Our Trip to Colorado

It has been a great ten days. We made our first trip to Colorado this past week. We arrived in Colorado and stayed the weekend with Theresa and Dick Schreiber. On Monday, we made our way down to Colorado Springs. It was a blast traveling with Bennett. I am sure this is only the first of our trips to Colorado. On Monday, we headed down to Canon City to the Royal Gorge. From a distance we viewed the world's largest suspension bridge. We hiked around and let Bennett explore before we headed back to our hotel in Colorado Springs.

Graham and Bennett with the Royal Gorge Bridge in the background.

As you will see in most of the pictures, I am sitting with Bennett. I still have my fear of heights but did better than I thought. Bennett and I at Royal Gorge.

On Tuesday, we decided to head up to Pikes Peak. Graham made the trip up Pikes Peak with his family when he was about 12 years old. Needless to say, it had been a long time since we were both up there. The drive was amazing. We stopped at several spots along the way to get out and walk around. We were able to see some wildlife.

Pikes Peak in the background. This was a few pictures on the drive up to Pikes Peak. We reached the summit which was an elevation of 14,110 feet. This was better than our drive up to Mt. Evans but driving a suburban made the roads feel tiny.

I am still in awe of those beautiful mountains.

After leaving Pikes Peak, we headed down to Cave of the Winds. Not really knowing what it was all about, we hiked through a dark cave with a group of people. It was a mile an half hike and Bennett was carried the entire time. It wasn't too bad carrying him except when it got pretty steep. We were so worried about dropping Bennett that we don't have too many pictures from that day but here are a couple of the stalagmites and stalactites.

Wednesday, we decided to head to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Garden of the Gods, and Seven Falls. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was on the highlights of our trip. The zoo is embedded in the mountain and the drive through the neighborhood to get there makes Zionsville/Carmel look like the slums.

A Mountain Lion-Up Close and Personal

Bennett and Daddy looking at the Grizzly Bears. Bennett had a great time imitating the animal sounds he heard.

Bennett feeding the giraffes

We could have spent many more hours at the zoo admiring the animals but we decided to head to Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch.

Graham and Daddy at Garden of the Gods

Mommy and Bennett sitting at Garden of the Gods

The view from Garden of the Gods

After leaving Garden of the Gods we headed down to Seven Falls. The water falls and scenery were amazing.

The three of us at Seven Falls. It was a 225 staircase to the top. The stairs were incredibly steep. I made it up about 30 or so steps before my fear of heights set in.

Thursday we said farewell to Colorado Springs and headed into Denver. We spent the morning at the Denver Aquarium.

Graham and Bennett

A Sea Turtle

Bennett found a buddy

Bennett found a little cave that he could hide in and look up and see the fish. We eventually had to crawl inside and get him. See the next picture...

He wasn't happy when we pulled him out.

After the morning at the aquarium we made our was to Casa Bonita for lunch. We met up with some of my childhood friends. The Prybella girls (well two of the three). I haven't seen them in years, so it was wonderful to get to spend time with them. I am crossing my fingers that they make it out to Indiana this year.

Friday we made our way up to Estes Park. This is our favorite place in Colorado. Graham had never made it up to Trail Ridge Road. We made the drive with Schreibers. Here are the amazing mountains.

We spent all day in Rocky Mountain National Forest. We saw 30 plus Elk in a heard and then several other Elk just walking through the forest.

We spent the weekend at Theresa and Dick's visiting and resting. We were able to spend time with both Rod, Maren and Kristina and Rich. We had a great visit. We were very sad to leave but are glad to be home. It was a long but needed vacation. We return to work and school on Tuesday. We are already planning our next trip out there. I think we will give the 1,000 mile drive a try next time.