Our First Adventures in Denver

Well our first week and a half has been very exciting. We wanted to enjoy the first few days as much as possible since we had been going nearly nonstop for almost six months and this felt a lot like a vacation. Therefore in the first week and a half we were here we went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium, the Denver Zoo, and the Red Rock Amphitheater as well as trying a few local restaurants and browsing through a few fun stores.


One of our first stop when we arrived was to the Swedish Embassy (IKEA) to purchase some cheap portable furniture. As neither of us had ever been to IKEA we were thrilled to look at the fun stuff and thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they had a cafeteria in the store.

We had both wanted to go to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago but never had the chance while we were still in the Midwest so our first full day here after unpacking we visited the Denver Downtown Aquarium. We had a lot of fun seeing a wide variety of different animals that we hadn't known existed, as well as many we were familiar with. We even got a chance to feed some Stingrays.

Erin was thrilled about finding out that they had an exhibit with 12 Seahorses in it. She examined
it for nearly fifteen minutes watching the Seahorses with great excitement before Doug pointed out to
her the line forming behind her

Doug was predictably terrified by the Sharks

Our visit to the Zoo was fun not only because we had the chance to see many different animals but because the only zoo that we had been to in a very long time had been the John Ball Park Zoo and the Denver Zoo was home to a far wider variety of animals. Below are some of the many animals that we got the chance to see.

This poor Leopard had only gotten out of surgery the day before and was sedated trying to ignore the world. Yet, he had to contend with the tour group of over 100 preschoolers that came to the zoo that day..

In the background you can see our favorite animal of the entire zoo... Zebras!

This is for our sister Kristin. They had tons of giraffes there and they we pretty fun to watch!

This goose made a nest directly next to the walking path and laid a pair of eggs. She then
 proceeded to lunge at and bite anyone who came within a few feet of her nest.

This elephant was rescued from the wild after being injured by poachers and having his tusk cut for the sale of the ivory.

This Rhinoceros also was saved from the wild after having poachers steal his tusk for the sale of the ivory.

FLAMINGOS!!!

This was clearly the "Alpha Male" because when he came into the indoor portion of the gorilla exhibit
 all the other gorillas moved away and looked terrified... as did most of the preschoolers as well.

We got to go into the wild birds exhibit and walk up close to a number of exotic birds, including the numerous peacocks they had. We had the chance to watch this one go from having its feathers low on its back to having them raised in a defensive posture and then back down again. Doug thought it was so funny he started walking up to each of them one after another just to get them to do it again.

We were able to take a photo of this guy in mid yawn.

The last really cool thing we have had the opportunity to do since coming to Denver was to visit the Red Rock Amphitheater. It is a large music venue that is located at 6,450 ft. elevation, up in the mountains, and has a seating capacity of just under 10,000. The majority of it is carved into the rock face of the mountain and this venue has played host to a number of extremely popular artists over the years. Also a couple of times a month they play movies on massive projection screens under the stars. There are also a number of hiking trails and a great view of the valley below and of Denver.

In the background you can see the valley full of homes and off to the left is Denver.

This one also has a good view of Denver off to the left.