Colorado 2012 part 1

As kids, Sean and I were both summer Colorado vacationers. There are the winter folk and the summer folk and both of our parents were always summer people. We would haul an RV out and camp at several locations and hike, fish or just go explore towns. It was fun and I have fond memories of it. Now that we have kids we wanted to introduce them to the mountains. It's no coincidence that my parents are nearly finished building a cottage in the mountains. It was time to head out there and see this house and show the kids the magic of the mountains.

For about a month now we've been telling the kids where we were heading. Every night we would tuck them in and say "one more week and we get to go see the mountains!". This would excite them even though I don't think they had any idea what the mountains were. So we headed out last Saturday in our rental car. The compressor in my car couldn't be fixed in a timely manner so we rented a Ford Edge. In fact, I called around until someone could guarantee that an Edge would be waiting for us Saturday morning. I've been drooling over those cars for several years now and thought this would be an excellent way to take an extended test drive of one. I'm not giving it back. It's so cute and fun to drive. If I'm lucky perhaps one might be in my future some day.

Anyways, we got to Canon City, Colorado the first night and got a hotel room. The next morning my parents met us there for a train ride through the Royal Gorge. I, for some reason, had no idea that the Royal Gorge was in Canon City (pronounced canyon city). Who knew. So we boarded the train, found our seats and set off for a two hour scenic route through the bottom of the Royal Gorge. The kids had a great time, really soaked up the experience. If you know my father, you'll find it odd that this is the first time my kids have been on a train. They had an open top car that let you go out and enjoy the beauty of the ride. It was truly spectacular and I would highly recommend it if you happen to be on Highway 50 going through Colorado.

 After that we headed out towards the cottage and happened to call up our friends Dru and Charity who were also out in Colorado. They were literally two miles off the road so we headed up to see them and their folks, Sarah and Doyle, who also just built a cabin. We got the tour of their beautiful new place and let the kids run around and be kids (which was really nice after being cooped up in the car for 10 hours). It was a much needed break and it was so nice seeing everyone even if it was for only a couple of hours.

I'll break this vacation into three posts due to the huge amount of pictures I'd like to share. So tomorrow will be part 2. Thanks for looking!