Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 30, 2011

The last few days I’ve been serious about training for my half marathon, which happens Sunday in Anaheim, California, at Disneyland.

On Friday I walked 7 miles, Saturday 4 miles, Sunday 2 miles and Monday, my last big effort before I slow it down, 10.25 miles in 2 hours and 51 minutes. My brother Charlie, my advisor on all things running related, even though I’m not actually running, says I should ramp it down considerably now and “let everything heal.” This morning I took a more leisurely 2 ½ mile walk and I’m feeling pretty good.

I haven’t been taking pictures because I was focused on the walking. I will get back to that after I come back from California!

Charlie says the weather will be great for the race, high of 83 and low of 64, cloudy in the morning. The race starts at 6 a.m. so it’s done before it gets too hot. I will need to finish the 13.1 miles in 3 ½ hours but they start counting that after the last person starts, which should give me a little extra time. Basically I just want to finish, but it would be nice not to be the last one in. And the fact that it’s a pretty flat course, and at sea level, should help a lot! It’s fun because many of the participants dress up as Disney characters, and the characters from the park are all around while we run, with music and other distractions. We haven’t decided whether we’ll be dressing up as characters – we all have red T-shirts with our family team name on the back that we’ll probably wear.

I am including below a picture of our cast of “characters” that will be in the race. From left, they are my brother Charlie and his wife Margie, who live in Arvada, my cousin Dawn, who lives in Lake Arrowhead, California, and yours truly. Dawn came here in May and we all did the Bolder Boulder in our different modes of walking, jogging, or running, and that’s where this picture was taken. Dawn, Margie and Charlie did the Disneyland race last year and I just watched, but I decided to try it this year.

Wish me luck! I will update the blog when I return.

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 25, 2011

I’m headed west again today, to the shadier parts of town! From home I walk toward 9th and Arapahoe where I pass the Highland Building with its beautiful iron fence. When I lived in this area in the late 1970s and ’80s, Highland was no longer a public school but it did house the Community Free School for a while. Now it’s a beautifully appointed office building with a private club, the City Club, on the bottom floor.

The historic Hannah Barker house, in very poor shape right now, is across the street on Arapahoe. Historic Boulder is raising more than $1 million to renovate it. Hannah Barker was one of the first teachers in Boulder, and the house where she lived was built in 1870.

I turn south on 7th Street and detour onto Marine Street to see my former “hippie house,” as my husband called it. We lived there from about 1977 to 1982. I could walk to work at the Camera and he could walk to CU, and our son could walk to Flatirons Elementary School. There was a wonderful strawberry patch in the back yard. Life was good.

At Seventh and University a woman is working in a large garden on the corner where my son’s babysitter used to live. The house is gone.

I head past Flatirons Elementary and turn uphill on College to 6th Street, enjoying the shade of the trees. I search out Seventh and Aurora, where famed astronaut Scott Carpenter lived as a boy. I’m not sure which house it was, and none seem to be marked as such. He was one of the original seven astronauts in Project Mercury and I’ve heard he chose the name Aurora 7 for his spacecraft in honor of this intersection. Carpenter and John Glenn are the only Mercury 7 astronauts still living, according to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Carpenter

At Baseline Road I get a nice shot of Chautauqua Meadow and the Flatirons. A couple of paintings in my house show the same scene. When I lived in South Carolina I would buy art of Boulder when I came here to visit. Now I buy art of the ocean when I visit South Carolina. Go figure.

Heading back toward The Hill I pass The Academy at 970 Aurora. I remember when a fire destroyed the top floor of the building in the 1980s. It was originally a girls’ Catholic school called Mount St. Gertrude’s Academy, then later housed University of Colorado offices. Now it’s all beautifully restored and calls itself a boutique retirement community. The name Mount St. Gertrude is etched above the door. theacademyboulder.com

Nearby is Boulder Fire Station No. 2, at 1010 Aurora, now the city’s Pottery Lab, the subject of much controversy as its funding is debated. The current fire station #2 is at Broadway and Baseline. This historic one would hardly hold a modern fire truck, it appears. bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=2159

The Pi Beta Phi house at 11th and Aurora houses the same sorority I belonged to at Knox College in Illinois. We didn’t have sorority houses at all, let alone an elegant one like this, which sleeps more than 80 girls according to its website, and is the largest Pi Phi house west of the Mississippi. Some young people I know remember coming here to see Santa Claus at holiday time, a longtime project of the sorority. pibetaphi.org/pibetaphi/colorado/chapters.aspx?id=6160

One more historic building is Harbeck House, on Euclid between 12th and 13th streets, home of the Boulder History Museum. The museum is about to open an exhibit about the year 1968 in America that will appeal to many people, especially in my age group. We were in college then and the times were tumultuous. Check it out – the museum is one of Boulder’s best-kept secrets. boulderhistory.org

Walking through The Hill commercial area toward Broadway, I see a young woman writing on this chalkboard at 13th and Pennsylvania that has spaces for “What Inspires You.” Many of the comments aren’t too legible or even worth repeating. She was writing something about dance.

