We met up with my parents (who hadn't made it quite as far the previous day) at Garden of the Gods for a leisurely hike, then got back in the car (this was difficult) to continue on to Estes Park.
Monday, August 1, 2016
Colorado 2016: The Beginning
A few months back, I decided we needed to do something about the fact that my kids had never been to the mountains. There are slightly closer places to make this happen, but we decided to drive the TWO THOUSAND miles round-trip to Estes Park. We left at 4:30 am and got to Colorado Springs about 16 hours later. Then our hotel had overbooked, as we and around a dozen other people discovered together there in the lobby of the Comfort Inn. This was a low point. The husband did some maneuvering, and he managed to get our money back, but we still had no place to sleep. We started frantically calling other hotels in Colorado Springs, but they were all full. Until finally, while we are sitting in the parking lot of this sketchy Ramada Inn (despair was setting in), this magnificent kid named Aaron at the Garden of the Gods Resort calls back to tell us he's had a last minute no-show. We drove up at around 10pm, looking like a bunch of hillbillies, then God in His mercy let us wake up and walk out onto our patio to this this incredible view of Garden of the Gods:
Within about 10 minutes we had spotted several new birds for the Life List (magpies! spotted towhees! a western scrub-jay!) plus baby bunnies were running around everywhere being extremely adorable (especially appropriate because we had listened to Watership Down in the car on the way!) Then it turned out that Aaron had also thrown in free breakfast, and I believe it was the best one I have ever eaten. It was all mighty FINE. This was the first time the kids had ever stayed in an actual hotel, and we had to adjust their expectations that it was not always going to be this glorious.
We met up with my parents (who hadn't made it quite as far the previous day) at Garden of the Gods for a leisurely hike, then got back in the car (this was difficult) to continue on to Estes Park.
Coming up: hiking! fishing! rock climbing! bird-watching! so much gear!
We met up with my parents (who hadn't made it quite as far the previous day) at Garden of the Gods for a leisurely hike, then got back in the car (this was difficult) to continue on to Estes Park.
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2 comments:
I loved it when we camped in Colorado Springs. My 2 over-riding memories were of Mitch suddenly tearing off down the hill by our tents to demonstrate to Fiona the wonders of hiking sticks, and of the day we went horse riding; I needed a wee before we set off trekking and the woman in the little shack offered me a lift up to the toilets - about 100metres away. I assured her I was fine to walk and her comment was, "Oh right, you're British aren't you? You Brits walk everywhere!" Fun times!!!
I told the kids how you and Fiona and I tried to sleep in my car that night and ended up paying for a hotel room in the wee hours. That was such a fun trip. Harper did something similar with her hiking sticks--she had a slight knee injury and went from pitiful limping to full on sprint/jumping because of the Miraculous Hiking Sticks. My mom and I were crying we were laughing so hard. I had forgotten about Mitch doing that, but now have a vivid recollection. He was a constant source of comic relief. Wish I got to see them more.
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