What a gem in the heart of downtown Denver! We came here on a spectacular weather day and…read morethroughly enjoyed watching an NFL game in the big screen in the Adirondack chairs while drinking a beer or High Noon. The service was great and there were several beers on tap to choose from. I like they offered a water station and clean port o potties. The rooftop umbrellas are so fun for pics! We did try out the putt putt course and loved the themed Denver holes but found it to not be in great shape- wrinkles in the mats but it was free!

You will find this little nugget right outside of the Residence Inn, in a small alcove. It is the…read morework of Sean O'Meallie who did the sculpture in 2008. It is starting to show signs of wear and is a bit weathered. It also has some graffiti on it. It is 20 feet tall, weighs about 3,000 pounds, and is made from bronze and acrylic paint. It is rumored to have chosen the Residence Inn as the site of the sculpture because the hotel had hosted has a Pajama Party fundraiser benefiting Denver's Road Home program in the past. It is an interesting piece that depicts a cowboy holding up two side arms. The cowboy has heart shaped balloon hat and what looks like a magnet for legs. It is all on a platform. As I mentioned, it is abstract AF. You have to stare at it for a little while to decipher what it is, a cowboy in pajamas. Anyway, as with most sculptures that I have visited and reviewed, this is not a very long stop. I was there less than 5 minutes. Even though I passed it a few times since I was staying at the hotel next door. I recommend making this stop part of a larger itinerary or checking it out if you are in the area and/or on your way somewhere else, to maximize your time.

Unless you know the precise location of this sculpture, you can easily drive right past it! You…read morecan find it on Champa St. between 17th & 18th Streets. It is set next to the Hotel Registration sign leading to the Residence Inn. Drive by viewing! I couldn't find parking, so luckily, traffic came to a stop and I snapped a quick pic. This is definitely a whimsical piece! It's also a sort of abstract since there's basically only a pair of pants and an odd shaped abdomen with a belt in between. What might be perceived at first as arms are actually pistols. There's no face, arms, hands, nor feet. In summary, this is a cowboy with its guns drawn. Cowboy Pajamas is a solid work made from bronze, weighing three tons! It stands at over 20 feet tall. The sculptor is Sean O'Meallie. It was installed in 2008. Why is this sculpture in front of a hotel? This hotel, the Residence Inn at this address, hosts an Annual Pajama Party fundraiser. The fundraiser benefits and raises awareness for the homeless.

With family in the area, I've been going to Old Town Arvada for as long as I can remember. It's…read morebeen the neighborhood for countless happy hours, dinners, get-togethers, brunches, farmers' markets visits and more! The little neighborhood is filled with brightly painted murals, lined with bars, restaurants and shops which create the cutest of vibes and environments! Sure, parking can be a bit tricky, but park on the outskirts and walk the streets or simply take the lightrail, as the train now pulls directly up to Old Town! With the influx of Christmas events, local shopping and delicious eats, I know I'll be back!

Reasons why Historic Olde Town Arvada needs to be on everyone's "must see/visit" list:…read more 1) Everything is walkable! We picked a central area to park and made our way around the area with ease. Be careful to abide by the parking signage during your visit. Certain areas appear to be significantly more restrictive than others! 2) Why even deal with parking? Currently under testing, the G-line will feature an oh so convenient Olde Town Arvada commuter rail stop. 3) There's a little bit of everything! Restaurants? Yep! Breweries? You got it! Toy stores? Sure! Plus lots more to find and discover! 4) Sooo many events are held here! During my visit this past weekend my friends and I stumbled across the cutest farmers market! 5) Tons of great unique local businesses! We checked out The Cereal Box, New Image Brewing, The Bluegrass, and Denver Beer Co! Loved them all and there is even more on my list to see!! 6) Everyone was super friendly! 7) I totally dig the reclaimed spaces! Historic Olde Town Arvada def exudes that Colorado "vibe" we all seek! Go check it out for yourself - I know I'll be back!

Located at second floor of Denver Pavilion, this store has quality souvenir items from mugs,…read moreshirts, magnets, pins, postcards, pictures, and more. They have a decent variety of items but they are on the pricier side.

This is such a fantastic shop to pick up all those unique gifts. I got something for everyone and…read moreeveryone was very pleased with the quality

I happily happened upon this year's Highlands Street Fair, held annually on the third Saturday in…read moreJune. 32nd Ave was closed between Perry and Irving to accommodate 4 stages with live music on each, a huge inflatable slide for the kids, a classic car show, beer, margarita and food vendors, and all the quaint shopping you'd expect for the area: cool t-shirts for the alternative/indy pregnant woman, purses made of Brazilian magazines, art, jewelry, hippy clothing, etc etc. And, as you'd expect, SAFER (http://www.safercolorado.org/) had a fairly strong presence. I don't often walk that area, and doing so made me see all the awesome local shops and restaurants that are there! It's certainly worth checking it out next year! Good for all ages fun! The Highlands rock!

I thought there were some great booths there. It was a rather small fair but in a way that was…read morewhat was nice. It was a very hot Saturday. I liked the music and the food trucks are always a nice touch. Wish more people slowed up and maybe later in the day they did. I will go again next year if I am here.

