We had a busy and wonderful time in Colorado Springs. We spent 2.5 weeks exploring Colorado Springs as well as just getting settled into our new camper. We also passed around a flu bug so unfortunately we were down a person or two during some of our adventures.
Here are a few highlights from our time in Colorado Springs.
-Focus on the Family Welcome Center: the boys love Adventures in Odyssey. The entire downstairs is a recreated town of Odyssey, complete with Whit’s End Soda Shop, J&J Antiques, the 3 story A-Bend-A-Go slide and the Electric Palace! We ate real Wod-Fam-Choc-Sods and recorded two episodes on Kyds Radio! (Let me know if you want to hear an episode of Adventures in Odyssey starring Charlie, Grant and Miles!)
-Garden of the Gods: a park filled with large red limestone rock formations that is perfect for hiking. We hiked the Siamese Twins Trail which had breathtaking views of the park and Pike’s Peak.
-Royal Gorge: a beautiful 6 mile canyon of the Arkansas River. The park offered aerial gondola rides, an amazing playground/carousel, America’s highest suspension bridge and Charlie’s favorite meal of the trip-pizza at the visitor center! Ha!
-Air Force Academy: we had a blast exploring the academy and getting a little glimpse into the life of a cadet! We spent time at the visitor center, watched the cadets march to lunch, ate lunch at the student union, watched the glider planes take off, and drove through the campus. As you will quickly learn, the boys love driving by stadiums, so of course, we had to stop by the basketball arena and the football stadium! After watching a video on cadet life and the bed making process, all 3 boys declared they were never going to the Academy! I was ready to sign them up that day!
-Pike’s Peak Cog Railway: “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!” These words to “America the Beautiful” were penned by Katherine Bates atop Pike’s Peak. This mountain is one of the most visited mountains in the world and one of Colorado 14ers (mountain peaks that exceed 14,000 feet). We experienced the mountain by riding the cog railway up 9 miles to the summit and then back down. It was incredible! Breathtaking! Unbelievable! And made us all a little lightheaded and woozy!
-Breckenridge: we wanted a little touch of Ohio so we ventured out to Summit County! Our final weekend was spent 2 1/2 hours away in Breckenridge. We rented a condo for the weekend and enjoyed a little extra space and downtime, watching football, eating delicious donuts, reading aloud, and walks into town. We arrived on Friday in 80* weather and woke up to snow capped mountains on Sunday! After the snowfall, we drove the spectacular Boreas Pass which follows the Continental Divide at the crest of the Front Range. Between the snow, the mountain views and the fall foliage, we just kept stopping to take one more photo!
We fell in love with Colorado Springs and were sad to leave, but we are excited to continue on in our journey!
Amazing. Words are so easy for you, Karen. I appreciate the opportunity to follow you and your beautiful family. Hi to Kenneth and the boys.
I love seeing your family enjoy our amazing and beautiful country. There is a family gene channeling through you – as Grandpa Ochsner would have loved nothing better than to have been able to live the life you are living. Looks like that leap of faith is paying off. Love, Tine P.S. Tate is precious
Thank you Tine! 😀