There is a pink building in west Lakewood That draws crowds from all over the nation. The cuisine they serve is not very good, And bills have gone through a price explosion. But it is hard to resist the cliff diver Performing to a Mariachi band. The roaming gorilla is the driver For the amount of fun to be on hand. They will keep your margarita glass filled, So you can explore Black Bart’s Cave. The puppet show is just as it is billed, And the illusionist is all the rave. My lost childhood is ready to meet ya In the world famous Casa Bonita.
In an old strip mall that has a bunch of dying shops that I have driven by numerous times during my fifty years of stomping around Littleton, there is a shop that has opened in the last ten years called Enchanted Grounds. I have known about it, but its non-descript sign and the closed blinds made me think that it was a dump that was biding its time until it would close down and another business would take its place. This was until I needed to find a place to finish up my Dungeons and Dragons campaign and somebody suggested that I check out this place. So I took a walk down the street to see if it would be a great place to finish up the campaign.
What I found there was one of those places that I had been looking for ever since I have gotten back into the board game hobby. It was a cozy little cafe with large tables where you could set up games for up to ten people if needed. There were plenty of tables too and when I asked if I would need a reservation for a table, they chuckled and said that this was not usually necessary. They also sold a fair amount of good games, books for various role playing games, miniatures for these games as well as the paint to make them your own.
What made it perfect was the coffee and small bites served by a delightful staff. I wouldn’t want to indulge in these during the nighttime, but during the day, it was the perfect way to jumpstart me on my way. There were many people there that were enjoying a coffee drink while playing a game, browsing for a new one, or just hanging out with their friends. It just showed me that I shouldn’t judge a place by its outside because when I walked inside, I instantly fell in love with the place. It will be a long time before I am able to make my way back there, but it is nice to know that it is there and has a big enough clientele that they will still be in business by the time I make my way back to the United States to enjoy it again.
I was watching an episode of South Park a few years ago with my wife. It was the episode where Cartman convinced Butters that he had travelled in time to a post-apocalyptic world just so he could take his spot to go to a birthday party at Casa Bonita. My wife could not believe how much I was laughing, and she could not understand what was so funny. I pointed at the screen, and told her that Casa Bonita was exactly like that. She looked at me and stated, “That place is real!”
Yes, Casa Bonita is a real place, and it holds a special place for many people who grew up in Denver. There have been many birthday parties that I went to at this place, and my memories of it are fond, even though the food was never any good. It had been a staple of Denver for many years, and the legend grew because of the South Park episode. Still, the old building started to fall apart, and fewer people came, and eventually they had to close down. It laid abandoned for many years.
This was until Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, saw an opportunity to refurbish the building, and return Casa Bonita back to its glory days. They came in and put back together the crumbling infrastructure of the building. They added a real kitchen that could actually cook more than two items. They hired a chef to make the food worth the visit. And they kept the magic that made Casa Bonita the place it was, it is, and as it should be.
They obviously kept the arcade that was a part of all childhood memories of any location that we went to while children. They kept a few of the games that we loved so much. I was able to find Centipede, Ms. Pac Man, and Galaga. They have also updated many of the games, and there are some more modern ones to appeal to the younger generation. And if you are into useless crap, you can still try your hand at Skeeball to get a bunch of tickets to buy that crap.
Of course, they could not get rid of Moco, the gorilla that walks around with its handler where you can your picture with it. It is odd to see when you first witness it walking around, but in a place as strange as Casa Bonita, it somehow seems to fit.
There are also many other forms of entertainment to keep you in the building and enjoying yourself. You can sit through one of the puppet shows where a talking taco will make you laugh with all the food pun jokes that it can come up with. If that is not your cup of tea, you can get your fortune read, watch an illusionists, or watch a mariachi band. It is all a little schticky but if you lean into the schtick, it makes it a lot of fun and you no longer notice the schtick.
And of course, they kept the thing that made Casa Bonita the legend that it is in Denver, the cliff divers. Of course they have not kept the original cliff divers, but the replacements they have found are still skilled in the abilities to dive and entertain. Parker and Stone have also made the diving safer for those entertaining the crowds. Rumor has it that the old place where the divers came out of the pool was the electrical room for the restaurant. The new place is free from accidents happening that would cause quite the stir in the newspapers if they happened.
