A Break from the Road - Day 2 - Denver

Today is the day we visited the city of Denver. Denver is the mile high city and for some the change in altitude can be challenging. The official Denver Visitor's Guide offers tips for high altitude: drink lots of water, and wear sunscreen (there is 25 percent less protection from the sun ray's at Denver's 5,280ft elevation) - good advice in any city. I would be a better golfer if I were to play here. A golf ball goes 10 percent farther! and so does the affect of alcholol. Ed is finding the change in altitude a little challenging (or perhaps he is finally catching up on 2 weeks without his usual mid-afternoon nap).
Our trip into town started with a tour of the old neighbourhoods that Andrew had lived and where he and Krystyna had their first home. It is always interesting to take a drive around the cities and see the different styles of architecture and construction materials. Seeing so many red brick buildings is a novelty to us where we are more familiar with homes having wood, vinyl, aluminium or stucco exteriors.
We parked near the 16th Street Mall, a mile long pedestrian walkway - and if you get tired of walking, you can take a free shuttle. This is the heart of downtown Denver.
Denver has many impressive examples of modern architecture. Most of them have a common theme - strong, sharp angles. I think that this is to reflect the sharp mountain peaks that provide the backdrop for the city skyline (but that is just my opinion).
Scattered throughout the downtown, and surrounding area, are many examples of public art - conventional, abstract and functional. Along the 16th Street Mall are old pianos that have been painted and are available for anyone to sit down at and play a song.
We sat on the patio of the Rock Bottom Brewery restaurant for lunch. I enjoyed the seafood salad and my companions all agreed that their fish and chips/onion rings were delicious.
After lunch we hopped on the free shuttle and went a little further to the original downtown Denver. It looks very similar architecturally to the LoJo area of Victoria and has several cafes, boutiques and home decorating shops. Here we found a very nice vase for our fireplace.
We headed over to see the new DAM -Denver Art Museum. The building is spectacular and is considered a work of art in itself. It is filled with works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Georgia O'Keefe. Unfortunately, it wasn't filled with people - closed on Mondays!
Krystyna assured us that the place to find art was the Cherry Creek Arts Festival - an open air market that is held for 3 days every year over the July 4th weekend - and she was right. We joined the hundreds of people strolling along the 3 blocks that had been cordoned off for this event. (Temp - 85F - hats & sunscreen as per high altitude tips!) We came upon a stall that had several beautiful examples of kiln-fired wall hangings, bowls, plates and other larger pieces. It was hard to choose just one piece - so we bought two. It has been several years since Ed and I have purchased any new art for our home and we thought that this trip would provide just the opportunity to do this. Denver has been just the place.