Denver

I had never really been here, but based on what I had seen from the highway when headed from the airport to Leslie's in Boulder in 2019 and then this year to Breckenridge, I must confess I was a skeptic. 

No longer. After a couple of days here I am now firmly in the believer camp. We are staying in a nice little bungalow in Highland, a shady older neighborhood undergoing what looks to be pretty rapid gentrification. Day 1 took us first to the Botanic Garden, really an awesome exemplar of the genre, and then the Historical Museum, where we learned a fair amount about silver mining, the rise of the Chicano movement in Colorado, native Americans from back in the day and also how they got fucked later by white folx, Japanese internment in the 40s (which we had learned in 2018 was also a thing near Missoula, Montana), the Dust Bowl, and water challenges in Colorado. Also it was air-conditioned. Getting dinner was somewhat of a clusterfuck but what do you expect coming out of this pandemic. I am surprised frankly not to see teenagers everywhere doing the nasty by the roadside.

Both nights thus far we ended eating takeout in the back yard of our Airbnb, not bad at all given how mild the evenings are. Tonight we are hauling off to some food hall to see Mary's cousin Steve, whom we haven't seen since our wedding. If we are lucky, we will meet his daughter Chiara, who was born the same day as Natalie 22 years ago. Though she just found out a couple of days ago she got COVID. Sigh. One of us is due.