Mile High Members

Greetings from the Mile High City!

Always looking for FOC things to do in all the cities we visit, we went a-strollin' around downtown one fine afternoon. The Visit Denver website and visitor mag is just great. I love the suggested itineraries (especially the Budget one), which included the downtown walking tour. The 'Tenver' section is great too, which basically consists of lists such as 'Ten Free Activities', 'Ten Denver Desserts To Down', etc.

We started off at the civic district, in particular the Denver State Capital.

Denver's State Capitol, as seen from Civic Park

Looking up

Lest we forget. Pity that blue guy on the cell phone just.wouldn't.move.away.

The super shiny dome glinting in the sun makes a good landmark when we're trying to orientate. And it's really covered in 24K gold. All 200 ounces (almost 6kg) of it. All together now: "WAAAAAHHHH!" And all we have at home are a couple of gold taps. Impressive.

Gold is niiiiiice. I like gold.

The geeky touristy thing to do at the State Capital is to go stand on the 13th step on the west side of the building. Here, you are exactly 5,280 feet above sea level - one mile high. Thus the moniker the Mile High City. Denver is the third highest state capital in the United States, pipped only by Santa Fe in New Mexico and Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is said that balls fly faster and eggs take longer to cook in Denver. I don't know. We didn't throw any balls nor cook any eggs.

Welcome to the Mile High Club, er, City.

There was another group of tourists having alot of fun on the step. This geeky guy kept insisting on demonstrating the implications of the step on people's social status:

Guy (stepping onto step): See, now I'm in the Mile High Club! Hur hur hur.

Us (enthusiastic clapping): Yaaay! Congrats to you!

Guy (stepping off step): And now, I'm not in the Mile High Club! Hur hur hur.

Us (mock sadness): Awww....

Guy (stepping back onto step): And now I'm in the Club again! Hehhhhhhh. Hehhhhhhh.

Us (limp clapping): Good for you man!

Guy (stepping off step): And now I'm not! Heehhhh. Hehhhhhh.
Guy (stepping onto step): And now I'm in! Hur hur.
Guy (stepping off step): And now I'm not! Hehhhh. Hehhhhh.

Us (stare blankly): ......

How long was he going to tap dance on that step? Sesame Street needs a good puppet like him to teach kids about prepositions.

Okay, now he's officially cool.

So yes, we're officially members of the Mile High City. Sorry folks, we're not dishing out any more info here about our membership status in the Mile High associations of the other kind.

View from the 13th step, with the afternoon sun nearly blinding me.

You can tour the interior of the State Capital on your own or join one of their guided tours for free. We just wandered around and did our own thang:

Dannie the Vanillazilla loves canned soup and sardines as well.

There's an option to take a Dome Tour, basically a climb up to the open deck on the dome where you can get a spectacular view of the city skyline against a mountain backdrop. We didn't make it because:

(a) we were too stingy to pay for a ticket
(b) we had woken up too late to make it for the last tour
(c) we had woken up too late to photograph the westward view in a better light

So we had to be content with shuffling our feet along the marble floors, making our way around the marble columns and leaning against the marble bannisters. Ho hum. Yawn.

Inside the giant dollhouse where the Senator Doll sits. Or is it the Governor Doll.

I wonder if I can jump from the third floor and down into the basement through that oval hole...hmmm.

The "Are you done yet? Can we go now?" face speaks to me.

So that's how interesting (yawn) this building (yawn) was for us (yawn).

Over and out.

(Yawn)