Day Six in Denver

I started my new job today! It was pretty cool. Working downtown is a whole different animal (that's the slogan for Frontier Airlines if you didn't catch that). I had no idea how much I'd like it. It dawned on me that a downtown is the ideal place to practice architecture (duh).

Downtown Denver, particularly the 16th street mall area where my office is (picture to the left - from the 'net), is something to see. At lunchtime it becomes completely abuzz with activity. There's people walking everywhere, all kinds of restaurants & shops, and a good mix of historic, traditional, and very modern architecture all around you. The street is closed to automobile traffic except for the free shuttle that runs up and down taking you wherever you want to go. Just a sensory overload for someone like me, when I've never seen any of those buildings before. When I walked out of my building on the way home through the little plaza/cafe area at writer's square, there were some teenagers juggling. Then as I walked further, I saw someone hop on a bike and take off down a trail. As I looked closer, I noticed they had connected with a really nice bike trail that runs along the creek that cuts through Denver. You can ride your bike for miles through the city. So different from southern california.

I still have to figure out the best way to get downtown every day. The cheapest parking I found was $5 a day, and it was about a 5 minute walk from my office. I'm hoping to find a good park & ride arrangement that gets me home at a reasonable hour. Traffic wasn't too bad, but if I can take a train instead and save on parking, I'll be a happy camper.

Also, we picked up Jenna's new ride this evening after work. We noticed after we picked it up that there was the faint smell of cigarette smoke. We didn't smell anything at all when we test drove it. Hopefully its new enough that the smell will fade with a little assistance. Anyone know any tricks for getting rid of that? That was kind of annoying, since the car's in perfect condition otherwise. It doesn't smell like a chain-smoker was driving it or anything, but there's something definitely there. She still loves it, though. We dig the charcoal grey color.