Ten thousand of us, all dressed warmly for Colorado's January morning, began and ended the march in front of the Denver City and County Building.
Four years ago, after Trump's inauguration when the Women's March outnumbered his crowd -- not to mention that it was nationwide. They said we women wouldn't keep it up. They were wrong!
Not only are we still marching, we are voting. As was the case during the 2018 March, there were plenty of people out registering voters and updating voter registrations.We flipped the House in 2018. And if the current Senate fails to do their duty, we'll clean out the White House for them and flip the Senate to boot.
Women's Right truly are Human Rights and Women's issues are everybody's issues. All kinds of people marched -- us seniors, middle-aged people with their teen children, young adults, young families with babies in strollers. All races and genders. People supporting all kinds of causes -- health care, the environment, education. The March took us under the Denver Museum of Art's sky bridge and alongside this sculpture. How appropriate is this?! Trump has been impeached and it's time to sweep him and his administration out!
Some of us wore
our shared
sentiments. There were signs, lots of signs.
Grey beard and sunglasses, my favorite!
Some signs were literary
Some witty,
Pretty funny, I thought. Most Colorado sign
Some heartfelt,
some rude.
And the chants, oh those chants. My favorite? "We want a leader not a creepy tweeter."
Somewhere before the 16th Street Mall Free bus back to Union Station, I lost my scarf. And my water bottle somewhere before The Mercantile Restaurant for lunch. (When I told my husband about the losses, he said I was like a little kid, he should attach everything to me with string.)
But I found something I'd begun to lose these past four years. Something very precious indeed. Faith in America's People.
Yes, that's me. Four days shy of three months after my second knee replacement. (Thank goodness I only have two.) And I'm back on Green Mountain.
This is as high as we went. You can see the trail across the draw. The trail head is around the left side of the ridge and down hill.
Scott and I spent a little more than an hour hiking. We didn't go to the summit. We will one day, but this was quite enough for my first foray. Even though the trail we chose was one of the lesser steep ones, it was still steep enough. My knees did great, but breathing, that was the hard part. It'll take a while to build my endurance back up.
Any place else, cloudy skies would be dreary, but this sky was magnificent.
I'd forgotten how unstable I feel at heights. I'm glad I had my hiking poles with me. I'd also forgotten that feeling of near panic when I hear a mountain bike approaching. I did remember to get off the trail on the uphill side. That way if they caused me to fall, at least I'd fall UP hill.
Not many trees, but lots of flowers. Different flowers for different seasons. I missed the spring flowers, but there were plenty of summer ones.
The yellow bloom is Prickly Pear This is Dwarf Lupine, a close
The white is Bind Weed, anathema relative to the beautiful plant
to wheat farmers everywhere. I planted this spring and
promptly killed.
Birds were also abundant. Western Meadowlarks, Black-billed Magpies, the ubiquitous American Robin, and one I'd not seen before the Western Tanager. The Tanager was fiercely defending his territory from a much larger Magpie.
Bird Photos from The Cornell Ornithology Lab, All About Birds
Scott on the trail
patiently waiting for me.
Every little bit of the way I'd comment on how beautiful it all was and how glad I was to get to see it again. After two guys passed us on their bikes, Scott said that I also got to see MAMILs. which I misheard as mammals. I know coyotes and mule deer and the occasional mountain lion can be found on Green Mountain, but we'd not seen any of them. In response to my confused look he explained, "Middle-Aged Men in Lycra."
Looking down on Denver as it disappears in the haze.
Our town is between Green Mountain and Denver so we didn't have far to go home.
Happy, Happy Feet!
P.S. Although I seldom travel far from home, living in the midst of vacation-land as I do, let me recommend a blogger friend of mine who does travel and blogs beautifully about her travels -- Anabel Marsh, The Glasgow Gallivanter.
Green Mountain is the focal point of William F. Hayden Park. At more than 2,400 acres, it is the second largest of Lakewood's more than 200 city parks.
Its altitude of 6,854 feet above sea level makes it one of the smaller of the Foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. But because it is rounded and treeless, Green Mountain is easily identifiable. And since I live in a neighborhood 1.8 miles and 1,100 feet down hill to its southeast, I can tell which way is home from almost anywhere in the Denver area.
the view from my neighborhood
from my backyard
When we first moved here from Oklahoma, hiking was not even in my vocabulary. My knees were bad. I had no experience with a climate that is conducive to outdoor activities twelve months out of the year. Nor any acquaintance with a culture that not only encourages walking and hiking but a city that maintains 180 miles of trails for walking, hiking, biking, and horseback riding. My attitude had always been, if you can't get there in a car, why would you go?
