Another nice day here in Colorado. My friends let me sleep a bit late this morning and then we all set over breakfast and read the local news. Not much in it on a Tuesday, and certainly not much of interest, except for the comics of course. It is always worth while to take a peek at them.

    Being Tuesday it was a 'Boys Night Out' movie day. We don't always do a movie on Tuesday, but it is the day we prefer to go if we can. Today's movie was the 'Expendibles 2', certainly not an award winning movie in any way, but a good choice for a boys night out. Basically it was lots of gratuitous violence perpetrated by all the big names in this type of movie genera, Willis, Stallone, Arnie, (I'm not even going to try and spell his last name), and all the rest. Just enough plot to hold the movie together but not enough to interfere with any fight or chase scene that the director thinks might be fun to film. That being said, it was still a fun afternoon out.

   Dinner over at the Red Robin afterwards. Emily still knows our drink and meal orders and half the other staff seem to now know us and stop by to see what movie we have just seen. Sure hope they aren't basing their movie going picks on our recommendations.

   Moved back over to Tom and Donna's this evening in preparation for our departure on Thursday. I still need to do most of my packing for the trip, but the camera case is now taken care of and after a load or two of laundry I'll get the water proof bags packed and ready to go.

   Have been having some problems up loading pictures the last couple of days. I thought it might be the WiFi signal over at G&M's, but it doesn't seem to be working any better over here either. So here are a few of the pictures I took over at the Boathouse at Washington Park, here in Denver. I'll try to load more as I get to them.

A view looking across the lake at the boathouse. I pretty much grew up on, and in, this lake during my teen years. My 1st real job was at the city Rec Center located just behind the boathouse. I started at 15 1/2 yrs old as a pool attendant and ended up as a full time lifeguard teaching swimming and lifesaving.

My best friend, Tom, started the boating program here on the lake when I was 13. From then on I was down here most days and sometimes half the night. I ended up teaching canoeing and sailing lessons with him once I was hired on at the rec center. It is still hard to believe that I got to spend all day out here on the water all summer long.... and they even paid me to do it. What a great way to grow up.

It still looks pretty much as it did way back then in the 70's. They rehabbed it last year, fixing plumbing, electrical and structural problems as well as adding a handicap ramp up to the top floor. I miss spending so much time down here in such a carefree manner, but what I really miss is seeing all the canoes and sailboats on the lake in the afternoon and evening. It was a pretty special time.

East facade.

North facade facing the lake. I spent many a day here teaching paddle strokes and sail theory to kids and adults. If you were 12 or older and could pass a 10 minute float test you could get 2 hours of lessons a day, for two weeks, for the grand total of $3. (Including book and Red Cross card)



Another view of the east side. I like all the details that are on the building. The ceramic tile, dentil mouldings and eave brackets. You don't see much of that any more.

 


Another view.