Colorado Trip - Day Two

On our second day in Denver, Ryan woke up with some serious altitude sickness. Poor guy had a pretty miserable morning, but started to feel better once the clean Colorado air hit his lungs. We spent most of the day exploring some of the areas around Denver. The mountain views were every where we went.

I didn't take many pictures as we were out and about. We just enjoyed driving around together, listening to tunes and taking in the natural beauty around us without a phone/camera constantly obstructing our line of vision. 

After our fill of exploring, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night out in the city. An Insta-friend (aka a friend on Instagram) who lives in the area recommended some of her favorite restaurants, and after looking at half a dozen menus, we settled on Racine's downtown. It was absolutely delicious, and we loved the look of the restaurant, too. It was yet another example of old/historic meets new/modern.

By far the best meal we had the whole trip.

Post dinner

After dinner, we headed over to the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. Ryan & I are both big fans of contemporary/abstract/modern type art and sculptures and the awesome, rotating LED piece right outside the museum drew us in.

The view of Union Station from the rooftop parking garage across from the museum.

Unfortunately, the pierced heart at the entrance accurately depicted how we felt after walking through this museum. (If you can really call it that...) The entrance was the best part of what was featured inside. As we walked in, we had to walk through a hallway where crocheted pieces hung from the ceiling.

 Then we were greeted by simply written "Hello".

We paid our $5 each, and were ready to experience more of the amazing art we'd seen around the city. However...that never happened. We toured the basement, and two main floors and saw THREE "exhibits". (Really, they were sparse walls with a few mediocre pieces.) We passed numerous empty rooms that were closed for "updating". What was apparently the coolest part (a bubble garden on the 3rd floor) was closed for a private event. It took us 20 minutes to walk through the ENTIRE museum. We kept looking at each other like "are we missing something?"  I am an avid "Yelper" and always check Yelp before going somewhere new/out of town, but this time we just went on a whim. I checked Yelp after the fact, and so wished I'd looked at it before. It would have saved us time and $10.

The top floor that we didn't get to see.

 
As we left the museum, completely disappointed and bummed, we knew we needed something special to redeem this evening out. Since the sun was just starting to set, we jumped back into the car and took off toward the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. It was one of the things we'd most looked forward to.

The drive up was so scenic and beautiful. 

What do I have to do to live in that house?

 

 
 As we walked up to the top, we were greeted by a large, bronze scuplture. We loved how everything in Colorado had a back story.

  As we rounded the corner, the anticipation grew...

 

Absolute perfection.

 We stood in this spot as the sun went down, just taking in all the beauty that surrounded us.

As the sun dipped behind the mountain peaks and the winds got colder, we drove back down the hill. In the glow of the headlights, I spotted something just ahead...a deer!

Can you see it? Just left of the street light.)

As I got out of the car to snap a picture, I saw that just down the hill, there was a whole deer family! Look at all those white, fluffy tails! They were not afraid of us at all...I was in complete awe.

As we exited the park, we snapped one last picture at the Red Rocks Trading Post. It looked like it had been there for as long as the rocks themselves. 

After views like that, how could our night NOT be redeemed?

To be continued...