Bon Ton's

Bon Ton's Café is an enduringly popular eatery in Old Colorado City. It's been there for so long, I can't even remember when it first opened. And yet, AND YET (!!!) somehow I've never eaten there! Isn't that tragic? Doesn't the cheerful color scheme alone invite you to come on in and have a bite? I think Pat and I will have to remedy that situation soon!

The perfect truck

Pat has long been searching for an old pickup to buy, preferably a Ford from about 1968 to 1972-ish, but with no luck. So when we spotted this nearly immaculate 1969 Ford F100 at a tiny used car dealership in Fountain a couple of weeks ago, it was love at first sight. Just look at it! Alas, when we saw the price we weren't quite so enamored, so off we went. Sigh. One of these days we'll find the perfect old truck for the perfect price.

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A street snap I took on December 29th, exactly a month ago, in Old Colorado City.

Sunday Style!

My Sunday Style subject for today came down with the flu! In fact I hardly have any friends who haven't been afflicted by the cursed bug this season. Thus I have no stylish person to show you today, but I do have these pretty cotton blouses that I spied in a shop window downtown. We're still months away from spring, but don't tell the fashion industry that.

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The facade of Lucky Devil Tattoo on Bijou Street (which, by the way, is owned by the nephew of my friend Stephani's ex-boyfriend) is especially striking. Admittedly I cannot resist red and black! But I also like the old-timey look of the typeface.

Skywatch Friday

Pat and I came across this near the entrance of Fountain Creek Regional Park a couple of weekends ago: a roof with no building! Isn't that odd? Usually when you see a building in ruins, it's the other way around, a building with no roof. I can't figure out how the heck this happened. But hey, it makes for a good photo.

For more Skywatch Friday images from bloggers all over the world, click HERE. Have a great weekend!

Skating on thin ice

Pat and I stopped by Fountain Creek Regional Park a couple of weekends ago, where we found these geese hanging out on the ice. It's cute when they walk on it, because their little feet slide and it really does kind of look like they're skating. Or moonwalking. 😏

The 2018 Women's March on Colorado Springs

One year to the day from last year's inaugural march, multitudes of Colorado Springsians once again gathered downtown to make their voices heard loud and clear. I participated with Pat and our friend Rachael and it was freezing -- 24° F with wind gusts up to 40 MPH. I mean cold, cold, cold! Even so (and with a football final playoff game happening right smack in the middle of it), I estimate the turnout was a good two to three thousand hardy and determined people. A number of causes were represented, among them DACA, #MeToo, universal healthcare, climate change and the environment in general, equal rights, racism, science, the Russian investigation, and the personality and tweeting habits of the current occupant of the Oval Office. I took lots of pictures, but not as many as last year because the weather was far more inhospitable this time around, so we left earlier in the festivities before we could succumb to frostbite!

Weather aside, it was just as energizing as ever to be part of an enormous, motivated and purposeful group of people. I was pleasantly surprised by the huge turnout. We marched in a chanting throng from All Souls Unitarian Church to City Hall, a distance of eight blocks. As happened last year, the police resorted to closing down traffic lanes for us, as there were far too many people for the sidewalk. There was about half an hour of extremely energetic chanting and demonstrating at City Hall, then the crowd began to head back to the church. We were shocked to find that as we were walking back to where we started, there were still huge numbers of people making their way in the opposite direction!

Here's a little slide show I made with some of the moments I was able to capture. (It uses the same music as last year's slide show, sorry about that but my free time last night was limited!) It bears mentioning that if you happen to fall into the opposite camp on the aforementioned issues, this slide show will likely do nothing but irritate you, so you should probably skip it and come back to the blog tomorrow, when I will return to being pleasantly apolitical. 😉  Cheers!

A multitude of causes and voices

Just like last January, on Sunday afternoon I participated in the Women's March on Colorado Springs. I took quite a few pictures but I haven't yet figured out which ones to share, so for today I'll just post this one of the crowd gathered at City Hall after marching several blocks in the cold. Even though we were chilled to the bone, the energy level all around us was extremely high. It was fantastic! I can't wait to show you more images tomorrow!

