Denver and The Last Day

On my very last day in Denver, I met with Elaine, a woman who showed me a side of the city I had not yet seen in the 24 days previous. A friend of mine from high school introduced us at the last minute. I am so happy I got to spend a bit of time with her in Denver before my four day train ride to Austin. As great as I think Denver is, this little tour made me believe it is even greater.

The whole thing started at 8 am at Common Grounds Cafe in LoDo, or the historic lower downtown district of Denver. I met Elaine there and drank a delicious house-made Chai as she told me why she loves Common Grounds.

"This is my favorite place because it is so vibrant in the mornings. When the rest of us are barely waking up, this place is humming. It's easy to meet people here. Part of it is that I work in the suburbs, and I love coming down here. The energy in the city in the morning is so different from any other time of day. Everybody is starting fresh. It's just great. It is good energy. The woman who owns this is very welcoming and inclusive. In here it's cowboys, people in suits, workmen, artists, it is very diverse."


Elaine brings people to Common Grounds for meetings and meets the students that she teaches at CU at the cafe all the time. She says a lot of it has to do with the welcoming and creative nature of the owner.

"She treats everyone like family. It's great. This is where everybody meets. If you have a business meeting early in the morning or something, this is where to do it. They serve beer at night. On Veteran's day she dressed in her father's flight suit, and she had medals, pictures of him wearing his medals, and she told everyone that her hero was coming in that day. She was so excited about having her father come in and see her coffee shop. It was a big deal. She had it all decorated for him. She gave Veterans free drinks. It didn't matter what it was that they wanted. She treats people like people, not customers."


After we finish at Common Grounds, Elaine offers to walk me around LoDo and show me the sights. Elaine has a background in historic preservation and sustainability and she has worked on or been privy to many building projects in LoDo.

Elaine takes me to Larimer Square, and we walk up and down the street, under the strings of lights. We walk through The Market at Larimer Square, look at some of the original buildings that have been restored, and then she takes me to a place that I would have to call a game changer.

The Tattered Cover

As we walk, the old floor boards creak and moan beneath our foot steps, the smell of creativity, books and coffee fill the air. The Tattered Cover, a bookstore on the corner of 16th and Wynkoop is not Elaine's favorite place, but it is one of the best places I have seen in Denver. We walk up and down the stairs, looking at the shelves and tables full of books. In every corner and open space, comfy looking chairs and coffee tables invite browsers to sit down and read if the need arises. This is a bookstore; one to rival Portland's own Powell's Books, even. It's welcoming and clearly pays tribute to authors and the craft of writing. Though I must leave soon to pack, I want to stay all day in this wonderful place and see what bubbles up.


As Elaine and I walk toward my bus stop and her car, we talk about the potential for Denver. She sees great things on the horizon, and has a keen understanding of where the city has come from in order to say so. Though she grew up in Nashville, her father grew up in Denver.

"My father grew up on Zuni,(street), and he told me that the sounds of Denver used to be so different. You would wake up and you would hear roosters all day long and church bells pealing. It was how he would know where he was in the city, from listening for these sounds. Now, roosters are outlawed and the churches have turned off their bells because they annoy people. Now you hear indecipherable music and sirens. It's really different."


I ask her about why she moved to the city, and if she is planning to stay. She tells me that she moved to Denver for a job, not planning on staying, but ended up falling in love with the city and the potential that it holds. She adds that it is not uncommon for people to find themselves living in Denver.


"A lot of people come here, or to Boulder for school and never really think they are going to stay, but they end up staying."


I have to say, my experience of Denver has been similar. I came to the city due to temperature issues in Phoenix. I found a city which is investing in its future and in its people. The people Denver draws to it are interesting and more diverse than in other U.S. cities of similar size. I have been surprised over and over again at how much I like it here, and have to say, if I weren't on a mission for science, I might just cool my heels a bit here myself, and see what bubbles up.

Denver and The Yoga Class

While I have been in Denver, I have, for the most part, been doing yoga on my own every day. That is why I was so excited when Aimee, a woman my dear friend Gina connected me with, wanted to go to a double dose of yoga class and then get cupcakes. Basically, an outing consisting of two of my favorite things in the whole wide world.

I arrive a bit early to Sacred I Yoga, which is located on a charming tree-lined street, and decide to sit down in front of the bakery next door and rest a bit. As I sit and enjoy some water, I notice that there are quite a few women going into the yoga studio with their children, which leads me to wonder if this isn't going to be a mother and child type situation. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Aimee arrives shortly thereafter, we introduce ourselves, and go in. It turns out that I am in for an Anusara class, and there is a sub, Roger, for the teacher who is usually there. He welcomes me, I fill out a form and tell him about the project, and then, I go in to the studio. It is an exceptionally small but extremely warm space. I grab a mat and put it down next to Aimee's. After a bit of settling in, Roger comes in.

Roger takes us through the practice talking about the solstice, the importance of being aware of what we are putting ahead of ourselves for the next year, and being thankful for the place to which our past endeavors have led us. There is something in this practice for everyone, including a few moves I could not do without falling over a few times. Roger is also kind enough to tell everyone in the middle of a downward dog about my project. It  makes me happy in a nerd-girl kinda way, and as I further explain my project, I am thankful that we are not in the middle of a pose I would fall over in.

After the Anusara class, a woman named Meg who was in the Anusara class teaches a yin class. It is exactly what I need after riding a three-speed bike all over town and intermittently carrying a sixty pound pack on my back. All in all, the studio is really great, though small, with a nice feeling of community.

After, Aimee and I sit outside and eat our cupcakes, which are delicious. Aimee tells me why Sacred I Yoga is her favorite place.

"I love it because it's the first yoga place that I have found in Denver that's a real community, and it's not yoga for exercise, it's yoga because it's what you should be doing for yourself every day. All of the teachers there are inspiring and supportive and really good at knowing what your body should be doing, so they're good coaches, which is hard to find in a yoga teacher. They really know the anatomy, and I think a lot of that is because it is so Anusara-based. They know how to talk you through the details of every single pose. I have learned so much about yoga even though I started practicing in the mid-nineties."


Aimee has kids and travels for work. Before the class started, she had been talking with a friend of hers in the yoga studio about how little sleep they both get. I ask her how long it took her to find the studio, and how much she is able to practice.


"I went to my first yoga class in Denver eight years ago. I had a Ballly's membership at the time, so I went to the Bally's yoga. It was hard because it just wasn't set up to be conducive to a meditative yoga practice. There was a really good teacher there, he was an older man, maybe, I would guess seventy-something? I went to different places with friends, I have probably been to three or four. But I went with my friend Jane, the one I was talking to, to Sacred I. I haven't found any place like it and I am nervous to tell you about it honestly because the great part about it is that it is a small studio. It's so collaborative. I don't want it to get too big."

It is funny how we all want to keep good things to ourselves, even yoga studios. I ask Aimee if she wrestled with not bringing me to the studio, and in fact bringing me to another place that she might not mind sharing, and she replies that in a way, it was fate.


"The reason why I even brought you here was because literally the day that Gina sent me the email, I came here and Leigh (The owner), was walking in saying that she had had a rough day and that she needed to come the place she loved the most, and it just hit me. This is the place I love the most."


It is nice to sit with Aimee in the shade of the trees and talk about yoga and be incredibly human and selfish about it. We share a hatred of yoga Groupons which flood the studios we love, yet we want our yoga studios to stay in business in order to be there for us like ports in the storm. After we finish our cupcakes, we part ways. Just before we do, I ask her if there is anything else about Sacred I that she wants me to write. Her reply?


"Don't go there."