Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

What else is happening in downtown Denver…

Make no mistake, this is not a locally owned version of Safeway or other major grocery chain. You won’t find Fruity Pebbles on the shelves here. Basically, if you would find it in those middle aisles at the typical grocery store, you won’t find it here. If you would find it along the edges of a standard grocery in the meat, deli, bakery, or specialty foods section, then you’ll find a top of the line, mouth watering version somewhere inside of Marcyzks.

Buy Picnic Food or Treats for Hotel Room Dining

Seasoned travelers, especially those who travel for work, know that eating in the hotel restaurant night after night can get old. Even the variety provided by the accessibility of Denver’s downtown area via the free 16th Street Shuttle bus can run out of charm for the business person on the third night of their fourth straight week in a downtown Denver hotel.

For families traveling with children, or for sightseeing travelers looking for a little extra charm and intimacy, a picnic in one of Denver’s many city parks, or along one of the city’s small rivers can be a welcome break from meals on the road. For people headed up into the mountains for a day trip from Denver, or even out to Rocky Mountain National Park, a bag full of snacks and goodies from Marcyzks can make the drive as nice as the view from the mountains.

Grab some deli meats. There are plenty of choices that don’t require refrigeration. Then, choose some fine cheeses, delicious fresh baked bread in wide variety of flavors and loaf styles. Don’t forget to take along a knife and fork. If you are looking for a break from the usual soda brands like Coke and Pepsi, you’ll find plenty of alternative drink choices at Marcyzks including hand-crafted root beers.

Of course, wine goes great with cheese and local Denver liquor store Argonaunt is just a few blocks away on Colfax Avenue.

Your hotel concierge can set you up with a ride to Marcyzks, or if you are in one of the hotels on the eastern side of the city, it can be a pleasant walk, as long as you don’t buy too many groceries to carry!

Free Art for Families, Visitors, and Tourists

The City of Denver offers a Guide to Public Art to help families find and see free artworks to help inspire children and adults alike while also providing fun free stuff to do in Denver. Visitors and tourists will be equally impressed by the wide variety of free sites to see in Denver. Seeing all of the public works of art in Denver could be a whole day itinerary for travelers to Denver looking for some fun, free, sightseeing in the city.

Free Sites To See In Denver – Art

The best known public art sculpture in Denver has become the city’s unofficial mascot. The giant blue bear looking through the windows into the Denver Convention Center appears to be leaning on the glass wall of windows trying to get a peak inside at the events happening in the Convention Center.

The official name of the big blue bear at the Convention Center sculpture is I See What You Mean, a title just as playful as the enormous bear sculpture.  The street the blue bear sculpture is on is 14th Street outside of the main entrance of the Denver Convention Center. Of course, the bear can be viewed from the outside of the Convention Center by passers by walking down 14th St. or even by those in cars driving by. (Open your sunroof or moon roof for an even better view as you drive by. Just pay attention to the road and don’t get into any accidents.)

Other well known public sculptures in Downtown Denver are the giant dancers outside of the Denver Performing Arts Complex along Speer Boulevard, and the horse on the giant red chair outside of the Denver Public Library downtown branch and easily seen from the north entrance of the Denver Art Museum. These Denver landmarks are titled Dancers, and The Yearling, respectively.

For more information on Denver’s public art get a copy of the Downtown Guide to Denver Artwork.

(For those of you non-Denverites familiar with Colfax Avenue’s seedy reputation, keep in mind that, that is in reference to a very specific (and short) stretch of East Colfax Avenue, and that reputation is significantly overblown. This location is west of downtown Denver. )

The new library location was selected to help fill in the sizable gap between the Woodbury Library and Barnum Library branches on the western side of Denver. The library’s funding comes from the 2007 Better Denver Bond Program which Denver voters approved to help fund a whole slew of capital construction projects. The bonds were designated both for the construction of new libraries and the remodeling and retrofitting of existing libraries, some of which where aging dangerously past current building safety and code standards.

Although Denver Library hours have been cut drastically due to budget cuts, the commission felt that the service need for the new facility outweighed the drag of additional costs.

Free Events For Kids Denver Area

The Denver Library system doesn’t have as many free activities for kids as it used to, but still offers plenty of fun summer programs for children in Denver. The Summer of Reading Program is underway, which is a great incentive to get kids to read over the summer vacation holiday.

