Saturday 1 August 2009

Returning East. Slowly.

So we had some fun in Denver. Unfortunately, in a city with over 300 days of sunshine per year, we got one of the rain days. Still, a really nice city, and it's downtown/financial district was pretty quiet for a place that size.

This is (another) state capitol, this time of Colorado, which has 7kgs of gold leaf on its dome. Great use of gold, guys.


Denver really is the Mile High City, this little marker is located on the thirteenth step up to the capitol. I think Mike must have taken this photo himself, 'cos none of us took it.



The US Mint, machine gun turrets and all, was unfortunately closed. But it did have a great gift shop, and we're now proud owners of the 2009 John Tyler Presidential Coin. Really, of all the presidents...



We took a stroll downtown, saw Coors Field...


...then celebrated National Cheesecake Day with half price cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. God Bless America. If you ever get the chance, try the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cheesecake.


Next up was a short drive towards the Rockies, to Golden, CO. Home of the Coors Brewery. The best room was the one where they put all the cans in boxes.



At the end of the tour, they reward your patience of putting up with a thousand insufferable little kids walking around with their negligent parents by offering you three glasses of various Coors products. Thank you, Miller-Coors.

Then we did what we always do, drink Miller High Life in a sports bar and have bartenders ask stupid questions about our accents.

All round, Denver was almost two thumbs up. Next morning, we set off for Lawrence, KS. Sadly, Lawrence, Kansas is about 600 miles away. And West Kansas is... nothing. Absolutely nothing. The road doesn't bend for 350 miles. It is the flattest place on the planet. West Kansas has fields of corn, tornados, and ghost towns. Like Kanorado.



It was worth the effort though, Lawrence has been fantastic. Like most of the college towns we've visited, it's got a massive, beautiful campus, great bars, great shops, a nice downtown bit... super good. Their school mascot is the Jayhawk, which looks like this.



It looks a lot like the France '98 mascot. Can anyone remember that mascot's name? We can't.

We stopped by the Bob Dole Institute of Politics, which was surprisingly really great, and had a really nice 9/11 memorial, with the world's largest stained glass US flag and some girders from Ground Zero.



Turns out ol' Bob is now working on fixing world hunger with my best buddy George McGovern. Good for him.

We headed downtown, did a little window shopping, and found a really great record store. Which has a cat.



A lot of shops in Lawrence have cats, just hanging out. It's pretty great.

On returning to our favourite bar for some $2 Pabst, we find the street it's on has been closed off, and there is now a stage shaped like a Pirate Ship at the bottom.


Surreal enough, but what was stranger was that exactly the same thing happened to Market Street in St Andrews some point last semester, Pirates and all. It was kind of fun, but eventually we settled for more beer and some pool. And then the long trudge to the Days Inn.



Now it's bed time. Tomorrow, Omaha, Nebraska.

Love to our mothers.

4 comments:

  1. Nice photo of.............is that my own flesh and blood ?.......by heck its Scottish Steve.

    I see you took my camera positioning advice and low and behold it worked.

    French mascot was Footix.(i didn't even google this as I knew it was like Asterix)

    Kansas sounds dull. Did you see any Twisters?

    Back home Man City keep losing as do Newcastle. All scottish clubs hammered in their respective European matches none better then the Dons beaten 5-1 at home by some unpronouncable czech teem I think .
    Mowburys Celts playing like the Albion and obviously losing.
    On some happy news Bret Farve is not coming out of retirement but you guys will know this.

    Nice photos and Glen are you saying for sure for sure yet?

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  2. Hello you scottish/english travelling people you seem to be eating lots and havin a great american time. will you be going all the way to the big apple?
    i fancy the slimming one who I think is nelly

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  3. I've been totally sharing that picture of the cheesecake around the place. A lot of jealous people.

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