I’ve already mentioned this to some of the people involved, but I still can’t figure why Alfalfa’s made the store’s name break and go around the corners of its building at Broadway and Arapahoe. Depending where you’re standing, it might look like Alfa or lfa’s, but seldom like Alfalfa’s. I love the store, though. The soup bar is my favorite.

Up Broadway and home I go: 4.76 miles today.

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 23, 2011

I think I overdid last week and my left foot is still a little sore, so I am not going to do so many miles this week, especially since the race at Disneyland is less than two weeks away!

I decide today to check out the Newlands area, the part of North Boulder that’s west of Broadway. Old North Boulder, where I live, is on the east side. Like ONB, Newlands has lots of older homes, likely 1950s-ish, but lots of them have been updated and/or eliminated and replaced with more modern homes. I want to look for interesting houses and especially for pretty yards and gardens that will inspire me to update mine.

Heading west on Alpine, I stop and sit on a staircase to adjust the insole of my left shoe. Maybe that’s been the problem. It feels better already.

I turn north on 9th Street and see this sign at North Boulder Park: “Keep it clean because we’re all downstream” referring to Goose Creek, a reminder that our water keeps going no matter what we dump into it.

The park is pretty quiet about 9 a.m., with just a few people in an exercise class in the shade of some trees.

I love the stone used in this house. Maybe it’s original, maybe not, but it looks like it belongs here, unlike some others! It’s similar red sandstone to that used in many buildings on the University of Colorado campus.

I am not a good enough photographer to avoid having my shadow in this shot, but I love the lily pond in this yard. Goose Creek actually passes under my back yard – maybe I could make it into a fountain? Just kidding.

I continue up Ninth Street till it ends at Hawthorn and turn west, laboring up a significant hill. One of many construction sites looks like the original back of the house has been saved and a new front seems to be under construction.

I love the look of wrought-iron fences. These two are gorgeous, smaller versions of some I’ve seen in Charleston, S.C.

At the top of the hill I turn south on Fourth Street. I’d like to keep going uphill, to see some of the gorgeous homes I know are up there, but I will wait for a cooler day to make that climb. Here’s a cute mailbox – “the dog ate my bill,” you could say to a creditor.

Two construction sites next to one another. And meanwhile repair work is going on in the street nearby. Noisy for the neighbors.

I love little yard decorations like this one – my newspaper in Myrtle Beach had a sun wearing sunglasses as its logo. I still have a whole collection of sun face jewelry – earrings, pins, necklaces. Once the airport security people took me aside, thinking one of the pins in my purse, with its metal pointed rays, might be a martial arts throwing star.

South past Mapleton the street gets very shady as the old trees on Mapleton Hill keep the hot sun at bay.

One of the huge old cottonwood trees on Pearl Street as I head eastward. I hate that they are starting to die off. A story in the Camera this week said that two of the trees along Boulder Creek will be taken down because they are rotted inside. They are just about irreplaceable.

It’s not the usual yard décor, but I never before noticed this antique fire truck on Portland Place near 13th Street, on the north side of the Central Fire Station, not too far from where I live. It’s a hook and ladder truck from 1875 that obviously was pulled by horses. My great-grandfather was a Chicago fireman in the era of horse-drawn fire trucks, and my grandma, his daughter, who was born in the 1890s and lived to be 101, told us she was scared of the horses in his firehouse. She said that when she took him his lunch one day the fire alarm went off and she was nearly trampled as they sped out to the fire. Maybe she exaggerated a little.

Home again after two hours, including a stop at the Trident Coffee Shop to see my old Camera friend, former sports editor Dan Creedon. My mileage: 4.75 miles. My foot doesn’t feel so bad now, so maybe the worst is over.

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 21, 2011

It’s Sunday and I’m doing a short walk today because I’m resting a foot that’s a little sore. So just a mile and a half around the ’hood, Old North Boulder. Here are some things I love, in no particular order:

Flowers, flowers, everywhere:

People and their dogs, walking, running or resting:

Pekoe Sip House, a spot for a spot of tea:

Vic’s, the spot for coffee:

Radda, a nice place for brunch outside:

Ideal, the venerable grocery that’s lasted a half century. Old-timers will remember when owner Clark Chapman greeted customers at the door. Now it’s owned by Whole Foods:

Breadworks, best soup ever – and bread! And other stuff:

Casey Middle School. I’m so glad they saved the old façade – and it has a shiny new school inside:

Hope you enjoyed your Sunday!

