Denver
September 26 – 28, 2016
We arrived in Denver and stopped for lunch at a deli. Since we were in that general part of town, we decided to tour the Iliff School of Theology campus. After general wandering around, we headed out to our motel on the west side of I-25. In general, it was the worst place we stayed. It was billed as a Ramada Inn, but didn't come up to Motel 6 standards. Torrey was able to get the room door to open by plowing into it with his shoulder (after using the key card). I had to kick it hard. The tub drain was stopped up, but they did fix that while we were there. Shortly after we arrived, Torrey got word that he needed to run an errand, so left on my own, I took some pictures of downtown from the motel property. That got him away long enough that I didn't have to watch the presidential "debate" except for the end when I didn't bother to vacate the room.
On Tuesday we decided to drive out to Boulder and we explored some of the mountains and canyons near there. I enjoyed looking at the sights rather than taking pictures. We saw the Flatirons, and I figured some time we'd come back around a mountain and I'd get a better shot of them, but that never happened. We went by parks and crossed peaks and wandered around near Gross Reservoir. After somehow getting back to the southwest edge of Boulder, we drove north and turned left on Boulder Canyon Drive and rode to Nederland. This seemed to Torrey to be the canyon he thought we would see on the way to Boulder from Denver. It was a drive worth looking for.
When we got back to Denver, we headed to the state capitol. The fifteenth step on the west side has the original Mile High engraving, and the eighteenth step has marker based on a 1969 Colorado State student measurement. A third marker was installed in 2003 based on a more modern, and perhaps more accurate measurement.
At that point Molly Brown's house tours had closed for the day, so we headed on to see Trinity UMC and the Brown Palace Hotel. Both are noted for their architecture, and the latter is known for the array of famous people who have stayed there and notorious murders and such. The church has (as we had seen in Colorado Springs) another 90+ rank Roosevelt Organ with façade designed by Audsley. The organist was practicing while we were there, so we got to hear the instrument.
When the Jersey lawyer who had organized the pick-up game at the Palestra heard that I was coming to Denver, he invited me for a beer and to talk Davidson basketball. I gave him a call when we got back to the car, and he said to meet him at the train station and we'd eat dinner near there. We met up for a pleasant visit for us, and maybe not too boring for Torrey.
on to Fort Collins and Rocky Mountain National Park ->
<- back to Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak