DENVER - FALL 2011

Arrived in Denver on Saturday, October 8, in rain. BUT those drops looked decidedly slushy by the time we neared our campground near I-225. We went to Buckley AFB to get some groceries and it was actually SNOWING! Of course, nothing stuck and it changed back to rain after a few minutes. Didn't Terrie tell us the first snow comes by Halloween? Isn't this too early? The ski slopes are ecstatic because we heard that several were opening the following week!


The rest of the week in Denver was gorgeous - sunny every day and temps in the 70s. We went to Estes Park with Nathan driving and spent the afternoon looking at elk in the meadows and near the highway. Saw mule deer, too.

Then Nathan was back to working and classes, so Terrie spent her vacation days with us. First we went to the Botanical Gardens because admission was free on Columbus Day! After touring the gardens, we checked out the Children's Garden, a roof garden above the new parking ramp. What would be planted in a Children's Garden? Oh, there were places to run over wooden bridges, a ramp to a play area, "creeks" for wading, dirt for digging and a marshy area for understanding how water is cleaned before it joins streams and rivers. The top photo shows a sculpture there: Who is watching who?

Three days we went biking on some of Denver's city trails: Cherry Creek, South Platte River and Sand Creek Regional Trail. The first trails are concrete and follow the streams. The Regional trail is fine gravel and took us along the Creek and through cottonwood groves. The Regional trail is used by horses so that trail essentially feels like a "washboard" road! We LOVE concrete trails! And we could see one of the LARGE sculptures that are scattered around the city - a pair of dancers in front of the Performing Arts Center.

One day we used a book of architectural walking trails in downtown Denver. Trail #5 took us around Capitol Hill. If we took time to read ALL the info in the book, we would have learned a LOT of history about the beginning of the city. We just read the high points and enjoyed the different styles of buildings. As we started across an intersection, we saw the Praying Mantis! I had to stop to get a photo, thus waiting for the next light change to catch up with Terrie andGary. (I think the Praying Mantis we saw at Kleimenhagens was BIGGER!) The "castle" was a car dealership in the 1930s. Today it is a sporting goods store.

Tents in Civic Center Park belonged to "Occupy Denver", a peaceful protest group. Friday morning at 3 am the police had them all evacuate the park because of a mayoral order to keep the park open. This morning we heard that "Occupy" groups are all over the world with violence in Rome and London. No one is happy with corporate greed, are they?