Casa Bonita has returned back to its glory days, and has become a tourist destination in Denver. If you are thinking about going while visiting the city, keep in mind that at this time, it is hard to get a reservation. I had to get mine four months in advance, and it happened because the person that made the reservation had special status with the restaurant. It is a little pricey now, but it is a lot of fun and worth the visit. I’m just glad to know that the pink building in Lakewood is not sitting there empty, and laughter and joy still ring out from its halls. It might be another thirty years before I go back again, but I am glad that I was able to sneak in this one time while visiting home.
International travel is a challenge to begin with, but if you add a blizzard to the final destination that causes all airports to be delayed over the world, it adds another layer to the experience. My recent trip to Denver was one of these experiences. It just meant an added leg to the journey, and the joys of trying to hunt down a lost bag.
I know that it may not look like it at times during the journey, but I am glad that I was able to eventually make it to my final destination, and only four hours behind the original time. For that, I am impressed by the airlines’ ability to work together, and come up with quick solutions to make this happen for so many people. In the end, it is still a slog, and when I finally made it to my hotel last night, I was a barely functioning human being who needed a shower and soft bed.
There were many times on this voyage where I did not think it was going to happen, and I kept thinking of alternative solutions of how to get where I was going within the time that I needed to make it happen. Navigating airports to find the people that you need is not always easy. My first understanding that things were not going the way I was hoping they would came when I landed in Frankfurt. A text appeared on my phone saying that I had been rebooked on a different flight, and I needed to talk to people at the Lufthansa counter to get my new tickets. For those who have been in the Frankfurt airport, you will know that this sprawling building is hard to navigate to begin with, but to find a certain small counter tucked away in one of its corners is even more difficult. I found a couple that were not being manned at the time I arrived, but eventually I found the one I needed.
They were able to get me on a couple new flights that diverted my more direct route, and get me to snowy Colorado. It was not what I wanted to do, but I was glad that I was able to make it. I had to keep telling myself during the whole journey that this was an adventure and I just needed to go along for the ride. If I let things get to me then it would have been a miserable experience, but because of my attitude, it turned out to be a mild inconvenience. In reality, I have been lucky with all of the travels that I have had, and it has only been this trip that has had problems with it. This was bound to happen at some time, and I should not be surprised that it happened during a blizzard. So I will not let this discourage me from traveling again.
So until next time, adventure is out there, and will come in some of the most unexpected places, so get out there and enjoy it.
It has been another year around the sun, and it is time to look back and reflect on those moments that made this year great. It has been nice to know that the recent lockdowns brought on by the pandemic are behind us, and the world has opened up again. This means that travel is back, and many people took advantage of this fact to get out there and see many places on their bucket lists. I was no different. I was in eight different countries last year, three of which I have never been in before. During that time, I was able to tell you all about my experiences in this blog, and what follows are the posts from last year that connect with you the most.
Every year my siblings get together during the summer to go camping some place in the Colorado mountains. It has always been one of my favorite trips of the year because I get to visit with my family in one of my favorite places in the world, the Rocky Mountains. Usually, we get site at the state park close to Golden, Colorado, and spend our time hiking, cooking, and hanging around a campfire. It is a great place to visit if you find yourself in Colorado during the summer, and one I would recommend looking into.
It had been a few years since I had made it to Vietnam, and the last time I was out there, they were still putting in place the infrastructure to turn it into the tourist destination it has become today. Even before this, the Old Quarter in the heart of one of its greatest cities, Hanoi, held a fond memory in my mind. It is the place where all of the Vietnamese people converge to enjoy a night out. It has amazing food, jazz can be heard playing on the street corners, and there are tons of shops to find that perfect souvenir. I didn’t think it was possible, but it had become even busier than the first time I had gone out and visited, but still was worth the effort to make it back to.
There were many highlights from my trip to Scotland, but the one that stood out the most had to be the Isle of Skye. We arrived by ferry, and left by bridge, but spent the whole time exploring every nook and cranny that this island had to offer. Some of the best hikes in the country can be found here with views of mountains, rock formations, and the ocean that stretches out beyond. I was lucky enough to be out there during the off-season, but even then, we had to plan ahead to make sure we got reservations at restaurants, but still there were many times where it felt like we had the island to ourselves. It is one of those places that I know I will come back to visit again some day, and it holds some of the fondest memories from the year for me.
