COLORADO WITH THE NEWMAN'S – DAY 5

   

We finished off our trip by going to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, where (in my humble opinion) can be found some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States.  Trail Ridge Road is a beautiful drive that takes you up to over 11,000 feet and offers simply spectacular views in every direction.  It’s a fantastic ride!  Estes Park is the home to the Stanley Hotel, which was built in 1906 by F.O. Stanley (the inventor of the Stanley Steamer) and is also where The Shinning with Jack Nicholson was filmed.  The hotel is still open for business today and is beautiful.  As seen in the last picture, I think by this time of the week George was ready to just sit and take a rest.  It had been a very busy week for us all.

COLORADO WITH THE NEWMAN’S – DAY 4

Today we drove north to Cheyenne, Wyoming for Cheyenne Frontier Days.  If you haven’t heard of this event before, it’s the largest outdoor rodeo in the United States.  It takes place the last 10 days of July every year and is extremely well attended.  With Cheyenne being only 100 miles north of Denver it’s easy for people from all over Colorado to attend.  In the afternoon we went to the rodeo.  It was great and kept your interest through all four hours of events.  After the rodeo we had time for a break for dinner before the evening concert by Sugarland (a great country duo that is very popular).  It was a great day all around.

COLORADO WITH THE NEWMAN’S – DAY 3

This was the one and only day we had in our schedule to drive to the top of Pike’s Peak and we were extremely lucky to have a perfectly clear morning to make the drive.  Once we had been to the top and we were on our way down, we could see that the clouds had covered the summit and it would stay that way for the balance of the day.  The drive to the top is a mixture of relatively flat forest roads to very winding switch backs that are above timber line and give breathtaking views.  It’s a beautiful trip for anyone but especially for flatlanders from back east.

George & Pauline wanted to see the ski areas of Colorado so when we came down off of Pike’s Peak we decided to drive to Breckenridge (the closest major ski area to Colorado Springs).  It’s a long drive and some of it, going through South Park, is relatively boring because it’s so flat.  Of course, once you get into the mountains around Breckenridge, the views are once again fantastic.  We took the drive in a circle and had a wonderful dinner in Georgetown on the way back down the mountain into Denver.

COLORADO WITH THE NEWMAN’S – DAY 2

   

Our second day started with a drive to Colorado Springs and a visit to the United States Air Force Academy.  The Academy has a beautiful setting against the mountains on it’s own huge property.  One of the features is the chapel and it’s fantastic organ.  The chapel is open to all religions and currently has four chapels within it’s walls (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish & Buddhism).  The students had just returned to the school and were getting ready for lunch, which is fed to all students at the same time in one large hall.  It is a great privilege for students to attend any one of our military academies.

  

Next we took a tour of the U. S. Olympic Training Center.  It’s wonderful that our Olympic athletes have such a tremendous place to train and that the costs are absorbed by so many great sponsors.  After the Training Center we went to the Broadmoor Hotel.  This is a famous old hotel that is simply beautiful to walk around. They have two beautiful golf courses and next year will be the venue for the LPGA Open.  I have been there when the LPGA played here before and the location and course makes for a terrific tournament.

    

A trip to Colorado Springs wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Garden Of The Gods.  This is a city park but it is very special because of all of the red rock outcrops that are there.  It’s a short drive through extremely beautiful landscape.  Many come here to climb the sheer rocks of the park.  I think they are crazy!

Always a great end to a day of tourism in Colorado Springs is a trip to the Flying W Ranch with it’s old time town of shops, dancing indians, chuck wagon dinner and singing cowboy show.  The Flying W has been a staple in Colorado Springs for over 50 years.  It’s not something that you would want to do frequently but it’s also something that no tourist should miss.  It’s just a great evening full of food and entertainment and, maybe best of all, it’s not expensive.

COLORADO WITH THE NEWMAN’S – DAY 1

 

Our friends from Pelican Pointe in Florida, George & Pauline Newman, flew into Denver to spend a week with us.  They had never been to Colorado and we had told them we could show it to them.  We started the week out with a tour of Coors  Brewing Company in Golden.  This is always a great tour because it’s interesting, you get free beer and it’s free.  A great combination!

Then we went to downtown Denver and started with a tour of the Molly Brown home.  Did you know that Molly Brown was never actually called “Molly”?  Her real name was Margaret.  Molly was made up for the movie, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and they’ve continued to use it.  After all, who would want to visit the Margaret Brown house?  Downtown also includes Coors Field, home of the Rockies and the big blue bear (don’t know the meaning of it).  Of course, Denver is also the capitol of Colorado and has a beautiful capitol building.

 

A trip to Denver wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Red Rocks Park on the western outskirts of town and it’s famous Red Rocks Amphitheater.  The views are fantastic and the park is also beautiful.  It’s just a very neat spot.  We ended the day with dinner at Casa Bonita.  This is a Mexican themed restaurant that features caves and cliff divers.  It turned out to be (I think) our only mistake on the whole trip because it is more geared to kids than adults, the food was horrible and our table was claustrophobic.  George & Pauline forgave us and we moved on.