Hey Fishlette, I'm sorry to hear about your dad, but you are going to have a great time on your travels! I'm a frequent traveler, so I can offer you a couple of tips.
In Denver, you'll want to check out the aquarium restaurant. As U.S. aquariums go, it's not amazing, and it's basically a just neat way to get you to eat in their restaurant, but it's fun to do once. You can see the aquarium all around you as you eat... though I'm fundamentally opposed to ordering sea food at an aquarium!
In my opinion, the best thing about Colorado is the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Too bad they probabably won't have any snow left on them when you get there.
New Orleans is great, too. Hurricane Katrina wiped out some areas (I think there are still tours of the devastion. I highly recommend it) but the French Quarter was virtually untouched. You HAVE to eat breakfast one morning at Cafe Du Monde! There's also a tour company called Grayline Tours; everything they offer is great. There are some bus tours and some walking tours (there's a cemetery tour that's pretty cool -- around halloween they do a haunted tour, too --. The city's below seal level, so you can't put a casket in the ground. Everything's above ground.... it's pretty neat looking). EDIT: oh yeah -- Aquarium of the Americas is in New Orleans, too!!
New York... welcome to my side of the country! You definitely won't have trouble finding something to do there!
That's it for now... safe travels!!
/www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer ... just click on Aquarium Info in the upper right. Oops, I'd forgotten when you said you'd be travelling! Yes, the Rockies will definitely have snow around Christmas.
The Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans is really cool. Fish, whales, sea otters, penguins... They lost power during the hurricane and a lot of the fish died and animals had to be evacuated, but they're all back and/or restocked now. Here's their a link for you...
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I can give you tons more New Orleans info if you want - and some more Colorado stuff, too .... PM me if you want.
-- christine
i looked up that aquarium of the americas and it sounds pretty cool. definitely will be checking that out when we are there 
But here's the link anyways since it's really interesting... I go every couple years or so just to see what they've added. http/www.mbayaq.org/ It's pretty darn amazing!
NY is pretty overratted. dirty subways , beggers and weirdos at every corner, atlough, it has lots of personality..its still ovvertaed. to me. Take a hourse ride in central park...40 euros , its gd for honeymooners.
Las vegas is gonna be fun tho....Go to that tower that has an amusement park on top of it, its awesome
New oleans , I dunno that much abt it but its pretty unstable esp the violence so be careful and have a fantastic trip
take a helicpter ride its 100 euros
colorado u r gonna like , its very beatiful
i know about new york. i went there a few years ago for a while. but my husband would like to see the statue of liberty and other such landmarks so we're gunna hang out there a few days. ive also done vegas and my hubby likes a little flutter so we just had to start there 
