Today it's hot and sunny in Denver, and although I felt like we'd be more efficient today now that we know our way around a little bit, this is the first chance I've had to stop and edit the pictures and write a post. Tygrbright is currently hanging out at the Pepsi Center, seeing what she can see, and I'm sure will be posting updates soon. Hissyspit is on his way to see if he can find some protesters, and I think I may do the same thing later. I'm curious what the protests are like, and if the MSM accounts are accurate.

Today we got downtown around 11:30 or noonish, and Tygrbright and Hissyspit posted updates while I trekked across town to pick up the daily credentials. I don't know why they make us come back each day (probably security reasons I suppose) to pick up new credentials, but it's kind of a hassle, since they're distributing them a ways from where we're headquartered.

On our way to the Big Tent, I took a picture of some of the official SUVs that are escorting VIPs around the city. They're all hybrids, it seems, and they went out of their way to advertise this fact.



Also going with the green theme of the convention, there are several bike stations set up where you can rent a bike for free! Very cool, I took a couple pictures of those guys:





Anyway, the upshot of the credentials being across downtown is that I got to walk all along the 16th street mall in downtown Denver, which was fun and entertaining.

This is a picture of some of the cool buildings and architecture off Broadway in downtown.



And here is the bustling and very cool 16th street mall. I'm not usually a fan of malls of any type, but I have to say, I like this one. Malls were originally supposed to be a place of community, where people can hang out together and get to know each other and have fun, before they were corporatized. But I feel like this mall, although it is lined on every square inch with retail stores, achieves a little bit of that communal spirit with the open areas in the middle and such. They even have a free shuttle bus that runs up and down the mall. I tried to ride it but without air conditioning it was 10x as hot and stuffy in the bus as on the street.



By far the funniest people I ran into on 16th street were these guys, who were handing out flyers and shouting slogans into the megaphone, such as "We urge all Democrats to stop supporting bird porn!" I took one of the flyers, pics of the guys and the front/back of the flyer below:







I have no idea what the stuff on the back means.

Other sightings on 16th street included a guy with an anti-gov't-spying sign and a shirt that said "I (heart) Big Brother," and a whole buncha cops lounging in the shade, waiting for something to happen.





Here's a cool shot of the Pepsi Center in the foreground, Invesco Field in the middleground, and the rockies in the background.



A couple odd but interesting things spotted inside the security perimeter no less... the port-o-potties are apparently "regal," and Trojan Condoms has a tent setup outside the Pepsi Center and gave me some free condoms! Apparently they want to make sure all the drunken delegates practice safe sex while partying in Denver.







So that's the update for now! Soon I will head out again to see if I can get some info on the protests.