Settling Into Denver--Summer 2016

Charlie, the gardener

 Here we are in Apartment 20-L.  After years of travel—four years moving every three months, except a five-month stint once—we are staying put for a while.  We’ll see how that works out.

Our apartment has a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains, which we enjoy every day.  The building, Brooks Tower,  has an exercise room, a large living room style “Residents’ Room”, a common laundry (where we often see performers from the Denver Performing Arts Center, especially on Mondays).

Charlie on the "Train to the Plane"

It also has an outdoor swimming pool that we love, and a pool table that we haven’t tried yet, but want to.

We are one block from the 16^th Street Mall that affords great people watching and has a lot of good bars and restaurants and shops.  

Charlie at Opa's birthday

With the free bus running from Union Station to the Capitol, we can get up and down the Mall easily.  

Other buses run from right outside our door to almost anywhere we would want to go, so no car is necessary.  However, we use Bryn’s for grocery shopping, but may stop doing that when the new Whole Foods, on the free bus line, opens in the Fall or Winter.

Our favorite entertainment is Charlie, who gives us lots to laugh about and unending joy.  (Is it not evident from the number of photos on this posting and many others?)

Charlie, Bryn and Oma in Denver Botanic Gardens

We usually have him for an overnight once a week.  We have become adept at pretending to be Star Wars characters or any number of Super Heroes. (Adept, but old and slow...)

A typical day?  It will sound really boring, but we are happy.

Larry, an early bird, gets up around 6:30 am or so and goes to the exercise room and takes a walk.  He then has his daily Honey Nut Cheerios and reads the online version of the New York Times.

Charlie, Oma and Opa at Denver Botanic Gardens

Around 8:00 am Sue rouses and does stretches and yoga in the bedroom, thus giving Larry lots of morning private time.

She is not an early morning eater, so has a cup of tea with Larry on our small balcony, and we both admire the mountain view for a while.

After that, there are always chores around the house, online news to check and emails to delete—does everyone get as many unwanted emails as we do?  

Sad to say, at least Sue is a terrible correspondent.  I should write more regularly and am always composing in my head, but don’t have follow through.  I think Larry is better at this.

Lily Pond at Denver Botanic Gardens

Anyway, Sue is usually the chore do-er while Larry practices his electric piano.  Though, Larry does the laundry and we both share serious cleaning of the apartment.

We try to get a swim in, weather permitting, either just before noon or in the late afternoon.  The swimming schedule totally depends on the storms that seem to appear almost daily this summer.  

View from our cabin in Rocky Mtn. National Park

Blue skies, we jump into our suits; black clouds, we stay in and watch the show as the storms come rolling towards us from the mountains. 

We’ve had some pretty spectacular storm watching—and have lost a thing or two from our balcony; they can get pretty fierce!

Lunch is catch as catch can, and we often go out to the grocery store or to the Botanic Gardens or the Denver Art Gallery during the early afternoon before our nap—a late afternoon nap is really essential to good health, don't you think? 

Bear Lake in Rocky Mtn. National Park

Soon, cocktail hour is upon us, and we love our G&Ts with mixed nuts as we watch TV news—local, Lester Holt and then PBS.  Lots of news; we love it. And with the elections, there always seems that there is something to cheer or jeer.

Sue generally cooks dinner while listening to Gwen and Judy—lately using online meal service, Blue Apron: a lot of work, but a lot of fun three days a week, especially as we have opted for the Vegetarian selection.  

Wildlife in Rocky Mtn. National Park

Other days it’s the lifelong standards that had become boring; thus the Blue Apron perk up.

The evening ends with too much TV.  We keep telling ourselves we are going to break the habit, but it is really, really hard.  

We do turn it off to eat, but head back to the couch afterwards for a movie or a program we think is interesting.

 We used to take an evening walk, but it has become too hot this summer and we stopped doing it.

Us with Cynthia and Nancy in NC

We are looking forward to cooler climes to start that up again. Finally, a bit of reading in bed and then lights out.

This August we did make manage to make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Like so many other national parks, it is a national treasure, and we are so fortunate to be able to visit it and enjoy it.  

Now that we are seniors, we took advantage of a program that the Parks Service offers--a life time membership for $10.  

We will be able to visit any National Park or Monument, free of charge, for the rest of our lives.  We stayed in a little cabin along a babbling mountain creek, just three miles from the entrance.  

We had a great time and managed to take a few interesting hikes (or in our case, walks).  Driving thru the park, along the continental divide and above the timber line is extraordinary--we recommend it to all.

We should volunteer or do some other do-gooder thing, but haven’t found an avenue for that yet.  Maybe if we stay here a full six months as we’ve promised one another, something will appear. 

Ah, but the elections have given us the opportunity to volunteer, at least for a few weeks.  We are making phone calls or roaming the the Saturday Union Station Farmers' Market trying to get people to register.

Johan, Erin, Angie, Larry and Diego the Cat in DC

Earlier this summer, we took an extended trip back East, and got to visit with Erin and some other friends and family, but our favorite entertainment is to have visitors and we are hoping to have some this fall.  

Several people have promised us…we can’t wait!