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How I Spent My Thanksgiving Vacation

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog (thank you!) or have read the book (and if not... must I keep asking why not?) know that I always make my usual for the holidays - reservations. So, I thought I'd show you where exactly those reservations have usually been made since we moved to Boulder 16 years ago: The Hotel Boulderado, which celebrates its centennial this year.

As their website states:

The Hotel Boulderado has been a downtown Boulder landmark since it opened on New Year's Day, 1909. Back in 1905, when Boulder, a city of 8,000 was not growing quickly enough, the only way that city council members felt they could improve their lot was to provide the "comfort of a first class hotel." Stock was advertised at $100 a share to raise the necessary funds. A spokesperson for the Commercial Association (forerunner to the Chamber of Commerce) said, "We have invested our money in the enterprise because it represents Boulder's greatest need. We shall be glad of returns, but shall be infinitely gladder if we secure a hotel of such beauty of proportions and architectural design that it will stand as a monument to her permanency and pride in her enterprises. Let it be the Hotel Beautiful."

It was named for the words "Boulder" and "Colorado" so that no guest would forget where he had stayed. To provide its guests with every human comfort, all bedrooms were fitted with light fixtures that ran on both natural gas and electricity. Unseen men were busy 24 hours a day stoking the huge coal furnace to provide hot water and to keep the hotel evenly heated, and telephones were installed in most of the 75 rooms. Rooms varied in price from $1.00 to $2.50 per day.

Famous guests included Helen Keller, Douglas Fairbanks, Ethel Barrymore, and Louis Armstrong.

Guess that means I'm the only royal to ever visit. Sniff.

Anyway, we've always loved the hotel. If you want a peek at its combination of Italian Renaissance and Spanish Revival architecture, do see the website.

Have no fear, however, for those of you too lazy to click on that link (I knew there was a reason we got along so well), I took this interior picture:

Boulderado.jpg

Note the "the original cantilevered cherrywood staircase, extending from the basement all the way to the fifth floor." Also note the stained glass canopy ceiling. Normally, there's a huge Christmas tree in the center of the lobby, which stretches all the way up to that ceiling. This year, it hadn't been delivered yet, so I'll have to go back sometime and take a picture of it for you. (Quite the hardship, I know.)

Tim and I have made Thanksgiving dinner at Q's (the hotel's restaurant) a holiday tradition, whenever we're in town.

Thanksgiving.jpg

A lot of families seem to do the same. As a result, we enjoy being in a family atmosphere for the holiday, without actually having to be around family. Can you blame me? The Queen Mother spent Thanksgiving with my extremely religious, ultra-orthodox cousins who brought kosher Chinese food from their favorite place, Cho-Sen (get it?), as no one wanted turkey. (I, personally, want turkey on Thanksgiving. And, turkey is what we got, along with beet salad and chocolate pecan burbon pie. Yum!)

My relatives are apparently so far removed from secular life, they don't even know that Jews are supposed to eat Chinese food on Xmas, not Thanksgiving.

Sheesh.

On Black Friday, my darling husband insisted we go to the mall "for the spectacle of it." We hadn't been to a mall in a long time and each only made out with one item from the Nordstrom Rack.

Frankly, that was enough.

Tim got a drastically reduced sweater and I got these fabulo gloves (which I later saw at Dillards for almost double the price):

gloves.jpg

Tim took that picture the next night just before we walked downtown for dinner. The gloves are thinsulate, and since my hands are always cold when I wear the gloves I already owned, I hoped these would do the trick. They did. And no, I'm not sporting some new, weird, Princess Leia hairstyle. Those are ear muffs. Tim says they make me "look like a simp," but I don't care. They keep my ears warm. Now, if I could just find some animal print ones....

Happy holidays, everyone!

Comments (3)

Happy Holidays, Queen! The Boulderado looks beautiful. (That name cracks me up.) Might I add that you look quite lovely in your Thanksgiving night finery? We scammed Thanksgiving over friends' house. These people are major gourmands, and there was a menu for the incredible feast. Fabulous, as long as I have nothing to do with it.

We must have been twins separated at birth, which itself was ten years apart. Our poor mother!

dhea:

Awesome holidays you spent!It would have been so wonderful experience.The photos you have posted here are so nice and the hotel is awesome.Keep sharing such experiences.


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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on November 29, 2009 6:04 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Gifting Your Queen (Free, SIgned Bookplates!).

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