Photogenic Lander

We spent a couple of relaxing days in Lander as we traveled south through Wyoming.  This small town, where we have been before, is very photogenic and has a very nice Safeway for shopping.

The old downtown buildings are well preserved.

I loved the name of this restaurant.

Look at the leaded windows in this restaurant.

All small towns had a movie theater, back in the day.  This one is still showing movies.

A creative sculptor made this bike and rider outside the local bike shop.

In a park at one end of town they have a series of bronze statues of a cowboy driving some cattle.

Here is a close-up of the cowboy, followed by a look at the colorful hat band he is wearing. I wonder who added that?

I am sure we will stay in Lander again, if we drive this route. Since this is at least the second time I have included these sculptures in a blog, I will skip them if we came here again.

Downtown Williams

Before leaving Williams, we walked around that city's downtown. It has a very different feel than Flagstaff, evoking Route 66 of the 1920's through the 1950's, instead of the early railroad days.

I posed with Elvis as we walked around.

A number of the downtown restaurants have outdoor seating and live music, like this one.

Doesn't these signs make you think of the mid-20th century?

Whoever owns this truck obviously parks it under a tree for shade and doesn't worry about the deposits left by birds.

An Interesting Downtown

Downtown Flagstaff is a mixture of the old and the new. The city was first settled in 1876 and grew rapidly during the 1880s with the arrival of the railroad. Some of the buildings give a glimpse of years gone by.

This building was obviously built many years ago.

The outside staircases (or fire escapes) indicate an era now gone.

If you look closely at the left side of this building, you can see tall vents running up the side. We wondered if these once vented wood stoves.

This attractive building, which houses St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, has obviously been standing for many, many years. They don't build anything like this today, unfortunately.

We saw a couple of modern murals on the side of buildings. While new, one depicts an age long gone.

One store had fancy caramel apples. We didn't buy one. They are hard to eat as you walk down the street.

Flagstaff is a very bike-friendly city, maybe in part because it is home to Northern Arizona University. There are paved bike paths around the city, the buses have bike racks on the front and rear, and we saw this fancy, crochet-covered bike rack downtown.

The Big City

We have been all around the edges of Denver in the past month.  Yesterday, we decided to take the light rail into downtown Denver.  Since no parking was available at the station closest to Cherry Creek State Park, we drove down to the Broadway station.


It took a little while to remember how to purchase our tickets.  We used to use the light rail frequently when we lived here all the time.

The first train that came along was headed to Union Station on the west end of downtown.  Since we hadn’t been there in years, we decided to take it.  The train wasn’t crowded at about 10:30 am.

Like you see in many big cities, Denver Union Stations is an imposing structure, both outside and inside.

If any of you remember the old wooden benches in the main room, look at how the seating and ambience have been updated in recent years.

After getting a quick bite of lunch (not cheap, even though it was already prepared sandwich and salad), we walked east on the 16th Street Mall.

In 1910, when the Daniels and Fisher tower was built, it was the highest building west of the Mississippi.  John’s eighth grade sneak trip included a ride to the top of the tower.  That was way more recent than 1910, probably 1958. 
Denver is proud of being called a cow town, even if the label is meant as an insult.  Cattle have been an important economic enterprise in the state for many decades.  The National Western Stockshow is held in Denver each January and is one of the major stock shows in the country.  We found two painted cows downtown.

In most big city downtown areas, you can find buskers, individuals or groups performing music in hopes of receiving tips.  On the 16th Street Mall, they have some help from the city in the form of pianos located in several places.



There are interesting reflections and statues around the Sheraton Hotel.

Our journey took us into Civic Center, the park area between the Denver City and County Building and the gold-domed Colorado State Capital.



We had a great walk, ending up at the new Colorado History Museum.  More on that in another post.

Alaska–Day 98

We had a long stop at Ketchikan today, from noon to 5 pm.  But first there was a morning at sea.  We saw whales and eagles.

It has not been sunny, but the weather has been good and the water unbelievably smooth much of the time.  I had no idea the water of the Inside Passage could be so smooth, with great reflections.  However, if I was in a sailboat with no motor, this might not be as favorable conditions.

We are again thankful we have a cabin on the ferry.  This is the Solarium on the Bridge Deck.  A number of 20- and 30-somethings are camped here.  And even whole families and some grandparents.  There are heat lamps in the ceiling, so the temperature is fairly comfortable.  And there are coin-operated lockers to store valuable possessions when the owners leave the area.  But, it is not the way we would like to travel, especially at our age.

Ketchikan is a fairly large town—12,000 residents-- with a big boat service area.  The working part of the town is old and pretty run down. 

After lunch at The Landing across the road from the ferry terminal, we walked east to the Cruise Dock and Creek Street, once the town’s red light district and now the tourist area.  Today two cruise ships, one Princess Line and one Celebrity, were there.  Tomorrow, four cruise ships are supposed to be in town.  It will be crowded. 

We didn’t buy anything and skipped the Logging Show and Totem Pole exhibits.  When we were here before, we took a charter boat to Misty Fjords National Monument.  What a beautiful trip. Today, we walked nearly eight miles, total.  And, with lots of others, rode the city bus back to the ferry terminal.