Starting out from a Mile High

We took a quick trip to Colorado last week that was supposed to be mostly for work purposes (arranging for the exterior painting of our cabin in Garfield—which we really couldn't do in January due to the enormous amount of snow hiding most of the walls to be painted!).

But it turned out to offer lots of opportunities for fun along the way as well, which I'll tell you about in upcoming posts.

However, even our first day in the Centennial State was more enjoyable than anticipated.

It started at the glorious Denver International Airport; it's one of our favorites—gigantic but well-laid out and clearly signed, spacious with lots of eating and entertainment options, should you ever be stuck there (as we occasionally have been)—but its main drawback is its location, on land that seems like it's hours from downtown.

But even that minus has been at least somewhat mitigated by the city's light rail extension. You can catch it in the new airport station, down an escalator from the gorgeous new onsite hotel pictured above. Here's another shot of it:

And, since we are old ^{[citation needed]} it doesn't even cost very much to ride in comfort all the way to LoDo and the main station downtown. (We found out later that it was even a better bargain than we first thought—more about that later.)

Incidentally, long-time readers will remember that LoDo is the home of Coors Field, the fabulous Rockies ballpark. Unfortunately a game wasn't on our schedule this trip, but we did get a glimpse of the stadium from the train...

Since we were meeting our adorable grand-nieces down there for a late breakfast, taking the train was a no-brainer...

cute twin great-nieces enjoy the fountain near Union Station

We also had another errand to run in the area: Henry needed new hiking boots. His old ones had been glued together with contact cement a few months earlier but that hadn't proved to be a permanent fix. So how handy that Denver's main REI store is within walking distance (just barely) from the train station.

It did turn out to be a longer walk (with giant suitcase) than anticipated, but it allowed us to see more of LoDo, including this charming mosaic as we walked under an overpass...

The flagship REI where new boots were purchased is a tourist attraction on its own...

...located in a turn-of-the-20th-century building, and including its own climbing wall. There's also some neat gear and gear/vehicles on display, like this nifty trailer...

...plenty for me to look at while Henry boot-shopped.

There are also helpful staff members who can tell you where to get a bus back to Union Station (which we should have thought about taking the other way!). And since our senior train ticket is also good for bus rides all day, it was free!

AND, that's not all that we got out of our $4.50. It also provided us with free bus transportation all the way from Union Station in LoDo to Longmont, where a friend picked us up and hosted us for the first two days of our excursion. More about this exciting and non-work-related side trip next time.