Travel Adventures in Denver, Part 1

Last week, Steve attended the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit in Denver, Colorado. I traveled with him and used the time he was at the conference to visit as many of Denver's best attractions as possible. I'm excited to share all of the fun museums, tours, restaurants, and more I discovered during my time in Denver. 

Because I blog about educational travel, I was given admission tickets for most of the places I visited during our trip. This has no bearing on my reviews. Unless I say otherwise, everything I'm sharing is something that I recommend. If you notice any gaps in my narrative, it is because I didn't love a particular attraction enough to recommend it, regardless of how much I paid or didn't pay.

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Travel Adventures in Denver, Colorado

On Sunday, June 22 Steve and I flew from Sacramento to Denver. Most of the flight was uneventful, but we had about 15 minutes of turbulence during the approach into Denver. This is no surprise, considering Denver is North America's most turbulent airport. It was the side-to-side, vomit-inducing kind of turbulence (roll), not the plunging and jerking, fear-inducing kind of turbulence. I'd rather be nauseated than terrified, so I'm calling that a win, particularly since I didn't actually throw up. 

We headed downtown and checked into our hotel, the beautiful Hyatt Regency. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in Denver. It's in a great location, offers wonderful amenities, and has spacious, clean, and comfortable rooms. After we dropped off our stuff, we headed across the street to the Convention Center so Steve could pick up his registration materials. It was fun to see a sign with Tux in hiking gear welcoming the OSS attendees!

The Colorado Music Hall of Fame is located in the Convention Center. You don't have to be an attendee to visit; as long as the building is unlocked, it's free and available to visit. Go!

John Denver is one of my all-time favorite musicians. He was part of the inaugural class of 2011, along with Red Rocks Amphitheater. 

I enjoyed learning about all the inductees to Colorado's Music Hall of Fame. 

After Steve got his badge, he took it to the customization table. He attached three flags: Embedded Linux, Zephyr, and We Are Hiring. Then he added a pronoun sticker (He/Him) from amongst five choices. Finally, he chose a green sticker to indicate that he is comfortable with people approaching him to talk. I appreciate the Linux Foundation's efforts to help all attendees have a positive experience at the Summit. 

  

We dropped Steve's registration materials at the hotel and then headed out to complete the Denver Urban Adventure Quest. The Quest started at the beautiful Colorado State Capitol... 

... where we found Colorado's Liberty Bell replica. 

The Quest took us to many other points of interest in downtown Denver, including the Denver Art Museum, 16th Street, the Performing Arts Center (the second largest in the country behind Lincoln Center in New York), and the Brown Palace Hotel. Along the way, we were joined by Joseph, one of three others from Anodize besides Steve who attended the Summit. This was Joseph's first-ever Quest. 

During the Quest, we saw some really cool public art. There are tons of murals, sculptures, and interactive art pieces throughout Denver.  

  

  

  

As always, the Quest challenges were interesting, fun, and educational. 

    

We'd planned to finish the Quest and then have dinner, but we were all starving, having eaten nothing all day but an airplane snack. So we paused the Quest (we love that feature!) and had a delicious dinner at Stout Street Social. 

Can you guess whether I had the beet salad with pepitas, goat cheese, and blood orange vinaigrette... 

... or the ahi tuna tower with eel sauce and crispy wontons? (If you can't guess, you don't know me AT ALL.) 

Pleasantly full, we finished up the Quest and headed back to the Hyatt. Between the travel and the Quest and the time zone change, we were really tired. 

It would be an early morning for Steve and the gang, but it would be a REALLY early morning for me. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

10 Years of Fun with Urban Adventure Quest

By the time you are reading this, our family will have (hopefully) completed our 28th Urban Adventure Quest. We are obviously huge fans of this game, where smartphone clues take you on a walking tour to the most interesting and important sites in a city. We always learn so much during a Quest and every Quest has taken us to places we never would have discovered on our own. 

We solved our first Urban Adventure Quest in Sacramento in March 2016. We were immediately hooked. We completed our second UAQ in Salt Lake City three months later and two more Quests in New Mexico five months after that. One month after that, we served as beta testers for a new Quest for the first time. 

