Annoyed that Denver's street parking rates increased to $2 per hour this year? At least Pay by Phone can make your parking experience smoother. The Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure started enabling Pay by Phone at meters across the city last year. The app's function is all in the name: Download it for free, find your parking zone and pay then and there. If you're not sure how long you might be, the app allows you to remotely add time. With Pay by Phone, there's no more digging for coins in your pockets — a good thing, because the quarters required to pay for a few hours these days might require a pack mule.

Although it's no fun to end up in the emergency room, Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center has a major perk for fans of the Avalanche, Mammoth, Nuggets and Rapids: The TVs here have Altitude Sports. Owing to a dispute with Comcast, Altitude TV isn't available to most Denver residents — but at St. Luke's, it's at the ready, tuned to everything from live games to 3 a.m. behind-the-scenes Nuggets footage. And while Altitude TV can't fix what landed you in the ER, it can help heal your spirits.

Founded by Angela Wilson, a Thornton mother whose son, Samuel, has intellectual and physical disabilities, Exploryst provides an online directory of businesses and activities complete with information regarding wheelchair accessibility, American Sign Language availability and more on accommodations. Everything from restaurants to outdoor experiences to Meow Wolf is included on the site, and Wilson maintains a blog documenting exactly how her family's experience went on their own adventures, offering inspiration for others.

Some health and wellness studios might make you feel the opposite of well (in mind, heart, body — or all three). But you'll be pleasantly surprised at Guided by Humanity, a place of radical inclusivity and intersectionality. No matter your ability, identity or financial status, there are options for you here. The offerings range from chair yoga to kids' yoga, mindfulness cooking, grief support and programs for folks who experience all manner of disabilities. If you're seeking a different kind of wellness path, sign up stat!

While Denver residents clamor for the city to invest more in pickleball, one of the country's fastest-growing sports, another metro parks department has gotten into the game. APEX Parks and Recreation District in Arvada sponsors tournaments, indoor and outdoor play, mixers, camps and clinics for picklers of all skill levels. People can work with the department to put on their own tournaments or set up private lessons, while less-structure-oriented fans of the sport can drop in at one of the district's four pickleball locations for a game.

Although Gates Tennis Center mainly focuses on the sport in its name, pickleball enthusiasts can enjoy themselves at the center's eight pickleball courts for just $6 an hour per person. But there's another major perk: three pickleball pros. If you want a private lesson, it's $60 an hour; grab up to five friends and you can split an $80 charge. Some of the tennis pros, jealous of how much fun the pickleball pros are having, occasionally step in to help with kids' classes, adding to Gates's pickleball coaching repertoire. Invest in your game or book a night of learning with friends; either way, you'll walk away slightly sweaty and fully satisfied.

The PickleBall Food Pub doesn't actually have food — it partners with nearby Marco's Pizza to let people order in — but it has a full bar and, most important, eight indoor courts. This facility in a former Sears store opened early in 2022 and has been a hit from the start. Reserve a court with friends for $30 before 5 p.m. most days and for $40 in the evening; you'll stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer while drinking a beer and dinking a pickleball.

Bowling with friends makes for a winning evening, but the cost of renting shoes and then playing multiple games can add up. The workaround to those pricey bowling nights? AMF Belleview Lanes, which offers unlimited bowling sessions at later hours on certain nights. The prices for unlimited bowling range from $14.59 to $15.99, with shoes thrown into the deal. The trick is to come with a small group and lots of stamina so you can get in as many games as possible.

The store is listed as Square One Games, but Games Workshop is the name on the side of the building. No matter what you call it, this shop is the best in town for gaming supplies. It stocks tabletop stuff for Dungeons & Dragons-like role-playing games: dice and intricate dioramic landscapes; miniatures of warriors and wizards and wraiths and wyrms; and all the shades of paints to bring those minis to life. While it's officially devoted to Warhammer and other Games Workshop-proprietary stuff, the sheer joy of rolling dice and demolishing your friend's elven armies is something gamers from any system can appreciate.

Hall of Justice Comics might not be the stately meeting place of the Super Friends from Saturday morning, but it almost feels like that when you walk through the door. Owner Jon Garnett got snake-bit by the comic-book explosion of the '80s and '90s, when everything coming out — Spawn, the Death of Superman, the five covers to X-Men #1 — was going to be worth as much as Amazing Fantasy 15 someday. That day, alas, will never come. But like any hero worth his underwear worn on the outside, Garnett persevered, and went from online retailer to brick-and-mortar proprietor faster than a speeding bullet. His selection and service? Truly heroic.