Dave has been swamped at work and has been at the lab at least 11 hours a day five days a week. Will and the dogs and I have missed him dearly, but there are so many incredible things to do in this town we've been thoroughly entertained.
There are three or four really great city parks in our neighborhood and we make a morning outing of each one.
Forgive the picture quality, I had the camera and then it decided to go on walkabout, so I need to locate it again. These are images from my camera phone.
First up is Observatory Park which is about a mile from our house. It's got this incredible play area designed by Kompan a Danish playground company. Actually, most of the parks in Denver have a play area with at least a few things from this company. Will likes to go up the stairs and down the stairs and up the stairs and down again. He likes the slides too, we go down together a lot.
Observatory Park also has a community toy bin with a lot of busted up play tractors and push and pull toys. Will LOVES these. He spends a lot of time pushing stuff around. Even if it's only the bottom half of a ride-on toy.
We've also been to Hayden McWilliams park. This is a cool little park that has a big purple cement dinosaur and camel for the bigger kids to play on. It also has a creek running through it.
We've been a few times to Harvard Gulch Park which is across the street from the Rosedale Community Garden (super awesome place, and I got my composter from them, yay!). Rosedale is one of those typical urban gardens but with a little flair, you get a giant plot (15'x30'), there are hose attachments at every plot and people are allowed to make any kind of garden they want. There are lots of different types of gardening there and most people donate their unwanted produce to Project Angel Heart a non-profit organization that delivers meals to the medically fragile. It's a combination of Food and Friends and Meals on Wheels. Good stuff.
Harvard Gulch Park has a recreation center and a pool- which is where I think Will and I will be spending our summer next year.
One day we went to Cherry Creek State Park, which has a big reservoir in the middle of it. Apparently you can swim and fish and boat. Will and the dogs and I ended up on a beach where a bunch of European old men go to fish in the morning. Will was extra charming that day.
We went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge which is wayyyyy on the eastern part of the city. It was on a vast prairie and we didn't actually go into the refuge, and I realized after the fact, that it's not the kind of place you want to wander around without instruction. It used to be Rocky Mountain Flats, a notorious plutonium manufacturing plant.
We stayed about an hour and watched the dogs go nutty chasing prairie dogs until they got tired.We then visited Belleview Park on the east side of town. This park is Kid Vallhalla. It's amazing. Two playground areas with a giant pavillion in the middle. It's grassy and hilly and has a kid-friendly stream running through it. The stream is about 6 feet wide and four inches deep with a concrete bed and a couple inches of sand. There is a petting zoo and a miniature train. There are lots of places to sit and eat or roam around. It was amazing. We went to the petting zoo where Will had more fun with the gravel than the goats or donkeys.
The last park we've visited was the Windy Saddle of Lookout Mountain in Golden. I had no idea where to go and parked at a couple of places on the hill looking for a level, stroller friendly path and were unlucky, but we had a good time walking a little bit up the path. It was a misty, cool, overcast day and I was absolutely thrilled with the vast amount of GREEN. To me, it was like visiting the Andes.
Compare the above to a picture of Hidden Valley Regional Park in April. Hidden Valley was the park we most hiked at in Reno.
See what I mean?On Saturdays, Dave and Will have had their own outings. Last Saturday they went to the Denver Zoo, and they rode the bus to get there (Will slept great that night!). And this Saturday they went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Both times they have had a fantastic experience.
So, it's been a little difficult to settle into a schedule. Each day is an orgy of new experiences. I suspect the next couple of weeks will be a bit more sedate. If not, they will be memorable.
