Travel Adventures in Denver, Part 2

This is my second post about our recent travels to Denver. I recommend reading the first post before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, some of the places I visited gave me complimentary media tickets. What I paid has no bearing on my reviews. I only share what I honestly recommend.

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Travel Adventures in Denver

My #1 priority for my time in Denver was visiting the US Mint. Money is inherently interesting and I find the artistry and craft that go into making coins particularly fascinating. The US has four mints: Philadelphia (where we did the self-guided tour in 2017); San Francisco (which I toured as a kid before it was closed to the public); West Point (which has never been open to the public); and Denver, which offers free guided tours six times a day to 50 people each. 

  

The catch with touring the Denver Mint is that the tickets are available for the same day only starting at 7:00 am on a first-come, first-served basis. Each person in line at 7:00 am is able to get five tickets, which means the 60th person in line could potentially get the last tickets of the day. The Mint recommends lining up "as early as possible," especially if you need multiple tickets or need to get tickets for a particular time of day. I only needed a single ticket and could be flexible about the tour time, so on Monday, June 23 I left the hotel at 6:15 am for a brisk walk half-mile walk. When I arrived at the Mint ten minutes later, I was 31st in line. By the time the box office opened at 7:00, there were more than 60 people in line behind me (I counted as best I could without leaving the line), so I'm glad I got there early. 

After waiting in line for 35 minutes to get the ticket, I waited another 30 minutes for my 7:30 am tour to start. I went directly to the tour entrance area and ended up first in line. Most others wandered off to get coffee, or milled around taking photos, or stepped aside to phone their families back at hotel to tell them to hurry over for the 7:30 tour. Being first turned out to be great. Security is intense and it took a long time to get everyone through (despite the fact that you're barely allowed to have anything with you) which gave me plenty of time to view the exhibits just past security before the area was super crowded. 

The tour itself was really interesting. It did feel a bit crowded and a bit more rushed than I would have preferred, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. 

I left the Mint by 9:00, headed for the only other Denver attraction open that early: the State Capitol. 

  

We'd been at the Capitol the previous day for the Urban Adventure Quest, but it wasn't open and we weren't able to go inside. The same was true when we were in Denver in 2015. We saw the outside and the grounds, but couldn't go inside. So it was exciting to finally see what I'd missed before. 

This was surprising. I found the explanation for the missing portrait with a quick Google search. 

There's a history museum called Mr. Brown's Attic located between the third floor and the dome of the Capitol. I expected a small display, but it's actually 2000 square feet! I spent a lot longer than I'd expected enjoying the exhibits. 

There's all sorts of information about Colorado and the Capitol building itself. 

  

Wait one minute! Is it? Could it be? Yes! I spy a moon rock. 

  

This is a really nice model of the Capitol. 

And I loved the exhibit about Colorado's state symbols. 

John Denver is everywhere in Colorado. And rightly so. 

After a thoroughly enjoyable time at the Capitol, I hustled over to my next destination: the Molly Brown House Museum. 

  

You may be familiar with the name Molly Brown from the 1960 stage show, the 1964 film, or a little something from 1997. I didn't know much about her, starting with the fact that her name was Margaret. Nobody ever called her Molly, which is usually short (long?) for Mary, not Margaret. 

Learning about the first 40 years of her life was interesting, but it was her actions aboard the Titanic and during and after the rescue that most interested me. The museum has some fascinating memorabilia. In this letter, she describes being "brined salted and pickled in mid ocean."

  

Do you remember those old Army commercials from the 1980's saying they do more before 9:00 am than most people do all day? By 11:00 am, I'd toured three museums and logged quite a few miles of walking. Not quite up to Army standards, but not exactly the way most people vacation. And that was only the beginning. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about what I did next.