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 19, 2011

It’s Friday, my day for Rotary Club, at A Spice of Life Events Center near 55th and Arapahoe. I need to be there around noon for our weekly meeting, which lasts until 1:30. Then I’m going to see the movie “I Am,” at the The Dairy Center for the Arts, at 26th and Walnut in the new Boedecker Theater. It starts at 2:30.

And since I’ve gotten up a little late, I decide to try getting around town on foot today, which will add up to a pretty long walk.

It’s cloudy and humid when I leave home, and there’s a possibility of rain later in the day. It’s still in the 70s but it’s supposed to be hot this afternoon. I’ve planned carefully so that I don’t look too out of place at Rotary, wearing long pants and a sleeveless shirt with my walking shoes, but in my little backpack carrying a cardigan to put on at the meeting and bringing a hairbrush and lipstick – and deodorant! – to make myself a little more tolerable to be around.

I leave my house in North Boulder about 10:45 and head east on Valmont. I’m avoiding Arapahoe or Pearl, pretty busy streets, so I decide Valmont is my best option. It is pretty muggy today but not so hot yet, and I make pretty good time. I am taking just a few pictures so I can move faster.

A week or so ago I walked along Valmont, just as far as Airport Road. Today as I get a bit further I find the sidewalk ends on the south side of the street just after the bus stop, so I jaywalk to the other side, where luckily there is a nice, although meandering, walkway/bikeway that adjoins the Valmont bike park.

Last time I didn’t go far enough to see the dog park and today I find it, a bit east of the bike park with a nice parking area and a few dogs and their guardians, as we say in Boulder.

It’s starting to get hot now and the sun has reemerged. I’m sure glad I brought the deodorant. I turn south on 55th Street and walk through the industrial areas. My former colleagues at the Camera aren’t too far from here but it’s almost noon so I can’t stop to say hello.

As I walk down the road to Spice, off Arapahoe about two blocks north of 55th, one of my fellow Rotarians stops his SUV and asks if I’d like a ride. Funny guy!

After I stop in the ladies’ room and clean up, I’m there in time for lunch and a great program by Patty Limerick, a Rotarian and director of the Center of the American West, who talks about her new book on Denver Water, coming out soon.

Out at 1:30, I head back to Arapahoe and west toward The Dairy Center. I hope I can get there in 45 minutes but I am slowing down a little. One foot hurts and I’m really hot so I stop for water a couple of times. I can’t resist taking a picture of some beautiful flowers near 47th and Arapahoe and I try to get one of a guy fishing in Boulder Creek where it passes under Arapahoe. He’s too far away and doesn’t show up, but it sure looks cooler down there!

Going as fast as I can, I arrive at The Dairy at 2:25, rushing inside just in time to get a seat in the back. The Boe is a 60-seat art cinema that opened in March and has been showing the most interesting films you can imagine, thanks to a very involved group of local folks who select them.

“I Am” is a documentary by Tom Shadyac, director of such memorable and very successful films as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Nutty Professor.” Following a serious bicycling accident he wonders if he really knows what happiness is – or if anybody does. He asks a lot of people and it’s very thought-provoking. The message I got is something like, “Can’t we all just get along?” and that human beings are meant to collaborate, not compete, and if we do that the world will be a better place. Naïve? Maybe. But it’s definitely worth seeing and thinking about. The film has sold out every time it’s been shown at The Dairy. Check www.thedairy.org/cinema for film schedules.

Afterward I head for home, arriving about 4:30. I’ve done 9 miles, interrupted by stops for Rotary and the film, and I am wiped out. It was thundering a bit the last few blocks before home but I beat the rain and I’m glad to see it cool things down a bit. And there’s a rainbow!

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 15, 2011

This is a frequent walk that I’ve done a number of times but I haven’t blogged about it yet, so here goes. It’s kind of a circle and I start at my house and go north on 19th Street to Yarmouth, then west to 14th, north to Lee Hill Road, west to Broadway and south to home. Or I can do it the other way around. Sometimes I take little detours as I did today. It’s usually about six miles and I usually do it in an hour and 45 minutes.

This pretty little park is on 19th north of Iris. I often see deer around here. Today a woman and her dog are the only occupants.

The deer are a little further north today, just before I get to Crestview Elementary, where it’s the first day of school. A family of three deer crossed the street one at a time, each looking both ways, with Dad bringing up the rear. Almost as if they were going to school!

The human families are out in force headed toward Crestview by bike, on foot and in school buses. I feel emotional watching the little ones with their moms and dads, remembering how it felt many years ago when I took my son to Bear Creek Elementary for the first day of kindergarten, then later to Flatirons Elementary, Base Line Junior High and Boulder High. I don’t think he let me take him to Boulder High, though. Maybe not even to Base Line (and yes, that’s how it was spelled. That building now houses New Vista High School.) I am a little annoyed at all the people trying to drive through the school zone who are obviously impatient with the kids and parents. It would be nice if they had taken a different route to work this morning.

