Denver Dreaming...

I fully acknowledge that Denver, Colorado, may seem like a rather weird choice as the final addition to our trip, focused as it is on five supremely heritage rich cities, but...

When discussing our journey home from Boston, we experienced considerable disagreement within our little family over where to stop over for a sleep. We were all agreed that we needed to break the journey. My daughter and I were pro Los Angeles, but my husband can be absolutely inflexible in his views sometimes, and this was one of those occasions. He absolutely refuses to leave Los Angeles Airport. As he's already been to Hawaii, he sees no need what-so-ever to go there again either. So this ruled out our two most obvious stop-over options.

Meanwhile, my daughter and I are now 'not-so-secretly' plotting a trip to Los Angeles and Honolulu together for her 21st. If you deny certain people the opportunity to do what they want to do, it can make them all the more determined! She'll have to earn her own money, and pay her own way, of course, but it's just something that has initiated a shared 'Mum & Daughter' goal, and we think that's kinda cool. She hopes to work or study in LA one day, so at the very least I expect to have the chance to check on her well-being, and sleep on her grungy fold out sofa some time within the next decade. I have promised her I won't stay too long, or cramp her style...

Back to the main storyline - Thankfully we were all adamant that we have to stop somewhere to break the long-haul journey, so when looking at the options with United Airlines (our budget airline of choice), we found we had to think about their hub cities, and Denver is a big one for them. As it happened, my husband approved Denver, in principle. I do not know why. I don't think he does either, other than to say, "That would be interesting." Given it's a four hour flight from Boston to Denver, I immediately thought "OK. I can live with that - It will break the trip."

We'll be there in Summer, so the mountain views will be clear. As we all know, the ultra rich go there for the ski season, but I had read recently that Denver is rising up the ranks as a year round destination and lifestyle choice for the young and hip. I'm not claiming to be young, but the 'hip' category appealed to me.

I promptly investigated the main Denver art scene and found they have two major art museums. What I neglected to do was check their opening days... So anyway, I booked us in for one night at the newly opened Art Hotel, adjacent to the Denver Art Museum. This is the only night in our entire trip that we're actually staying at a more-or-less conventional hotel, but it does look quite suitable for a final pit-stop, to just dip in and out of.

We originally planned a few hours spare on the Sunday afternoon to meander about the Art Museum at a leisurely pace, but as UA have pushed our arrival time out by over an hour, we'll be lucky to squeeze in one whole hour before they close for the weekend. Fingers crossed we can even do that! Denver's art establishments are all closed on Mondays, which is super annoying. I guess we'll just have to find a park to hang out in on Monday: like Civic Centre Park or City Park... as we have to check out at 11am, but do not fly til 6.45pm that night.

In the final analysis, just to have the chance to eye-ball Denver will be an unexpected treat, as will the opportunity to lay our heads down on soft 5 star pillows and stretch out our limbs for the night.

I actually think this will be a pretty cool way to wind up our trip. I now kind of wish we'd booked in for a few nights there... I've always liked their music and the way they have both kinds on offer...

Then we fly home, via LA... This will be my sixth trip to the U.S. in which L.A. is the gateway, but I never get to leave the Airport. Maybe one day...

I was thrilled, however, to learn that they've finally enabled some decent food outlets and retail stores to populate the Los Angeles Airport lounge areas. About time! I could never understand how the world's 'greatest' capitalist nation had so little to offer consumers in transit. You could always buy a 'candy bar' from a news kiosk, along with a copy of 'Dwell' magazine, or similar, but that was about the extent of options for indulgence, when spending eight or so hours in-between flights. Just nuts!

Now, there's Champagne and oyster bars at the ready, apparently... Whatever they have there, I'll be sure to report on my findings, come the time.