We walk around downtown Denver.

Trip Start Apr 18, 2007
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Trip End Oct 16, 2007


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Flag of United States  , Colorado,
Friday, August 10, 2007

OK breakfast and then we drove into Denver to 16th Street - which is a traffic-free street served by alternative-fuel buses. We love Denver - it has a really nice feel - clean , safe and friendly. Munchie got a new dress and then we pressed on northward to find the South Platte - we found the Union Station first - a massive building that used to have 90 departures a day - it now has just two, the Californian Zephyr #5 from Chicago to San Francisco that leaves around 9am and the #6 which goes in the other direction at 8pm. The total trip takes from 2pm in Chicago to 7pm in SF the following day.

We're planning to take the train to Glenwood Springs on our next trip and return a few days later - it takes 6 hours to get there following the Colorado River for much of the way (hanging on the edge of canyons much of the way - it would be amazing.

We walked on a found the Platte with a huge brick building the opposite side which used to hide the power-plant for the Denver tram service but now houses REI which is an outfitters where we even got to watch some kids climbing a practice rock face - you can't believe how many things they sell.

We carried on back over the river and the Cherry Creek (Denver was built around the confluence) and into 16th Street (which seems to have a Starbucks at each road junction). We found a sandwich restaurant and about 3 minutes after we'd sat out under an umbrella there was a HUGE thunderstorm - the ones where the lightening and crack come at the same time - wonderfully scary and then MASSIVE rain (with some hail) - we ran inside for shelter and enjoyed the show as the street became deserted from what had been a bustling promenade.

After a while it stopped and we caught the bus south to the Civic Centre and the Capitol Building which faces the State Court - no camera, so no pictures unfortunately. We walked around and came across the State Museum - which is in a huge basement in the building - it had lots of interesting stuff but massive amounts of wasted space - mining carts and a huge prairie schooner made in Pennsylvania which was towed by oxen.

We got out and it had obviously been raining but was still warm - so kinda humid. We got back to the hotel ok and watched "Out of Africa" before going out to Famous Daves for our evening meal.
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