Adrian had the opportunity to present at 360 Flex in Denver recently. We all tagged along with him because we like Colorado and we had some family to visit. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and picked up a rental car. After checking in to the hotel we went to the local mall and scouted out some dinner. Then on Sunday morning I took the boys to Broomfield while Adrian started his conference activities. We ate breakfast with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Mary, Jon and Emily, Dave, and Dan.
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| Travis learning to pet Otto. Emily and Roman help him. |
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| Uncle Jeff and Aunt Mary's awesome patio. |
After hanging out I took the boys over to Boulder for a little hike at Chatauqua Park. Their favorite part was the ranger's building with stuffed dead animals.
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| Overlooking the city of Boulder |
After our hike we went in to Boulder to wander around. This was my favorite day of the trip. We just wandered around with no schedule or goal in mind. It was so relaxing. We stopped to watch different musicians. And had some lunch at a cafe. Then before we left Pearl Street we had a snack at Crepes a la Carte. Travis had never had a crepe but was adamant he wanted one. Nicholas was skeptical. We ordered a smores crepe. It was out of this world.
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| The day trip knocked him out cold. |
Monday was a bust in Denver. We took the light rail to 16th Street. They liked the ride and asked at every stop if we had to get off. We had lunch at the Hard Rock. Our goal was the history museum and the US Mint. I think the museum was history in fact. There was a lot of construction in the area and we just couldn't find the building. A long story I won't go into caused us to skip our tour reservation at the Mint. We thought we could at least get in to see the gift shop. No such luck. We just headed back to the hotel on the light rail and considered the day a done deal.
Adrian picked up some fake mustaches at the conference. The boys loved them because they are natural hams.
We were determined to make Tuesday a better day. The day started off with me sniffing out a Chick Fil A. I knew they existed in Denver and there had to be one near the mall, it's just the way it is. Score, everyone was happy with breakfast.
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| I could relocate and have that view at work everyday. |
Next stop, the Aquarium. Funny for a state with no ocean border, they had a lot of cool stuff. Maybe they're making up for their geographical situation.
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| Creepy looking eel. |
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| Love his face! |
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| And this face just cracks me up! |
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| Tigers in an aquarium?! |
We found a walkway that takes you from the Aquarium to the Children's Museum. It goes right by the old abandoned amusement park (it's really just closed for the season). Looks straight out of Scooby Doo.
We had a snack and checked out the Children's Museum. It was pretty similar to all the other ones we've been to.
We decided to try our luck and go back to the Aquarium. There had been a large field trip getting in our way earlier. The lady let us back in to see everything again.
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| Getting up the courage to touch a sting ray. |
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| Travis was brave enough to feed one. |
The next day we flew back home. It was a great family trip. The boys behaved very well if you kept them moving. They didn't do well sitting idle in the hotel room. Lots of good memories. Nicholas had a lot of good journal entries to take back to school. Colorado remains one of our favorite places to visit. I look forward to going back when they are older so we can do more hiking and exploring.
