More from Denver

So, I guess the trip to the US Mint is out for tomorrow, since it's a federal holiday. (Yay veterans!) I am not entirely sure what I am going to do with my afternoon, but I'm sure I will come up with something.

Today I did some work on the laptop in my hotel room, and then went to the ESPN Zone for dinner. The food is good, the staff is good, and it's a wonderful place to go and watch the Colts lose. (Who saw that coming? And Vinatieri missed two field goals? Seriously? And Peyton Manning threw six interceptions? Wow.)

It's not too often that Peyton Manning only scores 3 fantasy points. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Anyway, it's been a nice trip to Colorado, overall. I got here Wednesday for the National Science Teachers Association conference (read: Science Nerd Convention). The workshops were good, the free swag was okay (but how will I get it all home?), the abundance of nerd toys was great (I bought myself a Beaker), and I got to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The DMNS is currently home to the Titanic artifacts exhibit, which is pretty cool. I thought it would be old hat (haven't we seen enough Titanic stuff yet?) but it was really interesting. They have a lot of old artifacts they found at the site of the wreck, including clothes, shoes, and papers. I can't fathom (pardon the pun) how those papers survived over 80 years under two miles of water, but they did. The exhibit is also set up so that you travel through the first class cabins to third class, ultimately ending up in the engine rooms before hitting the open ocean. They even have an enormous "iceberg" - a block of ice over 6 feet high and 12 feet long.

When you enter the exhibit, you are handed a boarding pass for the voyage, with all of the personal info of one of the actual passengers. Not until you are leaving the exhibit do you find out whether you lived or died. (I survived.) They also had actors playing several of the different people who were on the ship - one first class passenger would not talk to you if you had a third-class boarding pass. If this exhibit travels to your town, you should check it out.

Surprisingly disappointing was the Louvre exhibit I saw at the DAM. I guess gilded chairs just don't do it for me. The sculpture was very cool - everything from the Roman empire to Louis XIV - and the paintings were also very interesting. There was a Rembrandt, a Titian, bust by Bernini, a drawing by van Dyck, drawings by Reubens, some Duhrer sketches . . . I think I liked the portrait by Rembrandt the best. It's nice seeing some stuff I learned about in art history up close and personal, too.

So tomorrow it's back home. I'll try to post some pictures sometime this week, since I think I got some good shots at the DAM.