Today we visited Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, which was an Army chemical weapons depot turned superfund site.  The refuge video presentation and visitor center were well done:

Sadly, there’s no Junior Ranger program here.  We drove the nature drive in the refuge, and spotted several bird species and a pair of bison.

Continuing north to Boulder, we visited the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  NCAR is a private-sector non-profit funded almost exclusively by tax dollars via the National Science Foundation:

We attended the noontime tour which was a summary of the various exhibit spaces in the building.  After that, we explored the exhibits on our own, which included an exhibit that allows visitors to pass their hand through a “cloud”:

In the basement, we looked at the old supercomputer used for weather simulations.  The new system is too large for this facility, and is located in Wyoming:

Another exhibit talked about the architectural design process for the facility:

The other exhibits talked about how the atmosphere and climate work, including the interaction between the Sun and the Earth’s atmosphere:

Our last stop for the day was the factory tour at Celestial Seasonings, the largest boutique tea company in the US.  We saw the milling room where the ingredients are ground up, as well as the packaging line from carton assembly to robotic arms that stack filled cartons on pallets.  We also visited the sinus-opening peppermint room, where milled peppermint is stacked floor to ceiling, ready to be used as an ingredient in several flavors of tea.

No photography was allowed inside, so you won’t get to see photos of us in hair nets (and a beard net for me!).  Here’s the outside of the building:

The kids have started loading up their new Junior Ranger wall hangings:

Shabbos and Shavuos at the O family’s house here in Denver was wonderful.  M and I learned until the wee hours of the morning.

Today we visited the Hammonds Candy Factory in Denver:

Hammonds produces high-end hand crafted candies.  The candy is still manufactured by hand in what seemed to me to be a surprisingly small facility:

And the end of the tour, we received a complimentary lollypop and exited through their on-site retail facility:

We added our tour stickers to the sign outside:

On the way home, we stopped at what must be the largest skate park in Denver.  The kids were initially too shy to test their skills, but towards the end of our visit M did try a few runs on his scooter:

At home, we decided to make our own taffy using the same techniques we saw at the factory:

The kids had to coat their hands with butter to avoid sticking to the taffy.  I think M is saying “this is gross!”:

Tonight, Trish started working on larger Junior Ranger wall hangings for the kids, as they’ve completely filled their existing wall hangings with their patches and badges: