The Celestial Seasonings manufacturing plant that specializes in herbal teas (also sells green, red, white, chai, and black teas) is located in Boulder and gives free tours of their factory. Annual gross sales are approximately $100 million! Who would have envisioned a tea company of this size when some hippies started gathering herbs and flowers around Boulder in 1969!
While we were in Boulder I wanted to go look for quilt shops, but my wife insisted that we stop by the Shelby American Collection Museum, which is the type of place that you could spend all day watching movies and reading the display signs. The museum is "dedicated to the preservation of Shelby American automobiles and to convey the Shelby American team story to the public" and includes many race cars, prototype vehicles, trophies, art work, and other interesting items.
The Leanin' Tree Museum of Western art is the private art collection of Ed Trumble, a publisher of greeting cards since 1949. The museum is free to the public and contains over 250 major paintings and 150 bronze sculptures.
The town of Niwot is just northeast of Boulder and is ranked as the 17th wealthiest location in Colorado. The Crocs, Inc. footwear company headquarters is located in Niwot, along with My Mom's Pie Company - expensive but great tasting! There are chainsaw wood carving located at various places around the town and numerous "left-hand" sculptures.
Niwot was named for Arapaho Chief Niwot, who was left-handed. In the Arapaho language, "Kiwot" means "left-handed," so throughout the town there are left-handed sculptures that have been painted by various artisans.
While we were in Colorado, we decided to visit a few places that we remembered from when we lived in Aurora. We started at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center (where Nurse Linda worked) then drove by the old Fitzsimons Motel (first residence - rented rooms by the month). The Motel is now a residential condominium project (Cedar Crest Condoiniums located at 12245 E. 14th Street in Aurora) that is greatly depreciated. The Safeway store that was located just to the west of the Motel is now closed and in need of demolition. Our old apartment located at 1440 Galena Street appears that it may now also be a condominium project.
It is always fun to visit the Capitol Building in Denver and stand on the Capitol Building step that is exactly one-mile high (i.e., 5, 280 feet above sea level; thus, known as the "mile-high Capitol Building."
We drove by Union Station, but did not stop. The building had a major renovation in 2012 and is now the centerpiece of a new transit-oriented mixed-use development built on the site's former rail-yards. When we lived in Aurora, Your Father's Mustache in Larimer Square (close to Union Station) was the popular place to go in the evenings.
We would have stayed at Greg & Suzzie's longer, but they were in the process of moving to Parker (Colorado) and I was afraid that they would put me to work, so we headed for Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The road crossing the Continental Divide had been closed for several days due to a blizzard at the higher altitudes; but fortunately for us the sun came out and melted most of the snow and the road was reopened.
Before leaving the Park we stopped by the Holzwarth Historic Site, which is comprised of a number of cabins built in about 1919 as a guest ranch on a private homestead within the Park boundaries. The ranch was first known at the Holzwarth Trout Ranch and later as the Never Summer Ranch. The Nature Conservancy purchased the property in 1974 and then donated the land to the Park Service in 1975.
After leaving the Park, the road goes by Shadow Mountain Lake and Lake Grandby, which were surrounded by beautiful trees that were changing color.
No comments:
Post a Comment