Colorado Day Three

On day three out here in Colorado Springs, we decided to go to the zoo. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo resides on the side of a mountain and sports a killer view of the Springs as well as quite a few giraffes which are a ton of fun to feed. Where I had planned a morning, we spent an entire day looking at the animal exhibits.

There isn't much to tell there. The animals were all cooperative and we had a lot of fun watching them. Lunch was awesome in the zoo, and actually a ton better than I expected. What was amusing about the food was the alternate names the guy was throwing around for the food. Ladybug got a double decker grilled cheese sandwich, or a "yee-haw". Sassy Pants asked for a burger, which was a good sized Angus burger, or a "Big Boy". I got a footlong hotdog, but I don't remember its code name primarily because I was taken by the names for how it was topped.

He asked if I wanted grilled peppers and onions, which they called "ready to party", but I said no, so he said to make it naked. Then I asked about chili and cheese and he said to make it a "coney island". If anyone out there happens to recall the name for the footlong out there, please reply and remind me.

After going through the zoo, we took the skyride to the zoo's summit overlook and then drove up to the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. It was then that Rock Girl's fear of heights really came out. We found out about this fear yesterday during our Pike's Peak ride, but it wasn't that bad. Today with a drive up the mountain and sheer drops so close followed by more sheer drops at this shrine, she flipped out a little.

To add to this drama, her eyes were bugging out. We got her some eye drops and tylenol, and as she wasn't up for swimming, we got them to the next door McDonalds to play the rest of the night away.

As a final note, we were curious about how Will Rogers came to have this shrine in Colorado named after him. We asked a guy there what connection he had to the Penrose family who built the shrine (and most of Colorado Springs actually). The guy said there was none really. Rogers died in 1935, and the shrine (which is just a burial place for Mr and Mrs Penrose) was finished in 1936. Mr Penrose just decided to dedicate it to Rogers. Interesting, if not a bit odd.

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Colorado Day Two Continued

The original plan after Pike's Peak was to have some lunch and then go to Garden of the Gods. So we went to a Mexican restaurant called Jorge's in Old Colorado City where the Queen and I had some tamales (the reviews said they were very good), and they were very good. Following this, we hit a couple shops to see what we could see. One place was Rocky Mountain Chocolate and the chocolate was incredible.

We headed over to Garden of the Gods and thought we'd start at the visitor center. This was a good thing since it started pouring rain shortly after we arrived. We hung out there for awhile but finally decided to hit the mall and maybe try GotG later or on another day.

I wasn't sure how well hanging at the Citadel Mall would go, and in the end, it was only ok. We got some cookies, and they were good. So that was something.

We saw that the rain had stopped, so we thought that we'd try GotG again. We saw some awesome rocks, and got some great shots such as the one above. We saw some clouds rolling in and figured we should get moving.

It rained. Oh my, how it poured! It rained so hard so fast that roads flooded instantly and at one point, I pulled off the road to wait a moment. We finally got back to the hotel and when they got out of the car, we got one of the loudest thundercrashes I've ever heard that made all 3 princesses scream so loud that the hotel concierge came out to see what was wrong. They were shaken for quite a while after that.

The rest of the night was calm. The rain subsided. We went swimming. And now we prepare for tomorrow.

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Colorado Day Two

Today, we got up early to take the cog railway up Pike's Peak. A little drama awaited us when we learned that we should have (could have) made a reservation. I hadn't read through the rules to the point that I knew that was possible. Anyway, we were put on standby and started to plan for switching Pike's Peak to another day. I asked about the chance of getting on and I learned that there was a group of 40 that had not yet showed yet. Fortune smiled. They never showed. We went up the mountain.

It was an awesome experience. The picture in this post is just a taste of the pics and video we took. Had some high altitude donuts and got a couple souvenirs and after not nearly enough time, we were heading back down. The princesses were thrilled to be touching the mountain.

More to follow.

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Colorado End of Day One

At the end of our first day, we got settled in our hotel room, ate at a novelty pizza place called Fargo's, went to Memorial Park (which was awesome), marveled at the mountains, and the Queen bought a souvenir Colorado deck of cards and a Pepsi from the local Walmart.

When we were approaching Colorado Springs, the mountains were hidden behind the daily cloud cover so we couldn't see them right away as soon as were close enough. since the princesses had never seen mountains before, they weren't sure what to expect. Ladybug asked when they would know they saw them, and I assured her that she would know. Basically, if you have to ask, you haven't seen then yet.

This point was best illustrated by Sassy Pants, who had ridden up here behind the Queen. She had not seen the mountains once they were clearly visible so the Queen moved her head so Sassy Pants could see through her headrest.

Initially, Sassy Pants said she could not see them, but she was apparently looking in the wrong place. We guessed the second she spooted then when an elated "Oh my gosh!" drifted out of the back seat. She wasn't wondering anymore.

And tomorrow, we go up Pikes Peak.

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Colorado Day One

So many years ago when I was in the Army, I lived at Ft Carson on the south end of Colorado Springs. I really liked living there, but when my time in the military was over, I didn't have the life experience to actually continue living there, even though I would have liked to. So I returned to Oklahoma. 4 years later, I returned with the Queen for our honeymoon, and she also loved it. But since our families were in Oklahoma, we dvid not pursue trying to live there. We wanted to go back for some time though and this year, we finally saved up the money to do it.

As I write this, we have been on the road foralmost 8 hours. The Queen is taking a turn at the wheel, and the princesses are in the back playing quietly. They are very good girls and always have been. They go crazy sometimes but they make us quite proud in public, and they even get complimented occasionally.

I figure since notating a vacatipon on Facebook is idiocy, a somewhat anonymous blog of my life is perfect. We are about to stop for lunch, after which we have approximately hours of driving left.

Most interesting thing to happen recently was the fear of not knowing whether that dump truck in the construction zone was going to want out on top of us or not. Fortunately, he just pulled over in the zone, but we were worried for a moment when he matching our speed.

More to follow. Stay tuned. I mean it this time. I can post anywhere from my phone. Makes it easier.

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