Halfway in between the time I was in marching band and my daughters were, the University of Colorado started a tradition that I wish had come along years earlier. The Friday night before home games, the band and usually the players and coaches (not tonight?) go down to the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, and perform their show tunes and fight songs. They march down the pedestrian mall and perform in several spots along the way, a big, city-wide pep rally. It's a great party. Once my older daughter was in band, and I was in the habit of returning once every fall for a game, I always made sure to follow the band down the Mall, singing and chanting and taking pictures like a big band geek. Now I'm back in the area, and I have access to this party several times each season. I went down for the first time tonight, with my younger daughter. It was so nice, feeling laid back and acclimated, not worrying about cramming in everything I want to do in a weekend-long visit. We stayed as long as we wanted (two band stops with one drum cadence in between), and then bugged out early so we didn't have to fight traffic.
It's so weird, knowing I have unrestricted access to everything that was a twice-a-year treat, and I don't have to go through TSA and sit in a stuffy airplane to get to it. I wonder how long it is before I'm used to it all. I hope I have years of wonder and excitement, before I get blase about all the great variety of live events out here. Tonight's stampede coincided with a downtown festival, with loads of extra activities going on all along the Mall. We didn't find out about the festival until we were standing in front of the courthouse, seeing beer tents and margarita tents, smelling barbecue, and deciding against going inside the giant inflatable balls or on the bungee/trampoline setup. I just lived for four years in the number one tourist city in the nation, but it already feels like there is far more to do here for entertainment than there. Maybe I would have had a different perspective if I'd lived in downtown Charleston, or at least if I had been willing to drive down more often. My money says the things to do here will be a bit weirder than in Charleston. Like by an order of magnitude.
No comments:
Post a Comment