Denver Day 1: Black American West Museum, Butterfly Pavillion, and the Denver Aquarium

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We arrived in Denver on Tuesday June 30th at 10:30pm. After retrieving our bags, we headed outside to wait for the rental car bus to take us to their facility, which was located about 2 miles away. It wasn’t until after I got off the bus did I realize that Alyssa’s portable DVD player was missing. I had obviously left the machine at the rental car bus stop or so I thought. I couldn’t believe how long it took for us to get our rental car. I asked Adrian to drop me off at the airport so that I could find my baby’s DVD player.
I asked the security guard near the bus stop if they had seen the bag containing the player and they said no, then I quickly remembered that the bag might be at the car rental counter located inside of the airport.

As soon as I walked up to the counter, I spotted the brown bag with flowers and exclaimed “Thank Goodness”. Unfortunately airport security had noticed that the bag was left unattended for over an hour and a half without any identification and preceded to call the police for further investigation. Airport security radioed to the police that I had come to claim the bag, which they thought to be a bomb. Meanwhile the security guard that I spoken to earlier radioed the guard standing in front of me about the missing bag, so it was obvious that I had been looking for the player. I could hear the police tell the guard to use her best judgment, so I was asked to explain the contents of the bag such as the make, model and color of the player as well as the CD inside. I was finally let go after I confirmed the contents of the bag. I don’t even know how they recognized the bag, since there were other things on the counter such as fliers, books and maps. What a way to start off a trip. If I had gotten there any later, I would had to answer to the bomb squad. We didn’t get to our hotel room until 2:30 that morning, and we were so beat that Alyssa and I slept in out clothes.

The next day we hit the ground running. Our hotel was located in Denver Tech off of I-25, which was about 20 miles south of Denver. The weather was beautiful, sunny and hot. Our first stop was the US Mint but we were quickly turned away as all of the standby tickets were taken by a group of school kids at 7:15 that morning. Next we headed to the Black American West Museum, located in the home of Dr. Justina Ford, Colorado's first Black woman doctor. The museum is broken up into many exhibits such as the homestead exhibit, dedicated to the town of Dearfield, Colorado, a Black pioneer town founded in 1910. In the Cowboy exhibit, there were many items and photographs from Black cowboys. We saw saddles, spurs, hats, chaps, and boots. We also learned that 1 in 3 cowboys were Black. In the military exhibits, we read about the Buffalo Soldiers and how they were important to settling of West. We also learned about the Tuskegee airmen and their heroics during World War II in their support of our winning the war. We really enjoyed talking to the museum director as she guided us through the house.

After a bite to eat, we headed to the Butterfly Pavilion, located in the town of Westminster, located about 35 minutes northwest of Denver. This hands-on science center teaches visitors about invertebrates, science and conservation. The exhibits are geared primarily towards families with kids ages 2 to 12 years old, but anyone could enjoy observing the conservatory filled with 1,200 free-flying butterflies imported from around the globe. Alyssa loved looking at the huge spiders. It was amazing to see all the young children in line to get a chance to hold “Rosie” the Chilean Rose Hair tarantula. This thing was huge! The conservatory was very warm as it is always kept at 80% humidity and between 70 and 90 degrees. We saw every color butterfly you could imagine. We were even able to watch a butterfly release, which isn’t as exciting as it sounds. Alyssa also enjoyed touching the horseshoe crab and shopping at the gift store. It was very hard getting her to leave.

We then headed back to downtown to visit the Denver aquarium. Outside the aquarium were a moon bounce and a machine that blew bubbles. Alyssa loved running around trying to catch all the bubbles. Inside she enjoyed the interactive Sting Ray tank, in which she fed the stingray and stroked their soft slippery skin. I found it odd that they didn’t remove the barbs from the stingrays according to one of the workers at the exhibit. He instructed us to only feel them on the tops of the backs. It was still a little scary especially when they came up close to get the fish out of our hands. The aquarium was filled with all kinds of fish and even a tiger sleeping above an underwater exhibit. There was a woman who made Alyssa a balloon in the shape of an octopus which we coudln't tear awsy from her.

Afterwards we headed off to dinner at Bubba Gumps, one of our favorite restaurants. I’ve been to the one in Miami and Times Square several times. The food here is great and so is the décor with everything that is related to the movie. There are 2 license plates on the table. Turn it to “Run forest Run” to tell the waiter to go get your food or turn it to “Stop Forest Stop” to alert the wait staff that you need assistance. They even quiz you about the movie as you wait for your food. We ordered 2 frozen mixed drinks. Adrian’s came in a light up glass and mine in a huge wine glass that we got to keep. We just took our receipt to the gift shop and picked up 2 clean glasses. Alyssa loved putting her feet in Forrest’s running shoes. What a great ending to a long day.

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