Confluence Park

 Denver, CO

One of three footbridges we crossed over a water today

A Long Walk For Francis

Today was sort of a rest day.  Our visiting friends returned to Seattle and all of our other friends here are working so we had a "normal" day here in Denver.  We got up, made coffee, Donna read the newspaper (online, we aren't that old), I played Animal Crossing, and then we took Francis for a well deserved walk.  We headed over to The South Platt River and then followed it to Cherry Creek.  We then crossed Cherry Creek via a footbridge and then tried to walk up the South Platt River along the Kayak Park but we were blocked by construction vehicles working on the bridge above.  We changed our route to cross the South Platt again and then walk downstream to another footbridge and then complete a full circle.  It was a nice walk and Francis enjoyed it.

Where Cherry Creek meets The South Platt River.  The bridge you see is the one being "constructioned" upon.

This is where the Kayaking area ends and there are steps so you can get out and walk back up and do it all again.

No one was in the water this morning.

I guess they want to get the word out that Denver is a Topless Equality City.  DenverGoTopless lays it all out for you. 

Both cyclists and pedestrians use the walkways around the rivers.  Some sections are separated walking and biking and some sections are shared.

It's getting late in the season but there are still a few flowers holding on.

Maybe we will go to the Bazaar on Friday.

Along Cherry Creek under the RTD Tracks

The rest of the day was filled with grocery shopping, cooking, doing chores, and lounging.  It was a nice today to relax.  As of right now, we have plans to get together with friends on Wednesday and Thursday so a rest is good.

That's it for today.  If you missed The Denver Zoo, check it out.  We went to the Denver Zoo.  Oh sorry, should have said, "SPOILER ALERT".  Now the surprise is ruined. 

Big Laughs at Minnehaha Falls

 Minneapolis, MN

You can see the falls between us.  Francis looks ready to go.

Minnehaha Regional Park

Today we took a short drive to Minnehaha Regional Park to see the falls and visit the dog park.  The falls were nice but the dog park was the star of the trip.  It was huge, well shaded, had hiking trails, and Francis met a ton of friendly dogs.  He had such a good time.

The road along the park is an American Byway.  Here is a map with all of them and it is very hard to read.

We saw fungus too!

We are in our last week in Minneapolis so we are checking off the last few items on the list.  If you missed Kanabec County Fair check it out.  We went to a tiny county fair.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Kids

 Denver, CO

The Elephant Statue outside the Museum in City Park

Using our ASTC Science Museum Pass

Today we took the morning to drink coffee, read the paper, and plan adventures.  We had lunch at the Airbnb and then we set out for our 1pm appointment at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  We hopped a bus and got half way there and then I realized I had forgotten our ASTC Pass.  This was the pass that was going to get us into the museum for free.  Donna suggested I call the museum to see if they can look our pass up so that is what I did.  They said they couldn't but they said that if I had a receipt for the purchase of the pass I could show that.  I did!  It was in my email so we were going to get in!

Our trip took us through City Park where I took a few pictures.  The museum is in City Park on the other end.

City Park ahs Swan Boats just like the ones in Echo Park.  They are even run by the same company.

In May the ice is extremely thin so please stay off the lake.

  

When we got to the museum there were tons of kids.  This was a bad sign.  We went in and showed our receipt for the pass and got our tickets.  We headed to the Mammal Collection which has wildlife dioramas.  We enjoyed them as much as we could with all of the kids running around and screaming.  We figured it might have been the first day of no school so it was our mistake.  From now on we will only go to art museums in the summer.  

We tried to find areas with fewer kids but we were unsuccessful so we walked a few wings and then decided to head home.  

They had a Big Horn Sheep diorama

Info on the different types of deer found in North America

A cool collection of Native American Art and artifacts

I liked their take on the Statue of Liberty

They also had 2 wings of just birds.  

And even some extinct birds like the Ivory Billed Woodpecker

They also had a display of different Eiders

We used the stairs for our hasty exit

This petrified tree trunk was huge

We took a quick trip through the Hall of Gems and Minerals.  Last time we were here we spent a lot of time in this section.

Donna heading to the mines

They had really large displays of mineral formations still in the rocks they were found in

We decided to take a selfie incase we didn't make it out alive

The unexpected is part of the adventure and every adventure teaches you a lesson.  The lesson today was to not to go a kid friendly place when kids have been cooped up for 2.5 years.  To be fair, their parents were cooped up with the kids too so I guess maybe they needed a day to just let the kids run wild and zone out.  I can't imagine how tough it must have been for large families to isolate for as long as most of us did.  Tomorrow is another adventure.  Hopefully we won't find as many screaming kids.

Want to read about the time we bought bread?  Check it out here.