Travel Adventures in Denver, Part 5

This is my fifth post about our recent travels to Denver. I recommend reading the first, second, third, and fourth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received media passes for some of the places I visited during this trip. I paid full price for everything else. What I paid has no bearing on my reviews. I only share what I honestly recommend.

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Travel Adventures in Denver

 

After my whirlwind Monday, the following day (Tuesday, June 24) felt downright leisurely. I left the hotel room a full three hours later and headed to 16th Street. The Hyatt Regency is on 15th Street so it barely took any time at all to get there. 

16th Street is a mile-long, pedestrian-friendly street in the heart of Denver. It is a gathering place with tons of restaurants, shops, seating areas, art installations, and more. We'd gotten to see a lot of it during the Urban Adventure Quest we'd done on our first day in town and during the previous night's dinner, but this time I took a more leisurely stroll. I took the time to read about Colorado's sports legends and to photograph interesting buildings as I walked by. 

  

  

I also stopped to enjoy all of the art installations. My favorites were the musical ones. They're all over the place. Turn the cranks on these giant instruments and they play a fun (and sometimes surprising) recording. 

  

This beehive play structure is very popular with kids. 

Same with these fish. I love the one with the hat and saddle. 

Have you ever been walking down the street and thought, "I need a haircut right now, but I don't want to go to a traditional salon with running water?" Me neither. But if you did, you could totally visit The Cut Hut: a Dry Haircut Bar. 

I tease, but it's actually a great idea and very convenient. Particularly since it's just a few steps away from Union Station, with tons of people coming and going. 

I spent about 20 minutes hanging out at Union Station, both inside... 

... and out. 

At 11:30, I met my guide for the Ultimate Denver Day Out Bus Tour. She started by telling us all about Union Station, then we loaded onto the bus to learn all about Denver. There were only four of us on the tour, which was awesome. Window seats for everyone and plenty of opportunities to ask questions. We learned a lot of fun facts and trivia, as well as Denver slang. Now I know how to sound like a local, if I didn't feel like an idiot using the terms. Except Blucifer, which is a great name for the murderous (literally!) mustang statue you can't miss flying in or out of Denver. 

We headed west out of Denver and drove up, up, up. Do you recognize these rock formations? 

Here we are at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. 

  

Red Rocks is the world's only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater. And it's stunning. 

Red Rocks is free and open to the public when concerts are not happening. A lot of people use the space to exercise. I also saw people picnicking and watching the crew set up for the evening's concert. 

I have to say - I am really impressed with people who come to Red Rocks to run up and down the stairs. There are a LOT of stairs and, at 6450 ft., altitude is an issue. 

There's a small museum at Red Rocks, so that's where I headed next. 

Much too soon, it was time to leave Red Rocks. We drove through Golden on our way back to Denver. Grey clouds were moving in...

... and it started to rain right as we reached our next destination, Little Man Ice Cream. Their delicious and unique flavors are served from a 28-foot tall, 16-foot diameter milk can. 

  

Our tour included a scoop. After much debate, I went with salted caramel peanut butter cup. So good!

Our next stop was in the RiNo (River North) district of Denver. It is the hub of creativity in the city, with murals and street art on almost every surface. 

We stopped at the Denver Central Market. 

I got a bagel from the cleverly named Call Your Mother (A Jew-ish Deli). 

After driving through a few more of Denver's neighborhoods, our tour ended back at Union Square. From there, I walked a few blocks to the Museum of Contemporary Art. 

All of the galleries featured work by artists exploring the theme of living in climate-vulnerable places. 

  

  

There's a beautiful rooftop space and cafe there. 

The Museum of Contemporary Art offers a unique program for locals that I found really interesting. They have a free lending library. I looked through the available works to see what I would want to borrow if I were a Denverite. 

I left the museum and took a leisurely stroll south along 15th Street. 

  

Larimer Square was all dressed up for Pride!

I love the pencil smokestack. And the 12 foot tall prospector, who used to be perched on top of a building, is pretty cool too. 

  

Denver is such a neat place. There’s so much to see and do, and I felt 100% safe walking all over the city alone. 

I headed back to the hotel to do my Duolingo and rest a bit. Then I met up with Steve and the rest of the guys for drinks at 54thirty, Denver's highest open-air rooftop bar. I can't have alcohol due to my cancer, so I was pleased to see they had a decent selection of mocktails. 

We walked to Larimer Square for dinner (hey, I was just there!) and ate at the fabulous Osteria Marco. If you only eat at one restaurant in Denver, this is the one. Everything was incredible. We're smiling, but we can't wait to dig in! (From left: Steve, Cindy, Kerry, Patrick, Joseph.)

Larimer Square is even more pretty at night. 

We passed this lighted building on our walk back to the hotel. I'm not sure what it is, but it's neat. 

Another great day in Denver!