well, you can't keep the fam blindfolded forever. at some point they will have to experience all the craziness of the world. in my opinion denver is a good place to start because although different than the smaller communities in colorado, its not outrageous. its good for people to be exposed to that stuff once in a while as long as they are taught about it. theyll see worse at college.

the greenpeace and PPH folks are easy enough to avoid. just stay off 16th. after living here a few years ive decided to avoid 16th street on many days, only occasionally going there if there is a particular restaurant i want to go to. it draws more creeps and beggars than the rest of lodo. there are plenty of restaurants, micro brews, interesting shops, etc in the rest of lodo. if i had kids id spend 90% of my day down by the river. ive kayaked it, rafted it, swam with my dog in it, played water games with friends, then check out rei, maybe do some free rock climbing, then hit up a restaurant or cafe in the area (allowing dogs to chill while you eat is always a nice bonus). ive been all around the US and in my opinion denver is the best or next best city ive ever been to. their downtown has lots of options, interesting privately owned shops and eateries, is easily accessible, cheap parking, overall VERY safe, and in many ways beautiful. the river park is kept natural prairie like, the baseball stadium sells $4 tickets for every game, and its actually a quite quiet downtown. most major cities are dirty, ugly, too congested, impossible to park or walk anywhere and very dangerous.

i love this city.

Quote Originally Posted by Tor Larson View Post
Had some bidness in Denver yesterday so took the family along to see some sites. Hadn't been downtown in years. Hit the Aquarium, Spaghetti Factory, and Cheesecake Factory. Great time.

After this the kids, ages 11 & 12, wanted to shop and see Larimer Square and 16th St. It was around 3pm. Shouldn't have done it.

Kids were walking maybe 10 feet in front of us and 3 TIMES some pukes from "Planned Parenthood" approached my kids and started talking to them!!! WTF? They didn't want to talk to the adults- they were talking to my kids. What the hell does Planned Parenthood have to discuss with kids? Bunch of Coss Dunts. First time I was shocked and just pulled the kids away, talked to them about what PP is and what they do. By the 3rd time I was getting pissed. Finally my kids just told them to leave them alone. That was cool.

Then were got approached twice by Greenpeace. Loved the guy shouting at me, asking me if I was interested in "saving his world, not mine". Wow. Why didn't he want to save both our worlds?

Then the street hawker selling cologne. He approached me and tried selling me something out of his backpack. I told him "no". He then asked me what cologne I use. I told him "none". He then sprayed me with whatever he had in his hand and told me I should be using cologne because I needed it. Nice. Insulted and sprayed with whatever just because.

Then the ultimate. The trannies. Two different places, broad daylight, in all there splendor and glory. Guess I'm just not used to seeing that stuff. Both were Latino, pretty unattractive, and seemed proud. High heels, makeup, jewelry, Spandex, and vocal. One had a goatee. Amazing. Kids had never seen that before. They spotted them before I did. They were just blown away by that.

Think it will be a few more years til I go back to Denver. Just don't know how city dwellers do it. I was only downtown 4-5 hrs but all that cement, enclosed space, and lack of green freaked me out. Got home and had to get outside, see some sky, and open spaces. T. Jefferson was right, cities suck.