Look out for bike traffic (video)!

EFAA’s new quarters at 15th and Yarmouth have their sign outside, letting passersby know what kinds of nonperishable items are needed for the Emergency Family Assistance Association’s food pantry. The sign might have gotten a little more notice when it was located at 9th and Arapahoe near their old building. But you can check EFAA’s website at http://efaa.org/index.php/What-we-do/Basic-Needs-Food.html to find out what they need.

I like this red rock sculpture in the little park at 14th and Yellow Pine Drive, in the Holiday neighborhood.

Over on Broadway a bigger landmark identifies the Uptown development. Coincidentally, when I get home and look at the Camera, Business Plus has a story about more development in North Boulder. http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_18664047

On the way home I take a detour to see the community gardens behind the Boulder Rec Center. An amazingly beautiful sight with sunflowers everywhere.

At home I see that my detours took me a little further than I thought: 6.71 miles in 2 hours. It’s feeling great!

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 14, 2011

Even though it’s sort of humid this morning and I’ve gotten kind of a late start, I decide to go for endurance. I would like to do at least one 10-mile walk before I go to California. I figure if I can do that here at high altitude, without the excitement of a race crowd, I should be able to do 13.1 miles at sea level in a crowd dressed as Disney characters!

Since I’ve done North Broadway several times I decide to try heading south this time. I live a little north of downtown so South Broadway will be a longer stretch for me than the northern route. Just past Arapahoe I take a slight detour because I have always seen signs for the Andrews Arboretum but never went down that path before. It goes past Boulder High’s football field and up the hill to the new Institute for the Behavioral Sciences building at CU, near the Grandview neighborhood. The Arboretum is managed by the city’s parks department and their website says that a former botany teacher at Boulder High once used it as an outdoor classroom. She asked when she retired that it be purchased by the school district and it was acquired by the city in 1989. It’s named for Darwin M. Andrews, described as a “horticulturist and world citizen” on a plaque from Historic Boulder.

I love the little bungalows in Grandview but only a few are left. Most of them are used by CU – organizations such as the Conference on World Affairs and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival have offices there – with a couple appearing to be student rentals. Rumors persist that this area might become the site of a conference center for the university.

Back on Broadway I head south again, along the western edge of the campus. Across Baseline the Goodwill store is open for donations.

As I stop to photograph an underpass at Skunk Creek a couple of runners pass me by. On the other side of the underpass is a cute piece of art representing, of course, a skunk. The sign at right thanks Jon Hatch and family for adopting the median. I worked with Jon at the Camera before he got into the real estate business. Thanks, Jon!

On the west side of Broadway is the facility where several of Boulder’s federal labs are located. Twenty-four have facilities in Colorado, including in Boulder County the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Not all of them are located on this site. On foot it’s surprising how large these buildings are and how much space they occupy. I have never been inside the labs, some of which hold regular public tours, and I need to put that on my list of things to do.

The walkway/bike path here separates walkers and cyclists, which increases the safety factor considerably. In the last three weeks of almost daily walking I have been appalled at how few cyclists give a warning when they come up behind and pass you, sometimes even on the sidewalk. Some seem to enjoy seeing how close they can get without actually hitting you. Walkers seem to be pretty low on the totem pole for respect.

Hereabouts I decide to pick up speed and don’t take pictures for a while. I consider turning around at Table Mesa Drive but decide to keep going. It was cloudy and fairly cool when I started out but when the sun comes out it’s hot and muggy as it approaches 11 a.m.

Past Table Mesa shopping center and all the businesses on the west side of Broadway, the path dead-ends past Darley and splits into a westbound link to the South Boulder Rec Center and an eastbound link under Broadway. I go east under the street and south a little bit to the Cornerstone Church, where worshipers are arriving for an 11 a.m. service. At this point I’m feeling the uphill climb so I decide to turn around and walk back on the east side of Broadway.

Since I’m slowing down a bit I stop to photograph a lovely vegetable garden at Hanover.

Next I encounter a group of a half-dozen or so practicing flycasting at Martin Park with no water or fish in sight.

I seem to see a lot of discarded furniture items around town. It’s hard to understand why someone would leave a mattress in this spot along Lashley Lane, the frontage road east of Broadway and north of Table Mesa Drive. And a little further down are a sofa and some broken chairs.

The South Broadway Church of the Nazarene has a sign out front stating that it’s the home of The Basement, BoulderBasement.org, apparently a gathering spot. Another banner advertises free coffee, free wi-fi and live music. At home I check the website and it says The Basement is “a community of faith centered around positive music, engaging discussion, strong personal relationships and a shared vision to improve our community and our world.”

At Baseline I cross to the west side of the street. When I pass the Chi Omega sorority house at Euclid, the sisters are singing and shouting even though it’s only about noon on Sunday. Maybe they are getting ready for rush, which starts Sept. 2. Part of the yard in front of their house is torn up, probably because of construction that will build an underpass nearby for university students and faculty.

On College Avenue, the new building going up where Jones Drug used to be has a nice black-and-gold CU color scheme.

I chug the last of my water and head downhill toward home.

I didn’t quite make it to 10 miles – 9.2 miles in 2 hours, 41 minutes. But that’s pretty darn good for an old lady!

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 12, 2011

Today I plan a long walk – 8 miles is my goal, and my plan is to walk out Valmont to 55th Street and back. I leave home at 7 a.m., and it’s nice and cool, in the 60s, cloudy and a little on the humid side. I head east on Balsam, which turns into Edgewood, which turns into Valmont east of 28th Street. The streets are pretty quiet until 28th Street, where traffic starts to pick up. The clouds are intriguing, with a little sun peeking through, but most of the cars have their lights on.

Interesting businesses along Valmont, including Sturtz & Copeland florists, a Boulder institution – I remember when it was next to Boulder High on Arapahoe. A little strip center has a homebrew shop, alterations and tuxedo rental, the Deli Zone and a Latino travel agent. Next door, Modern Specialists, where we took all our Volkswagens in the ’70s and ’80s, is still around, too.

Around the corner on 30th is Boulder Stove & Flooring, open again after the horrific murder last year of Staci and Sean Griffin, the couple who owned it, by one of their employees who then killed himself. Staci had helped me with the remodel of my house a couple of years ago, helping me pick out tile and carpet, and we had become friends. So very sad for their daughter, who was a seventh-grader at the time.

Crossing the railroad tracks east of Valmont, the 1890 Boulder Depot in the hazy distance looks like it might almost still be in use. The historic building, originally located downtown, was moved there in 2008 to make room for the Barnes & Noble store now at 30th and Arapahoe. Plans call for it someday to be part of Boulder Junction, the Transit Village planned for the area.

The beginnings of Valmont Regional Park, with an elaborate fence in place. When finished, it will be a regional park of 132 acres.

Across the street is the already completed bike park portion of Valmont Park, which doesn’t have much going on this time of the morning. It opened officially in June and is open dawn to dusk. Last time I was here a kids’ bike race was going on but the park wasn’t finished yet. The kids had a ball riding up and down hills. Now just a couple of buildings, one with restrooms, look like they are still under construction. The sign says it’s a dog park as well but I doubt many dogs are there at this time of the day so I don’t want to stop and find it.

I am taking a detour here off Valmont onto Airport Road because I want to see the old sculpture that once stood at Baseline and Broadway, sort of in the middle of the intersection. It’s hard to imagine that, with all the traffic there is now on Broadway. I thought the thing – it’s hard to describe otherwise, and was widely considered an eyesore back then – had been demolished long ago but I found out a few years ago when visiting the jail (as part of Leadership Boulder, not for personal reasons), that it had been resurrected and placed out on Airport Road.

I think about going to check out the airport, where there was a plane crash just yesterday — only minor injuries to the pilot, thankfully. But I’m curious what else is on this road, which past Airport Road’s left turn into the airport is called Airport Boulevard.

Walking past the jail I notice some of the inmates’ garden plots, some with elaborate decorations, one including a cross. When I come back later one man is working in the garden.

An installation of solar panels is being put in up the road and behind it is the county’s massive Communications and Emergency Operations Center, which handles 911 calls. We’re up pretty high above the city and this is where the headquarters will be if there’s a flood – far from a former location at 6th and Canyon which is smack in the floodplain.

So what is on Airport Boulevard? The state emissions testing center, for one thing. Then there are a great many office buildings: Cisco, Amgen, Agilent, LSI. I see a sign that says the area is called Highpoint and I can see why. We’re up at about the same level as the top of Valmont Butte, visible in the distance. A steady stream of cars comes in, presumably people on their way to work. I keep thinking the street will head downhill to 55th but when I get to where I think it should, it’s a dead end. Oh well, I’ll have to backtrack. On the way I see the “Welcome to Boulder” sign directed at people who have flown in. “Have you closed out your Flight Plan?” it asks. That question works on several levels.

Headed back to the west, I hear a loud chattering near my feet and it’s a prairie dog chirping at me as I pass a village of them along the bikepath at Valmont and Foothills Parkway. It’s hard to get a good picture of one of the critters with my little camera because they move so fast.

I walk along the bikepath, taking care to stay way on the right, but somebody still whizzes by a few inches from my left side with no verbal warning.

Passing under the Foothills Parkway I find myself on a beautiful bikepath.

I see other people walking on the paths, too. I hope the bikes will be kind to us. This is the Goose Creek path, which will take me back to Valmont. I could also get onto what looks like a Pearl Street path that intersects it.

