Yesterday, on a glorious Rocky Mountain Spring day, the Four Corners Kossacks had a meet-up. In an effort to bolster diplomatic relations, we led a delegation on an International Diplomatic Outreach.
The story is below the orange Euro coin, which we didn't need as the Embassy accepted U.S. Dollars!
Our meet-up was actually on a rescheduled date, as the original date was snowed out. It's almost hard to remember that a month ago, a mountain town was fairly shut down by a snow storm--which is saying something. At our meet-up, it was lamented that we weren't outside on a patio as the cloudless skies & 74 degrees call to everyone who just spent a Winter in a cabin getting feverish.
Our diplomatic outreach took us to The Irish Embassy on Main Ave., in Durango:
'The Embassy' sits right on the corner of 9th & Main in Durango. Here you see the very old building that has had many incarnations, during a bustling Saturday afternoon-- the heart of downtown.
Even before entering, we could see that we, as Coloradoans, were welcome:
It is a little difficult to get a picture of the inside--the place is like The Winchester Mystery House, filled with various nooks on more levels than I know, like 5 or 6. I believe it was a bank for quite a while(decades), then was a Blues bar & dance place...until it was redesigned from top to bottom to resemble an Irish pub. It was designed in Ireland, and most everything in it was shipped here straight from the Motherland.
You could read about that here: http://www.theirishembassypub.com/...
If you follow the link, you'll see that it's a true Irish story, including a tear-inducing bit of history...
I arrived before the crowd, and found a crow's next type of vantage point, so as to spy my FCKers as they entered.
It wasn't long after I received my first beverage that enough Kossacks had arrived that we needed to move to a bigger table... or a bigger nook, as it were. We slowly grew in number until we could begin debating the upcoming Durango City Council election, the candidates, the Proposition to extend the half-cent sales tax that has been used previously to fund our river trail along the Animas River (miles long!), our really quite fabulous & inexpensive Recreation Center (we're talking big indoor pool, gym--the whole enchilada), various parks and other outdoorsy/recreation stuff, and then local politics, the new La Plata County Executive Committee--all sorts of politic-y stuff. No fistfights broke out--probably because the Embassy staff continually checked in on our group...
In order to fulfill my contractual obligations for Dkos Meet-up reportage, I give you foods of the Irish. Mostly anyway.
A dish known as Fish and Chips. I found this exotic Irish dish delicious--so much so I snarfed down a bit before coming to my senses & getting a pic. Several of the FCKers availed themselves of this Gaelic delight.
Another Four Corners Kossack, who shall go nameless (coughred moon dogcough) had a spirited discussion with the Embassy staff, regarding the make up of their Irish nachos. I know. The upshot is that they come with 'meat', and the nameless kossack did not desire that. In an act of diplomatic negotiation, said kossack convinced another attendee that perhaps they may enjoy some meat. In true compromise, they agreed to share the nachos, and get the meat on the side, giving the newly sharing, meat-eating kossack a double meat bonus. Which led to two Irish delicacies being delivered:
Irish nachos, and a bowl of meat.
After enjoying the foods native to our host's land, and imbibing beverages brewed in their Motherland, we finally got it together enough for the group picture. Well, all except one of us. He insisted on being the photographer, even after I explained a group picture needs to have the whole group. (This shall not stand!)
Meet the FCKers:
Left to right: Thinking Fella, red moon dog, relleno, Mrs. relleno, ERRN, Gary Norton, and nzanne
The 'missing from the group pic' is kossa-photographer HeroMachine. HeroMachine--odd name choice, eh? Well, not really, as the website he did all the art & programming for is http://www.heromachine.com/ It is worth a visit, it is free, and it is a place where you can make your own personal Super Hero avatar. Really--check it out, and turn your kids onto it too!
So, here's HeroMachine, waving goodbye from our meet-up at The Irish Embassy:
Oh, he'll be in the group picture next time.... :D
And thus concludes the tale of a bunch of FCKers going International. We hope you enjoyed the story, and hope you'll join us next time.
* I'm sorry I won't be around for long to comment in the diary: Like any good Durangotang/FCKer, I'm off to enjoy another great weather day hiking in the southern Rockies.
See ya out on the trail!
T.F.