PRINCESS Palooza 2011! 9/9 Update: Departure Day

[mom2rtk]

OK, sorry to interrupt our regularly scheduled trip report..... but I edited some photos from our Colorado trip..........

We actually walked out the door that first morning without knowing where we were heading. SO un-Disneylike, don't you think? The forecast called for some rain, so we opted to jump in with both feet and head right for Pike's Peak.

I'm glad we went to the peak, but it honestly didn't wow me. After being to he top of Rocky Mountain National Park last year, it just didn't compare. And I wasn't a huge fan of the Cog Railway. It was interesting, but reminded me a bit of taking the Grand Canyon Railway 7 years ago. The views heading up (and down) are really not that grand (compared to other things we've seen) and you're just too rushed and worried about missing the return trip.

But alas, we were in our 7 year old mini-van and thought it best not to push it to that altitude. So the Railway it was.


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[mom2rtk]

After eating lunch we headed for what I was looking forward to..... those red rocks...... Garden of the Gods. We actually ended up making the drive through the park 3 times in 3 days, so I'll just post a variety of shots here now.

The rock formations and landscape were beautiful, and it was certainly easy to get to and drive through. But it was just too close to civilization for my taste. I had to be careful framing some of my shots to avoid getting houses in the background. I sure love to live there though.


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[mouselovenfamily]

Very Nice!!!!!

 

[vamassey1]

Just Beautiful! I've never been that far west or north so it all looks good to me.

 

[mom2rtk]

Very Nice!!!!!

Thanks Renee!

Just Beautiful! I've never been that far west or north so it all looks good to me.

Thanks Vanessa! It wasn't AS grand as the things we've seen in Utah and Arizona on prior trips, but it was still quite beautiful.

Of course, I might have appreciated the beauty a little more in long pants and a heavier jacket that day. It was 34 with a windchill of 23 at the top of Pikes Peak...... Still..... no complaints. I'll take too cold over too hot any day for summer vacation!

 

[Caretames1]

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Absolutely Stunning! Perfectly named.

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I immediately thought this looked very Kilimanjaro Safari looking!



Beautiful pictures, I think that area is just breathtaking. Have you ever been to the Red Rocks Amphitheater? My grandparents went to see the Passion Play there.

 

[mom2rtk]

Monday morning we headed for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It's built in to the side of the mountains.

Look up as you enter and you'll see the Will Rogers shrine:


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We started our visit with a ride on the skyway:


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The best exhibit in the zoo is the giraffe exhibit. It allows you to get up close and personal with them.


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Apparently this guy missed the lesson on modesty.......


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Timmy and Katie were really tickled at this guy in his Tweety Bird blankie!


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My favorite zoo shot wasn't even part of an exhibit. Just a willing poser......


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Our zoo here in KC has never been very good. They've tried through the years to upgrade it, but somehow always miss the mark. So I handn't been in a zoo (well, other than AK) in some time. It really did my heart good to see my 17 year old delighting in the otters diving and playing and even feeding the giraffes with a huge grin on his face.

 

[mom2rtk]

Absolutely Stunning! Perfectly named.



I immediately thought this looked very Kilimanjaro Safari looking!



Beautiful pictures, I think that area is just breathtaking. Have you ever been to the Red Rocks Amphitheater? My grandparents went to see the Passion Play there.

Thanks Carey!

We were told about the Red Rocks Amphitheater, and I really wanted to go, but we just ran out of time. I'm a sucker for anything with red rocks.

The kids are still making fun of me for going through the Garden of the Gods 3 times. In my defense, it's not THAT big.......

 

[mom2rtk]

If you're looking to stay in shape, then I highly recommend the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Hoofing it around there takes some stamina. But the exhibits are a great diversion between hikes.

We were done by 1 or 2 and head for 7 Falls. It sounded picturesque and like something I should see. Take my advice here and don't do 7 Falls after hiking through a zoo built into the side of a mountain.

It looks so charming and innocent........


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But really...... it's jsut a climbing nightmare! And really, it wasn't as pretty as I expected. But then, I'm all about red rocks. These weren't red at all. It's a 7 step waterfall, with stairs built into the side of a steep canyon. There is an overlook with elevator access, so that was all good. Here is the view from there. Look at those tiny people at the bottom....... and look very closely at the stairs that go up alongside the falls....... Timmy skipped the elevator and hoofed it to the first viewing platform.