This was one of two poems I posted this year that made the list. It had been one of my favorite ones that I have written because it highlights one of the biggest reasons why I started this blog in the first place. I wanted to share those memories with people out there, and inspire them to go out and collect some of their own.
This was the first post I added this last year, and the second sonnet to appear on this list. It reflects on the time that I spent last holiday season in Oman, and like many poems I write at the end of the year and the start of a new one, it had me thinking about where my life had taken me. I know that nothing really changes on New Year’s Day, but it still is a nice time to take reflection of our lives, and think about where the next step in them will take. It is the reason you see so many posts like this one at the end of the year.
Edinburgh is easily one of my favorite large cities in the world. It is so atmospheric, and it reminds me of walking into a Charles Dickens’s story. One of the spots that I enjoyed the most stood at the edge of town. At this spot, a big hill, or small mountain, (depending on your perspective) beckons for you to hike to its top. Of course, I had to heed that call with a bunch of other people on one of the coldest days I experienced while out there. They call it Arthur’s Seat even though it has no connection to this legendary king. It is still worth the effort to see the view from the top.
Like a lot of people, during the Covid years, I got back into board gaming. It was something that I enjoyed a lot during my youth, and now that there are a bunch of games being created with adults like me in mind, it was the perfect time to get back into the hobby. Since then, I have spent some time with the games I have been adding to my collection by writing reviews about them. This year, I wrote about a classic light role playing game, Betrayal at House on the Hill. This wasn’t going to make the list this year, but right around Christmas time, it got a surge of hits as people started to wonder if this was a good gift or not. I just hope my review was helpful to them in deciding whether or not it was.
Though many of my travel posts come from other countries that I live near, I still do some traveling in the country I live in. I discovered a hidden spot this past year that has easily become one of my favorite in Jordan. It is not as dramatic as Petra, or Wadi Rum. It is not as touristy as the Dead Sea, or Aqaba. It is not as historic as Jerash, or Amman. But it is the place that many of the people of Jordan go to in order to unwind. Hidden in the mountains near the Dead Sea is a hot spring call Ma’in that I have found is the perfect place to unwind.
I travelled with my school’s track and field team to compete in a meet in Chennai, India this last year. It was a really busy trip, and I spent most of my time going back and forth between the school and the hotel with the team. I did have a short amount of time where I was able to get away to do some shopping for my wife for Valentine’s Day, and got to ride in a tuk tuk to get that shopping done. It was not the most unique experience of my life time, but it did make me reminiscent of my time spent living in Thailand.
It always surprises me what becomes the most popular post of the year. I usually think it would have to do with the ones I spend a lot of time on, and have deep philosophical things that I contemplate on. And then there are ones like this one where I got stuck waiting in Denver International Airport while waiting for the late arrival of my wife’s plane. I used to work at this airport, and it is currently undergoing a renovation, but it still has retained its weird nature. This post talked about how proud I am of my hometown as it retains its strangeness in this iconic airport.
Ever since Denver International Airport was created, there has been controversy surrounding it. The designers had some bizarre ideas of how to give the place its decor, and it ended up with some really weird pieces of artwork. There used to be the murals depicting children presiding over the death of an animal on a World War II kind of battle field. There was the strange Native American music constantly playing on the bridge to Concourse A. And there were the strange gargoyle that could be found in the baggage claim area. The strange design of the landing strips along with all of this art created an environment ripe for the emergence of conspiracy theories. It did not help much that in order for Denver to be considered a city worthy of the international scene, they erected an anatomically correct giant blue horse rearing up on its hind legs and staring at you with its devil red eyes as the first thing travelers see as they leave the airport and head into the city.
Denver became a strange place in the mind’s of the people living outside of it all of because of its airport. Considering the airport recently turned twenty-five years old, the fine people of the city decided that it needed a remodeling. I have been to the airport a few times since and have not had time to notice the strange artwork anymore because everywhere I turned I ran into the signs of construction in process. Most of the time I came, I was in a rush to get out of the airport or rush to a plane that was getting ready to leave, so I did not have time to look for signs of the things that made this airport unique.