My husband lived on the north shoulder of Green Mountain two years before my Dad and I joined him here in Lakewood in December of 2012. At that time Scott was a runner and ran Green Mountain to train for marathons.
Lakewood also has four recreation centers that provide all kinds of fitness classes and our health insurance paid a little more than half the monthly fee, so I thought "Why not?" Besides, my husband was getting to see grand vistas and abundant wildlife and I wasn't physically able to go, too. I hate to be left out of anything.
My first goal was to reach the summit of Green Mountain. Exercise classes four days a week strengthened my legs enough that I could compensate for the bad knees. I walked our neighborhood including our own open space Hutchinson Park which has its share of walking and biking paths. But I could see that radio tower on top of Green Mountain. That was where I wanted to go.
Finally I started hiking Green Mountain. Scott would hike with me first on this trail, then on that, then on another. Always we would go just as far as I was able. We'd see wildlife.
five of a herd of eight Mule Deer a Meadowlark
And, sometimes hear wildlife -- like rattlesnakes. I never saw one, but I took their ominous sound seriously and moved away from the area.
The City of Denver Looking east from the base of the radio tower.
Views from the top of Green Mountain
I always thought the radio tower was at the summit. Here it is about a quarter of a mile to the east of the summit.
That sliver of a snow-capped mountain is Pike's Peak about 70 miles to the south.
Saint Mary's Glacier 34 miles west.
Here I am at the summit of Green Mountain April 21, 2013.
The old knees finally won the battle and I haven't been on Green Mountain in two years. But I had the right knee replaced December 29 and all went well, so we did the left one March 29. There's no reason not to expect a full recovery and hiking Green Mountain is now on the agenda for this summer.
Thank You Denver! #photooftheday #usa #tour #music #2cellos
I'm there! On the far right in the top balcony. You can't see me? You'll just have to take my word for it.
It's been years since I went to a concert, but I love these guys and I wanted to see them perform in person. Last year they toured the U.S. but Denver was not included. Midland, Texas, was included but not Denver. Midland? And not Denver. Really? Now, some of my favorite relatives live in Texas, but not in Midland!
My son John and his wife Sonja live near Dallas so they were able to go to the Dallas concert a year ago February. They introduced me to 2Cellos music. John plays cello. And their seven-year-old has just started lessons this year. John and Sonja very kindly bought me a T-shirt and waited in line to get it autographed. I wore that T-shirt lots, until I realized the autographs were fading from washing.
Then last November 2Cellos announced their 2016 American tour, and Denver was on the list. So I quick, quick bought two tickets.
I like all kinds of music. Maybe I should say many kinds of music. I'm not a fan of Country/Western, opera or operetta. Not fond of elevator music either.
My two favorite types of music are hard rock and classical. Watch this video and you'll see why I like these guys.
Welcome to the Jungle
The concert was in the Buell Theater in downtown Denver. Now driving in downtown Denver on a Saturday night is not my favorite activity, but the light rail goes downtown and it's cheaper than parking.
What I didn't know when I bought the tickets, was that the new light rail line out to the airport would be open for business the day before the 2Cellos concert. And it would be free from noon Friday until ten Saturday night. Denver International is no where near the Buell Theater. In fact, it's 26 miles from downtown Denver. But the entire light rail system would be free during that time.
Even better! I could see 2Cellos in concert and not have to drive downtown at night. Wouldn't use any gas and wouldn't have to pay lotsa money to park. I love the light rail.
Of course I gave my husband right of first refusal on the second ticket and he refused it. He's not a big 2Cellos fan and he's even less enamored of crowded performance halls. My daughter Grace quickly agreed to fill the void.
The only thing left for me to plan was what I'd wear. You watched the above video, right? So you know this was a rock concert even if it was being done in an upscale theater. My 2Cellos T-shirt of course.
Senior Citizen Fan Girl!
16th Street Mall in downtown Denver is a veritable smorgasbord of eateries. Everything from cloth-table-linens style seafood and steak places to fast food Mexican. We ate at The Market which is a little place stuffed to the gills with umpteen different kinds of coffees and teas, honeys, jams, and every kind of homemade dessert a heart attack could desire. I had a Reuben sandwich and coffee. Skipped the desserts. I was too excited about the concert.
Oh, and it's prom season here in Denver. A young man appropriately attired came in accompanied by three young women, all wearing full-length evening dresses. One of the girls was wearing a princessy dress in the same apricot color as the young man's tie and vest so she was probably his official date. They gathered up at the counter to order and he announced "Okay, ladies, order anything you want." A man after mine own heart.
