Team TIAA-CREF - 2005

Team Journal Entry - March 11, 2005, by Bryan Smith

Hotel Boulderado: A Monument for Boulder, CO

Bryan Smith Photo ©: Beth Seliga	Riding Photo ©: Beth Seliga
How many times Photo ©: Beth Seliga	Inside the Boulderado Photo ©: Bryan Smith
The Boulderado's sumptuous interior Photo ©: Bryan Smith	The end of the line Photo ©: Bryan Smith

With the ’05 season knocking on the door, Team TIAA-CREF rolled into Boulder for a quick team camp and presentation in Denver. We were put up for the week in the Hotel Boulderado, and straight away the hotel took us into another era. The Boulderado is a true throw back, classified in the “Historic Hotels of America”. You can’t walk through the front doors without feeling some of this special history. As I quickly found out from the bell-hop, the elevator in the lobby is 97 years old, has seen the likes of former president Teddy Roosevelt. Apparently the elevator is yet to break down!

Established in 1909, The Boulderado was started when city council members sought to “secure a hotel of such beauty of proportions and material and architectural design that it will stand as a monument…” At the time a room would cost around $2.00 per day, and a meal in the dining room including fresh seafood brought in on the railroad set you back .75 cents!

The Boulderado's basement bar, “The Catacombs”, was Boulder’s first bar. Opened in 1969, The Catacombs ushered in a new era as Boulder had been “dry” for the previous 60 years.

As for Team TIAA-CREF, our week was capped off with even more class at Adega Restaurant in Denver for the team presentation. But let me assure you that each member of the team realizes that the pampering doesn’t last long. Historic hotels and four course dinners just aren’t a part of the life. So for us, its back to shopping with the Safeway card, sharing rooms at the Super 8, hoping for a good continental breakfast, and cleaning our own bikes. Would we want it any other way? Not a chance.

Bryan Smith