Denver, CO

Sunday, July 13: I was awake at 5:00 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. It was a beautiful day, with no sightseeing on the schedule. My family was flying in and I was picking them up at the Denver Airport, then heading to see my brother and his family in Longmont, CO, a northern suburb of Denver. Flights were early, and we were at Matt and Sue’s around 12 Noon. We were later joined by their sons Cooper and Colin and their partners Hattie and Amy, respectively, along with Hattie’s mother, Jodi and Cooper and Hattie’s 11-month-old daughter Mayla, for a pleasant afternoon and evening of family time. Map link: Longmont, CO

Monday, July 14: After morning exercise and breakfast, we drove to nearby Boulder to catch the Flatiron Flyer express bus into Downtown Denver. Plan A was to visit the U.S. Mint, but the first-come-first-served guided tours were already booked for the day. We checked out the gift shop anyway, then walked to City Hall, it’s nearby gardens, public library and the Colorado state capitol, my third statehouse in four days. After wandering around the large and ornate building by ourselves, some of us latched on to a guided tour up to the dome, which had an open-air viewing area. After the capitol, we had lunch at Yampa, then walked back to Union Station and reversed our route back to Matt’s house. Map Link: Denver, CO

U.S. Mint

City Hall and gardens 

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Tuesday, July 15: We had beautiful weather for a day of outdoor activities, beginning with a hike to Lion’s Lair on Mount Sanitas in Boulder. While only 5.5 miles round trip with a 900-foot elevation change, it was a good acclimation to the 5,900-foot altitude for all of us flat-landers. We went into Boulder for lunch at Rosetta Hall, then visited Chautauqua Park for a great view of the Flatirons, a series of sloping rock formations on Green Mountain. We returned to Boulder for strolling and shopping along Pearl Street, before capping the night off with dinner at Avanti food court. Map Link: Boulder, CO

The Flatirons, Chautauqua Park

Pine Street house that was the setting for the
late 1970s sitcom Mork & Mindy

Bonus Question: One of my favorite classic rock bands was REO Speedwagon. What was the group named after? (answer at end of post)

Wednesday, July 16:  We spent the morning in Longmont, walking, running and biking around McIntosh Lake, where we enjoyed watching the resident prairie dog community. After lunch we drove four hours west to our Airbnb in the mountains near Basalt, CO, about 45 minutes from Aspen, where our niece Kata and her fiancee Chris were getting married. Our cabin was spacious, private and quiet, although very remote; it’s 20 miles to the nearest town and there was no WiFi, landline or cell phone service. Upon our arrival, we were We greeted by a mule deer buck on the property. Map link: Lazy Bear Cabin, Basalt, CO

Bonus Question Answer: The band was named after the REO Speed Wagon, a light truck manufactured by the REO Motor Car Company from 1915-1953. REO stood for Ransom Eli Olds, who started the company after leaving his namesake Oldsmobile, which made cars for 107 years until General Motors discontinued the brand in 2004. In 1967, keyboardist and songwriter Neal Doughty learned about the REO Speed Wagon in a History of Transportation class while attending the University of Illinois, and thought that it would be a great name for his new rock band. REO Speedwagon (Doughty shortened it to one word) would go on to record 13 Top 40 hits and sell more than 40 million records. 

This photo in the Colorado State Capitol
inspired today’s bonus question