Colorado Vacation 2010

Sara has loved Colorado for years, since her first trip out there in 2002. Kevin and Carson love it now, as well. Maybe we'll find ourselves out there one day, but maybe we won't. If we don't, we'll just take more fantastic trips out there to visit Auntie Sara and Uncle Adam. That's what we did last week. It was simply perfect. Well, pretty close, at least.

(A side note here, for those that don't know... Sara and Sara were suitemates and then roommates for a couple of years during their time at Michigan State University. They are also Phike sisters, as they're both alumni of Phi Chi Theta, and are best buds.)

We had quite the trip and saw a lot! We visited and explored Denver, Boulder, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Lake, Winter Park/Mary Jane, Idaho Springs, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Canon City, Victor, Mt. Evans, Aurora, and Parker.

We left Friday from Detroit. We had a direct flight to Denver, which we thought would be a better thing to do since this was Carson's first time flying. Turns out we would have been fine going out of Flint with a layover because Carson loved flying on the airplane! He thought it was pretty cool to see the clouds below us instead of above us and loved flying through the clouds, even with the bits of turbulence while doing so. He said he felt like he was on a roller coaster. :)

We arrived in Denver on time. We had packed Carson's little suitcase as a carry-on with lots of toys. He insisted on pulling it through the entire Denver airport... and its a pretty big airport with a long way to walk! He did it, though! Carson got his first ride on a subway-type train at the Denver airport, too. You have to bring one into the main part of the airport from the terminals. He thought that was really fun because it goes quite fast and you're rocking and bumping along the entire way. We picked up our luggage and then Adam came to pick us up. We headed back to their house to wait for Sara to get out of work.

Once Sara was home, we loaded up the car again and took off for dinner at Wahoo's Fish Taco - so good!! Then we were on our way up to Estes Park. We rented a cabin up there for the weekend. This was Kevin's, Carson's and my first trip to Estes and we will definitely be going again. It is just amazing up there. Its absolutely gorgeous and our pictures don't even come anywhere close to doing it justice.

Friday night was a little rough for Carson. It was an incredibly long day for him and most of it was spent in his car seat between the ride to the airport, the ride on the airplane, and the ride up to Estes. So he got a little cranky towards the end of the night and had a hard time falling asleep at the cabin. Thankfully, he didn't really have any issues throughout the rest of the trip... and thankfully he started to sleep a little later each morning as his system adjusted to mountain time. At the start of our trip, he was staying up until 9pm or so, but would pop up wide awake at 5:30am (which is 7:30am in Michigan and is normally as late as he'll sleep).

Our cabin was really cute and homey with a great location. We got to see the family of deer - a buck, doe, and two fawns - that live in the area quite a bit. Carson loved that they would come walking right up into the driveway.




On Saturday, we explored downtown Estes Park in the morning, having coffee, walking around, shopping in the cute little shops, and grabbing some lunch at a local joint. Then we headed back to the cabin for a quick rest. After that, we headed out to explore some of Rocky Mountain National Park. We hiked around Bear Lake, which was beautiful! At the very end of the hike, Carson ended up falling and putting his front top teeth through his upper lip and skinning some of his nose and just under his nose. Poor guy! He recovered quickly, though, and took a nap when we got back to the car.






We then took a drive through Moraine Park and got to see some elk grazing. Lots of females grazing and walking around, while most of the males were lounging in the grass so you could only see their huge rack of horns sticking up. We also saw Longs Peak, one of Colorado's 54 "fourteeners"... mountains that reach an elevation of over 14,000 feet. Longs Peak reaches 14,259 feet and is the only 14er in Rocky Mountain National Park. We then headed back to the cabin for dinner, after which we went back downtown for some really delicious homemade ice cream! Yum! The perfect way to end the night!



On Sunday, we packed up the car to take a very roundabout way home. We started out by heading back into Rocky Mountain National Park and up Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest continuous paved road in the U.S. reaching elevations of over 12,000 feet and it crosses the Continental Divide. We took our time, stopping at scenic overlooks and visitor centers. We saw two male elk right alongside the road, munching on the tundra and ramming their horns into one another. Carson thought it was so awesome to see the elk "fighting." We also saw two juvenile moose grazing and drinking from a pond in the Kawuneeche Valley. We were very excited to get so lucky to see all the animals!






We headed out of Rocky Mountain National Park and into the little town of Grand Lake for lunch. It is a cute little town with several large all-sports lakes, including the largest natural body of water in the state of Colorado. And when I say little town, I mean little... its population was recorded as only 447 in the 2000 census! Kevin says he'd love to live there. :) We spent some time playing on a playground in town after lunch, then we piled back into the car to head down to Winter Park.

Winter Park and Mary Jane are two popular ski towns. Obviously there is no skiing in the summer, but they have lots of other fun things to do. Kevin and Adam went down the Alpine Slide, which looks kind of like a zig-zag water slide (without the water) down the mountain. You take a chair lift up to the top and sit on a sled that is sort of like a luge sled on skateboard wheels. Then you go very fast zig-zagging down the mountain. They both came off it with huge grins. There is also a chair lift that takes your mountain bikes up so that you can do a really sweet looking downhill course. Someday we'd like to go back to do that. Carson got to play on some fun playgrounds and played lots of the chime instruments they have through the village. He loved it!






