May 11, 2019, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Well, don’t make it sound like a punishment!!!!

It’s back to just the two of us again, so it’s time to figure out what we want to spend our time doing.  After our snow two days ago, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, mid-60’s Saturday and decided to go to Colorado Springs (again, an hour and half away).

The drive was different than the Denver drive because you travel on a (mostly) two lane road through low, rolling hills, farms and small towns.  We passed through one of the windmill farms where they were about 100 yards from us – that close they don’t seem as large, but I noticed a truck pulled up to one and realized just how large around and tall they really are!

We also saw many pronghorn deer on the way there and back – sometimes just one or two together and other times up to 8 or more.  They look to be about the size of a white-tailed doe, light fawn color with white on the back end and long horns on their heads.  Pikes Peak is in front of you for most of the drive into Colorado Springs – it’s very impressive! (ED. NOTE – Even he didn’t make it to the top, and it still got named for him – the only reason I knew that was I spent 5 minutes standing in front of the men’s room door and read the sign that was on it.  Interesting placement for a history lesson!!)

We headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo which is in the foothills and on the side of a mountain! (You were right, Gail!) We have already established that I love a zoo and this one did not disappoint!  The animal enclosures were set so many of the animals were very close – some of them had areas where you could look down on the animals as well as across. (ED. NOTE – It was the closest I think we had ever been to some of the big cats – and it was kinda weird looking up into some of the enclosures!)

We saw the giraffes first thing.  The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has one of the largest herd of giraffe in North America.  They offer lettuce for you to feed them and seeing the amazement of children and adults alike was a joy. (ED. NOTE – Actually, the first thing we saw was fake birds eating a fake dead zebra.  It was the coolest zoo display I had ever seen.  I have pictures!!!)

The Australian Walkabout takes you through a fenced area with wallabies munching on grass within one to two feet of you.  The elephants had a long walkway along one side of the zoo where they could wander from their enclosure.  They also have a large building for the elephants and rhinoceros with different enrichment areas – a motion activated water area, a sand area, a grooming and vet area and several others. (ED. NOTE – Not sure how we went from Australia to elephants but you gotta work with the landscape you’re given I guess!!!)

The meerkats were fun to watch and so were the mother and baby orangutan.  The hubs and I had a yummy lunch with a great view and headed on for the rest of the day.

This is what happens if you don’t build a wall!!!

Next stop was Garden of the Gods.  It was such an anomaly to me – like a part of Arizona just stuck in the middle of Colorado!  The red rocks look like they were thrust into the sky and just stayed. I know it had something to do with volcanoes and different types of sediment that turned into rock (there was movie but we skipped it). (ED. NOTE – She’s kinda right, so we’ll give her a C+)  The welcome center was nice and informative and we picked up a map to follow.  There were many people out enjoying the day so it was hard to find places to park along the drive.  There is a paved trail throughout the middle of the park for strollers and easy walking.  There is also many different hiking trails – some starting at the Welcome Center and other shorter ones you can get to by parking along the drive in designated spaces.

Shoulda been separated at birth!!!!

We hiked the Siamese Twin trail to two tall rocks attached at the bottom. They were quite beautiful.  We then drove to Balanced Rock which is an amazement all on its own.  This huge rock is standing on a very small base – it’s a wonder how it stays upright!

 

No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks, Oh Yeah!!!!!!

For dinner, we went to the Bristol Brewing Company in the old Ivywild elementary school. (ED. NOTE – Drinking at school, now THAT brings back memories!!!)  The school was built in 1916 and has been decorated with art work and houses another restaurant and the Axe and the Oak whiskey hall, along with indoor and outdoor seating.  The award winning beer is sold only in Colorado by design and the company uses many sustainable operations such as local wind powered energy, recycled water and labels and carriers printed on 100% recycled paper and cardboard.  We split a whiskey sauce glazed burger which was different but very tasty and I had a nice Yellow Kite Summer Pils.

I think you mean buying!!!! 

Dare and I actually visited Colorado Springs earlier in the week to do a little shopping.  While there, I visited Wooly Works Knit Shop on Bijou Street downtown.  It is a lovely little shop stuffed with yarn, notions, books, and anything you need to knit.  I chatted with Rachael who told me the shop was going to be moving back to the owner’s alpaca farm soon with classes, yarn and alpacas!  I only purchased a tiny pair of scissors (very sharp) with an attached point cover (they don’t count as buying yarn, Editor), plus they’re a happy yellow color!  Knitters can always use a sharp pair of scissors. (ED. NOTE – Ok, now THIS is more like it!!!)