Ray and LeAnn went out to Denver over Labor Day weekend to visit Mariah. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Denver about 7:15AM. Mariah and Adam picked us up at the airport. We headed tot he Cherry Creek Farmers Market and nibbled and snacked our way through breakfast. From there we headed up to the downtown area and got our first look at Mariah's apartment/loft. She is located just a block from the union depot, which she can see from her window, and just a couple of blocks from her new job at PWC. It is very convenient location and she is enjoying it very much.
Our next stop was the Denver Botanical Garden, to see the Chihuly glass sculptures. We had seen his work in January in Phoenix, and were greatly surprised that there were many different glass pieces here from those we had seen earlier. Mariah and Adam had also seen his permanent exhibit out in Seattle. We all enjoy his work, especially the way he works the colors and shapes into the existing gardens. 
After dinner, we went to a place called Upstairs Circus, which is a bar that is also a build it yourself craft studio. They have dozens of crafts to choose from, and include leather work, painting, string art, and woodwork among its projects. The staff helps you with any questions and guides you through the project. The nice aspect of this place is that everyone can do their own thing, whatever interests them. They had about 8 tables set up that seated 6-10 people each, with all the common tools needed at each table. We all enjoyed projects and had a nice keepsake from out trip to Denver. If you look hard enough, you may see some people you know. http://upstairscircus.com/social-gallery/
We were up early Sunday morning to head down to Colorado Springs to attend the Colorado Balloon Classic. The hot air balloons take off from Memorial Park in the middle of Colorado Springs. The park has an elevated ridge running through it, giving a nice elevated view of the balloon field. On the other side of the ridge, was large lake, and with the direction on Sunday, the balloons were able to go across the lake, with many taking a dip in the lake, showing how skilled the pilots are to be able to just skim the lake surface. The lake was like glass for the first hour or so of the morning. the upper elevation winds were blowing opposite of the lower elevations, so some of the balloons were able to make a couple of passes over the lake. With the lake in the foreground, and mountains in the background, this is a beautiful sight for launching hot air balloons. We counted about 60 balloons taking off on Sunday morning. 
It got a little windy as the morning progressed, so we got to watch some of the tethered balloons get taken down with a little extra effort as the crews battled the increasing winds.
In the afternoon, we went to Garden of the Gods and revisited one of the places we went to on vacation back in 1997. Mariah climbed some of the same rocky areas she did back then. Sunday night, we went cosmic bowling with Adam and his mom, sister and nephew.
On Monday we took the shuttle bus down the 16th St Pedestrian Mall about 10 blocks to the state capital area for the Taste of Colorado. We enjoyed a few state fair type foods such as sweet corn (but no cheese curds to be found) before heading back on the shuttle bus to Mariah's apartment. We then headed to Coors Field for the Rockies baseball game with Sand Fransisco. It was an interesting day at the ballpark, as they first had to finish a suspended game from May, so they played 3 innings and then started the regularly scheduled game. We had to leave during the 5th inning so that we could get to the airport to catch our flight home. The weather was great the whole weekend, and we enjoyed spending it in Denver with Mariah and Adam. they were great hosts and tour guides as we did some new, different and fun activities together.
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