We boarded the Trolley at the Children's museum and it's a nice safe, fun and lovely ride. Beware…read morethe 'Toots' are loud so if noise is an issue wear ear plugs. The two gentleman were very informative on local history and funny as heck. They were quite a humorous duo. I plan to ride it again to catch all the new facts I missed. Another stop is at REI and one can hop off and on all day once you've paid. It runs 11-5, do check the days.

We had the pleasure of getting to ride this trolley this summer. A great activity for kids! My 3…read moredefinitely enjoyed it. The tracks go alongside the river, so we saw plenty of ducks and geese on our ride. This trolley starts at the REI and stops at the aquarium, the children's museum, meow wolf, and during certain times of year the football stadium. I'd also recommend checking out the REI while you are in the area. That location I believe is the biggest in the country. P.S. Check with your local library for free tickets. That is where I got mine! A fun activity specifically for children.

I was in Denver for work and had to make a stop to see my girl Frida. The music, artwork display,…read moremotion, and lights were a whole vibe! Even if you aren't well versed on her life this immersive "explained" a lot about her without saying a word. It was a lot of fun to watch and I would highly recommend for anyone who appreciates art in general and Frida lovers like me.

Because you're venue is unsafe! My mother fell off the painted stairs at the Van Gogh exhibit in…read moreDenver. She's 81 years Young. She had just had reverse shoulder replacement surgery on her left arrm. The stairs the exit which was the only exit available! There was no ADA accessible access to the parking lot which we had parked in. Those stairs had been painted to match the paint of the V"an Gogh Blue" marketing schematics, in order to match the exhibit. The stairs she was forced to use, as the only exit accessible, were not only painted dark blue, but also, didn't have a safe handrail for the entire stairwell. The rrailing ends before the last 2 steps of this very very dangerous exit! My mother, 81 years young, took a tumble off of those stairs, and then fell again from those unmasked, unlighted, and dangerous EXIT ONLY stairs, onto the next unmarked curb-to-parking lot. That is about a 1.5 ft curb that's was painted/marked f previously before was a hazard, designated as a no Park no standing fire lane. That City required fire lane designation and safety hazard that's required by the City and county of Denver was painted over by the lighthouse venue to match theVan Gogh dark navy blue exhibit color palette. 100% unacceptable that this happened with such disregard for public safety and those that have disabilities! The staff would not respond to an emergency, when they were allergic to the situation. Paying such an exuberant amount of money for a immersive experience, if that experience is so immersive that it caused bodily damage, they should be response enough to help the people that have paid the money to attend the exhibit. The lack of responsibility, the lack of education of the employees responsible for the safety of the guests, and a lack of not giving a crap about its patients with disabilities is more than disappointing I would highly recommend that any events lighthouse is hosting, whatever it might be, should be ill advised for those with disabilities or a handicap status. They are obviously discriminatory and do not care about the community that deserves I have the same experience that any fully capable individual can experience without a disability. Lighthouse is a irresponsible venue, and a hazard to the community and the health of the artistic community. I would never recommend this venue for any event! EVER I TRIED TO REACH OUT PRIVATELY TO THE VENUE, AND THEY TOLD ME NOT OUR FAULT THAT SHE CAN'T WALK! #lighthouse #Denver #Vangough #metropolitanStateUniversity #Metro #Msu #DenverArts #DenverNews #9Kusa #Channel7Denver #TheDenverChannel This resulted in many trips to the ER, neurologists, and general practitioner. The security closed the event early that night, because there was not very many people at the exhibit. When we tried to ask for help and knock on the exhibit exit and entrance doors, which were closed an hour earlier than our ticketed time because there was not enough people in the venue, not one person would respond or interact with us regarding the serious accident that occurred out front of the venue. We waited for over an hour for help to get my mother the assistant that she needed. The property managers that own the property that is least to Metropolitan State University told us they're not responsible for anything related to the use of this space. City and county of Denver should be appalled at how they're handling this management situation! Disgusting! What money hungry property development / property management company would be so irresponsible not only for the safety of guest visiting and experience within the campus environment, but to the residence of the property. I spoke with numerous individuals it's their safety concerns are never addressed and have been a problem for years now! Speak up, speak out, speak into activism, for people with disabilities and not proper access!

Holy crap. I had no idea how serious a theater full of 360+ geek could be about their trivia. But,…read moreI learned my friends, I learned. Geek Bowl 2009 was my first brush with this event and even though I was just a spectator rather than a, um, trivia-er? I could still feel the tangible excitement in the air. What was so exciting you ask? I believe it was either the $500, $1000, and $1500 prizes, the nearness of all the other smarties, or just the booze. It could have been a combination of all of the above though. Geek Bowl is fairly similar to the weekly quizzes in the fact that there are 8 rounds and they have varying topics. But, here each round has 10 questions. And the music round this year was performed live on a ukulele by Ukulele Loki himself. I almost lost it when he played Ozzy's "Crazy Train" on that thing. I imagine this bowl every year takes enormous amounts of effort to pull off and I simply want to say well done to those in charge and that helped out. I'll be back next year, perhaps as a challenger, or um trivia-er.

