Denver Day 5 (Monday, May 23)

Monday was our final day in Colorado. Our flight didn't leave till about 6pm, so we had pretty much the whole day to squeeze in whatever else we could before leaving! We considered a few things: 1. Skiing 2. Colorado Springs 3. Rocky Mountain National Park 4. Red Rocks. We choose option 4. We really wanted to ski while in Colorado, but I think Michael was concerned about my "delicate state"...you know with being 4 months pregnant and all. I probably would have been fine because I've skiied before and I would have only gone on the easy trails, but we decided not to do anything remotely dangerous before trying to catch a flight that evening.

Colorado Springs we voted against because they were calling for clouds and rain down there...we were going to ride a train up Pike's Peak, but decided it wasn't worth it if it was going to be cloudy when we got to the top!

Rocky Mountain National Park came in a close second to Red Rocks. The main reason we choose not to go there is because we'd already done a lot of hiking and were concerned about Memorial Day traffic coming back into Denver from RMNP.

So Red Rocks it was! And I'm so glad we choose Red Rocks because it was so amazingly beautiful! Red Rocks is a public park and an ampitheatre where everyone from The Beatles to Dave Matthews to opera singers have performed. The Red Rocks amphitheatre was a project of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - actually I think it was their biggest project. It was fascinating reading the history and seeing all the pictures of the build in progress. Now, Red Rocks is a very popular venue and many artists' favorite place to play. What's great is that even if no one is performing, the venue is open all the time because it's also a park.

Here is a view of the amphitheatre from the top. This would be an amazing place to enjoy a concert!

Look in the background of this picture. You can see the huge red rocks jutting out of the countryside all the way down.

When I say huge, I mean huge. These rocks were big. Michael was taking a belly picture for me (for 18 weeks!). The picture below was before he zoomed in.

Even though we didn't go to Rocky Mt'n Nat'l Park Sunday, we did get to do a good bit of hiking. We picked up a trail that led up into the rocks and just started hiking to see where it would lead us.

I'm at 18 weeks in the picture below...

There are severe fines for climbing on the rocks (I'm sure it's a safety thing...), but in the picture below Michael is just following the trail.

After hiking around Red Rocks for awhile, we headed back to Denver and made a stop in Boulder along the way. We'd already been to Boulder briefly twice, but we really liked it there. And Boulder was having it's annual Boulder Creek Festival where there were tons of vendors and cool things to see. Boulder Creek runs right through Boulder and the creek was really high from all the snow melting and rushing down the mountains.

The Boulder Creek Festival is like Earth Day in Centennial Park on steriods. It's about 3 times as big and squished into a smaller space. Evidently, it's the biggest festival in the whole state of Colorado as they get over 300,000 people come through over Memorial Day weekend. We got some great freebies from Kashi, Horizon Organic, Silk Soy Milk, Luna (notice a theme here?? Boulder is very much a hippie/organic/natural kind of place). I bought a necklace from Bead For Life, a fair trade organization that sells beads made by Ugandan women to try and eradicate poverty in Uganda. Very pretty necklace and for a good cause!

So that wraps up the Colorado posts. We were very sad to leave. Michael was pretty much sold on moving to Denver as soon as we got there and continued to ask me when we were going to move to Colorado! I do miss the beautiful scenery and the air there. It's so clear and fresh. And people are very healthy there because everyone gets outside constantly. Wish I could say the same for Tennessee...we hadn't even stepped outside before I could feel the thickness and humidity of the air. And Nashville is nowhere near as pedestrian/biker friendly as Denver! As much as I love Colorado though, it's very far away from home...I'd like to stay within driving distance of North Carolina if possible!