In addition, story time and story hour is still on at most library branches. Story time at the downtown library comes in multiple flavors that are age-based story readings for kids at the library. There is Book Babies for infants, Tales for Twos for that in between age, and Tot Tales for older children.

There are also fun upcoming events for adults in Denver as well, including a Bike Mechanic course seminar held at the Central Library branch downtown. Sundays, June 27 and July 25, 1-3 p.m.

See the Denver Library website for more details.

While Heidi Klum style get in shape programs that take recently pregnant women down 4 sizes while losing 30 pounds in four weeks might be the bread and butter of fitness magazines and late-night infomercials, they aren’t very practical for real world moms looking to get back out into Colorado’s great outdoors and enjoy the Denver sunshine with their families.

An interesting enterprise known as Stroller Strides offers an alternative take on the concept of mothers getting back into shape after having a baby.

By taking advantage of the fact that most moms love taking babies for walks in strollers, Stroller Strides offers fitness for Mom, and fun for baby.

Basically, the workout program involves trainers instructing moms in how to get into shape by power walking with the extra weight of the stroller providing the juice that turbo charges weight loss and improved cardio fitness. In addition, there are stretches and exercises with rubber tubing at various pit stops.

While Stroller Strides appear to be a nationwide fitness program, we noticed a class of moms pushing baby strollers around the lakes at Washington Park in Denver. Wash Park is popular with fitness seekers of all kinds with runners on the trails everyday of the week rain or shine.

Wash Park blends a nice beautiful fun Denver attraction with an exercise program that allows Moms to get back into shape without the boredom of concrete walled gyms or the repetiveness of whatever cardio class fad is currently in vogue. (Is it stripper areobics, still?)

Grab a brochure for Stroller Strides at local businesses or eateries. If you can’t find one, head over to Stella’s on Pearl Street, which is where we found ours.

Unlike many shopping districts, Cherry Creek North, or CCN to some, sprang up organically after the mall opened and brought an increase of shopping traffic to the area. Small boutique shops in line with the lineup of upscale shops located in the Cherry Creek Mall developed across 1st Avenue into a loose collection of stores, art galleries, and salons. The resulting business district proved popular with locals and those traveling to Denver. Eventually, the area was organized under the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District.

Until recently, Cherry Creek North was anchored by long-term staples like The Tattered Cover and Mel’s restaurant. However, escalating rents and renovation projects pushed by miscalculating landlords and developers right before the economy took a down turn in 2008 forced out several of these popular businesses. The Tattered Cover relocated to the renovated Lowenstein Theatre several blocks north on Colfax Avenue across the street from East High School. Mel’s closed down, as did a popular cooking store, and numerous other shops and boutiques.

While some long-time Cherry Creek businesses like the Cherry Cricket, Little Ollies, and the Cherry Creek Grill weathered the storm, for a time, it seemed as if the magic of Cherry Creek had been lost and several commercial spaces sat empty. Luckily as the various construction projects finally were completed, some of the magic was recaptured, thanks to new local anchors like Whole Foods, Crate and Barrel, and the only J.W. Marriot Hotel in Denver.

Other newcomers are helping to redefine what Cherry Creek North is today and into the future. Argyle Bistro Pub is fast becoming a local favorite, and Houston’s Steakhouse is busy with diners most every evening. New fashion clothing stores and designer brands as well as big name artists have filled in many spaces.

Today, the Cherry Creek North Shopping District again sports an eclectic mix of shops, spas, salons, restaurants, and even a fitness club. In addition, the Denver Public Library in Cherry Creek, formally named Ross – Cherry Creek Branch, has reopened after a much needed renovation funded by Denver municipal bonds, bringing to a close most of the building oriented construction. While some summer improvements courtesy of the CCN BID are on tap, Cherry Creek North is once again a bustling shopping area.

While a pedestrian mall is a nice way to make the downtown area more friendly for walking, the real benefit comes not from the banishment of cars, but rather the presence of free shuttle busses. The free 16th Street Mall shuttle busses are run by the Regional Transportation District, or RTD and are provided as a free service every day of the week. The 16th St. Mall shuttle runs from early morning until late at night, so it is equally useful for the commuting in the morning or going out to breakfast, as it is for making it home from a night out on the town at one of Denver’s nightclubs, LoDo’s bars, or any of downtown Denver’s restaurants.

