Denver Bucket List

So, I’m in Denver for a month, and reading the touristy magazines in my condo and talking with my Denver kids about what the city has to offer has made me want to create my own personal “Denver Bucket List” so I won’t miss anything I’d really like to see and do while I’m here. I’ve already done a couple of things on the list, but I’ll include them here anyway, because that’s how I am with lists. Yep, I’m one of those people who makes “to-do” lists and puts things I’ve already done on the list with a satisfying check mark beside each of them as I approach my day or week or month. I do love check marks, and it makes me feel like I’ve got a jump on the day.

So, the things I most want to do while I’m in Denver are:

1. Spend time with my children and grandchildren. That’s really why I’m here, and I’m loving being with my two young granddaughters, Grace and Anna, ages 2 ½ and 1 ½, (my son, Jason’s girls) and eagerly awaiting the birth of my third granddaughter, my daughter, Beth’s, first. Lovely visits with each of them on Sunday and Monday have gotten the month off to a great start.

2. Ride the light rail. I love public transportation in big cities, and I can catch the light rail just a couple of blocks from my condo downtown, and less than twenty minutes later I’m less than a block from my daughter’s apartment. Enjoyed my first ride on Monday.

3. Drive by myself and learn my way around Denver. I got a start on this on Monday, when I borrowed my daughter’s car and drove back downtown to my condo. No problem! Today I plan to drive out to Arvada to visit my son’s family. Between the map I printed off and the GPS in my daughter’s car, I think I’ll be okay.

3. Enjoy the pedestrian joys of downtown Denver, including the 16th Street Mall, just a block from my condo. There’s a free shuttle that runs the length of 16th Street, which is a mile long, so if I get to one end and I’m too tired to walk back, that’s always an option. One area I want to visit along the mall is called Writer Square.

4. Visit The Tattered Cover, Denver’s oldest and most famous bookstore. They’ve got three locations now, but I’m going to hang out at the one on 16th Street. Check out this video of their new espresso book print-on-demand machine. And look what I found on their website: Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality.

5. Visit St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church, either for a Holy Week service or possibly even Pascha.

6. Visit some of the sites in the Golden Triangle Museum District which includes museums, art galleries, the public library, shops, restaurants, and historic homes.

7. Hang out at Larimer Square, and especially see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.

8. Shop at the Ikea store. I love their catalogue, but I’ve never been to one of their stores. I hear it’s an all-day affair! Beth and I plan to go there tomorrow.

9. Finish my novel-in-progress, Cherry Bomb: A Novel. Yesterday I finished drafting the final chapter, but now I plan to add an epilogue. One more read-through with revisions, then I'll mail the manuscript to my freelance editor back in Oxford (Mississippi).

I’m sure there are more Denver area things I’d like to do some day, but if I make it through even half of this initial “bucket list” this month, I’ll be doing good. Especially since I’m mainly here to be with family… and finish my novel. On a future visit maybe I’ll get to watch Peyton play for the Broncos! When I got here on Sunday, my son and daughter-in-law gave me a blue Broncos T-shirt with Manning's name and number on it! It seems fitting, since I was in school with Archie at Ole Miss back in the day, and then Peyton played at UT where two of my kids went to school, and now he's in Denver with both of them. Go, Broncos!

So glad the snow has stopped and it's sunny and will be 60 degrees here in Denver today! Bucket List, here I come....