Saturday, August 12, 2006
Day 9 - Denver, CO (Tuesday)
The RV park is beautiful, up in the mountains outside of Denver, the Mile High City. We are impressed by the scenery; the locals probably don't even notice it. There is a small hill with a walking trail outside our door and we go exploring; it's not more than a fifty-yard walk but the 'Warning - Rattlesnakes' signs give us a thrill. Mike and Ben take about a thousand pictures each. Once we get our rental car we decide to go to the Denver Zoo and then the Science and History museum. Originally we'd planned to go to Royal Gorge, Rocky Mountain State Park, and Pike's Peak but when we discover they're all at least 60 miles away we can't bring ourselves to do it. When you're driving huge distances between locations you don't want to do even more driving once you're there.
The Denver Zoo is a wonderful visit from start to finish. There is no traffic on the way into the city, the zoo parking is free, and the day is sunny and hot, but "it's a dry heat". Mike is not exactly thrilled to be at another zoo, but he knows it's in exchange for the Rock Hall and Wrigley Field. Surprisingly, every animal in the zoo is active, even though it's hot and the middle of the day by the time we get there. The animals are penned in by moats so there are no fences separating them from the camera and Ben gets a lot of great pictures. We are about ten feet from a rhino that was very interested in a pile of branches that had just been delivered outside its pen; we see two elephants getting hosed off along with a drink of water; a mother moon bear and her three cubs romp and play together. We've never seen animals this close-up or moving this much and we spend four and a half hours at the zoo. Since we'd only have about 45 minutes at the Science and History museum we decide to skip it and head back.
For dinner we try Woody's Pizza in Golden which turns out to be a great choice, mostly. It has the best deal we've ever seen: an all-you-can-eat soup, salad and pizza bar for $8.88. The salad bar is extensive and the pizza bar offers about ten different pizzas; although the variety is great they'll make anything you want. The only downside to this place (for me) is that it has televisions all around the perimeter displaying every sporting event possible. We spend the evening watching the Yankees game, poker, and tennis, and not really communicating all that much. On the other hand, we've had A LOT of quality time together, and I do love watching tennis.
The Denver Zoo is a wonderful visit from start to finish. There is no traffic on the way into the city, the zoo parking is free, and the day is sunny and hot, but "it's a dry heat". Mike is not exactly thrilled to be at another zoo, but he knows it's in exchange for the Rock Hall and Wrigley Field. Surprisingly, every animal in the zoo is active, even though it's hot and the middle of the day by the time we get there. The animals are penned in by moats so there are no fences separating them from the camera and Ben gets a lot of great pictures. We are about ten feet from a rhino that was very interested in a pile of branches that had just been delivered outside its pen; we see two elephants getting hosed off along with a drink of water; a mother moon bear and her three cubs romp and play together. We've never seen animals this close-up or moving this much and we spend four and a half hours at the zoo. Since we'd only have about 45 minutes at the Science and History museum we decide to skip it and head back.
For dinner we try Woody's Pizza in Golden which turns out to be a great choice, mostly. It has the best deal we've ever seen: an all-you-can-eat soup, salad and pizza bar for $8.88. The salad bar is extensive and the pizza bar offers about ten different pizzas; although the variety is great they'll make anything you want. The only downside to this place (for me) is that it has televisions all around the perimeter displaying every sporting event possible. We spend the evening watching the Yankees game, poker, and tennis, and not really communicating all that much. On the other hand, we've had A LOT of quality time together, and I do love watching tennis.
