Denver: Play
City Park Area
City Park! City Park! I love, I love City Park! Lots to do here from a summer concert series to grounds to paddling on the little lake. Park your car and wonder around. You might get lucky and spot some LARPers (Live Action Role Players).
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We love the Denver Zoo despite not being the biggest animal aficionados. Maybe it's because, as a two year old, Flora licked the dirt covered polar bear exhibit or maybe it's the new baby gorilla and giraffe, but whatever it is, we seem to make it there every summer and winter.
Museum of Nature and Science contains the Phipps IMAX 3D Theater, but it's the rock exhibit and special exhibitions that make it one my favorite places to visit. I particularly appreciate the wide open spaces where kids can run and the relatively new Discovery Zone on the second floor in the back that allows kids to climb, explore and learn.
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Downtown
The Children's Museum in Denver just got major renovation-it went from good to great. Our favorite thing about this museum is that the kids manipulate the exhibits, the exhibits don't manipulate the kids. They have an awesome tinker section where kids can build and bang, a real fire truck where kids can play foreperson and learn about fire safety AND an art room that will inspire the least artistic person in your group. Oh yeah, they have two water rooms, one focused on bubbles upstairs and one focused on water play downstairs. There is also a 3 1/2 story climbing mountain.
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Stapleton
Pools and parks. Parks and pools. And the Stanley is nearby with a kids' gymnastics gym and a new kids' climbing gym!
Cherry Creek
Cherry Creek is home of the Denver mall and a pretty good Whole Foods, but my favorite place just a tad north of Cherry Creek is the Denver Botanical Gardens. Every summer they host an interesting artist among the flowers series and they also have a children's garden. My kids have skipped, hopped and frolicked all over the gardens with few judgmental looks.
Further Afield
Dinosaur Ridge, Butterfly Pavilion and National Center for Atmospheric Research.