as I awoke. When I arrived at this gracious stranger's house, I was immediately clued into the fact that my room (pictured at right) was christened the night before by Jane Goodall (one of my heroes and a true icon/legend of our time). We played ping-pong and horseshoes and jumped on a trampoline (that's Tom above left). We met locals of all walks and left feeling a part of the Boulder culture; a culture of hiking and biking, climbing and rafting, of politics and eco-awareness.
I wouldn't have traded the "Goodall Suite" and the eccentricities of the house for a five-star resort (really!). My special rock by the stream dotted with spring snow and my new best friend Charlie the tree are priceless pieces of my story I will remember beyond any landmark or museum found on the map.
I think today's video really captures the feeling of it all. And in the end, as the red rocks and snow covered summits of Salt Lake City come into view, just as with people, as in anything we find in this life, it's not what we said or did that people remember, it's how we made them feel.
Singer, songwriter and now correspondent, Jake Walden is on
tour with Rock the Folk Out, sponsored by the parent company of this
website. He'll be submitting updates from his trip. Keep checking back
here.
Click here to learn more about Jake and hear his gorgeous music.
Click here to read a recent interview with Jake on Out.com.
Photos by Jake Walden, except photo of Jake below right by Lori Waldinger
We are excited to welcome Jake Walden, a multi-talented singer/songwriter (who happens to be gay) from Northern California as a guest blogger. Jake is sending us dispatches from the 20-city Rock the Folk OUT tour, that he is part of along with artists Stewart Lewis and Tom Goss. This is his second post. Click here to read about his adventures in Las Vegas.
I think most of the time we imagine our travels, we picture hotels and resorts. We allow ourselves to believe that what we are told to see or where to go is the only way to capture the experience. We are conditioned to follow maps and signs, to go where "everyone goes."
We become these outsider tourists who skim the surface of the skin of a city. These two days of the tour in Colorado we stayed with one of the most unique, fun-loving and fascinating people of all time, Michael Aisner (known locally as the "mayor" of Boulder) in the foothills north of the city.
My room had nearly 360 degrees of windows opening up to trees and a stream to blink my bleary eyes to as I awoke. When I arrived at this gracious stranger's house, I was immediately clued into the fact that my room (pictured at right) was christened the night before by Jane Goodall (one of my heroes and a true icon/legend of our time). We played ping-pong and horseshoes and jumped on a trampoline (that's Tom above left). We met locals of all walks and left feeling a part of the Boulder culture; a culture of hiking and biking, climbing and rafting, of politics and eco-awareness.
I wouldn't have traded the "Goodall Suite" and the eccentricities of the house for a five-star resort (really!). My special rock by the stream dotted with spring snow and my new best friend Charlie the tree are priceless pieces of my story I will remember beyond any landmark or museum found on the map.
I think today's video really captures the feeling of it all. And in the end, as the red rocks and snow covered summits of Salt Lake City come into view, just as with people, as in anything we find in this life, it's not what we said or did that people remember, it's how we made them feel.
Singer, songwriter and now correspondent, Jake Walden is on
tour with Rock the Folk Out, sponsored by the parent company of this
website. He'll be submitting updates from his trip. Keep checking back
here.
Click here to learn more about Jake and hear his gorgeous music.
Click here to read a recent interview with Jake on Out.com.