Day trip to Salida (Part 5)

Here's the last of my little series from last Monday's day trip. I was en route to pick up Pat as he finished skiing, and I stopped for a minute to grab a few pictures of this farm with its magnificent backdrop. How would you like to have this incredible vista in your backyard? Yes, please!

Sunday Style!

Meet Wailani, whom I ran into at the supermarket the other night. I loved her cool, urban look so I asked her for a picture. Unfortunately a cell phone snapshot under fluorescent lighting in the soup aisle just didn't do her justice, so she kindly agreed to pose for me again this afternoon, downtown. Since the Women's March was about to kick off, she wore a pink hat in solidarity (also: it was absolutely frigid out there). Love her coat and boots, and check out the fun bootlaces! I love people with a strong sense of personal style. She wears it well.

Day trip to Salida (Part 4)

A few snaps from my afternoon wandering around Salida on Monday, while Pat skied nearby Monarch Mountain. Salida is officially my favorite little mountain town. Can you see why? I love it there.

Day trip to Salida (Part 3)

A couple of snaps of skiers and snowboarders on Monarch Mountain. Pat's a good skier but it's really not my sport, so I dropped him off and headed back down to nearby Salida to kill some time by myself. I'll post pictures of my afternoon in Salida next.

Day trip to Salida (Part 2)

Backtracking a little from yesterday's post, we stopped in Cañon City for a quick pit stop halfway through our little road trip. I took this picture while Pat gassed up the car. I absolutely love that font. Everything about this sign makes me happy! And it's hard to see in this picture, but just above the door there's some small lettering that reads "Sinton Office." Sinton Dairy is in Colorado Springs, so there's a connection to my city in this cool old building.

Day trip to Salida (Part 1)

On Monday we headed to Salida so Pat could ski Monarch Mountain. Colorado Springs was cold and wet, and for most of the 100+ mile drive, things looked pretty dreary. But about three quarters of the way there, we could suddenly see blue skies and white capped mountains in the distance. I documented the transition from the passenger seat with my camera. The photo at the top of this post shows how foggy and chilly it was at the outset of our adventure. The next photo shows how the weather front abruptly ends, and the last photo shows bright blue skies. Colorado, gotta love your crazy weather!

Very large birds

I don't know about you, but birds the size of Labrador retrievers make me nervous. These turkeys were wandering around in the front yard of a house south of Fountain, on a rural road. That one on the right had murder in his eyes. Cold blooded killer, I tell you.

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A snapshot taken yesterday on Pikes Peak Avenue, looking east from Tejon Street.

Sunday Style!

I caught this stylish lady out lunching/brunching/coffee-ing/shopping downtown with her girlfriends earlier today. She looks great and I love her neutral grey tunic. Nice chic, comfy outfit for casual Sunday activities!

620 South Cascade

Kind of a bad picture of a cool old building. It's called Cascade Station, though I'm sure that's a new-ish name and not what the building was originally known as. I can't find the year it was built but the quasi Jacobean Revival/Tudor architecture suggests the early 1900s to me.

January 17, 2018 update: I was informed by my friend Darrell, who works in the real estate industry and is able to easily look these things up, that this building was actually erected in 1984! I think they did a great job of integrating into this neighborhood of century+ old structures.

Skywatch Friday

Keeping it simple today with an austere image of the 1st Bank building (or if you've lived here as long as I have, the Holly Sugar building) against a winter blue sky. For more Skywatch Friday images from bloggers all over, click HERE. Have a great weekend! 

Finally

It's January the 11th and we finally have a dusting of snow on the Peak. I can't call it Mount Baldy anymore, at least not for today. So pretty!

And now, for your listening pleasure...

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It's been a while since I last featured the Pioneers Museum on the blog. Here's how she looked on January 6th. The red brick building in the background is the Plaza of the Rockies.

Very odd

The spires of Saint Mary's Cathredral had some strange company the other day. There were a few little round clouds like this in the sky. I've never seen such a thing.

