Closer to the clouds

On Tuesday Yong was going to take us to see Boulder in the afternoon so we had the morning free to go lie in a park. Denver has something like more than 300 parks within its city limits. We walked to one about 15 minutes from here that was pretty sprawling, even had a lake you could fish at or go boating on. Found a shady spot (we needed it, I still managed to get sunburned, for the first time this 'summer' though) and wrote some postcards.

When we got hungry we walked back to Pearl St, a good place for eats around there, and found a little cafe "La Belle Rosette" with possibly the friendliest service ever. Five stars. The food was great too, especially the homemade fresh ginger lemonade.

Rendezvoused with Yong and off we went to Boulder, which is about half an hour north-west, nestled up against the mountains. He drove us right up to the Flagstaff summit where we climbed up on a rock for a great view of the town and the plains of Colorado. There is a cool little amphitheatre up there as well as a big picnic area. Probably lots of nice walks too and good rock climbing/bouldering (can see all the chalk marks on the popular climbs on the way up). Saw a chipmunk! And a fox on the drive back down.

Back in town we strolled through their lovely pedestrian mall, lined with more interesting shops than in Denver. Saw a guy with a curly moustache flick an entire pack of cards off his arm and catch the whole deck in one hand. Then Yong took us for dinner at a great, authentic Italian place in Boulder, Il Pastaio (hiding in a nondescript strip mall). I had the gnocchi with pesto and cream and it was rich!

On Wednesday we checked out the Denver Art Museum. It has an older building that looks a little like a castle and houses the more traditional art, and an attached contemporary building that is all angles. Went to the King Tut exhibition that was on at the time, lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts including things discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb, and the accompanying 3D film. Had the leftover gnocchi for lunch outside near a park, then had a look around the rest of the contemporary gallery, lots of interesting stuff. After that we only had time to go see the photography exhibit in the other half of the gallery. Tried to see the bamboo art on the way out but were too late. Great place and you could easily spend several days there to see it all. The public library building next door looked interesting too.

Had a look at the plaza/park across the road where a squirrel displayed its impressive acrobatic ability for us. From the plaza you can see the state capitol building, the 13th step of which is one mile above sea level. Didn't go stand there though. Instead went back to Yong's and got a tasty selection from Señor Burritos around the corner for tea. For the evening's entertainment Yong had tickets to an intimate Jazz concert at a music school nearby. It was incredible. The pianist was Kenny Werner, apparently the best pianist of that style performing in the U.S. at this time. You can wiki him. He was accompanied by local musicians on drums, double bass and trumpet and they performed some original pieces (of Kenny's and the trumpet player's) as well as a few familiar, but highly improvised, ones (Tears in Heaven, Blackbird and their take on Hedwig's Theme - yes, Harry Potter's Hedwig).

The next day we were to partake in America's National Passtime - going to a baseball game! My first ever. The Rockies were set to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates at Coors Field. I came downstairs ready to go and Jon told me I shouldn't wear yellow (Pirates colours). Oops. We went, it was great. Missed out on the really cheap bleacher tickets but we got some good seats for not too much more. Ate lots of junk food (peanuts, cracker jacks, a corn dog) and drank Coors Light. Applied and reapplied and reapplied sunscreen - started out ridiculously hot, but the cloud came over thankfully. The Rockies did awesomely. Broke their losing streak with a triumphant 9:3 win, including a couple of home runs! Fowler should definitely have been awarded player of the day if they do that kinda thing. And in just under 3 hours it was all over. My education was complete.

After the game, ignoring the fact it was threatening rain, we walked down to the park alongside the river on the far side of town (not that we took the most direct route to get there, walking along a freeway for much too long with lost grasshoppers for company) and followed it round to close to Market St, walked through the Union St train station to the bus stop and home.