After Winter Park, we got back on the road and headed to Idaho Springs where we ate dinner at Beau Jos - a place with a huge gluten free menu and delicious pizza. We walked around town a little and got back on the road to Denver. We did see some interesting and funny things while in Idaho Springs, though. There are two medical Cannabis centers in town (and its another small-ish town... so it was funny that they had two centers, even). In front of one, there was a group of guys using a chainsaw to carve out eagles and bears in logs... while they were smoking joints! Right on the main street through town. We got a good laugh out of that!

On Monday, we took it easy in the morning to just give Carson some down time and play time at home. Then we headed down to Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. We went through the Garden of the Gods, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, and the Air Force Academy. We got to experience one of Colorado's summer monsoon storms roll over the mountains and into the valley. It sure comes and goes quickly!

Garden of the Gods is in Colorado Springs and is a huge park filled with very tall and unique red rock formations. The park is also known for its rattlesnakes during the hot summer months, but thankfully we did not come across any of them! We all (and Carson especially) loved rock climbing and hiking through Garden of the Gods. Wow, that place is beautiful! There are so many amazing rock formations and lots of hiking and biking trails. We were really wishing we had our bikes! We were in Garden of the Gods when the storm rolled over the mountains, so our visit was unfortunately cut a little shorter than we had anticipated, but we still had a great time during the couple of hours that we were there.









The Cliff Dwellings are pretty cool, too. They are located in Manitou Springs and are the ancient dwellings of the Anasazi Indians and are literally carved right out of the side of the cliff. Carson had so much fun climbing through them and exploring. We picked up some souvenirs in their gift shop. Carson picked out a magnetic boy necklace, Kevin got a cool knife, and Sara got a really pretty necklace.







We took a drive through the Air Force Academy on our way back. Its a huge campus/base and its just beautiful! We had wanted to go through their visitors center, but Carson had crashed out in the car on our way there, so we just drove through the enormous campus instead. Its crazy to think how different our lives would be, had Sara gone there for college.




We spent Tuesday in Denver. We went to the Children's Museum in the morning. Carson had a lot of fun playing in the bubble room, playing with trains, pretending to be a veterinarian, painting, and just playing. We had lunch at the museum (they had all organic and local choices in their little cafe... it was great!) and then took a walk across the parking lot to the Downtown Aquarium. Carson loved the aquarium! We saw lots of cool fish, sharks, turtles, and sting rays. We even got to pet some stingrays!












After the aquarium, we went down the street to the REI Flagship Store. That is one awesome (and huge) REI! We had a great time in there, too! They have a lot of playscapes inside for kids, so Carson was loving it! After REI, we headed back to the house for dinner and finished off the night with a trip to one of the parks that are within walking distance of Sara's and Adam's house.

On Wednesday, we headed south to Canon City. We took a ride on the Royal Gorge Scenic Route train. We had nice, comfy seats on the train and spent much of the trip in one of the open-air cars. The train travels 24 miles round trip through the Royal Gorge, which is 1,250 feet deep. You get a unique view of the Royal Gorge Bridge from below. The bridge is the highest suspension bridge in the world. We also saw lots of white water rafters and kayakers going down the Arkansas River. The entire train trip is just beautiful and amazing! Again, the pictures do not do it justice.



After our train ride, we spent some time at the park to burn off some energy, and took a drive on one of the National Back-Country Scenic Byways through Phantom Canyon. Wow, was that cool, beautiful, and again, amazing! Its a 40-mile route that follows an old train route that was used to take gold mining supplies in and out of Victor and Cripple Creek, two gold mining towns. It has a 20 mph speed limit and consists of all dirt roads. Much of it is single-lane and it just winds through the canyon, through rugged tunnels through the mountains, and right along steep drop-offs. Its quite intense!



We ended up in a small mining town called Victor. It used to be a big gold mining district, but is now just a small town that has been sadly overtaken by some South African strip mining companies (they still are mining for gold, but the strip mining totally ruins the landscape and its quite sad). We stopped in at the visitor's center, met some locals, and took a walk around part of town. Then we were on our way again. We stopped in Manitou Springs for dinner at Adam's Mountain Cafe. Yum! That was our favorite meal of the trip! And everything was organic and local, even our beers! It was awesome! We love the crunchiness of the mountains and Colorado in general. It is so much easier to be healthy out there!

We took it easy on Thursday morning again, just playing around the house. Then we headed out to take a drive up Mt. Evans, another 14er. This one is located just west of Denver and reaches 14,264 feet. The road is paved up to 14,130 feet (then you can hike the additional 134 feet up) and is the highest paved road in North America. It was a beautiful drive and again, quite intense! Going up, especially, since the hairpin turns looks as though you will drive right off the edge, it is so close and steep. We made some stops along the way to check out the scenery or the resident mountain goats, go wading in Summit Lake, and had fun checking out the castle at the summit. It was a great end to our trip.








After Mt. Evans, we headed back to Aurora to have dinner with Sara and Adam. We went to an awesome mexican restaurant in Parker so that we could try green chile (YUM!). Then we packed up our things and loaded most of our stuff in the rental car. We had to leave Sara and Adam's house by 4:00 AM on Friday morning to make our flight home. We were not ready to leave. Not a single one of us, which is not the norm for us... usually at least one of us is ready to go home. It was just such a wonderful trip, we weren't ready for it to end! And Sara is always sad to say goodbye to Sara. But we look forward to many more trips out to Colorado in our future! We are so thankful for safe travels, awesome memories, and spending time together as a family. We are also very thankful for such great friends that hosted us in their home - thank you, Sara and Adam! We miss you guys already!