We Begin Celebrations In Boulder

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23131 – 1133

Greetings, Salutations, and Hi there, Herbophiles, Herbophobes, and Homies.

Here’s the haps:

We went from Denver to Boulder after Mrs. Herb had a doctor’s appointment. We wanted to go see another play at the Boulder Dinner Theater before it closes down forever. This is a real disappointment but the owner is 86 years old and decided to sell the property for 5.5 million dollars. It will be torn down and the property used for housing. This is a shame.

But Boulder was kind of a shame, too. I don’t know what we expected from the top college party town in the USA but the areas we went to and the place we stayed, the Hotel Boulderado, were not really ADA-compliant. Or maybe barely ADA-compliant. For such a progressive bastion of liberalism, I expected a lot more. Part of the problem was poor planning on my part because we had earned a free night through Hotels.com which offset the price and it looked very romantic. I did not call ahead and request accommodation but I didn’t think I would have to. Usually when a place sees someone come in on oxygen with a walker they will at least direct you, if nothing else, to a “secret” elevator that the staff uses and/or offer you a first-floor room. Since this was listed as a three-star hotel (most of our experiences have been with two-star. We aren’t fussy but the historicalness of it attracted us.) I just expected better.

We love historic places and there was a quaint charm to it but to get to our room, in an area called the North Wing, we had to ride in an old-time Otis elevator which required one of the desk staff to operate, trek across the hotel via a skywalk to the far end, ride another (more modern) elevator to the third floor and find our room. The room was small, perhaps cozy is an okay word, and looked very nice. Fresh flowers and a couple of chocolates were a nice touch. Our view was of a back courtyard of some sort, not the mountains or even the world-famous Boulder nightlife.

I have to back up here for a minute and say that the staff was fabulous! Definitely five-star for friendliness, and the valets for the $30 overnight parking (If you don’t use them you wind up paying Boulder’s parking fees which come out around $60) were exceptional.

Our trip so far was pretty meh. It’s a good thing we like each other.

Our Trip Improves Dramatically

Our real purpose in going to Boulder was for the Boulder Dinner Theater called BDT Stage. They did not disappoint. We only recently became aware that they had reopened after Covid which is a shame because now they are closing again for good. How dinner theater works is that the performers are also your wait staff. Sounds exhausting to me but they are all very friendly and accommodating, seeming to have boundless energy.

Doors open at 6:00 and the program starts at 7:30. We were there to see Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. They serve a small house salad and take your order. They served the main dish which we finished with plenty of time to spare. Mrs. Herb had the Chicken Cordon Bleu and I had the Austrian Goulash. The food is quite good and the portion sizes, satisfying. For dessert, served at intermission (we get intermission while the players work), she had the chocolate mousse and I had the apple strudel a la mode. These were quite good, as well.

The performance was incredible! I don’t know a lot about music and singing but I am able to hear if something is off. Nothing was. I don’t have the vocabulary to explain how well done it was. It is set in Austria just a short time before the Nazis took over. I’m expecting that almost everyone has seen it or read about it in one form or another so I won’t get into describing that part. If you are interested you can find a good synopsis on Imdb, here.

One interesting casting note was with the children. The six oldest were all played by white people but the youngest Von Trapp was played by a little Asian girl. She was very talented. She had to be. Even though Boulder is one of those self-righteous leftist liberal places that preach to you about all manner of things from being eco-friendly (even the hotel room had a recycle bin) to inclusivity, they are 89.9% white, according to Census.gov. They are a “sanctuary city”, lol.

All of the players were exceptionally talented and we were so very happy that we got to see this performance. It made the Boulder leg of our journey great.

19 Comments

  1. It sounds like you enjoyed your night, even with the hiccups. I’ve not been to Boulder, only Denver and Colorado Springs, which is a darn liberal city. Seems all the old Hippies that came there never left and settled around Manitou Springs. If you travel, try the Drury Inn, they have great prices, good accomodations and free food for breakfast and supper. This is not an add for them, just a recommendation.

    • Well I sure appreciate the suggestion. It will help me look, next time.
      Manitou Springs is a hippie holy land, for sure. Lots of cool, quirky shops and a great chiropractor.
      Colorado Springs used to be one of the most conservative cities in the country but an influx of Californians and growing the city as fast as possible has changed it.
      I hate Denver and only go there for necessities like Mrs. Herb’s doctors.

  2. I’m glad this trip went well. I would probably not have gone (though you had obvious reasons you must) because of the characteristics you mentioned. Not worth the aggravation!

  3. Glad they had an elevator system! We stayed in a historic hotel a few weeks ago with no elevator. We were on the third floor. The elevation was 7000 ft, so we felt more ‘winded’ by the climb than if we had been at our normal 3700 ft at home.

    • Yeah. They have an incredible amount of energy and put on a first-rate show. Fans are all hoping they will move somewhere else and re-open but it doesn’t seem likely at this rate.

  4. I miss little dinner theaters like this, where they put on plays/musicals that are entertaining rather than edgy productions that are more fulfilling for the performers than for the audience. I guess there is value in a longtime proprietor in his 80s.

    Glad you got there one last time.

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