Denver

After driving for almost three weeks around the highways of the states, and rarely seeing a car, it was a bit of a shock to hit the outskirts of Denver, and traffic, lots of it.

We managed with the help of Martha our GPS, to find our way quite quickly to Capitol Hill, our base for the next five nights.

We decamped and walked a few blocks to a small collection of shops and restaurants, where there was an Asian Restaurant, so we had to go in for some comfort food, two House Special Fried Rice...made such a change from the food we had previously.

Denver was quite a happening place. The weekend we were there the main streets were closed off for various artists and other attractions to take over the space. Everyone was encouraged to walk around, sit down and take in the atmosphere. We also discovered that Adele was playing 2 sold out shows too, we vowed to try get tickets the following day.

One of the main reasons we visited Denver, well two if I’m honest, is that the Denver Hard Rock Cafe is one of only a few that display memorabilia from the rock band Rush (I am a huge fan) and that I felt a calling to go and visit Red Rocks Amphitheatre just to the south. Ever since I watched the U2 film shot there, and though was never a big fan, it always reeled me in to want to visit. Turns out it’s just as special a place as I thought. During the day is open to the public, many people use it as their own personal gym, running shuttles up the benched seats, and criss-crossing the rows too. If a gig is being played the area gets closed at 2 pm for concert preparations. If nothing is planned you are free to walk on stage, backstage and all around. Unfortunately a gig was scheduled the day we visited, though it was good to see the road crew unloading the trucks and setting out the production.

Speaking of gigs, we made our way back to Denver and got out to the box office at the huge Pepsi Centre. When we asked if any tickets were available for Adele, we were told that seats had just been released, 16 rows from the front so we got them and a few hours later were sitting in front of Adele's big eyelid on the safety curtain. It was a great gig, she didn't miss a note, very impressed. Another one to tick off the list.

It was also like a busman’s holiday, visiting the convention centre to see a few thousand travel agents gathered. Note to the events team, can we go to Denver next year?

We also visited some of the more historical sites of Denver, like the Unsinkable Molly Brown’s (of Titanic fame) house, we also managed to gain entrance to the Governor’s Mansion (only open for two hours on Tuesdays in summer) and that was very impressive.

So we managed to put our five days in quite nicely, not having to run around for anything, just taking it easy enjoying the sights. Even managing a trip out to a local outlet store just to stock up on essentials. I think a return visit will be on the cards.

On the final night stay there was barely time to sleep as we had a 6am (my wife commented, "Which idiot travel agent booked that?") flight to Honolulu. The alarm was set for 2:30 am and we have a very quiet drive through the suburbs out to the airport.

The car lots were deserted apart from skeleton night staff. We duly unpacked the car, checked our belongings and handed Martha the GPS back to the office.

We waited a short time for check in to open, we weighed and tagged our own bags, as is the way these days at the thinned down US airlines check in services.

Same could not be said for the horrendous lines at the security checkpoints. Even at the unearthly hour of 4am, it still took around 45 minutes to have documents rechecked and to have ourselves scanned and searched.

We boarded early and were soon on our way to Honolulu via San Francisco.

To be continued.......