high quality.  There were especially some good glass artists.  I spent 1 1/2 hours wandering from booth to booth. One artist whose work I particularly liked was Cheryl Ward who painted with oils on split sea grass reeds.  Then she arranged the reeds in frames to make interesting abstract images:  WardArtSTudio.com

From there, I headed to a local theater specializing in independent and foreign films.  There are three such theaters here in town which are all operated by Landmark.  The Chez Artiste made me greatly appreciate the Bijou and the Regal Fiesta theaters that show such films in San Antonio.  It was built in the old style with an aisle down the middle.  It had a film projector rather than a digital projector.  And it did NOT have surround sound.  How lucky we are in San Antonio to see such films in totally modern facilities.  Anyway, the film I saw was  Your Sister's Sister.  It has been a hit at festivals, and I can see why; it is much like the original independent films of a few years ago.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5 myself.

I still had time to waste until meeting the owner of the apartment I had rented, so I went to City Park and lay in the grass and read.  It was a pleasant day to do that.

I met Megan at the apartment at 3:15.  She still needed to change the sheets and do some cleaning, so I parked my car and brought up my luggage as she did that.  She has two cats which I knew about.  They are here tonight, but she will take them tomorrow, since she is going on vacation and wants them with her.  Except for the obvious cat smell, the apartment is nice--a loft-like design with a bedroom, a bath, and a large living room-kitchen-dining room-extra bedroom room.  There is no TV, but she does have air conditioners which are nice considering the 95-degree days we have been having in Denver.  The neighborhood was originally a middle and upper-middle class one which became a black neighborhood and is not transitioning into a mixed neighborhood with gays, young professionals, etc., and some of the poorer families still in homes mixed within it.

When Megan left, I walked to town to pick up my registration packet for the choir conference.  There are 6000 people registered for the conference with choirs from all over the US performing each day.  It took 25 minutes to walk from the apartment to the performance venues.  Unfortunately, it started raining as I neared there.  I had to wait a while before I could walk back with it only sprinkling.  We are having thunderstorms here at bedtime.

Steps Walked:  13,731