In the distance I see a long train passing between Pearl and Valmont and, I’m sure, clogging traffic as it goes. As I get closer I get a few interesting shots, one with the depot's spire visible behind the train.

The Goose Creek Greenway path is beautiful, passing through rocks, cattails and other greenery and brownery reflecting August in Colorado. A trickle of water can be heard. Goose Creek flows through my neighborhood, underground, so we don’t see it or hear it there. But its presence means we are in a flood plain and have to pay flood insurance. At this point this year it doesn’t look like much of a threat.

Closer to home, the clouds are starting to lift from the Flatirons. It’s supposed to be very hot again today but it is still cool right now.

I travel the greenway until it meets Dellwood west of Folsom. Home at 9:15 a.m., I’ve walked 8.15 miles according to the new app on my phone that uses GPS to track my walk. Hooray for technology!

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 9, 2011

At the end of Part One, I had just visited the Center for Community on campus and I am headed toward a construction crane in the distance to see what’s going up. It’s an addition to JILA, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, near 18th Street and Colorado. The CU website keeps track of projects like this at www.colorado.edu/facilitiesmanagement/construction/profiles/jila.html. From my days covering CU as a reporter for the Camera, I recall that JILA is a partnership between the Bureau of Standards, now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the university. In addition to adding more space for the institute, the addition will address the “antiquated technical quality of most existing laboratory space.”

I have passed some other new and recently renovated buildings, where the Law School and the Business School are located, and on Broadway at Regent Drive notice that the Chancellor’s Office has moved from Regent Hall into what was once the President’s Office, a cozy-looking Tudor-ish building. The President, Bruce Benson, who oversees all four campuses of CU, is now housed in Denver. Besides the Boulder campus, CU also has campuses in Colorado Springs, Denver and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. Chancellor Phil DiStefano is the top executive of the Boulder Campus.

Heading toward the center of the campus I pass another new facility, the Visual Arts Complex. A friend of mine from Knox College in Illinois was the architect for this building, dedicated in September 2010, which also houses the CU Art Museum. As I walk by, the Museum isn’t open yet, but I’ve seen it and it’s well worth a trip.

A surprising sign dominated by a large red cross is attached to the front of the building that houses CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. It indicates the Honorary Swiss Consul is housed there. The consul is Professor Konrad Steffen, one of CU’s premier climate scientists, who is director of CIRES. Dr. Steffen was born and raised in Zurich and came to Boulder as a faculty member in 1991. He now directs CIRES and is an expert in Arctic climatology.

At Mary Rippon Theater, the lovely outdoor spot where the Colorado Shakespeare Festival takes place each summer, the set, seen from backstage, is ready for the next performance. Last week I saw “Romeo and Juliet” there with family members and, as always, it was delightful. The festival takes place each summer for six weeks in July and August, with a different selection of plays each year.

Just east of Broadway between College and Pennsylvania avenues is one of the older and more delightful buildings on campus, the Victorian Hazel Gates Woodruff Cottage, which houses the Women and Gender Studies Department. In 1884, two buildings joined Old Main on the campus, and this “Ladies’ Cottage” housed female students. It was almost demolished but in 1996-97, gifts from the Colorado Historical Society and the family of Hazel Gates Woodruff saved it. The CU website calls it “a symbol of the historical presence of women” from the campus’s earliest days. www.colorado.edu/WomensStudies/Cottage.html

Further along Broadway at the northwest corner of the campus I pass the Koenig Alumni Center, formerly the CU President’s house, also built in 1884. It houses the Alumni Association offices and is the scene of many university events. Until the 1960s, CU presidents lived in Koenig but it was dedicated as the alumni center in 1968.

It’s quiet now, but in just a couple of weeks the campus will be teeming with students arriving for the fall semester. Enjoy life – take a walk around our University of Colorado campus.

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 8, 2011

Today I decided to walk all around the University of Colorado’s main campus. It took about two hours but there was so much to see that I’ll break this into two parts. Here’s a campus map for reference: http://www.colorado.edu/campusmap/

As I walked up 17th Street south of Arapahoe – a very good-size hill – I remembered going up that hill from the parking lot at 17th and Marine when I was a graduate student, to my classes at the School of Journalism, then located in Macky Auditorium. Catching my breath at the top behind Macky, I remembered dropping in there often for many years while my late husband, Mal Deans, taught journalism there. Later the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, with a new name, moved across the street to the old Armory Building on University Avenue, where it still resides. The old sign, still out front, doesn’t reflect the fact that the school officially closed on June 30 and is now part of the Graduate School. In the next few years it will become part of a new entity focused on digital communication.

Across the street is Varsity Pond with its beautiful stone bridge. Sometimes you can see turtles in the water but they were still asleep this morning, I guess.