There is a bus stop on every corner, and riders can hop on or off at any stop without any transfers, tokens, or tickets, making the shuttle a great way to travel the full length of the mall for Denver siteseeing, or just a quick way to go a block or two for lunch or shopping.

The first floor of most buildings on the 16th Street Mall has some form of retail or consumer shopping entity. Stores range from tourist trap T-shirt shops, to banks, to coffee shops (half a dozen Starbucks alone), to full fledged department stores, and of course, a wide range of restaurants and fine-dining.

At the west end of the 16th Street Mall is Wynkoop Street and popular Denver attractions such as The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Wynkoop Restaurant, and just a few blocks north, Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. A similar trek to the south deposits visitors at the Pepsi Center, home to the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets. This end of the mall is also home to the main RTD bus terminal downtown (underneath the plaza at 16th and Market) and Union Station. Behind Union Station are the downtown Light Rail terminals for RTD’s C-Line and E-Line. (The D-Line, F-Line, and H-Line connect to the other end of the mall along California Street.)

On the eastern side of the 16th Street Mall is the Denver Pavilions an outdoor shopping center located right on the Denver mall and home to Barnes & Noble, Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant, and an United Artists Movie theatre among other things. Many visitors choose to park in the Denver Pavilions parking garage and then ride the shuttle bus to Denver events and downtown destinations.

The Denver Convention Center and numerous other downtown venues and sites occupy the areas just off of the mall to the north or the south.

Typically, summer road conditions in Colorado are of limited concern to tourists and residents alike. Although spring thunderstorms and the occasional summertime microburst can cause heavy rains, they are generally short-lived, and confined to a small area. Keep driving, and a few minutes later, the concerning weather is far behind in the rear-view mirror. If it ever does get bad enough, pulling over on the side of the road and waiting five or ten minutes will most likely bring more favorable conditions.

In fact, most Coloradans fear the problems caused by road construction in the Summer much more than those caused by Summer weather.

Colorado’s Winter Roads, Denver Snowplows, and Ice

On the other hand, winter driving conditions in and around Denver can range from dangerous whiteouts on slick ice covered streets, to bright sunshine and dry pavement, and that’s just in a 40 mile radius! Fast moving weather fronts can mean that driving from Loveland to Denver in the morning on clear, dry roads, will be a distant memory come evening with blowing snow and blizzard conditions on the highways.

Weather forecasts are often no help in this area either. The Rocky Mountains enormous geologic footprint casts an equally long shadow across the world of meteorology. Light storms predicted just the night before can turn into raging winter storms, and forecasted blizzards often turn out to be just a couple of inches of fluffy white snowfall.

Fortunately, the Colorado Department of Transportation, known locally as CDOT (pronounced see – dot) provides road condition updates around Denver and all over Colorado. These updates are broadcast frequently on radio stations around the state.

Even more useful is a website maintained by CDOT and its Intelligent Transportation Systems or ITS branch. Found at www.cotrip.org the COTrip website provide current road conditions, weather maps, drive times around the Denver Metro area and along popular highway and Interstate routes, as well as live traffic information and traffic jam flags. Of course, why take CDOT’s word for it when you can see for yourself.

CoTrip has links to dozens of traffic cameras all over the state. There is no need to wonder what things look like near the Eisenhower Tunnel. Just pop over to CoTrip and look at the tunnel’s traffic cam. Other traffic cams are setup around the state and there are several dozen Denver traffic cams pointed at both I-25 and I-70, as well as along those numerous city streets that are technically Colorado State Highways.

Make COTrip the starting point for researching current and upcoming driving conditions.

Denver’s Indoor Amusement Park Funtastic Fun

Funtastic Fun Interior Picture

Funtastic Fun is an indoor kids amusement park. Located on Broadway just south of Denver in Englewood, Funtastic Fun provides a place for kids to run around, act crazy, and ride on some carnival rides.

Good parenting skills require being constantly on the lookout for new, fun places to take your children. After all, the usual stuff runs out pretty quickly and kids get bored fast these days.

A drive up South Broadway on the way into downtown might have parents noticing an indoor carnival looking place on the east side of Broadway. Curiousity about Funtastic Fun might lead to a new place to take kids to play inside.

Funtastic Fun is located in a large building with big windows designed both to let in light, and to show off the rides and attractions inside to passing families driving by. Visible from the road are a Ferris wheel and a train, suggesting great laughs and fun times inside. Yet, Funtastic Fun also looks exactly like that kind of place that seems good from the outside, but inside might be a little old and busted. Fortunately, that is not the case here.

