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During your Denver vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The largest museum of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science features scores of world-renowned dioramas, an extensive gems and minerals display, a pair of Egyptian mummies, a terrific fossil collection, and several other award-winning exhibitions. The museum focuses on six areas of science: anthropology, health science, geology, paleontology, space science, and zoology.The newest permanent exhibition, "Space Odyssey," opened in 2003. Visitors experience a carefully crafted mix of exhibits, live programming, digital multimedia, and interactive modules that engage them in contemporary stories of space exploration. The Gates Planetarium, which also reopened in 2003 after renovations, has been transformed into a state-of-the-art digital planetarium. The new facility has an advanced computer graphics and video system, unlike any planetarium in the world.The "Prehistoric Journey" exhibit traces the history of life on earth through 3.5 billion years. Dinosaur skeletons, fossils, interactive exhibits, and dioramas of ancient ecologies make this one of the museum's most popular attractions, especially with children.Another popular exhibit is the "Hall of Life," which focuses on the science of the human body. Using a magnetic card, visitors gather information on themselves as they move through the interactive exhibits. When finished, they receive a printout about their own physical condition.An IMAX theater (tel. 303/322-7009) presents science, nature, or technology-oriented films with surround-sound on a screen that measures four and a half stories tall. Allow 2 to 4 hours.
Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver
Rotating avant-garde exhibitions by numerous local and national artists are the main attraction at this downtown museum. Temporary exhibits in the two floors of exhibition space rotate every 5 months. The museum will likely be moving to a new LoDo location in 2006 or 2007. Allow at least 1 hour.
U.S. Mint
Whether we worship it or simply consider money a necessary commodity, we all have to admit a certain fascination with the coins and bills that seem to make the world turn. There are four mints in the United States, but the Denver Mint is one of only two (the other is the Philadelphia Mint) where we can actually see the process of turning lumps of metal into shiny coins.Opened in 1863, the Mint originally melted gold dust and nuggets into bars. In 1904 the office moved to this site, and 2 years later began making gold and silver coins. Copper pennies were added a few years later. The last silver dollars (containing 90% silver) were coined in 1935. In 1970, all silver was eliminated from dollars and half dollars (today they're made of a copper-nickel alloy). The Denver Mint stamps billions of coins each year, and each has a small D on it.Although visitors today don't get as close as they once did, a self-guided tour along the visitors' gallery provides a good look at the process, with a bird's-eye view from the mezzanine of the actual coin-minting process. A variety of displays help explain the minting process, and an adjacent gift shop on Cherokee Street (tel. 303/572-9500) offers a variety of souvenirs. Allow 1 hour.Note: Due to greatly increased security, individuals are now required to arrange tours at least 3 weeks in advance with their congressional representatives at www.senate.gov or www.house.gov, and there are quite a few requirements for entering the mint. It is uncertain that walk-in visitors will be allowed in the future.
Best Western Central Denver
'From: The north. From Interstate 25, exit 58th avenue, turn west to Broadway and turn south to 48th Avenue. 'From: The south. From Interstate 25 take Exit 214B. 'From: Interstate 70. Exit at Pecos Street and turn east on 48th ...
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