Day 8 | Denver and walking tour
Breakfast this morning was complimentary straight out of the Comfort Inn Aurora. Make your own waffles, toast, cereal, egg etc. All off paper plates with plastic cutlery. Still it kind of made a nice change. This is Rosie's local birthday so today is a big day.
We made our way back to the CBD in quick time and parked up adjacent to the Colorado State Capitol to meet with our walking tour guide. There were a few people already there, but with Hillary Clinton campaign posters, stickers etc. A bit like a protest except they were all happy. We scouted around the edges of the group until we could find someone who looked like they were looking for someone like us. We found Tim, our guide. Luckily, he announced, we were the only booking for this tour. We hoped we were lucky too.
Suddenly the group started singing happy birthday. It was good of them to be singing happy birthday as it was Rosie’s birthday (turns out she shares it with Hillary Clinton, hence the political rally and I think she prefers that she shares her birthday with Keith Urban).
Tim walked us around the streets of Denver on a very interesting tour that included a coffee / loo stop and a range of the historic or notable homes and neighbourhoods as well as a quick history of Denver’s development. Denver is very pretty and tidy and preparing for winter even though it was warm today (20s but warm in the sun).
Notable were Molly Browns home (accomplished lady at the turn of the century and survivor of the Titanic), the Starkey Butler school, the Capitol itself (crazy luxury brass, marble, domed building, beautiful showing off all the products of Colorado); Brown Palace Hotel (another 1890 opulence expression). While we were wandering, Angus had a chat with a bunch of plumbers and poked around in their van (man, was it packed – no weight issue here). They were keen to talk pipe fittings and recommended a couple of steak restaurants that weren’t tourist oriented.
On the route it was interesting to chat with Tim about life here. He was delivering his filled-out voting papers for the upcoming election. It is a multi-page form that is either posted out or done in the booth. Because there is all sorts of propositions and positions to fill out voting day takes a long time. If they had compulsory voting they probably wouldn’t finish everyone.
After farewelling Tim we made for lunch at the Appaloosa Grill on the 14th St pedestrian Mall. That was good stuff with the menu having all sorts of frontier options (bison, elk and even a barramundi). It must be the altitude but this walk was tiring. We were entertained by a shoe shiner doing a good business right outside our window while we ate lunch.
There’s a free bus up and down the Mall which we took and chatted with the locals. We checked out the Capitol inside (after a security check). It was in use but neat to look around. Outside in the park the squirrels were frolicking all over the place. Very cute.
Rosie decided on the East Café Chinese restaurant for her birthday dinner. There are always variations in Chinese food but this was delightful. A good treat for Rosie’s birthday.
Highlights of the day
Rosie | Pro-Hillary campaigners singing happy birthday
Angus | Crazy architecture of the Arts buildings