Tag: cheyenne mountain zoo

A Weekend in Colorado Springs

So remember that Colorado Springs trip I said was coming up? I’m just wrapping it up right now! The Springs is such a fun town in my opinion and if you’re ever looking for a true Colorado gem, please visit!!

My sister, dad, and I drove down on Friday morning, meeting my aunt and uncle for lunch at The Golden Bee. The Golden Bee is probably one of my favorite restaurants of all time. It’s a gastropub restaurant located near the Broadmoor (which is one of my favorite areas in Colorado Springs) and it has a bee theme to it, in a way. We usually sit inside on the first floor but this time around, I got to sit up top outside. It was incredibly pleasant up there and it rained (we were under a nice large cover though, so we were all good there) which I enjoyed. This time around, I ordered their shepherd’s pie which is gluten-free, by the way, and just asked that no cheese be put on it. It was very tasty. 😊 Good service, good food, and good company!

We then had planned to do Seven Falls because we haven’t done it yet but the weather wasn’t all that good so that didn’t happen. Instead, we checked in at our hotel, visited the National ProRodeo Museum/Hall of Fame, grabbed dinner, and then visited Helen Hunt Falls at North Cheyenne Cañon Park. The ProRodeo Museum was a cool little spot and it was interesting to learn a bit about a world I know very little about. Helen Hunt Falls was a lovely little spot in a pretty area of the mountains. The falls were small and there wasn’t a lot of water, but it was good to be outside and get a little hike in.

Saturday was Cheyenne Mountain Zoo day. I looooove the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. There’s a lot of walking at the zoo and it can be a pretty long day, but it’s so fun. We got there right at opening (9 am) were there til about 1 pm. I highly highly recommend ordering your tickets in advance because I actually think that’s the only way you can get into the zoo there now. So to save yourself any trouble, just get online and get those tickets. At the zoo, some of my favorites were the giraffes (DUH), elephants, mountain lions, and the wallabies. If you’re looking for some animal interaction, you can feed the giraffes ($3 for one thing of lettuce, and $5 for two things of lettuce), and I know that the zoo does a bunch of other different animal encounter things! The giraffes are my favorite though. They’re such interesting, cute animals!! We also rode the carousel and did the Sky Train (I think that’s what it’s called), which is basically just a ski lift up and around and then back down. You get a pretty good view of the zoo and Colorado Springs while you’re up there!

After the zoo, we visited the Will Rogers’ Shrine to the Sun which you can only get access to by having Cheyenne Mountain Zoo tickets. Again, there were some pretty great views from up there! The shrine itself was a beautiful building too. If you’re planning to see the shrine, make sure you check out Cheyenne Mountain Zoo first, and then also know that the last cars can go up at 3 pm MST. You can stay up there as long as you’d like, but they just don’t send cars up after 3.

So after our zoo and shrine adventures, we visited Panino’s for lunch where I got a delicious chicken and pesto panino and an Arnold Palmer. There are gluten and dairy-free options here and the food was good again! Our service was really good here too, so I highly recommend this spot in the Springs as well. 😊 Later that evening, we stopped at a fun, different spot for ice cream called Frozen Gold and I really enjoyed it!! They have a couple of really good looking non-dairy options, and I really enjoyed their Nutty Redhead coconut milk ice cream!

And today, we spent a wonderful half-day exploring Pikes Peak! We took a cog train up and down Pikes Peak and spent some time up top. More great views here for sure! And if you’re looking to see Pikes Peak’s summit, there’s also some great high altitude donuts at the visitor center. While I didn’t try them, my sister and dad thought the cinnamon sugar donuts were excellent, so I’ll take their word for it! A tip with the donuts- if you’re visiting the visitor center when coming off the cog train, don’t hop in line for donuts right away. The line will be pretty long and you don’t want to spend all your time in line! So take some time to look around, see the sights, and then when you have about ten minutes left of your forty minutes at the top of Pikes Peak, go get some donuts! My sister found that there was no line when we did it that way.

Our Pikes Peak trip was followed by a late lunch at Black Bear Diner. There are two locations in Colorado Springs, that I’m aware of at least, and from what I’ve seen, both have pretty decent reviews! We visited the location closer to Garden of the Gods. The food here was pretty good. I ordered orange juice (which they hand-squeeze and make!) and their Shasta veggie scramble. I just wish that our service was a bit better and that my request for no cheese was actually honored. It’s not that hard to scrap off melted shredded cheese though so that’s not too big of a deal. Overall though, I would recommend a visit to Black Bear Diner. They have great orange juice and the atmosphere of the place is so cute!