Near Macky is one of the old ditches that carry water around the campus for irrigation. Some are gone now but the elaborate system has kept the grass green for many years. The university has owned ditch rights from the New Anderson Ditch since 1880 and uses non-potable water from the ditch to water about 80 percent of the main campus. www.colorado.edu/facilitiesmanagement/facilities/grounds/index.html

Even though it’s early for me, about 7:30 a.m., people are already swimming at the Rec Center, where the glass doors open onto a nice patio. And a little further along, the football team has finished up a practice and some of the players are heading into the Dal Ward Center.

Here’s Frank Shorter’s statue near Folsom Stadium. I was near here the other day when I walked the Bolder Boulder route, which ends just up the hill in the stadium. Frank won the gold medal in the marathon in the 1972 Olympics and still can be spotted running in Boulder.

Continuing up Folsom toward the Engineering Center, I see several buildings on the east side of the street that house campus religious organizations. A few more are on Colorado Avenue. Students can stay in touch with their faith traditions while they are away at school, if they choose to do so.

I can see the new biosciences building under construction on the horizon. It’s on the east campus, a mile or so away. I’ll do that walk another time.

The new Center for Community, on Regent Drive south of Regent Hall, is much larger than I expected. This is the first time I’ve seen it up close. Only a few people are around, but the dining center is open. On the Center’s upper floors is a student center, and offices for student-oriented programs such career services, counseling, and international education. And there is a 2-story parking garage under the building!

Often listed as one of the “greenest” campuses in the country, CU was ranked number one this year. I like the way they label the cans for trash, simply “landfill.” It hits home that this stuff isn’t recyclable. Earlier I walked past the trash and recycling facilities where trucks were already getting ready for the day.

I’ll finish this tour in the next installment of Walkin’ Boulder.

Sue Deans

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 3, 2011

Today I thought I was going to do my walking indoors. Through the Boulder Rotary Club, I volunteered with other Rotarians to stuff backpacks for Crayons to Calculators, a project that provides backpacks full of school supplies to kids in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts whose families may not be able to afford them. When I've done this before, our job was to start with empty backpacks and walk along an "assembly line" putting items into them. I figured that during my two-hour shift I could cover a lot of territory.

However, our boss, Cheryl Meyers, gave us a different assignment this time. We were asked to take backpacks donated by generous citizens and check them to see if they contained all the right supplies. So we did more standing than walking. We did make a number of trips on foot to pick up the unchecked packs and back to our workstations, then back to put the packs on a pile when they were ready to go.

(Backpacks filled with school supplies, ready to be donated to middle and high school students who need them.)

We were working on supplies for middle school and high school students. Here's what each will have in his or her pack: 24 pencils, 10 pens, a pink eraser, a pencil box or pouch, a package of thin markers, 3 highlighters, 3 glue sticks, a ruler, a pair of 7-inch scissors, 4 college-ruled spiral notebooks, a package of three-hole college-ruled paper, 2 wide-ruled composition notebooks, a large1-2 inch three-ring binder, a scientific calculator, a package of colored pencils.

(Jean Bedell of Boulder Rotary Club checks a backpack to make sure it contains all the right school supplies.)

More than 8,000 students will receive backpacks this year. Even though I didn't get in my six miles today, I feel good about helping. C2C can still use your assistance; if you'd like to donate, visit their website at crayonstocalculators.org to find out how to help.

................................

We hope you enjoyed the second installment of our new blog series, "Walkin' Boulder" by guest writer Sue Deans. Missed the first post? Read it here!

Hello PedHeads! In the spirit of walking, we'd like to introduce a new blog series by Sue Deans, "Walkin' Boulder." Join us as she trains for a half-marathon walk by exploring the streets, paths and trails of Boulder. Enjoy life, take a walk!

................................

Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Former editor of the Daily Camera
Blogs about her daily walks & thoughts

Tuesday, August 2, 2011, 8:12 a.m.

I’m going to walk the Bolder Boulder route today, but not quite as it’s done during the race. I live near the 4-mile marker, which is right in front of Casey Middle School, so I’m starting there, wearing my Bolder Boulder shirt from this year’s race.

I am training so that I can walk in a half marathon next month at Disneyland with my brother, sister-in-law and cousin. They all did it last year and some of them run it, but I think I can manage it as a walker in the time required.

Headed south on 13th Street, I pass Rembrandt Yard, where I love the quotes from artists etched on the exterior walls. My favorite is from Paul Gauguin, “Stay firmly in your own path and dare. Be wild two hours a day.” Which two hours? That’s the question.

I’ve missed the race route’s turn from Spruce onto 15th Street, but I take the opportunity to check out the new eTown Hall at Spruce and 16th. They’re working on the front entrance today.

It’s supposed to rain later. It’s VERY humid today.

Gross. A camper rig parked at a Walnut Street house is hooked up to a very smelly generator.

