Road Trippin' - Day Four

I know that I have posted about day three just moments ago, but I have a moment to post about day four, so here it goes.

Guess what? We woke up late. We went to bed late, and woke up late. In any case, we took showers, packed our stuff and headed for downtown Denver at about 10:00. Our only real agenda item was lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which opened at 11:30, but our goal was to be on the road to Colorado Springs by 12:30, which left only 90 minutes to see what Denver had to offer. It turns out, we did not need that long.

As you drive in, Denver is very pretty. It is a bit like Boston in that the roads curve around the buildings in certain areas.

Denver looked a lot like St. Louis. There were a fair number of retail stores, which seem to be missing from our downtown, but the large old buildings were very similar to those you would find on Laclede's Landing. The homes looked a little run down, and if you were not looking to shop, there was not much to do. The stadium looks an awful lot like the new Busch Stadium.

We did get out and walk through the "16th Street Mall," which was unique and interesting.




Ans then we were off to the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was cool to see the differences between the Denver store and the St. Louis one. The people were nice, the service was decent and the food was very good. The pesto dressing was too tangy, but otherwise it was great.

After lunch we talked about rushing to the Royal Gorge, but we were afraid to miss the last tram, which is part of what the $23 entrance fee pays for, so we decided to leave it until tomorrow, and to check out Seven Falls instead. We actually kind of stumbled upon it.

These first two pictures are on the way up to the falls, on what is called the "most scenic mile in Colorado." It was really much more impressive than I was able to capture in these pictures.

To see the falls at the best angle, you ride up an elevator that is in the mountain. To get to it, you walk though the very cold cave below. Bryan was shocked by the cold.

Thye Falls were pretty, but Colorado is experiencing a drought, which has caused the amount of water in the falls to decrease significantly. It was more like trickling water than rushing water. The pictures from the landing at the top of the elevator were still pretty cool.

And here we are, crowding together for warmth.

We met some trout. They do not seem to move at all. You can feed them if you have a quarter to buy the food. We wanted to try so that we could see if they were truly alive, but we did not have a quarter. Now we will never know.

Bryan has the wingspan of a Golden Eagle.

This stone is very cold. The water is rushing behind us. I really had to pee.

Here is a small fall.

It seems that in Colorado, Hardee's is Carls, Jr., and they have tacos.

After Seven Falls, we headed back through Colorado SPrings, which was cleaner than Denver, but certainly less populated.

I think this was a sign welcoming Bryan. Or maybe it was a construction company...

Although it was early in the day, we decided to head back to our hotel and relax for awhile. We are staying next to the Airforce Academy at the Academy Hotel.

When I tried to check in there was no one at the desk. I waited 10 minutes and when no one came I opened the door to the managers office and found him reading a book. He got someone to check us in, but when we got to our room we had twin beds! I had to call and fight with the friendly front desk kid, get transferred back to the manger who I had interrupted only minutes before, and go back to the desk to exchnage keys, but we eventually ended up in a nice room with a king sized bed.

We then went to the bar downstairs for the $2.00 happy hour, where we had beer and appetizers, and then retired to our room for some television watching. This is what that looks like:

We are all settled in for a long night of Law and Order. Here is what that looks like.

Until tomorrow, sweet dreams.