Dash Thru Down Town Denver

So the plan was to visit the Coors Brewery, Downtown Denver and then on the way home stop in on the two casino towns in the mountains Black Hawk & Central City... However then we ran out of day after stopping in at Apple Jack's - a massive discount liquor store similar to Dan Murphy's back home. Incredibly a lot of liquor stores in the states (even little corner stores) stock HUGE ranges of Australian wine's and also a large range of NZ wines... and even converting US prices to Aus$ they still come in at half the prices we pay at home!!!

Now is propably a good time to mention - keep an eye out in an upcomming blog for the price of a bottle of wine I just had to photo, partly cos of the price and partly cos it wasn't even locked in a cabinet (yes thats "cabinet", not "cabernet" :) and of coarse I then proceeded to knock it over as I stood it up to take a photo of the price tag :D

...But back to the story... the first two photo's are of "Mile High Stadium" home of the Denver Bronco's (NFL Foot...well technically...Hand...Ball for the uninitiated)

Denver cental city skyline, not unlike Melbourne (Cranes included :) and I was even more suprised to find that Denver (populationally) is actually smaller than Melbourne with a Denver County only around 588,349 making it the 26th most populous U.S. city. The 5-county Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area (which I am using to compare to metro-Melbourne) being estimated at only 2,464,866 (also happens to be about the mark Melbourne's water supply was designed for, not including climate change :) ranking it as the 21st most populous U.S. But I have to say as I look over it as I descend the mountains in the CME vans I would have thought it was much bigger than that! I guess Denver doesn't have the sprawling manufactured housing estates that metro-Melbourne does!

The the Denver Airport on the other hand is incredible - being the major central HUB of the USA it has THREE different 'concourses' which all the various airlines park their aircraft all the way around... so you actually have to catch an underground train to get from one concourse to another. And I know concourse "A" ALONE has 99! 'gates' around it!! Can anyone remember how many Tullamarine has? ...perhaps about 50 in TOTAL!??

Government House in central Denver

Every one loves to kill themself a Buffalo over here!!!

There is always a quicker and easier way to do everything! This is my own creative way into the Mile High Club :D Actually this was the second attempt because about 10 or 20 steps further down was the OLD official mile high marker from about 50 years ago... but these restless mountains just keep rising!!!

Now seriously... these have to be the cutest critters ever created!!! (Yes they are squirrels) A couple even posed for photos, but my all in-one 'thing' takes too long to focus and lock on, for these energetic little cuties. But I still managed to get a few good shots.

The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian and transit (but no public traffic) mall in the Denver CBD The mall, 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) long, runs along 16th Street in downtown Denver, from Wewatta Street to the intersection of 16th Avenue and Broadway. We walked probably half of it 8 blocks before catching the free transit bus back again as we were running out of daylight....

I thought I was taking a photo of just 3 police bikes here, but if you look carefully they have a guy hand cuffed to the tree aswell...

a brief flash back into my past :D

A nice touch of home... very similar to Melbournes own, Denver just hasn't figured out that you can plaster advertising all over them too... YET! I am sure it won't be long... or perhaps Denver just has not privatised theirs yet :)

Is there anyone who does not appreciate the (potential)wisdom in this photo?!!! :D I am sure the merchandisers did this on purpose.

I have to say being in the US at such a potentially incredibly pivotal time in its future's history - really did feel like a priviledge. A guest was telling me that a freind of her's, many years ago used to be a member of the KKK, but this year voted for Obama.

If you stop and think about it... only a little over 50 years ago... the full extent of the racial seggregation... and that if you had black skin going to the same school as a white person was incomprehensible let alone having a say in the countries future. And in only 50 years (is that 1 or 2 generations?) a little over half the country voted for Obama... America often cops a lot of criticism, but you have to admire the' progress that this represents right now. Hopefully Obama can do a lot of good towards changing the opinions of some of the other half - racially at least anyway... I do not dare touch politics over here "Sorry I just do not know enough about how your system works yet."