Kylie's top two college choice were in Denver: Colorado School of Mines and University of Denver. Since the last time she'd been in Denver was when she was 2 years old, we decided it would be a good idea to visit and make sure she actually liked the area before committing to go to school at either one. Spring Break was the perfect opportunity. Kylie, Jillian, and left sunny Bainbridge Island and flew to Denver, arriving in the late afternoon. It was strangely cloudy and we couldn't see the mountains. Kylie was a little disappointed since she was expecting the grandeur of the Rockies around every corner. I told her it was unusual for it to be so overcast, and maybe the predicted snow would happen.Sure enough, we woke up to a few inches the next morning! Fortunately, the roads were fine and we had rented an all-wheel-drive vehicle just in case.
Our first stop on Friday was Colorado School of Mines. Kylie hadn't actually heard back from CSM yet, but had high hopes. We visited the Student Services office and talked to some really nice people, one from Spokane, who showed us around the office and gave us an idea of what to look at while we walked around. They weren't having their regular official tours that weekend because of Mining Days, a special celebration for their students, but said we were welcome to take a self-guided tour and gave us a map.
The "Commons"
The Student Recreation Center, which had a huge indoor climbing wall that Kylie thought was spectacular!
More cool looking buildings...
We stopped by the admissions office and found out that Kylie was on the wait list, so that was disappointing. We decided not to walk around much more so she wouldn't fall in love with the school and then not be able to go there.
CSM is in Golden, CO, so we drove down to the main street and did the "tourist" thing.
The Coors brewery is in Golden, and this is the river that flows straight into the factory. Not really. But I have a vague recollection of a beer commercial jingle that started, "From the land of ice cold waters..."
The next day we toured the University of Denver, where we went on an official tour, complete with a presentation from some of the faculty, question and answer session with current students, campus tour, lunch, and presentation from the head of the Engineering department, to which Kylie has been accepted. They know how to sell their school! By the end, all three of us wanted to go there!
One of the libraries...
and bunch of cool looking buildings...I don't remember which were what, but it's a beautiful campus!
And she bought a sweatshirt, which she said she wasn't going to do at any of the schools we visited until she found the one she wanted to go to, so this is it! DU really is an amazing school with so many wonderful opportunities for their students. I was very impressed with the Engineering department. It's small, but growing, with a brand new building to be completed in 2015, and has great opportunities for research and internships. DU also highly values study abroad, which Kylie is very excited about!
We also visited the Colorado Temple...
Went on a hike at Red Rocks...
where we tried to take a "selfie," but failed...
so we asked a nice lady to take a picture of us!
And went downtown and saw the Capital Building
and the Denver City and County building
