Nary a mountain in sight.

Given the amount of time I spend staring at maps, I should not have been surprised to not see mountains as we crossed the Colorado state line from Kansas.  But I was.  I knew they wouldn't be there, but I still expected to see them.  Maybe it's because of the first episode of Jericho.  When the mushroom cloud appears over Denver, it and the Rockies are visible from the fictitious Kansas town.  I've let TV cloud my reality.

Shortly after entering Colorado, a message appeared on my car display stating that the oil life was low.  Amanda and I don't argue, but this led to an argument.  I'm guessing you can figure out who each line belongs to:

Why didn't you change the oil before the trip?  Because I still had a thousand miles of oil life left.  But you knew we were going to be driving to Denver.  But I didn't want to pay for an oil change that I didn't need.

I still think I made a good argument.  Nonetheless, we had to stop in Limon, Colorado for an oil change.  Fortunately, even Amanda was laughing about this while we were waiting on the nice folks at Stone's Service Station to finish the change.  A short drive later, we made it to Denver.  With fresh oil.

That first evening we went to the Columbine Memorial in Clement Park, near Littleton.  The memorial is located on Rebel Hill, behind the high school.  It is solemn, as expected, and truly captures the emotions of the survivors.

Although we both felt it was important to see the memorial, we were on vacation after all and needed to go somewhere a little more uplifting afterwards.  Where to go in Denver to be uplifted?  Casa Bonita.  My sole reason in making the pilgrimage to Casa Bonita--the Dinseyland of Mexican restaurants--was because of South Park.  Eric Cartman was right:  it's totally worth it.  This place is cheesy to say the least, but good fun.  From the unusual way you are served and seated to the cliff divers and gun shows to the Mexican village decor, this place is just very random.  And as if the Casa Bonita experience wasn't enough, we will now be making one of their signature drinks at home--the Sangria/Margarita Swirl.

Day two in Denver.  On the recommendation of our friend Becky, we traveled the short distance to Boulder to take a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory.  The tour is short and sweet and full of good smells.  Perfect.  We've decided to open our own tea company now.  We think we have an idea that will make us unique and fill an untapped niche, but I'm not sharing that idea on this blog in case one of the three followers (at time of posting) tries to steal the idea.  We'll see if this dream still exists when we return to Illinois.  By the way, we survived the mint room.

After Boulder we traveled to Golden and up a mountain road to Central City.  The drive is incredible; however, Central City, advertised as a "ghost town," is nothing more than a series of casinos.  Disappointing.  We don't recommend, other than for the drive.

In the afternoon, we drove to Lookout Mountain and visited the Buffalo Bill gravesite and cafe.  I ate Buffalo.  It tastes like beef.  Amanda did not participate.  The views of Denver and Golden are incredible from Lookout Mountain.  The trip is well worth it, but be careful of the bicyclists.  They're everywhere!

In the evening, we went to the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall and ate at the Yard House.  It's not a Denver original, but we did enjoy the food.

Last day in Denver.  We toured the Coors Brewery in Golden, which opened at noon.  The process to get on the brewery tour is jank.  One gate of the parking doesn't open until about 11:50, but the other was open the entire time, yet was not supposed to be accessible.  Despite this, the tour was enjoyable and included three sample beers and a pre-sample.  I thought the factory tour was more enjoyable than the Anheiser-Busch tour, but Amanda quickly pointed out that Coors lacked the Clydesdale horses.  Of course she noticed the lack of animals.  The tour ended in the gift shop where we managed to purchase more things that we really don't need.

The time came to leave Denver and head for the cabin where our goal was to do... absolutely nothing.  One problem--flat tire.  We managed to fill the tire and will be closely monitoring it before we leave colorful Colorado.  On the way to the cabin we stopped in Evergreen at Creekside Cellars, a winery and cafe.  The food was good, the wine was good, and the views were good.  A nice stop before entering the land where civilization ceases to exists and our cell phones don't work.  Ahhhh... just what we need!