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Monday, July 30, 2007
This my third stay report here in Denver finds everything going well. I have visited a couple of nice places and otherwise continue to enjoy my stay here in the Denver area.
Last Saturday (21 July) Steve and I and a couple of women he knows, Kat and Brooke, went up to a really neat little town called Evergreen. Evergreen is just a few miles outside of Denver in the mountains to the west. I would guess Evergreen is about a thousand feet higher than Denver which makes it about 10 degrees cooler. That alone was enough of a reason to go that way. The temperatures in Denver that week was ranging in the mid to high 90's.
While driving up to Evergreen along Bear Creek we stopped at a roadside picnic area and had a couple of beers and chatted. I remember Brooke telling us she was a news reader for the Colorado News Network and was on 10 different radio stations in Colorado. Then we headed on into Evergreen where we drove around a little and went over to the lake which is a nice little lake which I understand freezes over in the winter and is used for skating.
We then went to a bar that Steve new called the Little Bear. Steve had been telling me that the Little Bear reminded him of the Oar Club in Southern California. I had only been to the Oar Club once back in the 60's so I didn't remember it too well. As I understand it the Oar Club was owned by the same people who owned Foggy's Notion which originally was named "That Place Across the Street From the Sports Arena" in San Diego.
Now I have been to "That Place Across the Street From the Sports Arena" many times starting in the 1960's all the way up to 1993 when my best friend Wally Lattal and I were in San Diego attending Boot Camp graduation for my son Ray. I was there only because my son Ray was graduating but coincidentally he was in the last company to graduate from Recruit Training Command, San Diego before it closed. So for me it was important being there for my son but also as a bit of nostalgia for me being there for the last graduation ever there.
Anyway back to the present, The Little Bear may have been a little like the Oar House, I can't remember but it did not even come close to "That Place Across the Street From the Sports Arena." "That Place Across the Street From the Sports Arena" was huge maybe 8 or 10 times bigger and every wall was completely covered with everything from posters, business cards, pictures and ornaments. Hanging from the ceiling were classic cars, fire engines and you name it. It was truly a unique place. Elsewhere on this website I have an entire webpage dedicated to "That Place Across the Street From the Sports Arena" with people entering comments about it.
After leaving The Little Bear, Steve, Kat, Brooke and I went to another place called The Rib Crib Sports Lounge and Restaurant. Personally, I enjoyed Rib Crib Sports Lounge and Restaurant better than I did The Little Bear. It was a lot less noisy and we had a really enjoyable bartender. While there we played pool and ate some ribs. Then we headed back to the Denver area.
On Wednesday the 25th of July Steve and I went downtown Denver to see the Colorado Rockies play the San Diego Padres. I met Steve at his place then we caught a RTD commuter train into Union Station in downtown Denver. Coors Field is just a five minute walk from Union Station.
When we got there we had no problem getting great seats. Of course the price of a ticket was much more than I had remembered paying the last time I went to a pro baseball game. That was to see the Seattle Mariners play at the old Kingdome back in the 80's. Oh well prices no where stay the same or lower.
I really enjoyed the game. It was a very fast (2 hrs 12 min) game with the Rockies winning 10 to 2. I particularly enjoyed watching Matt Holliday when he was at bat. He was up 4 times and got a home run his 1st time at bat. He accounted for 4 of the 10 runs made by the Rockies.
After the game Steve and I went for dinner and a couple of brews. We stopped at Jackson's just across the street from Coors Field. After dinner and a couple of beers we started heading back to Union Station to catch our RTD train back toward Steve's place.