So I left off writing once I arrived in Golden. I’d set aside one full day and two nights in Golden before I hit the road again for Montana. The rain and gloom persisted the last leg of the drive to Golden, and I was hoping the weather would cooperate while I was there.

I used the morning to sleep in a little and had a tasty ham and cheddar omelet at the hotel’s restaurant. Then I drove into Golden to visit my alma mater and see what changes have been wrought upon the campus.

The tiny turn-of-the-century sorority house I used to live in has been leveled, along with all the other houses on the entire block, to build a new student recreation center with weight rooms, a rock climbing wall, pool tables, and other amenities I wish I could’ve enjoyed when I was there. (Someone has vandalized the letters on the sign over the back entrance so it says “Stud Creation Center”.) The new sorority house is amazing, too. Built in 2003, it holds about 30 students, and has a formal dining room, living room with large flat panel television, huge kitchen with an island and three large refrigerators, plus during the year they have meals prepared 6 days a week by a cook. Damn, I missed the boat on that count. We were on our own with a tiny house we rented that accommodated 10 students.

Berthoud Hall, the geology building, no longer houses the geology museum. It has instead relocated down the hill to a building almost entirely its own save some research labs, and I was impressed at the displays it held. It has a large section devoted to Mines’ history, the school’s acquisition of the Edgar Mine where mining engineers now get hands-on training, and more general Colorado mining history. I knew the school was started to support the greater demand for miners in the area in the 1870s, but what I didn’t know was that it was specifically the discovery of gold ore in the hills outside Golden that resisted the available metallurgical extraction techniques which led to discussions about the start of a university where advanced extraction methods could be developed. There were even pictures of early mineralogy classes where the men were studying trays of rocks, and all of them wore suits and ties to class.

The museum also contains an impressive collection of mineral specimens and gemstones, some permanently donated to the college and some on loan from various collections. The downstairs wing has a display of mining equipment, fluorescing minerals under black light, and meteorites. What I was most impressed with there, though, was a display on the uranium mining that rose rapidly in the 40s and 50s as demand exploded for the ore. In it was a children’s board game with a finding uranium theme, an old Popular Mechanics magazine which contained instructions on building your own uranium detector, and other historical facts about how the safety aspects of uranium mining were handled (or more commonly ignored) in the quest for the valuable ore. Because most uranium miners were paid based on production, they were motivated to work long hours with no masks in unventilated mines where they inhaled large amounts of uranium dust. Many developed lung cancer as a result of the radioactive residue built up in their chests.

Downtown Golden was a mix of change and sameness. The Ace-Hi Tavern where Mines students have been going for years to get discounted pitchers of Coors still stands, as does Woody’s Pizza, the first bar I went to celebrate my 21st birthday. Foss Drugstore is still there, too, though the wonderful and reasonably priced breakfast and lunch restaurant that used to be above it—the Golden Ram—is long gone. What struck me the most was the sheer number of new condo buildings all over downtown, and from what I hear from a client who just returned from house-hunting along the Front Range, they’re ridiculously overpriced.

After leaving downtown, I headed up Mt. Zion to the Mines “M”, Buffalo Bill’s Grave (one of several locations that claims to be his final resting place), wandered down around to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, and over to Dinosaur Ridge to pick up some squished pennies for souvenirs. As I was wandering around the Red Rocks visitor’s center, I kept questioning how I could’ve missed the fact that it even had a visitor’s center. Turns out it was constructed in 2004, well after I’d left Denver.

I considered seeing if I could still make my way to the Coors Brewery tasting room through the back entrance like I used to (”Coors lab” the students called it), but parking at the brewery was scarce, and I wasn’t really in the mood for a brew. Instead, I drove up to Boulder to see how much it had changed. The Foundry, where I used to shoot pool regularly, is still in its spot downtown. Except in north Boulder, the tofu-and-granola statists haven’t otherwise let Boulder grow too much.

I planned to visit my favorite sushi restaurant in Denver, but I had a couple of hours to kill before they opened, so I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Fun flick—faithful to the tradition of an entertaining, humorous time at the movies.

Then I drove into the Washington Park area of Denver to go to Japon, the place where I was first introduced to sushi—where it all began, and home of the best sushi I’ve ever had. The place has been remodeled and expanded, but I had a wonderful meal sitting at the bar, slowly enjoying an Asahi. Even got a free extra piece of maguro tataki from the chef. The food was as fabulous as I remember… amaebi (with the heads fried), spicy tuna hand rolls, sake nigiri. I left very full, satisfied, drowsy, and ready to rest up for the long drive to Montana the next morning.

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