Two Colorado downtowns

A couple of days after my hospitalization I was feeling better - no more shortness of breath - and we drove to a nearby town, Loveland, which is favorably reviewed as a place to retire.  It's quite a nice community, with lots of art galleries and outdoor sculptures.  (Yes, that's Ernest- I think.)

The downtown has a good mix of restaurants and shops and several performing arts theaters, one of which - the Rialto - will present in the coming months a number of musicians I like, including Richard Marx and Jim Messina (of Loggins and Messina).  A friendly lady saw us trying to figure out where to go and told us what a wonderful place Loveland was to live.  Unfortunately, the surrounding town and landscape aren't attractive enough for us to consider it.  We're hard markers.

Our last night in Fort Collins we had a very tasty dinner downtown at The Still Whiskey Steaks restaurant and took the opportunity to explore the nightlife in that area.  Certainly Fort Collins' downtown is the best we've found on our trip, by far, and it's hard to imagine a larger or more exciting downtown in any small city anywhere.  Street after street of upscale-looking restaurants and stores.

Among other delights we came across an impressive-looking cooking school there called the Cooking Studio and read their menu of innovative upcoming classes, any number of which Nancy or I would want to sign up for if we lived there.

To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical about moving to Fort Collins, since it isn't as beautiful as other parts of Colorado, and real estate prices in the area we like are scary  - but damn! we loved that downtown.  And we've confirmed first hand that medical care here is first-rate.

At our campground Nancy ran into a nicely-dressed gentleman who said that he was a lawyer from New Orleans and was running for president.  He handed her a very professionally produced bookmark which laid out his program for America which included universal medical care for all, a $22 minimum wage nationally, and free education through college and post-graduate work, among other things.  To pay for all that, he proposed a 70% tax rate for those making over $3M annually.  Nancy didn't want me to meet him, believing that I might think him a bit off.  On the contrary, I'm prepared to support him, and I hope the fact that he's living in a modest trailer in a trailer park isn't considered a negative.

Our time in Fort Collins has been memorable, to say the least.  Never forget it.  We now head out to visit some of the ski towns and other destinations boasting that remarkable scenic beauty that Colorado is known for.