Over the past 10 years since that first time in Sacramento, we have solved Quests in 19 different states. We've done Quests in extreme heat and epic downpours. We've finished Quests with no mistakes and others with an embarrassing number of errors. We've powered through Quests to try to get a good time and we've leisurely solved Quests with no consideration to our final score. 

I put together a map with all the locations we've done (so far). Most of the blank states don't have Quests; here is the current list of Quest cities. 

I'm excited to see what the next 10 years of Questing looks like for the deRosiers!

WITS 2024 Salt Lake City: Women in Travel Summit, Part 3

Friday, April 12 was the first real day of WITS (the tours I'd done the day before were technically pre-WITS), but I didn't have anything scheduled until 1:30 pm. I used the morning to check on the Salt Lake City Urban Adventure Quest. 

I've mentioned before that we've done beta testing for UAQ; we've also done checks on Quests where construction or other closures (like COVID) have made it impossible to find certain answers. With all the construction at Temple Square, the folks at UAQ had temporarily taken down the SLC Quest, so I offered to see which questions were currently impossible and which had become accessible. 

Steve, Trevor, and I did the Quest during our 2017 trip to Salt Lake City so I remembered where some of the answers were. Right off the bat, I saw a problem. Construction barriers in front of Union Pacific Depot made it impossible to find the first answer. 

The Quest is well-designed though - I just pushed a button to skip that question and I went on to the next. The Quest took me through Temple Square, where there were a total of 4 impossible questions. But I did get a closer look at the areas under renovation as well as the completed areas, with their gorgeous spring flowers. 

 

  

Then I walked up, up, up the hill to the Capitol. It's so pretty there. 

Beehives, everywhere you look!

I finished the Quest and sent in my feedback. They plan to revamp the SLC Quest in the next few months to replace the 5 questions that can't currently be solved. 

For lunch, I chose J. Dawgs, a beloved place with 9 Utah locations. 

I've never seen this before. When you come in the front door, you immediately pass by a sink before going to the counter to order. Love it!

Once you're at the counter, it doesn't take long to decide what to order, as your only choices are Polish vs. beef dawg. You can add fries and a drink. I chose beef, with no condiments except their Special Sauce. It was fantastic. I definitely recommend a visit. 

I headed back to the Marriott for the Opening Session. The panel discussion was very informative. 

We took a group photo after this session. I'm about four people in from the left, wearing purple. 

Then I attended a session about publishing a travel memoir. That is something I'm strongly considering and this session was outstanding. 

I am very interested in reading each of the speakers' memoirs (affiliate links below): 

  

During the next session block, I spent my time in the Media Marketplace. Here, we could chat with representatives from Destination Management Organizations, travel services, and others to discuss collaborations. One of the destinations represented would be the next host of WITS, so we were all trying to figure out which one it would be!

  

Next, we loaded onto buses and headed to the fabulous Natural History Museum of Utah for a welcome party. 

  

What a party! Oh my gosh. It exceeded my expectations 30 times over. For three hours, we had wonderful food and drinks, excellent music, and free access to the museum. I hardly knew what to do first. 

Since we were on the first bus, we decided to hit the bar and the food before everyone else showed up and the lines got long. It was a great decision. 

  

  

Everything was amazing and the weather on the patio was perfect for eating and mingling. I met so many interesting women, like Kelly, the Points and Miles Doc.  

Those of us who arrived first finished eating while the others were standing in long lines, so we took the opportunity to check out the museum while it was empty. First, we passed by this. 

I didn't need/want a 360° video of myself, but if I had, this would have been the time to get it. It was mobbed for the rest of the night. 

Having the museum to ourselves was fantastic. The Natural History Museum of Utah is an incredible museum. The displays are beautiful, pristine, and arranged very logically. They're packed with interesting information. 

I loved the hands-on activities sprinkled throughout the museum. 

I really enjoyed the special exhibit about Jane Goodall. It will be on display through May 27. 

Back in the lobby, the party was going strong. 

Dessert was ice cream bars by Normal Ice Cream. Yum! I enjoyed mine on the patio, watching the sunset. 

All too soon, it was time to load up the buses and return to the hotel. 

We'd be back on the buses bright and early the next morning. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.