Washington 2023:
Day 17 - Denver, CO

	Tuesday, August 29, 2023: We were up and out of the KOA by 7:30 AM. On our way out, we drove by the spot we stayed in the first time we were here in the Ocho, when the campers next to us nailed plywood over the door to their camper in the middle of the night before leaving in their extra car. Luckily, there was no drama with our stay this time.
	We took US Highway 89 south toward Salt Lake City, ...
	... stopping at Del Taco for breakfast, obviously.
	As we headed toward downtown Salt Lake City, we passed this flatbed semi hauling a load of purple onions.
	Our first stop this morning was on the grounds of the Utah State Capitol. There was a lot of construction in the area, and no parking nearby, so Debbie hopped out at a red light and made her way to this statue, while Tom circled the block.
	This statue is part of the Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos Veterans Memorial, and was sculpted by Clyde Ross Morgan. The reason we stopped to see it, however, is that the model who sat for the sculpture was river runner O'Connor Dale, the father of Ann-Marie, one of our boat captains when we went down the Colorado River in 2006.
	Debbie took the opportunity to get a nice photo of the Utah State Capitol building in the early morning sun.
	We passed this gorgeous Mormon church as we headed east away from the Capitol.
	Our next stop was at the International Peace Gardens.
	The park was laid out as a garden per country. Here's China,  ...
	... Greece, ...
	... the United States of America, ...
	... Sweden, ...
	... England, ...
	... Switzerland, ...
	... Norway, ...
	... Scotland, ...
	... Holland, ...
	... and Denmark, which also had ...
	... a replica of the Little Mermaid statue.
	Here's Germany, ...
	... Lebanon, ...
	... Italy, ...
	... Finland, ...
	... Japan, ...
	... Brazil, ...
	... Mexico, ...
	... the Philippines, ...
	... South Korea, ...
	... Wales, ...
	... Russia, ...
	... and in a baffling geographical choice, Africa, which is a continent, not a country.
	We finished up our tour with Ireland, ...
	... Canada, ...
	... Vietnam, ...
	... France, ...
	... and finally, India.
	As we walked out of the park, we saw this peace pole among the bushes just inside the entrance.
	Our next stop was further south at Fashion Place Mall, ...
	... where we went directly to the LEGO Store.
	We loved this figure from the Dreamzzz product line made out of translucent green bricks.
	While filling a small Pick & Build cup, Debbie met a woman her age named Karen who was also filling a Pick & Build cup.
	It turns out that they are both members of the same LEGO group on Facebook and she told Debbie to friend her. She told us about a new LEGO store that had just opened a few days ago north of Salt Lake City. Later that day, Karen posted pictures of herself in the exact same location where she had been while chatting with Debbie, ...
	... and leaving the same store not long after we left.
	We found out a week later that she is a contestant on season four of Legomasters!
	We returned to the van, looked up the location of the new store, and while Debbie sorted her new purchases, ...
	... Tom drove north ...
	... to the LEGO Store at Station Park in Farmington, Utah.
	This store was so new, it still had new store smell.
	Their Pick & Build wall was different than all of the others that we've seen so far. Is this a new style? Or is this unique to this store? Time will tell.
	We purchased the parrot kit from the LEGO Creator series, and they gave us this cool LEGO tote bag for free.
	We were back on US 89 as we headed north, stopping briefly at Burger King to pick up lunch, ...
	... as we sped out of town. The views were amazing as we headed east through the mountains.
	Debbie took a photo of this Auto Tour Route sign and accidentally got the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign in the background.
	Right over the border in Harrison, Wyoming, we stopped at the Best Western Dunmar Inn. A pen from this hotel showed up in our lives a long time ago, and we have no idea where we got it. After looking up the hotel name on the pen, we realized that we would be driving right by it on this trip. We tried to get a photo of the pen and the hotel together, but we could either get the hotel sign to be in focus, ...
	... or the name on the pen to be in focus. We suggest looking back and forth between these two photos to get the effect that we were going for.
	We got back on I-80, heading east through some of the prettiest scenery in the country.
	Look at this view! It goes on forever.
	And then there's beautiful rock formations like this.
	Look at those stripes in the rocks. Isn't that just gorgeous?
	We were apparently on part of the Wyoming Loop Tour.
	As we drove across southeastern Wyoming, we watched more of "The Masked Singer" and finished season five.
	We laughed as we passed this exit for Higley Boulevard, having spent time on Higley Road in Mesa, Arizona, earlier in the year.
	Anyone who has driven I-80 through this part of Wyoming will recognize the snow fences along the side of the highway.
	We took US Highway 287 south from Laramie, Wyoming, ...
	... into Colorado. Sorry, we mean Colorful Colorado.
	It was a pleasant drive through the hills toward Fort Collins, ...
	... where we joined up with I-25 and headed south. The Rocky Mountains were visible to the west through the haze.
	Just before 7:30 PM, we stopped at Raising Cane's in Thornton. We had been craving chicken from here for a few days and picked up four fingers to blunt our hunger.
	Check out the detail at the top of this lamp post with the sun setting behind the Rockies in the distance.
	The full moon was rising in the east ...
	... as we pulled into Winchell's Donut House in Denver.
	We had hoped to get French crullers but weren't that lucky. We settled for six other delicious donuts and got back on the road.
	The Denver skyline looked beautiful in the distance as we turned east onto I-70.
	This building was stunning in the setting sun.
	Pretty! Look at all of the colors on this building.
	We pulled into the Best Western Premier Denver East just after 8:00 PM, ...
	... and after getting lost briefly in the hotel's maze of corridors, we were thrilled to be in our room because we were exhausted. We have dear friends and favorite restaurants in this town and all we had time to do was fall into bed because we had to get up very early.
	Shortly after getting into the room, Tom got a text from Audrey asking him if he could help Dean as Dean tried to get his new phone set up before they boarded their train to Washington, DC later that night. In fact, we were in Denver to catch a flight to meet up with them in DC. We obsessively watched their train's status as we got ready for bed, knowing that they would be well on their way when we got up early tomorrow morning.  Day 18 >