This Denver indoor amusement park consists of a handful of carnival rides including the Ferris Wheel and train, as well as a “Whip It” ride, and a teacup ride reminiscent of the teacup rides at amusement parks like Disneyland, Disneyworld, and even local Denver amusement park, Six Flags Elitch Gardens.

These four rides make up the sum of the mechanical rides with belt buckles and operators, but there is more. A giant ball pit (larger than any you’ve seen at Chuck E Cheese), two jumpy castles, a log roll type ride, and even a free range riding area for those cars that you power by twisting the handles back and forth. A big side-by-side double slide at the end of a long wiggly bridge also brings smiles to the faces of most kids.

There is also a black light room and an odd but fun room where you stand against a green wall and wait for a flash which then makes an eerie illuminated shadow on the wall where you were standing.

Rounding out the play arena is a collection of video games, and skill games like Skeeball. These games are not included in the admission price and require the separate purchase of tokens in order to play.

A nice family friendly policy prohibits teenagers and adults without small children which prevents packs of teens “hanging out” and potentially hogging or blocking off other things your kids might want to try.

How Much Does Funtastic Fun Cost

TeaCup Ride Denver's Funtastic Fun

Funtastic Fun charges $11.95 for admission to pretty much all kids, even babies and toddlers. The exception is “babies on their backs.” In other words, if you have a baby under a year old, make sure you bring the stroller that has them laying there in order to get them in free, otherwise, they have to pay too.

The price for adults is $2.95 per adult, so a Mom and a Dad will both pay to get in.

All of the rides except for the Whip It allow adults to ride too, so you can ride the Ferris Wheel with your toddler or other young son or daughter. There didn’t seem to be a weight limit, and we rode with two adults and two kids in one car, but it was really tight. The cars aren’t very big and two adults might be better off splitting up into two cars. The same was true of the train.

Is Funtastic Fun worth it?

Whether or not Funtastic Fun is worth it for your family depends on a few factors. First, there are only four rides, so if you just want to ride rides all day, this might not be the place for you. Second, it can get crowded, especially on weekends and holidays although there are never long lines. Third, this is really a place for children. Even with the video games, teens are likely to get bored fast.

Four kids plus Mom and Dad adds up to $53.70, which is WAY cheaper than Elitches. You do get unlimited rides, and playing on the other things is also free, but video games and Skee-ball are extra.

In the end, Funtastic Fun is a family friendly, fun place to take kids in Denver. It is also a rare treat of an indoor venue where loud, rambunctious, and excited kids are more than welcomed, which can be great after a few days of cold and snow have ratcheted up the cabin fever in the little ones.

The library building itself is something of an interesting architectural piece. On one hand, the building is composed of perfectly normal building shapes and colors, just like you would draw in a picture, and that is its genius. Of course, real buildings typically don’t look like the ones drawn on paper, but this one does. It is pastel colored with each segment of the building forming a perfectly drawn shape, cylinders, rectangles, and squares.

Inside, the Denver Public Library book collection sprawls across four floors. The library Children’s section is on the first floor, as is the Reference Section, and the popular fiction and multimedia section. The top three floors contain the bulk of the library’s books and are categories in the traditional Dewey Decimal System manner.

The library has numerous computer workstations with public Internet access. This can make finding a free one can be difficult despite time limits placed on consecutive usage, as many people camp out for as long as they are allowed online. For that reason, it is advisable to search the library’s card catalog online prior to visiting if you are looking for something specific. Otherwise, a handful of computers scattered throughout the library are marked as being either Card Catalog Only, or No Internet Access. These stations are generally not occupied.

Residents of Denver can use the online catalog to not only search for materials, but also to place books, DVDs, and CDs on hold. The great thing about the system is that in addition to reserving the materials, the user may also choose where to pick up the materials, meaning that there is no need to drive all over town to a specific library to get the book you want. Simply place a hold on the book and select your nearest Denver Library Branch to pick it up.

Denver Public Library Hours

The main downtown branch of the library is open every day, although only for a half a day on Sundays.

However, all local branch library locations are closed on Sunday. Additionally, falling tax revenues have caused Denver and the library system to endure major budget cuts. Unfortunately one money saving method being used is closing branches for additional days. The 2010 Library Schedule of hours has most branches closed on Sundays and two other days each week, so check the Denver Library Hours prior to venturing out.