The mile high city

Just got back from my brief trip to Denver. My first impression is that downtown Denver is like a more spread out version of downtown Chicago. Some of the streets surrounding the U of C Aurora campus (where I interviewed) is kinda run down. But the grandiose of the city's architecture reminds me of Chicago. However, once I drove around the suburbs and witness all that open space (cows chilling in acres of grass land), it feels a bit like Utah. And before I came to this city, people did say that Denver is a bigger, more spread out version of Salt Lake.

During my stay at my friend Marlana's apartment, I asked her what's Colorado known for (besides hippies), she told me that the truth is aside from organic food, Colorado is well known for legalization of medical marijuana. And sure enough, on my way to the Denver Art Museum (DAM), i saw this while driving, posted underneath the gasoline sign.

I also asked if Colorado gets tornados, since Colorado is neighbor to some tornado-proned states, like Kansas and Nebraska. Marlana wasn't sure. But I think my question was answered the next day, while I was driving around down to Castle Rock (thanks to the Garmin GPS navigator I borrowed), the radio program issued a warning for possible tornadoes in the counties east of metro Denver. At that time, I was driving east bound, but I figured it was just a warning, and as long as I tune in to the radio, I should be OK. And no, the tornado was never formed.

One thing I had to get used to was the weather of Denver, it's like this thing that can't make up its mind. It would be all sunny and nice for an hour, then the next thing you know it's raining like crazy. It even snowed on the day when I was leaving town. When I stopped by the DAM, I took a few pictures with a cloudy, gloomy background.

I wish I could have taken more pictures of Denver landmarks such as the ridiculously gigantic Invesco Stadium, and the trendy LoDo (where the streets seem kinda East Coast). But it was difficult driving and snapping pictures at the same time. Another thing about Denver is the street. For the most part it's the grid system like I'm used to, but in downtown district, logic does not apply to the street designs. The street layout either resembles a diamond shape or concentric circles with smaller streets cutting thru. Anyways, Denver seems like a nice, bustle town, with quite a few Midwesterners wanting better weather and more active lifestyle.

Got back to SL last friday evening, just in time for little Max's 1st birthday bash! :)