We now live in the beautiful state of CO and I love it. We are both happy that we took the leap and moved here in 2007. We had been out here on several trips and just fell in love with the state. The info below is about a trip we took in 1997 before we moved here. It took us 10 years, but we are here now, lol Happy reading.
Denver is a very interesting city with a lot of history. It became the capital in 1861. Today it is the headquarters for many companies doing research and developing reserves of fossil fuel, as well as alternative sources of energy.
We flew from LAX into the new Denver airport on United Airlines. Once our plane landed we found out that it was one of their major hubs. The airport terminals use trains called concourses to get people from one terminal to another, and United had one whole concourse of it’s own. They have a lot of traffic in and out of Denver.
The new airport is amazing. It looked like I was in the middle of a mall. The only indication that it was an airport was the fact that everyone was carrying luggage. It was very nice, and we were both impressed.
We got our rent a car, and drove the twenty-five minutes to our hotel. We stayed at the Days Inn on the outskirts of Golden. After we got settled, we drove around a little and checked out the little city of Golden. An interesting note about Golden is that from 1862 to 1867, it served as the capital of the Colorado territory. It is a small, but interesting city. As well as the Coors Brewery, it contains The Colorado School of Mines, The Colorado Railroad Museum, The Golden Dar Pioneer Museum, Heritage Square and Lookout Mountain.
The next morning we decided to drive into Denver and look around. We ended up at the Denver Art Museum. They had several rooms with works from Lucas Samaras, Jim Dine, Henri Matisse, Abraham Walkowitz and Larry Rivers. They also had a Native American exhibit with over 17,000 pieces of art. It also contained a lot of information on the growth of Denver. We stayed there for several hours.
After we left the museum, we went driving around to see some more of Denver. Denver is really pretty, and even though it was June, there was still some snow on the mountains. With the help of maps we found the State Capital Building, Coors Field, and Mile High Stadium.
Later that night we went to a restaurant suggested by friends that used to live in Denver. It is called Casa Bonita. This place is different than any other restaurant we’ve ever been in. First you order your food by number. There were no substitutions, no changes, nothing. They told us we could make changes after we got our food. This didn’t make sense to us, but whatever. After we paid, they gave us a number to wait for our food. Then we walked through a line that reminded us of a cafeteria. We finally got our food and headed toward the tables. We hadn’t walked very far before we ran into another line. We had to stand in this line to be seated. This wouldn’t have been bad except for that fact that we were carrying heavy trays of food. It wasn’t so bad for us, but we saw several families with kids, that were having a lot of problems. Trying to hold onto trays, and little hands at the same time looked very difficult. Anyway, we finally got seated at a table overlooking a waterfall. We found out later that this was a really good seat. Each table had a little flag that indicated to the waiter or waitress that the table needed something. We put our flag up and waited for our waiter. He came over and we gave him our receipt for drinks. We also told him that I wanted a special order. He took my food and came back with our drinks a few minutes later. Not long after the waiter left, they lowered the lights and started a show above the waterfall. It was funny, and before long two of the three people ended up in the water. It was very funny and entertaining. We ended up seeing three shows while we were sitting there eating. After we finished dinner, we walked around and looked at all the other rooms. There were quite a few of them. It is a really interesting place. They seem to do things backwards, but it is a neat place to check out.
The next day, we went to the Budweiser Brewery in Fort Collins. We had a friend that was going to school in Laramie WY, so she drove down and met us. The tour was interesting, and we learned a lot about making beer. A lot more goes into making beer then one would think. We even got to see some Clydesdales. One of them had just had a foul, which made it even more interesting. After the tour they took us to a room where we got to try two different kinds of beer. We all thought it was a great way to end the tour.
After we left the brewery, we were all hungry so we headed to this little restaurant called Coopersmith’s. It was a microbrewery and we all shared three different types of beer. It seemed like we ended up drinking more than we ate.
After we left there, we went to another microbrewery and played a few games of pool. We must have set there and drank and talked for at least three or four hours. We had a blast. It started getting late, so we decided to head back to the Denver area. Our friend decided to hang out with us for the evening, so she followed us back to Denver.
When we got back to Denver, we drove around for another hour or so talking and checking out a little more of the city. We eventually ended up at The Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We all love the Spaghetti, and really enjoyed our dinner. Unfortunately it was getting late, so we said good-bye and promised to keep in touch.
The next day we drove down to Colorado Springs. It was a very scenic drive up there. We went to check out the U.S. Air Force Academy. They had a B-52 bomber on display, a chapel, a planetarium, and the Falcon Stadium. Eugene had been in the air Force, so he was feeling a little nostalgic.
We spent several hours there, and then we drove through the Garden of the Gods. This is something you have to see to believe. The garden is a 1,300-acre park at the foot of Pikes Peak. This is also where the Great Plains meet the Rockies. There are several towering red sandstone formations that include the kissing camels, and the Balanced Rock. Flora and fauna reflect the rich diversity of this crossroads. It is absolutely gorgeous, and definitely worth the drive. We spent a couple of hours driving through and walking around. It was really beautiful.
The last thing we did in Colorado Springs was going to the Cave of the Winds. The cave was amazing, but very small. It was rather warm in Denver, but it was about sixty-five in the cave. Part of the Cave tour included the laser light show. It was very entertaining and educational. The music was great as well. We went back to our hotel extremely tired.
The next day we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It is a huge building with three floors. It could literally take hours to go through. Plan to be there at least six hours if you want to see everything. They had a display on all types of animals throughout the museum. Most of them had a chronological time chart that explained how they evolved, or what caused them to become extinct. They had dioramas of mammals, and birds, fossils and skeletons. It was a lot of fun and very educational. They even say it is one of the largest natural history museums in the world.
That night we went to Coors field to watch the Rockies play the San Diego Padres. The stadium is full of lots of purple neon. It is very attractive looking. Of course you can get as much Coors beer as you like. They had a waterfall that went off when one of the Rockies players hit a home run. The Rockies fans are very proud of their team and go crazy when they hit a home run. Luckily, we did see a couple of home runs that night.
The only problem with the stadium is the parking situation. The stadium has no parking available. You have to end up parking in one of the nearby lots or taking the bus. We looked around, and finally parked in one of the lots a couple blocks away. We ended up paying more to park, then the price for the tickets. Something is wrong with this picture. Anyway, we had a good time, and it was a close game.
The following day was our last full day in Denver. We went souvenir shopping in the morning. After we emptied the stores, we decided to go to lunch. We ate at this little restaurant called Woody’s in Golden. We both tried an oven-fried pizza. It was a little different, but still good.
After we had lunch we decided it was time to get some free beer. We made the short trip to the Coors Brewery. We learned a lot about Adolph Coors and the development of the Coors cooperation. Other than that, the tour was similar to the Budweiser tour. I think we both gained a better appreciation for beer on that trip.
We decided to go up to Lookout Mountain. It was really pretty up there, and we could see the whole city of Golden. While we were up there we went to see the Buffalo Bill Museum and grave. Of course, there were a lot of artifacts from the Old West, and a depiction of the life of William F. Cody.
On the way down the mountain we decided to make a side trip to this little gambling city called Black Hawk. We ended up spending several hours gambling at this little hotel called The Colorado Central Station Casino. We spent more money than we should have, but we had a great evening.
We left the next morning a little sad, but happy that we had spent a week in the historic state of Colorado.