Pretty flowers in the rock garden at Mr. Pool on Folsom.

I decide not to go all the way up the hill to Folsom Stadium, which is technically the end of the race, but stop 0.2 miles short at the 6-mile marker. I will have to walk half a mile or so extra to the starting line near 30th and Walnut so I don’t think I’m cheating.

A nice little walking path cuts through the corner at Arapahoe and Folsom. It looks like they’re working on sidewalks along Arapahoe so maybe this will become a more pedestrian-friendly area. I cross Arapahoe at 26th Street and good smells assail my empty tummy as I pass Le Peep and the Original House of Pancakes. Can’t eat until I’m done with my walk, though.

I take Canyon to 30th then turn north and hear music. I peek over the fence and see beach chairs. Hmm. I didn’t know there was a pool here, complete with hot tubs and a water slide. It seems to be part of the Colorado Athletic Club at Twenty Ninth Street. Only a couple of people there, lounging in the hot tub, but it's early. I’d join them but I think you have to be a member! And I’m only halfway done with my walk.

Here’s the Bolder Boulder starting line, right in front of the new apartment complex at Walnut and 30th.

Finishing touches are still under way. Went on a tour there at a Chamber of Commerce function recently and they said people are moving in. It’s a large, nicely done complex with two- and three-bedroom units for rent.

Headed north on 30th Street I imagine that 53,999 other people are racing along with me – well, maybe not so much racing in my case. That’s how it was on Memorial Day last time I was here.

I cross the new underpass that kept traffic clogged on 30th for quite a while earlier this year.
It’s a beautiful one, elaborately decorated, and a lovely little creek passes under it next to the bike path.

Signs posted all over town looking for a lost greyhound. Hope they find him – the signs suggest not to chase him.

More pretty flowers, at 28th and Pearl. I’m heading west on Pearl and will take a right at Folsom.

Car on Folsom sports a sticker from the late lamented Juanita’s restaurant. Praise the lard, indeed!

Almost home – here’s the 3-mile marker on 19th Street, which is a mile from where I started. It’s pretty easy to follow the race course with clearly marked signs where it makes turns.

9:28 a.m. Home at last, water bottle empty and clothes ready for the washing machine!

For years the Dansko Professional has been a staple in the wardrobes of on-foot professionals and casual comfort-seekers alike. Yet, even with the abundance of Dansko fans out there (one million fans can’t be wrong), Dansko newbies are joining the club every day. If you’re new to the world of Dansko, read on for a trivia and tips on fitting their flagship style, the Dansko Professional clog available for men and women.

The Dansko Professional is widely worn by medical personnel, teachers and professionals whose job requires them to be on their feet as well as those seeking comfort in their day-to-day routine. These shoes are built to last you a lifetime and help you breeze through your day with a uniquely designed footbed and sole. The footbed reaches new heights with a high arch and very firm support. Combined, these two attributes are responsible for preventing leg fatigue, though the firmness may be an adjustment at first. The rocker sole cradles your feet as you move from heel to toe, making each step less work so you can keep on walking. The outsole of the Professional clog carries a Seal of Acceptance from the American Podiatric Medical Association acknowledging footwear that promotes quality foot health. All this sits below a classically designed clog with various leather and color options, even vegan uppers for the animal-friendly.

When you’ve decided on a style from the overwhelming number of options, remember that Danskos fit differently than your tennis shoes. The toe box should be roomy, allowing for space in which you can spread your toes. The heel should slip on and off as you walk, a characteristic many may find unusual. When trying on the Dansko Professional, there should be about a pinky’s width or room between your heel and the back of the clog, ensuring that clog fits accurately and will keep you comfortable. Some may find that the padded instep upper of the shoe may fit too tight. It is important to have a somewhat snug fit on the instep (especially with leather shoes, the material will give a little with use). What is most important when trying on your first pair of Dansko Professionals however, is the arch. This shoe has made its name largely due in part to the high arch support it provides, allowing you to stand and walk without feeling fatigued. Ensure that the arch of the footbed is aligned with the arch of your own foot. Ultimately, the fit of a Dansko comes down to this.

All Danskos use European sizing, which sadly means no half sizes. If you normally fit into a half size, round down and find the European equivalent. A US size 8 is a 39, a 7 fits a 38 and so on. For men, a size 9 fits a European 42, size 8 is a 41, and so on. Note that many people prefer to order a size down due to their concern with the slip of the shoe as they walk, however we find that Dansko clogs run true to size, although the fit may be different from what you are accustomed.

Whether you’re seeking your first pair of Dansko Professional clogs or looking to replace the pair your dog thought was a chew toy, keep in mind that this clog is made like no other; a roomy toe box and heel as well as a very high arch and firm footbed make this shoe the ultimate in comfort for professionals and smart shoe wearers everywhere.