SUCKTASTIC!…read more Ill-conceived and poorly executed, Geek Bowl IV was the biggest disappointment of our quizzing year. It's very hard to believe that this was actually the FOURTH annual Geek Bowl these guys have pulled off, considering how badly it all went. The finished product was much like the Oscars in every bad way, complete with self-indulgent presenters and performances that didn't know when to end. Our planned 3-hour evening stretched into a 5-hour ordeal that dragged on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Worst of all, the quiz itself seemed incidental to the "pageantry" and was not given the respect it deserved. Questions were read at a frenzied pace, and not repeated at all, even when mistakes were made in the intial read. The "pageantry," by the way, consisted of a choreographed group dance number by Geeks Who Drink employees (the high point of the evening,) a live music round by a one-man band that featured primal howls and painful screeching feedback from the sound system, and a 5-minute set by a stand-up comic, ostensibly planned to be at the end of the first scoring break; however as the minutes dragged on and on, it ended up being buried inside the longest scoring break ever. During breaks, music was being blasted so loud that our team, despite being huddled around a 2-ft diameter table, had to lean over and shout in each others' ears to make ourselves heard. Did I mention this was all taking place in PITCH BLACK DARKNESS?? By far the most ridiculous oversight in a long list of amateurish mistakes, the majority of the tables in the venue had absolutely NO LIGHT by which to see the answer sheets. Obviously there were a few teams who had a heads-up on this issue, because a handful had brought cigarette lighters or little LED lights with them, despite the threats of ejection from the theater for bringing any outside items into the quiz. One girl had (and I am absolutely not making this up, as bizarre as it sounds,) a FRIGGIN' SPELUNKING LIGHT attached to her head, much like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Petzl-E52-AC-Ultra-Headlamp/dp/B001N0ETU8/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1264955819&sr=1-10 Our team did not get the memo about BYO-cave gear, so we had to make do with the pale blue glow of the neon beer logos above the bar some 30 paces behind us. Even that scant, buzzing light was only available when each team behind us had their bodies turned and legs crossed a certain way. Any slight shift in body position from a dozen other teams would plunge us into utter darkness again. We were writing our answers completely blindly, with no idea whether we'd entered our answer on the correct line. It was also impossible to scan the page to see if we'd left anything blank. With the blinding darkness, the sound system feedback, and the dry, overpriced food offerings, the assault on our senses was nearly complete. Then some nearby team implemented the diabolical strategy of letting a rank one at the beginning of each round so we were overwhelmed with the sulphurous stench of methane while trying to recall the name of the geriatric Polident maven or the cross-dressing journalist from Just One of the Guys. And what's with the ridiculously long scoring breaks? Certainly GWD should have known how long it would take to score for such a formidable number of teams. Why didn't they take EVERY SINGLE present employee and set them to work on scoring each round as it was collected? Instead, these employees were apparently instructed to awkwardly flail about the stage in a drunken stupor to the musical stylings of Journey. I think GWD summed it up best in their opening video: "You paid 25 bucks for this... SUCKAS!" Suckas indeed. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice... I forget how the rest of that goes. Anyway, we're wiser now, and we won't be fooled again. Geek Bowl is a waste of time and money. At least I made off with two fistfuls of free Yelp pens, which inspired me to come home and write this review.

Bears are my favorite animal, and blue is my favorite color. Who knew there would be such a bright…read moresight greeting us all at the convention center for our conference? The Big Blue Bear gets 5 stars from me! Fun for the whole family to take pictures with!

I love me some public art! This 40-foot blue bear is so cute and curious peering through the glass…read morewindows of the Colorado Convention Center. I wonder what the bear is looking for? :) https://yelp.to/JG18P-mkUp I probably only spent a total of 5-8 minutes looking at the sculpture but definitely worth the photo op while walking around Downtown Denver.

What a lovely way to spend the morning and support small local businesses. I was able to get some…read moreholiday shopping done and get a little something for myself! Fabulous event!

What a great day! My husband and I just love local art, and supporting these artists. I hadn't…read moreheard of the Jackalope Arts festival, which apparently appears every year just up the street from me in Olde Arvada. We went out on this sunny and warm October day, glad to enjoy some time outdoors in the sun. We were greeted, as well, with an enjoyable stroll through local venue booths sporting everything from beeswax products to locally mixed spices to jewelry made from local stones (think petrified wood and Marble's marble, among many others). I was drawn to the designs at a T-shirt shop, and when I couldn't find my size in the design I wanted, they assured me that I could email them and they would make it for me and send it along to my home. The jewelry maker at Waystone (mywaystone.com) promised that if I could bring her a piece of petrified wood that I had discovered in my backyard, she would make it into something special to display in my home. While she accepts items through mail, since she is just down I-70 just east of Denver, I mean to bring it right to her. I was excited to visit this arts fair, and came away with some nice items, along with the cards of some artisans to whom I will reach out for some custom items. What a great way to spend a glorious fall day outside!