B-cycle is a next-gen bike-sharing system. In layman’s terms: B-cycles are magic bikes that are there when you want one and gone when you don’t. Just swipe your card, grab a bike, and get to where you’re going.
You can purchase daily, weekly, monthly or yearly passes. What a great concept! There are over 30 stations to check bikes out from. You can also return to stations other than the one you rented from! For more information visit the Denver B-Cycle Website.
The Denver Art Museum has free days on Sept. 4, Oct. 2, Nov. 6 and Dec. 4.
Enjoy the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for free on Aug. 30, Sept. 13, Sept. 19, Oct. 3, Oct. 18, Nov. 14 and Dec. 6. What’s the catch? Free admission applies to the museum only. Separate admission fees to Phipps IMAX® Theater and Gates Planetarium remain in effect during free days. (Free days are for Colorado residents only.)
Here are more freebies around town you can mark your calendar for.
The Denver Children’s Museum is free on the first Tuesday of each month from 4-8 p.m. It’s called Target Tuesday nights because the event is sponsored by Target.
The Botanic Gardens in Denver and at Chatfield both hold free days. In 2010, the Denver gardens will be free on Aug. 25, Sept. 26 and Oct. 28. The Chatfield gardens will be free in 2010 on Nov. 5 and Dec. 3.
The Denver Zoo will allow Colorado residents to visit free on Oct. 13, Oct. 21, Nov. 7 and Nov. 13.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal used to make nerve gas and napalm. Now it’s a National Wildlife Refuge. It’s open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to-5 p.m. Call 303-289-0930. There are tram rides and wildlife programs, all for free. For details, visit the Arsenal’s website.
You can smell the peppermint and learn about tea on the free tour at Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. Children must be 5 and older to go on the tour. There are even free tea samples in the tasting room.
While you’re in Boulder, consider a stop at the Leanin’ Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art. Admission and parking is free. Some call it the best small museum in the state.
Need something fun to do with the kids? How about storytime? Several local libraries and even the Tattered Cover bookstore host storytimes for kids. And they’re free.
You can also see the exhibits (and run the stairs) for free at Red Rocks. And while you’re in Morrison, don’t miss the dinosaur footprints on Dinosaur Ridge. It’s free too.
Sandie, one of our readers, suggested another good free place to visit is the Littleton Historical Museum. Sandie said it’s one of her family’s favorites.
For a list of free events in Denver, visit the City of Denver’s Free Events Web page. And don’t forget many libraries loan out more than books. You can borrow movies and video games at some local libraries for free
August 19 starts the 3-day – Summer Sidewalk Sale!
3rd Thursday Evenings 5- close – (merchant closing times vary)
Stroll, sip, snack and skip along the unique, boutiques of NW Denver Highlands. Live music, art, shop-specials, trunk shows, tasty treats – you’ll never know who you might meet! Every third Thursday spring through fall.
One of Denver’s biggest assets, amenties, havens so to speak, is the Denver Public Library. With over 20 branches that include the huge, beautiful Downton Denver Branch. Escape into a cove, corner, desk and get lost in a book or a magazine. Use the internet, look at media sections and more. The downtown Denver Public Library also has an entire floor dedicated to historical records that include newspapers, magazines, historical works of arts and geneology records. The collective is vast and extremely useful for researchers of all types.
Recently the library debuted a really, super-cool website. Whether you are a Denver native or a curious visitor this site has something to offer you. It is filled with history, pictures, personal stories about Denver. Includes an area for building histories, great for history buffs. The website is called Creating Communities, I recommend you take a visit, explore and enjoy!
When you visit the Downtown Branch be sure to walk around the building and enjoy the architecture of the library and the Denver Art Museum, plus bonus art throughout the grounds.
A peek at Creating Communities…
Do you find yourself wishing it was Friday when you just got to work on Monday? When I was young, I would trudge in on Monday and greet fellow employees on the elevator saying “I wish it was Friday”. Now I come in on Monday and say “wow the weekend just flew by”. It feels like I just left here and no longer “wish” it was Friday because now it is always Friday. I was wishing my life away. Now I wish it would just slow down to the lovely, lazy pace of summers past when I had all the time in the world to play and lay in the sun and run through the sprinklers and ride my bike. Or just lie in the backyard in the grass and clover and look up and imagine what the cloud formations looked like.
I am at the point in my life where I want to try and savor everything because it seems like the days are minutes and the months are weeks. What happened? What is really scary is that my 18 and 16 year old granddaughters feel the same. It used to be just the “old folks”, of which I am now one, that used to tell us young ones that the older you get the faster time goes. I choose to believe that in this new day and age it is technology that causes time to feel as if it is going 100 miles an hour and is on a super fast track to the end. My reasoning for this is that we no longer have to wait for anything. You can get approved for a loan in an hour, you can get a letter from a relative in minutes by email or instantly if you use instant messaging! Get on a plane and fly across the country in 3 hours. It used to take us 4 hours in the just to go visit relatives 200 miles away. The only advantage in time going by so fast (and this is only my theory) we are not aging as fast because in actuality, years are only 6 months long not 12. That is why people live longer because the years are shorter. How do you like that for a scientific theory?
I now find myself thinking in February that I need to start planning what to plant in the flower beds because it will soon be Mother’s Day and I must plant them or I won’t be able to enjoy them in this now abbreviated summer. I almost feel a panic of trying to get everything into my life and to really enjoy it. We have to get together for Memorial Day, 4th of July, birthdays, breakfast in the mountains, etc, etc. And then guess what? It is Labor Day and then the kids are back to school. How did this happen?? I want it to slow down. I wish I could make it slow down.
This past year I made a real effort to not worry so much about how many people were coming to dinner during the holidays and what I was going to make. I even hosted a cookie exchange and really enjoyed myself. I want to make memories so that my children and grandchildren and, hopefully, great grandchildren will remember me with fond memories just like me and my children have fond memories of my own mother. If only I could have just a ½ hour of time again with Mom. Sitting in the kitchen solving crossword puzzles, going to bingo, making ornaments or Halloween costumes or just talking to her as she makes tortilla dough. Just once more dying and cutting her hair, putting her make-up on for her or even just a quick hug.
Take time to love and to listen to your friends and family. If your family wants you to go to dinner or whatever, savor the fact that they want you around. Enjoy your time here because all too soon we will no longer be. Hopefully, we will be with God and I am thinking that it is going to be just like my childhood was!
The Major League Soccer team Colorado Rapids play in Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, an 18,000-seat stadium opened for the 2007 MLS season and located in Commerce City, a suburb of Denver. In 2006, Denver established a professional outdoor lacrosse team, the Denver Outlaws. They play in INVESCO Field and are sanctioned by Major League Lacrosse. The Denver Outlaws won the Western Conference Championship In 2006.