I got stuck in the main building recently, and had an opportunity to walk around and look for the strange sights that I had come to know over the years of living in Denver. I did not think that they would keep the bizarre artwork in the hopes of becoming more respected internationally, but I was surprised to see this was not the case. Despite having to navigate through the construction, they have done an amazing job of modernizing the building, giving it a sleek and user friendly kind of design. And though a couple of the pieces of art could have been hidden behind construction walls, many of the strange pieces that made DIA weird were still there. I could find the gargoyles, the Native American music playing, the horse, and a couple of these murals even though the oddest ones were still hidden. It made me relieved that DIA would embrace this weird aspect of itself, and I hope that it never loses it.
So the next time you travel through Denver try to find these weird aspects of the airport, and embrace the odd nature of DIA. And if you know of any weird things that I should find in other places in the world, let me know, so I can hunt them down for myself.
Summer Break is one of the greatest perks for teachers. It is a time for them to unwind from a busy school year, and recharge their batteries so they can be ready for their students in the fall. For some teachers, it is a time to take on some projects that they have forgotten about during the regular school year. For others, it is a time to travel around the world and create those memories that they can think back to when things get tough. For an international school teacher, it is a time to travel back to the places they left behind and catch up with loved ones, and friends.
This creates a strange dichotomy for those international teachers, and it gets weirder the longer that they stay abroad. There is a life that they return to for a couple of months every year, and though they will fall back into those routines that they used to live, they are still guests to a life they used to live. On the other hand, when they are back at their respective schools in various places around the world, they are leaving behind their home town and the identity that they built over the years of living there. It is almost like they are living two lives, and throughout the course of the year, they experience those two sides of themselves.
Some people would claim that this is true for anybody that moves away from their home town to a new location, and there is some truth to this. Those people have those moments where they head back to where they are from when they are trying to pick up what they left behind. But it is like holding on to the ocean as it laps against the shore. There is no way that they are going to be able to hold on to it because it keep drifting away from them. They can experience it for that short moment that they are back home, but as soon as they leave, it will be gone again.
Though international teachers have the same problem when they are back in their home towns, there is a little more permanence to their trips. A lot of that time is spent catching up with those people that are still there, but they have more time to settle in. It is not just a week or two of vacation, but a couple of months where they still have things they have to attend to in their other life. I have been back in the States on numerous occasions where I have had to work on professional development, or create plans for the upcoming school year. Any teacher will tell you that their work does not end during the summer vacation. They might not work as much, but they are still working. It takes away this notion of being on a two month vacation where you are visiting friends and family, and it turns into you living in that place where you came from for a period of time.
It is not like it is a bad voyage, returning to this life that you left behind, but it means that the life that you are living is the one that you left behind. I spent two months this summer living out of a suitcase, moving from place to place, trying to get little things done for the upcoming school year, and watching videos of my puppy that were sent by the boarding facility where she was staying. The life I have been living over the last nine years was placed on hold.
This is not to say that I did not enjoy my time in the United States. It is always a pleasure to go back and get to spend this time with my family. At the same time, there comes a moments where I want to get back to the place where I spend most of my life right now. I am looking forward to get home. When I feel this way, I know that the holiday has been a good one. It has gotten me to the place where I need to be, a place where I am excited to get back to work and refreshed after a long break with the ones I love. I also will not have to lead this duel existence again until the next trip out to the United States when I am ready to go back.
So, I would like to thank America for the great summer as I say great to see you again to Jordan. I can’t wait to get back to my original home, but it is also nice to be back home at the same time.
What do you do if your nephew invites you to go see a band you have never heard of in a small club in the downtown part of the city you find yourself in? Well, if you have been following this blog, you would know that the answer to that question is, go. I don’t know what I am about to see. It could be great, or it could be a disaster, but either way it will be an adventure.
So I went down to the Larimer Lounge in Downtown Denver with my brother and his son to see a Canadian singer named Ekkstacy. We actually listened to his music on the way down so I could see what I was getting myself into. It was mellow with a little bit of an emo vibe to it. The music wasn’t what I usually listen to, but I liked it enough that I thought it was worth the price of admission.
What I saw brought me back to my college days. The performance had a lot more energy to it than the tracks we listened to while driving down to the show. The show happened in a cinder block room with poor acoustics, and filled with a younger crowd that knew the words to the songs, and jumped around while loosing themselves to the music. There were pits that formed for these short songs that burst into the room and left before they overstayed their welcome. In other words, I found myself at a punk rock show.
