Stacy: Day 3: Normality?

So, last night (and tonight) we stayed at the Best Western Denver Southwest, in Colorado. It's quite awesome! They have decorated the entire place with a dinosaur theme! Behind the frond desk they have a Stegosaurus!!!! The clerk on duty was sooooo nice and let me take a picture with him.

Stegosaurus is my favorite dinosaur. There's also a "fleshy" Stego outside the front entrance.

We took our sunset photo a little early tonight because we had a full day of activity, and we are now in the hotel at 7pm. Man, am I tired!

I'm sitting by the pool, while Kim sticks her feet in, and Abby swims.

Amazingly, I didn't witness anything plague-like occur all day!

The day started with us finding an awesome parking spot with a great view of Coors Field. Then, a brisk walk to the capitol building where we had a lovely tour of the inside.

Two fun facts: 1) its architect was the same as that of Austin's capitol building. 2) the absolutely lovely Rose Onyx stone that lines 98% of the bottom half of all the walls can no longer be found in the ground. Absolutely all of it was quarried in Colorado, and used in the capitol building.

We then had the opportunity to walk up 99 stairs to reach the observation deck. The climb wasn't bad at all because the stairs were split into 33 and 66, but we were definitely winded because all of us are used to living in near-sea levels.

On the observation deck, you could walk 360 degrees around the outside of the base of the dome. Downtown Denver, and especially the mountains in the west, were visible.

Above: me exactly one mile high!

Next, we visited the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception where Pope John Paul II said Mass when he visited Denver. It was an absolutely lovely building! While we were walking away, the Noon bells began to chime! They are real bells, not recorded--you don't find that much any more.

After that, we made our way to Coors Field for a game of America's Pastime: a baseball game between the Colorado Rockies and the Texas Rangers! How awesome is that? The Rangers won 10 to 8! W00T! We only stayed for 3 innings, though. The sun was beating down on us, and we couldn't take it any longer. At least we had a great lunch break! Such ambiance! Oh, our seats were in the same section that the Mile-High mark was, but we were at least 20 rows below it. Maybe.

And then...? Off to Dinosaur Ridge. It was a pleasant walk (when not in the sun!). A lot of it reminded me of the Canyon Lake Gorge Tour in Texas. Absolutely stunning strata in the geological formations, amazing displays of erosion, and best of all, FOSSILS!

At the end of the walk, there was a section with exposed dinosaur bones. Now, you couldn't very well tell what bone it was, nor from which dinosaur it came, but you could definitely tell they were fossilized bones! Some were quite large--a little shorter than my entire extended arm.

Since we couldn't think of anything else to do (that was still open), we decided to call it an early night. We have to get up early tomorrow! But, alas, I'm still up, typing this blog. Which I'll share the link to tomorrow morning to ensure people see it. :oD

G'night.