Colorado Springs
Embry woke up not feeling the best and then showed us a bump on the bottom of her foot that she said was the reason why she couldn’t hike yesterday. It was pretty concerning, so we decided to take it easy and keep hiking to a minimum.
Stop 1 - Garden of the Gods!
People have been raving about this place and we were so eager to get there. It is one of the places Justin was most excited about on this whole trip.
Okay, that might not be true. He’s pretty excited about everything he’s picked out and for good reason too - they’re all amazing sounding!
Unfortunately, after the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Red Rock Ampitheatre, some places just don’t hold water. Maybe if we’d have come here first, we’d have been more in awe, but we weren’t. We tried to be, but we all felt a little ho-hum.
I hate saying that because it sounds so awful or ungrateful, but in truth, it just wasn’t our favorite.
It could have been the overcast day, the long day the day before, Embry not feeling well, or the fact that we had seen similar things already. We were glad to be able to just drive thru and get out and climb where we wanted to so that poor Embry could stay in the car.
On the plus side, we got to see the Bighorn Sheep that we hadn’t seen the day before! And the red rocks truly are stunning, especially in their unique formations, but none of us were really feeling it.
Rock Ledge, the working ranch next door, was pretty cool and my little architectural historian fix was met. We got to see the original homestead cabin from the 1860s and the subsequent houses built on the property. I loved seeing the way the ranch had been preserved and interpreted. What I didn’t like was the warning signs for rattlesnakes!
Stop 2 – Manitou Springs
What an unbelievably adorable town!
The kids were thrilled to eat ice cream as we walked the town square and visit the arcade (which is actually several buildings of arcade games separated by decade). Even more exciting was when elk decided to use the crosswalk to cross the street!
A friend recommended the incline in Manitou as something we should definitely check out. I was up for it until Justin started reading aloud about firefighters having to go up there regularly to rescue people.
Ummmmm…no.
Hard pass.
I have 4 little kiddos who just yesterday could barely make it around a flat lake.
We’re not doing it.
But we drove to check it out anyway so we could at least see what all the talk was about.
Aubyn is now begging Justin to do it with her and I have a feeling our plans tomorrow will somehow be changing…