My own Senior Prom date was very like this. One of my friends was a Cuban refugee and her parents were old-school so they wouldn't let her date, but she could go to Prom with me and my date. After dropping into a couple of standard Oklahoma-style after-parties, we went to her house where her parents were giving a party for us -- and all their Cuban friends and family. Wonderful food and music and dancing on the lawn.
But I digress. Back to downtown Denver. From The Market, it was a short walk to Denver's Performing Arts Complex and the Buell Theater. The Buell is beautiful. And huge. There's a bar on each floor. (Grace had champagne with the concert. I had water. Alcohol puts me to sleep.) And elevators, thank goodness. I do pretty well climbing stairs, but coming down is a slow and arduous process and I hadn't brought my hiking sticks.
Like I pointed out in the pic at the start of this blog, our seats were in the top balcony. I guess my fear of heights showed. The young woman ushering us to our seats suggested I walk on the side of the aisle with the railing saying, "Some people experience vertigo." Which I sometimes do and I did use the railing.
I was the only one there, at least that I saw, wearing a 2Cellos T-shirt. I did see a young man wearing an Oklahoma City Thunder T-shirt. That's a professional basketball team. And I'm originally from Oklahoma, so I thought I should speak to him. He was sitting a little ways away from us, but I figured I could shout "Thunder Up!" and he'd look around at me. Grace shushed me. She's not really shy or anything, she just has higher standards of deportment than I.
Oh, the concert. The concert!
Luka Šulić, born in Slovenia and Stjepan Hauser, born in Croatia, were classically trained and can play standard classical fare. But what makes them outstanding are their covers of songs by U2, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, etc. Instrumentally. They don't sing.
I swear Luka, the one on the left,
would fit right in with the Hrdlicka side of my family.
Theater employees in matching vests, dress shirts, and ties spent the pre-concert time moving through the audience telling people they couldn't take pictures or videos during the performance. Unlike most of the rock concerts I've been to, where the employees mingling were wearing matching brightly colored T-shirts marked SECURITY.
(Bye-the-by, when Luka and Stjepan came on stage, they said we could take all the pictures and videos we wanted.)
I do have to say that the audience was well-behaved and even though this is Colorado, there was no tell-tale smoke wafting through the light show.
In fact, I was a little concerned that the audience was too well-behaved. It seemed to take them a little while to get into it. But then they did and it was nonstop clapping, whistling, screaming, moving to the music.
In the old-days, I'd have danced in the aisles, but they were so steep and so high up. I limited myself to dancing in my seat. And singing along. It was so loud, nobody complained about my singing.
Speaking of loud, the couple behind us had brought their two young children, but they wisely had also brought hearing protection for the littles and both were sound asleep before the concert got well underway.
About half-way through the performance, their drummer came on stage. Drusan Kranjc is of the John Densmore (The Doors) school of drums -- hard and harder. With the intensity of the cellos (I bet you never thought of cellos as intense!) and the crashing drums the audience was pumping adrenaline.
My favorite pieces were "Welcome to the Jungle," "With or Without You," and a surprise for me The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction." OMG!
It was after 10 when we got back to the light rail and a Transit Authority cop was right there. I asked him if the freebie ended at ten like they said it would. He said, "It's supposed to, but we're not enforcing it. Go ahead. Get on." Yes!
2Cellos said they'd come back. Gonna start saving my money today. I want seats right down front!
Instead of a still pic of Janis, I'm putting up the Official Trailer. Give it a watch. I think you'll enjoy it. For Janis, you need sound and color and motion. The Amy Berg documentary has it all and more.
I heard about Janis: Little Girl Blue on NPR December 1. I wanted to see it, but where was it showing? It supposedly aired on PBS's American Masters on November 25 which should mean that I could stream it on my TV at home. Easy-peasy, no driving. Wear what I'm wearing. Have a nice whatever I want to eat and drink. Sounded lovely. But it was not meant to be. Janis: Little Girl Blue doesn't show up on PBS's American Experience website.
Surely it'd be showing somewhere in Denver. Yup. December 4, 7:30, The Sie FilmCenter. Of which I'd never heard. Located on East Colfax which was somewhere downtown.
The Sie FilmCenter is separated from The Tattered Cover by a sort of alleyway re-purposed for outdoor dining. I've been to the bookstore several times, but had never noticed the theater. You get me near a bookstore or library and I can't see anything else.
Colfax is Denver's primary east/west surface street. I knew how to get there. Except, it was December 4, the first of two holiday Parade of Lights. The parade would cross Colfax west of the theater -- that was between me and my destination. An alternative route would be necessary.
No problem. I'd just go the way I go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, my favorite place in Colorado. Cut north to Colfax and voila, I'm there.
