Denver Days

For the past few weeks, I've finally been home in Colorado! If you know my family, you know we've been traversing the front range, making the most of every moment.

One of our favorite things to do is just go down to Denver and walk around the city. My mom actually found a modern scavenger hunt through Cityscape Adventures. We headed down on one hot Sunday afternoon to partake in the competition.

Here's the Swiss Family Grainda Team (dad sat this one out)!

The scavenger hunt consisted of us running around Denver and taking pictures at iconic landmarks like the capital and Union Station. There were a total of twelve clues and an infinite amount of awkwardness and sweat.

It ended up being a lot of fun, but I also realized that we will never go on the Amazing Race. We ended up getting ninth place out of twenty five teams which was a pleasant surprise! Proof above.

A few days later, the Denver Botanic Gardens had a free day, and of course we were there. After many failed attempts at parking, my dad, sister and I made our way into the expansive gardens. Sprinkled around the area were horse sculptures and blooming flowers.

We even found a bit of Seattle here in the form of a Chihuly sculpture entitled  Colorado, fitting.

Basically, we wandered through herbal gardens and stumbled upon lily pad ponds; with every turn there was something new and impressive.

LOOK! My dad took this AWESOME picture.

We even paid a visit to the famous corpse flower. You may remember hearing about it since the flower, which smells like a dead body, blooms every ten years and they decided to set up a 24/7 livestream to document the event.

But the crème de la crème was the geometric greenhouse. It was like stepping into a jungle, green, giant, and HUMID. We checked out the plants and even climbed a treehouse to get an aerial view of the massive complex.

Gina and dad pondering some plant.

Walking around botanic gardens works up an appetite, especially because we were there for a few hours. For a late lunch, we went to the RINO district (which I just found out means River North, always thought it was the rhino the animal haha) and ate at our favorite marketplace, The Source.

The Source houses restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops and local designers selling their products with markets and other specials events on the weekends. It is one of the coolest spaces in Denver.

What screams a good meal other than tacos?

And we devoured them. And we raved about how good there were the whole way home.

Denver always has something fun and new to offer! I'm happy my family likes to experience them.