"Mount Baldy"

Pikes Peak should have long had a mantle of white on it by now, but it's almost completely devoid of snow. I've never seen it so bare this far into winter. No fourteener should look like this in January! We have had temperatures consistently in the fifties for months, except for a few chilly days, and have had almost no snow accumulation in the city at all this winter. It's 10:45pm as I type this, and the temperature is 42°. That's crazy. Tomorrow they're predicting 62°.

I heard that it might rain on Wednesday and I certainly hope it does. But I'd feel a lot better if it snowed instead.

Sunday Style!

Caught this stylish lass out shopping downtown yesterday afternoon. Head to toe cute!

Keep it simple.

Seen on East Bijou Street, a thoughtful message for the new year. Keep it simple, friends. 😊

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Today was another nice day, but unfortunately I wasn't out there to enjoy it because I am STILL sick. Can you believe it?!? Six days and counting! Every time I think I'm feeling better, I backslide (did I tell you that I developed a bad sinus infection on top of the flu, halfway through the week?). This is taking forever. All I can say is, get a flu vaccination. I wish I had. This is Influenza A and you don't want it, I assure you.

All of this means that I didn't take a picture for you today. Here's a street scene from December 29th, taken in Old Colorado City. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel good enough to go out and about with my camera. Wish me luck!

No longer a shut in

I've been down with the flu since last Saturday night, but hey I finally made it outside today! I'm serious, I have not left the house in five days, so this was a big deal. I was feeling pretty crummy this afternoon but I had an errand to run downtown and it couldn't be put off. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I was so happy to be outdoors, even if only for a few minutes. I took this photo from Arts Alley. Downtown was curiously almost deserted. I had to wait for quite a while for a pedestrian to walk into my frame.

Formerly known as The Ritz

Another popular bar that closed recently, The Ritz, is being reopened soon as Colorado Craft, apparently. I suppose that must be a beer related thing. (I love beer!) It's kind of weird not having The Ritz around anymore. It's been there forever. I remember hanging out there in the '80s. On the other hand, I never found it much fun (sometimes it got a little grope-y) so I wasn't a regular. It'll be fun to see what they've done with the place.

By the way I'm still sick, but there's light at the end of the tunnel! I passed out on the couch for most of the day, but I think that was mostly residual Nyquil having its way. I don't feel nearly so crummy and Pat even perked up for a few hours during the evening. We sat and watched a bunch of episodes of Simon & Simon. There's something about being under the weather that goes hand in hand with old 1980s detective shows. So hey, there's hope for us sickos yet! Thanks for the well wishes, everyone!

Southside Johnny's

Southside Johnny's is alas no more, having closed a few months ago. It was a popular place. The owner (Johnny, of course) moved on when the lease payment went up, and now he's opened a new place on Colorado. He also owns the Navajo Hogan. The former Southside Johnny's location is in the midst of a big renovation for its new occupant, and I'm sure this iconic sign will soon be gone.

I'm on Day Three of this dreadful illness and boy is it ever getting old. Highlights this morning included high fever and terrible nausea, hooray! But I rallied around dinnertime and have actually been up and about for a few hours. I'm starting to feel sick again, though, so it's back to bed for me soon. And unfortunately now Pat has got this cursed virus, so now it's my turn to nurse him back to help. Wish us luck! We are a pretty miserable lot over here right now.

January 2018 Theme Day: Photo of the Year

I'm still sick. The kind of sick that puts you in bed for two or three days straight, and forget about doing anything but cough and sleep. The best I can do is stagger to the bathroom occasionally. (Apologies for any typos. I'm so zoned out on cold meds, I don't know up from down. It's a wonder I can type at all.)

Usually I pick several pictures for the January 1st Theme Day every year, but given that I can barely function, I just chose one this time. It's an image that I featured on April 27th, taken from the second or third floor of the MCA Denver. I just really like how confusing it is. The subject matter is mundane -- people crossing the street -- but the reflective panel on the building creates a reflection of another street angle and it's slightly disorienting.

For more interesting Photos of the Year from talented City Daily Photo bloggers all over the planet, click HERE. And Happy New Year!