Hockey Night in Denver and Embassy Suites

The Pepsi Center is one of the newest and nicest of the NHL arenas. It may lack the charm of the old Boston Garden, but it makes up for it with the sheer volume of the sound system!

We also enjoyed the Ocean Journey aquarium and checked out several shopping malls. In perusing the Denver tourist guides, there appear to be a number of terrific restaurants and other attractions in the area. I hear they have skiing nearby, too (yes, I'm being facetious. In fact, they had so much snow in the mountains while we were there that Snowmass opened three weeks early!).

Quick Tips:

Get a good map - we got lost on the way to the hotel. While most of the streets are in a grid pattern, there are a number of diagonal streets thrown in for good measure and the street naming can be different, depending on which direction you are going. There was quite a bit of construction on the Interstates with poor signage and closed exits ("hey, isn't that our exit on the left over there?").

Also, the rental car center is a good distance away from the airport, so allow an extra 15 - 30 minutes to turn in your car and ride the shuttle to the airport terminal.

Best Way To Get Around:

Once we figured out where we were going, driving seemed the best way to get around, although there is a light rail system and buses as well. There are a number of areas conducive to walking such as LoDo, the 16th street mall, and urban trails along Cherry Creek.

I was originally planning to stay at the Embassy Suites in downtown Denver, but the cheapest rate there was $119/night plus another $19/night to park! This one in SE Denver was only $79/night, had free parking, and "is a full-service all-suite hotel with 206 suites conveniently located within walking distance of two shopping malls with six movie screens and 26 restaurants", to quote the Embassy Suites web site. More on the malls, movies, and restaurants later.

This Embassy Suites was a pretty typical one - atrium lobby, spacious rooms, indoor pool and exercise room, small bar, and restaurant. While not rundown, everything was beginning to show a little wear, especially the carpets, wallpaper, paint, etc.

The breakfast buffet featured juice, cereal, muffins, pastries, and fruit. Eggs, pancakes, and french toast were cooked to order with bacon, sausage, and potatoes. The chefs were a little slow, but fortunately it was not crowded so the wait in line wasn't too bad. Weekday breakfast hours are 6:30 - 9:30am and on weekends 7:30 - 10:30am. We went late towards the end of serving time each day and everything was still available and fresh.

The evening managers reception is served in the small bar, which is too smoky for kids (and adults). Snacks were chips, dip, and a pretzel mix. Drink selection is fairly limited and although the bartender was pretty surly, he did make a good White Russian! They even had a old guy playing cheesy cocktail music on the piano - it was kind of charming in a way.

We didn't try the in-house restaurant. We did go next door on the night we arrived for a very late Mexican dinner at the On The Border restaurant and found it to be excellent. We walked in 10 minutes before closing time and were pleasantly greeted, had some terrific, inexpensive Mexican food, and never felt like they were in a hurry for us to clear out. We noticed during normal dinner hours that the place was packed.

Our room was comfortable with a king size bed in the large bedroom, passable foldout in the living area, and vanities in both the bathroom and bedroom. As usual, the fridge and microwave were mini-sized but functional. The two TVs had free HBO and a good assortment of pay-per-view movies. Video games are available on the living area TV. The carpet was worn in places and patched in others. The toilet ran constantly, got plugged once, and the shower drain was pretty slow. I just kept telling myself "$79/night, $79/night". Maid service was very good. Checkout time is 1 pm.

The swimming pool was average sized. There is also a spa and sauna. One day the pool was too cold and the spa too hot, but the pool guy was doing his best to correct it. The small exercise room had the usual assortment of contraptions.

All in all, not the best Embassy Suites I've stayed in, but a good value for the money.

The Colorado Avalanche are one of the most popular teams in the NHL. Since we don't have an NHL team in Seattle, my son has adopted the Avs as his favorite team and future Hall-of-Famer Patrick Roy is his favorite player. We've seen them play in Vancouver, but there's nothing like cheering your favorite team in their home rink.

The Avs have had about a billion consecutive sellouts, so the only way to get good seats is to buy them from scalpers or season ticket holders. Since this was going to be our only chance to see them, we wanted to get good seats on the lower level. We found some seats on ebay and only paid slightly more than face value. Did I mention that face value was $108? Each? Yikes!

We saw them play the Nashville Predators who hadn't won a road game yet this year. The Avs remarkably hadn't won a home game yet, so something had to give. Although it was an entertaining game, the Avs lost 4-3. Hard to believe that a team with all-stars like Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Peter Forsberg, and Patrick Roy could lose to a bunch of guys you never heard of. The winning goal was scored by Vladimir Orszagh. Who?

The Pepsi Center is a beautiful facility with good food selection, a stellar (and loud!) sound system, and great sight lines. The only drawback was that the main access to the arena is via an escalator, which was fine going in but getting out took quite a while as 18,000 people funnelled into a small area. Food and souvenir prices are pretty typical for major league sports. An authentic alternate Chris Drury (who was recently traded) jersey seemed a good buy at $75, but we'd already spent enough on the tickets!