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We decided to slowly give the stairs to the falls a try. I'm not an athlete by any means, bt I do some stair climbing at home and thought I could take it if I went slowly. Well, we made it to the first platform, about halfway up, and I thought I was going to die. So we sat down and waited while Timmy hoofed it on up to the top. There are hiking trails up there too he said he wanted to explore but didn't want us to wonder where he went. He probably could have done it again without being winded. For someone who hasn't worked out in a very long time, he certainly put us to shame. (I would have expected that a year ago when he was training for cross country. But tennis is nothing like XC in terms of training).


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Late in the afternoon, we took a tour of the Cave of the Winds. Now THAT is an exercise in low light photography!


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[vamassey1]

Very Impressive! I love visiting Zoos.

 

[mom2rtk]

Tuesday morning I was outvoted. I wanted to go to Royal Gorge, but Timmy and Katie wanted to go to the Denver Aquarium. I didn't care as long as I got my 3rd drive through Garden of the Gods, so off we went. We did Garden of the Gods first so I could photograph it in morning light. I wanted the other side of the rocks to be illuminated this time.

From there we drove toward Denver. We decided to stop for lunch at Cheeburger, Cheegurger for lunch in one of the suburbs. It's a small chain of hamburger places. We know if because it's one of our regular stops when we visit Sanibel Island in FL. Robbie at the 1 pound burger and was added to their Hall of Fame in 2009. Robbie weighs 120 dripping wet, so the overindulgence didn't hurt. We picked him up a Cheeburger Cheeburger mason jar glass as a souvenir.

Now on to the Aquarium..... This guy was adorable, diving and retrieving that rock on his nose, then diving for it again:


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As we were looking at one of the exhibits, this suddenly appeared....


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That seriosly caught me off guard. I'm glad I had the camera at the ready.......

This was a bubble built into one of the exhibits. The kids could crawl under and stick their head up into it for a different view:


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NEWS FLASH! WE FOUND NEMO!


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Toward the end of the exhibit, they offered a photo op with the mermaids I had seen in the tanks earlier. We didn't do it, but I was amused at how they got the girls to and from the photo op.......


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Before calling it a day, Timmy and Katie fed the stingrays:


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And that was pretty much it. We left Wednesday morning early and drove straight through. We wanted Timmy to have a couple days before leaving for Boys State on Saturday.

In highlight of the trip was me getting to wake up at 3:45 AM Monday morning to make my ADRs for the December trip. Seriously. 3:45. And that time of day I'm really BAD at going back to sleep. I did doze off a bit but then woke right back up at 6 AM when the sun shone straight into our east facing room. Oops. Someone forgot to close the curtains. That was the day we did all that walking at the zoo and at 7 Falls. But I guess that's a good thing since it kept me alert. I've been trying to give up caffeine, but downed a good bit of it that day

 

[mom2rtk]

Very Impressive! I love visiting Zoos.

Thanks Vanessa! Put me in a zoo with a camera, and I'm happy as a clam.

 

[mouselovenfamily]

Wow! I never realized alot of that was there! It looks awesome!!! Great photos!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Wow! I never realized alot of that was there! It looks awesome!!! Great photos!!!

Thanks again Renee!

It's hard living where we do where there's just not much within reasonable driving distance for a short trip. We sort of OD'd on St. Louis and Chicago when I was in school then in the years right after I graduated. It was familiar, so we went there a lot, but then got tired of it. It's been nice to discover some things within a day's drive in the other direction (even if it is a longer day's drive).

And who knew I'd get internet on my phone most of the way across western Kansas?

 

[Pesky]

Great shots! Sad you all didn't have more time to explore some more around here but glad you got to see some of the highlights. And was just reading through your trip report and am in awe of your sewing prowess! Almost makes me want to run and buy a sewing machine, pattern and yards of fabric. Until I remember I nearly flunked home ec due to my keen sewing capabilities.

 

[jenseib]

You got some amazing shots....I think it is gorgous there, but I have never been to an area like that to see anything better in person.

I love this picture of Katie.

She looks so amazed.

Did you use a flash at all in the caves or just a good lens? I want to go to some caverns a couple of hours away, but we just never seem to get there. We even drove by them last year on the way to the tractor pull and vowed to be back a month later...never happened.
One year I planned to go with a firend and her DD and Skip had a fit we would go without him (even though he was having major hip issues and wouldn't have been able to do it anyways...I guess life is to stop till he is fine)

Those squirrel pictures are just awesome. Did you use a telephoto to get that close?
There is no way i could've walked up there at 7 falls...and it looks so high and scary!

 

[vamassey1]

The caves remind me of the caves we saw in Texas over Easter.

wonderful pictures at the aquarium!

