Denver - Day One

We woke up this morning and wished Connor a Happy 17th Birthday.  Because it was his birthday, he got to choose the day's activities.  So we started off the day by grabbing Starbucks and heading to the Denver Aquarium.

Even though the aquarium was perfect for younger children, there were still quite a few things our older kids loved about it.  We spent a couple of hours looking at exhibits and gawking at sharks and fish.

But the highlight of our aquarium visit was playing in the stingray tank.  The kids loved that.  The rays would come right up to them and lift their fins up out of the water.  We wanted to stay and feed them, but we had to move on.

After the aquarium, we headed over to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature to catch a show about black holes at the Gates Planetarium.  Connor is a big fan of astrophysics, so he was eager to see this show.

The planetarium show did not disappoint.  We spent an hour or so wandering around the space exhibits before heading out to explore the nature, Egyptian mummy, and paleontology exhibits.

We were starving by the time we finished at the museum, so Connor picked out a restaurant called Avanti for dinner.  It was like a food truck restaurant.  There were seven different mini restaurants inside, so we got to sample a bunch of different foods.  It was way yummy!

For dessert, we headed down the road to Little Man Ice Cream.  We sampled butterscotch, salted Oreo, and oatmeal cookie ice cream.  On our way over, the Emergency Broadcast System issued a tornado warning for Denver over the radio.  Apparently, a huge storm--complete with golf-ball sized hail and a funnel cloud--hit the Denver area.  We were a little freaked out, but it obviously missed our area, so all was well.

Since we weren't in any imminent danger of being consumed by a tornado, we decided to round out our day with a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We had visited 15 years ago when Connor was a baby, so we were anxious to go back with the girls.

Surprisingly, the kids loved this place just as much as we did.  They were enthralled by the Japanese gardens, and enjoyed weaving their way through the lush greenery.  It was so serene, and a perfect way to end our fun day in Denver.

Tomorrow we hit the Denver Mint and Elitch Gardens for some roller coaster action.  These teenagers are anxious to ride some coasters.  See ya then!