Parking ranged from $10 to $30 (valet service at one of the arena restaurants). The light rail system has a stop that's fairly close. After the game, energetic, young, and handsome bike drivers will take you to your car for tips.

If you're a hockey fan and find yourself in Denver, spend some bucks and check it out.

We had first heard that this new aquarium wasn't that good but we thoroughly enjoyed it! We found a coupon for two-for-one admission too. Convenient parking across the street is $6. Apparently when the adjacent Six Flags is open, there is a shuttle that runs from the parking lot over to Six Flags so you could go to both places and only pay to park once.

Ocean Journey isn't a huge aquarium, and instead of having tank after tank of fish and other sea life, it concentrates on two main exhibits: The Colorado River Journey and Indonesian River Journey. As you follow these two rivers from mountaintop to the sea, the corresponding surroundings and animal/marine life change accordingly. An excellent guidebook is provided to identify the wildlife and to provide interesting environmental information.

In the Indonesian River exhibit, everybody's favorite part is the Sumatran tiger exhibit. There is probably no other zoo/aquarium in the world where you can get such a close up look at these beautiful animals. A fine mist is pumped out throughout the exhibit to give you the feeling of being in the jungle.

The Colorado exhibit is less interesting, mostly due to the fact that trout and bass are not nearly as fascinating as the exotic Indonesian wildlife, but it is still well done. The flash flood exhibit is a highlight as the skies darken, lightning flashes, and a torrent of water heads at you (safely behind a thick pane of glass!).

There are also some small tanks outside of the river journeys that contain various fish, eels, and octopus. A touch tank full of sea rays is also a popular spot.

The first floor has an excellent and quite large otter exhibit which features both above and below water viewing. There are also a couple of VERY energetic otters in the Colorado River exhibit. Also on the first floor is a very large gift shop. There are some tables and chairs with free coffee available for the grownups while the kids check out all the souvenirs, which I thought was a nice touch. There is also a cafeteria featuring the standard zoo/aquarium fare with typical prices. Soda refills are free so we bought a souvenir cup for $3 and refilled it several times.

Outside is the Aquapod simulator which costs an additional $4 to ride. It's one of those shake you around type rides that you either love or hate. We didn't partake but we saw both laughing and crying kids emerge, so know your child's feelings on such things before you plunk down more money.

There is also a signed nature trail outside the aquarium that runs alongside the railroad tracks.

This is an excellent half day activity and with in and out privileges (just get your hand stamped), this could easily be combined with a trip to Six Flags.

We've always felt that when visiting a new city, do what the locals do. So we go to malls! (c'mon, that's what you do when you're at home. You can admit it) There were two next to the Embassy Suites, which turned out to be mostly disappointing so we checked out a couple others as well. Here's the rundown:

Tiffany Plaza: This was more like a strip mall and was located across the street from the Embassy. Walgreens, Payless Shoes, and Subway were the BEST stores in the mall. There was an Internet Cafe with no customers and a restaurant called Le Peep that was packed for Sunday brunch. The inside part of the mall had a Wig Shop(!), an empty Chinese restaurant, and one great find: a discount movie theatre. Tickets were $1 before 6 pm, $1.50 after 6pm, and 50 cents on Tuesdays! My son wanted to see Spiderman again so for less than 10 bucks we got three tickets and popcorn. So if you missed Men In Black II or Lilo and Stitch and you're cheap, check this place out. Avoid the wig shop.

Tamarac Square: Adjacent to the Embassy Suites, this mall turned out to be a "boutique mall" with only The Gap and Starbucks as recognizable stores. The mall was pretty deserted for a Saturday afternoon. The outside of the (permanently) closed Houlihan's restaurant looked like an abandoned mine shaft. Next to the mall was a Benihana and an excellent seafood restaurant, the Fresh Fish Co.

Cherry Creek Mall: We were going to go to the 16th Street Mall, but since the weather was lousy, we decided to go inside instead and check out the fanciest mall in Denver. It seemed like every other store was a high end jewelry store like Tiffany's or Bailey, Banks, and Biddle. The highlight for me was Neiman-Marcus where my son picked up a pair of shoes like you see Sarah Jessica Parker wear on Sex and the City and loudly announced, "Hey, Dad, these shoes are 400 bucks!" The stern faced salespeople were not amused. There are several of the typical mall food places (Panda Express, Sbarro, etc.), a movie theatre, a HUGE parking garage (remember your row number), and pretty good people-watching. A nice touch was several sitting areas with comfy chairs and sofas instead of the usual hard benches.

Aurora Mall: Now THIS is a mall. We stopped here on the way to the airport to kill some time before our flight. JC Penneys, Sears, and lots of sports stores. We bought a huge funnel cake just before we left and got powdered sugar all over the rental car interior. The biggest Target store I've ever seen is going up across the street.

So, when in Rome...