It wasn’t something that I had been to in quite a long time, and I did not rush into the madness like I would have in my youth, but it was fun to be back at a show like this. I do not go to many shows anymore, partly because I live in a country where bands don’t come through as much, and partly because the bands I would love to see cost way too much anymore. So it was fun to go and see a show in the raw and be exposed to a new band that I probably would have never listened to if it wasn’t for my nephew. Oddly enough, the scene had not changed that much since my time as a college student when I would go see bands like this more often.
So the next time somebody suggests you go out and try something new that might take you to a place where you have not been for a long time, say yes. It might transport you back to a time you had forgotten about, and present you with a new experience that you will never forget about.
When you grow up in the Denver Metro area, the Platte River is the river that you base all other rivers off of. At first, I thought it was huge, and I could not imagine another river that could compete with it, but that was before I took a road trip back east. My family drove over a bridge that demonstrated the might of the Mississippi River, and for the first time in my life, I had seen a real river. I have since come across other powerful waterways in other parts of the world, and when I come back to Colorado and look at the Platte River, I am embarrassed to think that at one time I could consider this river as something worthy of note. At times, it is nothing more than a trickle that pushes water over a muddy terrain as it winds its way through Denver and beyond.
The weather, like in many places in the world, has been quite unusual in Colorado this year. They have experienced more rain than they ever have in their recorded history. It was the third rainiest May, and the rainiest June. There are have been a couple of hailstorms during this period, and even a tornado. After a really wet winter, there is a lot of water that is filtering its way to the rivers of Colorado.
Luckily, the rivers have not overrun their banks, and the upcoming weather looks like that this will be the height of the rivers. Denver should not experience the problems that are occurring because of the rain in the New England area of the country. On the other hand, it has turned Denver into a city bursting with green, and rivers that could be used as an escape from the heat. This is something that Denver cannot boast about on a regular basis, but they are taking advantage of it.
The paths that follow the rivers throughout the city have turned into a recreation place during this summer. I have walked these paths many times throughout my time living there, and they are great places to ride your bike or go for a walk, but they have been transformed even more since I have been on them. The businesses that back up to the path use it as another way to attract more customers to come and visit them. There are many coffee shops, and bars that offer a spot to stop for a drink while watching people enjoy the river. The river itself is being used for fishing, and tubing. It had never been deep enough to let people participate in these activities, especially tubing. If you had tried it in the past, you would have beached yourself on any of the many sandbars that jut out from the water. Now, you can see a steady stream of people renting tubes from the Breckenridge Brewery, and walking along Santa Fe as they make their way further up the river so they can spend some time riding down it. It had become a central part of the city, and I have found myself a part of the people who are their ways to the river to enjoy what it has to offer this summer.
It still does not feel right to say that about the Platte, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.
Beer Gardens are places where you can go and meet your friends while sitting outside on a nice summer evening. Instead of having a waiter that comes around to help you with food and drink selections, you need to go up to the bar or the counter to get service. It is a nice time in a fun atmosphere.
It seems to be the trend in America to have more of these types of places pop up. I have been to places like this now in Oregon, and Minnesota so far, and I recently found one in Denver, the Lowry Beer Garden.
A long time ago in Denver, there was a place called the Lowry Air Force Base. It was eventually shut down as the city grew, but the hangers have remained in place. Some of them have been turned into museums and other businesses, but one of them was turned into a beer garden. It has turned into the go to place in this gentrified neighborhood in Denver. People can walk there, or ride their bikes on the large streets to enjoy the evening out with their neighbors. The place even has entertainment to keep bringing people in. The night that I was there, they were playing bar trivia, but we were sitting in the outside area and could not really hear the questions or participate in the game.
The beer is also really good. They do not brew their own beer, but they are in Colorado where great beer can be found everywhere. The establishment partners with the local breweries to rotate beers in and out, and there will always be one that you can find that adheres to your tastes.
The food was decent too. It was all made there; whereas, a lot of the other places like this just have food trucks come out to take care of this part of the experience. They really didn’t serve anything fancy, your basic pub fare of burgers, brats, and fried appetizers. They were reasonably priced, and it did not take that long to get the food.
Overall, I love this trend that is happening in America. It is a unique experience that I have not come across in many other places in the world. I do believe that it works better during the summer time, and I wonder how well these places do when things get colder outside, but I am out here during those hot months right so I will continue to seek these places out.
John Collings 