Denver - June 5 and 6, 2008 (37)

Denver Vacation - June 5 and 6

June 5

The day was overcast, as I recall. We were not terribly ambitious - and no pix were taken - other than one of Joe and me. As we had tickets for a concert that evening, we decided to scope out the venue so we knew where we had to go. It turned out to be in a relatively new shopping area of the box store type.

Naturally, once we got there we had to check out some of the retail establishments. I usually find stuff at JCPenny, but this time it was pretty much a bust. We did spend a lot of time at Bass Pro Shops. We don't have 'em here in Canada, so we took some time to check it out. This place has EVERYTHING you can imagine for hunting, fishing and any other red-neck activity you can think of - everything you need for killin' it, cookin' it and lookin' good while you're doing it! My Dad would love it! OK - enough of the free commercial. Here's the link for all you red necks! Bass Pro Shop.

In the evening, we gussied up to go see - wait for it - THE RIPPINGTONS! Never heard of them? Well you've probably heard their music, but just didn't know their name. They were playing at the Soiled Dove. I'm not sure what the Soiled Dove reference is for in this case, but there is some interesting history to the term - check it out.

Back to the concert - it was EXCELLENT!!! All three of us enjoyed it immensely.

Here we are - gussied.


June 6

Another great day - sunny again. We set off for ...

Fort Collins

The City of Fort Collins, a Home Rule Municipality situated on the Cache la Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, is the county seat and most populous city of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Fort Collins is located 57 miles (92 km) north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. With roughly 125,000 residents, it is the fifth most populous city in Colorado, Fort Collins is a large college town, home to Colorado State University. It was named Money magazine's Best Place to Live 2006. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Collins]

Downtown in the old part of town. This was arguably my favourite of the nearby centres.

Town square.

Again.
Again - Ben and Jerry's!

OK - when you get to be "a certain age" - you can do goofy things. So consider us goofs.

While we were in Fort Collins we went to Elaine's favorite store ever - Perennial Gardener. It was pretty neat. I found a pottery piece that I couldn't resist.

[Cheese and Quackers pix to be added.]

Loveland

So from Fort Collins, we started back toward Denver, but stopped at Loveland. Elaine wanted us to see Loveland's Benson Sculpture Garden.

Heralded as one of the finest outdoor juried exhibitions of three-dimensional artwork in the United States, Sculpture in the Park features the work of more than 200 sculptors from around the world. The event is majestically staged against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains and attracts thousands of art lovers and collectors from across the country to Loveland's Benson Sculpture Garden. [http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/index.html]

Fittingly, it is called "Sculpture in the Park" as there are over 200 sculptures on permanent display there. I think Joe took at least one pix of each one of them. I've decided to spare us all the tediousness of looking at ALL of them, so present only a small sample here. Go to the website to see ALL of them if you're interested.

The Chase.
This is Elaine's favorite. It's called The Potato Man.

Azygos. (I'm not making this up - I Googled it - turns out it's an anatomical term.)

Fiesta.

Circle of Peace - with some audience participation.

Monument in Right Feet Major. Look closely - both are right feet.



Survival looking at Shepard Boy.



Gumdrops.

Windswept.

Horizon Interrupted.

Red and Blue Pony. Well - obviously....

Breathing Easy.

Jazzy (I made that up - couldn't find it on the site map.)

Best Friends.

Sophie.

I was glad we were there late in the day. It was pretty hot even at that time, but if we'd been there a few hours earlier, it would have been much too hot for me. I suggest if you want to go in the summer that you go either early in the morning or in the evening once it starts to cool off.

Red winged blackbird (it's real...).

Denver skyline from the freeway on the way back.