We just went to Colorado Springs/Denver for a week. Had a great time. Helping to keep up on wi-fi security on the trip was Freedome…a VPN with a 2-week free trial…cause you don’t wanna connect directly to open wi-fi.
Colorado Springs
May Bug Museum – a great little bug museum with all kinds of specimens I’ve never seen
cog railway up to Pike’s Peak – rode a train all the way up to the top and found marmots, ice, and freezing winds…28 degrees in August
Cave of the Winds (warning: auto-playing video) – nice cave to tour through. Paved and great for kids. They have a terrifying ride where you can pay to swing out over a cliff…which we didn’t do for some reason.
Garden of the gods – Giant jutting rock formations…conveniently placed right in Colorado Springs
Fargo’s – great Victorian-style pizza place with balcony, employees in old clothes, self-playing piano, balcony…all packed tightly with lots of people
Rocket Fizz (chain) – A neat soda/candy store with all the independent sodas and candies you can think of. The clerk recommended the bug barf soda. I chose something else.
Garbanzo (chain) – Mediterranean food…can’t go wrong!
Rosemount Museum – Late 1800s mansion in Pueblo built by a family that owned a bunch of banks. Also, the locals pronounce their town as “Pieblo”….what?
Miramont Castle – A mansion built into the side of the mountain in Manitou Springs…a 42-room mansion built for a Catholic priest and his mom. (Life is hard?) Manitou Springs is already a tiny cramped tourist town to begin with, but we accidentally ended up in the middle of the Pikes Peak Marathon where super-runners go up and down the mountain)
Denver
102.3 Open Air – Colorado’s version of BBC 6 Music
Axum Ethiopian Restaurant – We got a bunch o’ stuff and enjoyed it.
Denver Aquarium – A nice aquarium with divers, touchable exhibits, a flash flood, etc.
Elitch Gardens – big amusement park…fun for kids and all
The Wizard’s Chest – Great geek store with board games, figurines, toys, and costumes. It was like being inside Amazon.
Micro Center – Basically the equivalent of Fry’s Also like being inside Amazon
Old Chicago Pizza (chain) – Big thick Chicago-style pizza. Tasty and all!
Museum of Nature and Science – A museum so big that we unfortunately didn’t even have time to see it all. We saw the new mythical creatures exhibit. I can picture the pride-swallowing that had to happen to have exhibits of made-up creatures just to get peoples’ attention. It was fun for kids anyway. We also saw an entire exhibit on poison. That was different.
Ikea – Vanessa finally got to visit an Ikea. I recently got The Stanley Parable…a PC game…I think it might actually be an Ikea simulator…endless rooms in various configurations. The kids were getting kinda bored, but did enjoy the Swedish desserts in the cafeteria at the end.
Casa Bonita – Can’t go to Denver without going to the famous Mexican restaurant with cliff divers. The food is bad so we just got nachos…but hey…cliff divers in a restaurant.