Still in Colorado!

15 Jun 2010--Arrived in Loveland, CO, about an hour's drive north of Denver, yesterday. We actually thought it was a little closer to Denver than this, but we miscalculated, so here we are.

Here's Fluffy checking out her surroundings.

There is a river rushing behind us here, and I mean rushing...not 5 feet from the back of our RV. It is so loud, that every time you open the door it sounds like it is raining out.

And more "God" pictures.

Throughout the park they have about 20 carvings in the stumps of trees. Here are a few.

We set off to Denver this morning and went straight to the Capitol building. What you are seeing here in these 1st pictures looks at first blush to be the same building, but it isn't. The Capitol area is set up very much like Washington DC...You have the Capitol, and then down from that an obelisk (like the Washington Monument) that is a WWII Memorial, and then at the far end is actually the City Hall/District Court Building. It makes for a very pretty area.

Here are the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Capitol...no separation of church and state here! haha

Inside the Capitol...very pretty.

We took a tour all the way to the top of the dome...99 steps up after you take the elevator to the 3rd floor. The area before you ascend the last 62 stairs to the dome is called "Mr Brown's Attic", named after a man who donated the 10 acres that the Capitol is built on. They say he only donated the land because he knew all the rich people would want to build on the rest of his land once the Capitol was built. (Sort of smart!) The other writing talks about Colorado becoming the 38th state in 1876.

This is what Denver looked like in 1859 before the Gold Rush.

This is probably a little out of sequence, but a lot of the windows in the building are stained glass windows dedicated to important people in Colorado history. They have changed over the years, with a lot more women and minorities added.

This stained-glass picture is in the windows of what used to be the Colorado Supreme Court.

This building was built for $2.7 million in 1901, the equivalent of more than $100 million today. And being what has always been called "Mile High City", this tells how the "Mile" has been measured over the years.

Here are some fun facts about the Capitol, the most interesting being that 2 other Capitol buildings are actually higher. Santa Fe, which we were supposed to see but it was closed, and then Cheyenne, WY...where we are going next! What a coincidence, huh?!

This is the City Hall/District Court Building and the Rocky Mountains' view from the dome of the Capitol.

And here is a picture of the House of Representatives...that chandelier is lowered once a year for cleaning...it weighs 1500 lbs and takes 90 minutes to lower it. The Senate Chambers were locked.

Leaving.

From the Capitol we walked a block or so to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1906...and the site at which Pope John Paul spoke in Denver in 1992. The stained glass widows are beautiful!

This is the back of the church where the organ and Baptismal Font are.

Denver has a famous "16th Street Mall" area that is very much like the Fanueil Hall (sp?) area in Boston, but much larger. There is no traffic allowed, except a tourist bus that goes back and forth.

Here is a guy in the middle of the street playing the piano, and there was one just down from him that no one was playing, so I sat down for a little "Chopsticks"!

We took a walk over to the City Hall building...the picture on the right is as you come out of the building and look up at the Capitol. The other 2 pictures are an artist's rendering of the goings-on in Denver. Other than that, the building inside was very much a court house, not much City Hall stuff.

A fun-filled day was had by all, lots of walking....trying to stay in shape! haha