 

[mom2rtk]

Great shots! Sad you all didn't have more time to explore some more around here but glad you got to see some of the highlights. And was just reading through your trip report and am in awe of your sewing prowess! Almost makes me want to run and buy a sewing machine, pattern and yards of fabric. Until I remember I nearly flunked home ec due to my keen sewing capabilities.

Yeah, I wish we had more time too. We could have filled many more days. But this was just our version of a quick getaway.

You live in a really gorgeous part of the world. I'm very jealous.

Thanks for the kind words. If you ever want to learn, I highly recommend doing just what you said..... get a machine and a ton of fabric. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. I started in my parents' basement with a used Singer and a ton of my mom's scraps. I had the best dressed Barbies in town!

You got some amazing shots....I think it is gorgous there, but I have never been to an area like that to see anything better in person.

I love this picture of Katie.

She looks so amazed.

Did you use a flash at all in the caves or just a good lens? I want to go to some caverns a couple of hours away, but we just never seem to get there. We even drove by them last year on the way to the tractor pull and vowed to be back a month later...never happened.
One year I planned to go with a firend and her DD and Skip had a fit we would go without him (even though he was having major hip issues and wouldn't have been able to do it anyways...I guess life is to stop till he is fine)

Those squirrel pictures are just awesome. Did you use a telephoto to get that close?
There is no way i could've walked up there at 7 falls...and it looks so high and scary!

Thanks Jen! I love that photo of Katie and Timmy too, and I really loved the look on Katie's face. I considered crawling in there myself. You know.... until I came to my senses.

I didn't use flash in the cave. I really wanted to use my wide angle lens, but it's not really fast (3.5 on the wide end I think) and couldn't get the shutter speed fast enough, even at 3200 ISO. So I went to the big gun for low light..... the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. No problem at all with shutter speed on that one. Still, I wished I could go wider with it. I don't recall them saying anything about flash photography, but I'm guessing the other guests wouldn't have enjoyed a light show from me. But I also think a flash would have washed many of the interesting shadows.

It's funny, but when I looked at that squirrel photo, I thought...... man that's so sharp, and the color is so good...... that's why I love that Canon 17-55 f/2.8. Then I saw that I had shot it at 270 mm and immediately knew I'd been using my Tamron 18-270. It's a good lens for versatility, but not my go-to for image quality. I might have to dig that one out more often! He wasn't part of a display or anything, just hanging out on a branch along the path, proably hoping we had some fries to share or something.

I actually wish I had sat a while longer on that first landing on the falls and tried to make it up the second half. Isn't it amazing what a little time and distance will do to one's brain?

The caves remind me of the caves we saw in Texas over Easter.

wonderful pictures at the aquarium!

Thanks Vanessa! That was the first cave I've ever been in.

I probably enjoyed shooting the aquarium more than anything else on our trip. Maybe because it was good practice for dark rides at Disney!

 

[AprilRenee]

Have you ever checked out the living history museum at the entrance to Garden of the Gods? As a kid we camped in CO several times and the time we went to that living history museum was the coolest! We learned so much and I still remember a TON! Granted I'm a history nut so if you or your kids hate history it might not be all that entertaining...but it was AWESOME for anyone with the slightest interest. Even my younger brothers enjoyed it (they were probably 6, 9 and 12 at the time).

Something to try out on your next trip!

 

[WDWAtLast]

Catching up - 1900 Park Fare looks like you had a blast!!! And the Colorado pics are great!! My dad taught (and loved) geography - so we always drove a long way on our vacations to see the countryside, and Colorado was beautiful!! We saw Pike's Peak, Royal Gorge and Cripple Creek (long before they had gambling) But that was over 30 years ago My DH is not a fan of long drives - so when the girls are a bit older (still 11 and 8) I hope to do some "girl" road trips!!

Your photos are awesome! I am still (struggling) learning how to use my camera - I feel safe on auto for "people" shots - I need to go practice on some nonmoving scenery! LOL

I am excited to read about your next trip - my cousin just booked for an October trip to DL to include Cars Land (sp?) I am getting the fever,but with my oldest entering middle school, I am not sure when to book. Am thinking about Christmas break (before Christmas) but probably 2013.

Although we are in Houston, going in October last year spoiled me - I don't know if I can do the summer again And I would love to see the Christmas decorations!!! But I have threatened to go back and meet my cousin WITHOUT OUR FAMILIES in October!! I loved the Halloween Party, Fireworks, Villians show, fall theming and the Haunted Carriage ride was awesome!!