Denver

 Day 1:

Left Rocky Mountains around 8:30 this morning, drove the 2 hours into Denver to meet up with my dad who flew in today. This was not the original plan of the trip, but I will enjoy seeing him and spending time with him.  We couldn't get into our airbnb until 4 so we took the time to explore parts of the Rino art district which is where we are staying as well as to go explore the capital and other civic buildings in downtown Denver.  We got caught in a rainstorm before getting a few breakfast groceries and heading to our home for the next few nights.  

1 very relaxing rainfall shower later and after starting laundry we went a few blocks down to the Rino Beer Garden- they have 60 different beers and a few ciders on tap as well as tasty food. We enjoyed sitting outside and enjoying the evening before calling it an early night. 

Day 2: Dad woke up early as always but allowed me to sleep in until 8-ish. I made myself an iced coffee and had some yogurt before joining him on a walk to make sure that the train station by our place could in fact get him to the airport Friday- ensuring I don't have to be functional at 6:30am but only able to say goodbye. 

Unfortunately for me about what I thought would be mid-way through our walk I felt the tell tale signs of altitude sickness and decided to part from him as he went to enjoy more of the area.  Coming down from elevation is honestly impacting me more than going up did. I'm still taking my altitude meds but may need to increase back to 2 a day until the symptoms go away. 

Feeling better, in the afternoon, dad and I went to The American Museum of Western Art in downtown Denver. I try to heed advice I heard awhile back to rather than going to the standard art museums in a city to find the private collection of a rich, dead, white guy who made his fortune doing less than ideal things. Well Philip Anschutz is very much still alive, but is a rich white guy so the lesson mostly holds true.  His personal collection of more than 300 pieces is only $5 to visit in a beautiful historical building across the street from The Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.  The 2 buildings were linked by tunnels at one point to take "Gentlemen" From the hotel over to the home for gambling drinking and ladies. No photographs are allowed in the building so this is one you will need to visit to see. 

We came back to the house for a bit of a rest after the information overload at the museum before walking down to the core of the arts district for a bite to eat and drink at Stem Ciders. 

The dinner menu didn't call to my dad so we each had a drink (he got a beer, and I got the flight-my fave being the cucumber) and I got the goat cheese bon bons- which are totally worth the stop on their own, before heading elsewhere for dinner.  

We ended up at Dio Mio- a small pasta bar for dinner. Dad had pasta and wine and I had meatballs and a mocktail. This was just a few blocks from our place, so after dinner we just walked home so I could kick my very sore feet up. 

Day 3

Woke up around 7 and went on a morning walk down to the ball park with dad for 3 miles basically before breakfast. We took a bit before looking at another thing to do deciding to walk to the RiNo art park - hoping based on all the beautiful murals in the rest of RiNo that we’d end up in a small version of the Walker sculpture garden on the river. However the park was a disappointment with almost no art and the river wasn’t anything to look at. The whole area is grungy you can skip it. 

We went to Rino beer garden for Lunch. They’ve got a great lunch during the week $11 will get you a 10oz beer, cheeseburger and fries. They make great fries 

After lunch we decided to rest for a bit before heading out to the mountains- unfortunately we found ourselves stuck- fresh laid concrete meant I couldn’t move my car- a fact the host of my airbnb had not made me aware of- I was big mad- lots of back and forth and false promises we tried a few other options for the day but nothing ended up working out. We had dinner at Rino Beer garden again because I didn’t really want to walk anywhere. 

We made an early night of things because tomorrow will be an early morning 

Day 4: 

Dad left early this morning - I walked him to the train station so he could get to the airport. I took my last long enjoyable shower for awhile and I got packed up to head to the next location.  I will be camping for 8 days straight and am unsure about my ability to post anything here during that time. But I will do my best. 

I will leave you with some of my favorite street art/ murals from Denver