Denver and Stuff

So we arrived in Denver the morning of the 4th.

For those of you who have never visited Denver, you should make a point to go.  Although it rests a mile high, it's actually in the foothills of a much higher cluster of rock formations/mountain range named the "Flatirons".

Dave (Will's brother), his lovely wife Heather and their adorable son Simon live in Denver and played hosts and hostess to our visit as well as showed us the town.

                                                        Simon (napping on Uncle Will)!

Denver has a large -and growing- Hispanic population and, thus, plays home to some pretty amazing Mexican restaurants.  For lunch on the fourth, we ate at an authentic taco joint called Pinche Taqueria which is located in the "Highlands" neighborhood where Dave and Heather live.

That evening, we enjoyed drinks, delicious appetizers, and good fellowship at a few other restaurants.

And in true American fashion, we celebrated our country's independence by setting up shop at a park in downtown Denver and watched as fireworks were launched into space from both the Lakeside Amusement Park and Denver stadium.

We arrived fully prepared with a picnic and camped out until the show started.

The next day, we drove into the Flatirons and toured the towns of Boulder and Golden.

We would describe Boulder as upscale hippie.

Neat town.

We even drove up to a creek and got some pretty cool shots of the rapids:

Golden -and their many microbreweries- was golden:

We ended the day with a trip to the river in downtown Denver where Will and Dave used an inflatable kayak to ride the white water.  

There was a minor emergency when Heather and I drove downstream to pick them up only to find they were not there and it was getting dark.  

Fortunately, all is well that ends well.  Turns out, they miscalculated how long their river journey would take them and Heather and I didn't have to put out an APB after all.  

We had a great time in Denver and can't wait to go back.  

As I'm writing this, we're driving through Utah (or, as I like to call it, OOtah) having crossed the continental divide this morning around 6am when it was 38 degrees with snow and grabbed a coffee and breakfast in Vail. 

We will leave you with a memory from colorful Colorado (as they call it):

Oh, and did you know that Colorado has a town named No Name?

No joke.

Here's the sign to prove it!

One last shot; tunnels through the Rockies:

Next stop:  the Grand Canyon!  Check back for more fun and games!