Thank goodness, my daughter was with me, navigating. Who'd a thought the traffic would be so bad?! Guess it was Friday night in the big town with a parade that traditionally brought people into downtown by the hundreds, maybe thousands, from what I was seeing. And, like me, those folks weren't used to driving downtown in the dark with roads closed for a parade.
We got to the theater in plenty of time, took the elevated down from the parking garage to a subterranean theater lobby complete with bar and snack bar. And me, I thought I was so grown up at my regular movie theater where I can get a nice cappuccino and popcorn. Here I could get a nice margarita and popcorn.
We got to the window and Janis was sold out. BUT, we could take a number and see if anyone who'd bought a ticket online then cancelled or whatever, didn't show up, in which case we could buy those tickets, but we'd probably have to sit in the front row and may not be able to sit together. They'd let us know in about ten minutes.
I'd just driven through that traffic. The parade hadn't started yet and getting home would still be through that mess. The next showings of Janis: Little Girl Blue were sold out. My bad attitude was ignited and I wasn't about to come back downtown again anytime soon.
It worked out that we got two seats together and the front row seats have high backs so it was surprisingly comfortable to lean back and watch the show. And with the audience all behind me, it was as if they didn't exist. It was just Grace and I, our entire field of vision filled with the sights and sounds of my youth.
The documentary is very well-done. Lots of footage of Janis performing. It's matter-of-fact about the difficulties of being Janis Joplin, but not dreary. She did everything, be happy or be sad, full-tilt, just like she performed. And the film shows that.
Janis also has snippets from her letters to her family and interviews with her brother and sister that were enlightening and comforting. You get the idea that her family loved her and cared about her, kinda like the rest of us.
Janis: Little Girl Blue with its sights and sounds from an intense and turbulent time in our nation and lives brings back Janis's own passionate exhibition of that longing and laughter.
It was more than worth driving home in Downtown Denver traffic. All the lights and noise and people on the street just extended the experience.
P.S. I misread when Janis: Little Girl Blue will air on PBS's American Masters. It's next year some time. So we can all watch it again without the traffic.
P.P.S. Still glad I got to see it on the big screen.
That’s
how I always refer to it. It’s two miles from our house, but it’s recognizable
from almost any place in the Denver area because unlike the rest of the
foothills it has a bald, rounded top. So whether I’m at the Museum of Nature and
Science down in Denver or the Woodcraft store south of Denver in the town of Centennial,
I know which way is home.
This
picture was taken May 10, 2015, Mother’s Day. That was our last snow of the
2014-15 winter season. In this picture, weather is coming out of the mountains,
obscuring the taller foothills behind Green Mountain and the Front Range 14ers
behind them.
We moved to Denver almost four years ago from Edmond, Oklahoma. I had never been interested in exercise or hiking. In Oklahoma if you can't get there in a car, why go? The weather there is not conducive to outdoor activities in the summer -- too hot. Or the winter -- too cold. And there are few sidewalks or walking or biking trails in or near urban areas. They're changing though.
In Lakewood, which is our town, there are bike lanes and sidewalks and trails in the parks and open spaces. Green Mountain is in William F. Hayden Park.
Denver
is located at altitude 5,280 feet. Our house is at 5,700 feet and Green Mountain’s
summit is at 6,854 feet.
I’ve
hiked to Green Mountain's summit and I’ve walked its shoulders in every season. It’s
always beautiful – sometimes white with snow, sometimes brown and brittle. This
spring and summer it fits its name, green.
This
is my favorite starting point the Utah This
is my daughter Grace
Street Trail Head. No
motorized vehicles heading west up the trail. In
are allowed on the trails, but bicycles are that direction, as you can see, welcome as are horses and hikers.the sky was a brilliant blue.
But looking northeast,
out across the prairie that day, the haze almost completely obscured Denver.
Weather here is peculiarly local. Looking more to the east, back toward our neighborhood, you can almost see where the haze begins.
A month after the last snow of the season, wildflowers are peaking on Green Mountain.
Canadian Thistle Mariposa Lily
Orange Paint Brush Plains Larkspur
Prickly Poppy Saffron Ragwort
Yucca, also called Spanish Bayonet
After an hour on the mountain, I'm ready to head home and get ready for my exercise class. Not only do we have beautiful places to hike, but Lakewood has five rec centers with excellent facilities and staffs.
It's good to top the last ridge and be back where we began, Utah Street Trail Head.
Women's Right truly are Human Rights and Women's issues are everybody's issues. All kinds of people marched -- us seniors, middle-aged people with their teen children, young adults, young families with babies in strollers. All races and genders. People supporting all kinds of causes -- health care, the environment, education. The March took us under the Denver Museum of Art's sky bridge and alongside this sculpture. How appropriate is this?! Trump has been impeached and it's time to sweep him and his administration out!
