Grrr....animals

It finally cooled down to about 85 today, so we headed off to the Denver Zoo.

There were quite a variety of animals there and they all seemed to be pretty happy, all things considered (I mean, they are confined and hardly living the dream-life somewhere in the wild).











This one looks like Dame Maggie Smith...



It also seemed that we encountered a variety of animals who had partied a bit too hardy the night before....







After many hours wandering around the animals and a surprising amount of Far Side-looking people (oddly shaped people with small heads and large bodies), we headed back into town.

On the way back, we stopped by the Brown Palace Hotel. Contrary to its poo-sounding name, it's one of Denver's oldest and most famous hotels and was named after the infamous Unsinkable Molly Brown (portrayed by multi-talented Kathy Bates in the movie "Titanic"), a Denver native.






Molly Brown moved into this historic hotel after selling her large mansion (also a city landmark) in the city.

She lived here until she died (Molly Brown, not Kathy Bates....she's still very much alive).

It's a beautifully ornate old hotel. So much detail and history....you feel it as soon as you walk in. I'm sure it would be an amazing place to stay, if one has boxes of cash to spend. We didn't....so we breezed through, took a few pictures and a set of salt and pepper shakers....then left.





After that. we walked down the famous 16th Street Mall, got something to eat and then headed back to the hotel for our last night here in the city.

I can't believe how fast our trip has gone. We weren't able to get up to the mountains (the Alpine train doesn't run in the summer) or to Boulder (after we got here, I got several emails from people suggesting we go there), but we got to see a very nice variety of sights and people right here in the city.

It's been a great visit and I look forward to heading back this way again.