Several people have recently asked about recommendations for things to do, places to stay, etc. near Dr. Oro's clinic. Having made two recent trips to the area, I have my personal preferences. The best place to start is with the Denver Metro convention & Visitors Bureau website: Denver Metro convention & Visitors Bureau website:

Denver is a fairly easy city to navigate and easy to get to from Aurora. The Aurora Chamber of Commerce also has a website with links to motels, restaurants, etc., The Aurora Chamber of Commerce

Restaurants: Rocky Mountain Diner (great atmosphere, good food), Wynkoop Brewing Company (great food, cool atmosphere, good beer), (there are lots of great microbrewery restaurants downtown), Rosie's Diner (fifties-syle diner, fun, good food), Osteria Marco (excellent, but pricey--my sister and I treated ourselves to an elegant dinner prior to my surgery). My sister went to Mimi's Cafe in Aurora while I was in the hospital and she liked it a lot. I prefer the local places to the chains, but it depends on what you're looking for.

Sites: State Capitol Bldg (very nice and you can walk around by yourself or get a tour), U.S. Mint (make reservation ahead of time, interesting but not as interesting as I hoped it would be), U.S. Mint gift shop (no reservation required, many cool items, including a machine you can put a dollar bill in and get four of the most-recently minted state quarters), 16th Street Mall (free shuttle available, but walking is very nice, there are fun shops, restaurants, and architecture), Coors Stadium/Rockies baseball game (nice stadium with extensive variety of food kiosks).

Places to stay: Dr. Oro's office will send you a packet with a list of area motels. I've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (very close to his office, clean, friendly, good free breakfast) and at Strawberry Place. Other people have written about negative experiences at La Quinta and Dr. Oro's office no longer lists it.

I hope this helps some of you. Feel free to email me personally if you have any questions. I'm at home on medical leave and restricting my time at the computer, but I try to check email at least once/day.