The rest of our day yesterday was pretty low-key. We did visit the World War II Aviation Museum which was fun to see though. While I know absolutely nothing about planes, let alone aircrafts from WWII, this was a very educational museum. It was really cool to see the restoration processes with each of the airplanes too. Most, if not all, of the planes were recovered and put into working and flying condition! After our trip to the museum, we had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and stopped for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robins has a really tasty non-dairy mint chocolate chip ice cream, by the way, if non-dairy ice cream is something you’re looking for.

And that has been the trip! Sometimes I think it’s pretty fun to be a tourist in your own state. I love Colorado and it’s little trips like this that make me even more grateful to call this wonderful state my home. Colorado Springs is a lot of fun and I think that it’s a great spot to visit if you’re looking to come to Colorado.

Unfortunately, I’m still having issues posting pictures to my posts, but if you wanna check out a couple of pictures from this weekend, feel free to check out my Instagram anahorvathh. Hopefully I can get the picture issue fixed soon… I miss sharing photos here!! Well, I hope you have a wonderful week and I’ll see you all next weekend! ❤️

Update as of 8/14/22: Pictures are now posted! The issue with me posting them has been resolved. 😊

July 24, 2022
Colorado Springs Trip!

We had family in town this past week and for one last little getaway, we decided to spend a couple of days in Colorado Springs. I can’t recall ever truly vacationing in my home state, but from this experience, I found that it is so much fun. And more importantly, I got to spend time with family that I haven’t seen in over a year which was so special.

We met for dinner in Colorado Springs on Monday night. The entire trip was a celebration of my aunt and dad’s birthday. No, they are not twins, but they do have the same birthday, just three years apart. So on Monday night, we celebrated my dad’s birthday with a barbecue dinner since he couldn’t be with us on his actual birthday. A bunch of meetings and conference calls were on his birthday agenda. We also went swimming that night which was a lot of fun. I haven’t been swimming in the longest time and it was really fun to goof off for a few hours.

Tuesday, the 10th, we drove up to the Cave of the Winds. I had never been in a cave prior to this experience so I was a bit nervous about feeling claustrophobic or trapped but those feelings never came to me which was great. While I have heard that this cave system is nothing compared to the Carlsbad Caverns, I feel like it was a great introduction to what our world looks like underground and it’s pretty cool! Some of my favorite formations that we got to see were this one called E.T. and another referred to as Romeo and Juliet. I also learned that you can better remember the difference between stalactite and stalagmite by knowing that stalactites hang on TIGHT to the ceiling and you better watch your feet otherwise you stalagMIGHT stub your toe. 🙂

After Cave of the Winds, we went to the Broadmoor to walk around and eat at one of my favorite restaurants in the area, The Golden Bee. It has this really cute English pub vibe to it and the entire restaurant is bee-themed. Like even the wallpaper in the bathroom has little bees on it. My favorite part though, is getting a little bee sticker thrown at you when you first sit down at your table. This was my aunt’s choice for her birthday meal and it was so special to get to share that with her at such a fun restaurant. I had a very yummy pulled pork sandwich for lunch that day. 10/10 recommend!!

To round out August 10th, we then went to the Olympic and Paralympic Museum which I believe opened fairly recently. While the museum was incredibly cool and inspiring, it is much more interactive than I would have liked. There were a lot of kids everywhere and it was just a bit busy for my liking. I really did enjoy getting to see the Olympic torches and medals though. Very cool.

On August 11th, the next day, my dad was able to join us again and we spent the morning at Garden of the Gods. Boo, my dog, got to be there as well, and we all had a lot of fun. I think Garden of the Gods is such a breathtaking and incredible feat of nature. Also, the last time my family and I visited Garden of the Gods, I was in a cast, so this time DEFINITELY beats the last time we were there.

After our time at the Garden, we drove to Old Colorado City, which is a cute, older, little touristy town that is technically considered a part of Colorado Springs but it used to be its own town that served as a supply stop for miners headed to find gold. Around lunch time, we stopped at the Colorado Mountain Brewery where I had the most colorful and yummy salad I’ve had in a while! The service was great in addition to the food too, so if you’re looking for good food in that area, check it out.

Fully energized, we then visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo which is AN AMAZING ZOO OH MY GOODNESS. Right off the bat, you come to find that the animals are so so so close to you and that there’s a lot you can do to interact with them. You can feed the giraffes lettuce (which I totally paid $3 for!!), you can feed the elephants apples and celery (I think?), and much more. To be able to interact with animals like that is so special and I feel like it increases awareness about caring for our planet so we can keep amazing animals like those around for a long, long time. While feeding the giraffes was probably my favorite thing that we did, I also really enjoyed getting to see the zoo’s baby hippo. What. A. Cutie!

The next day, we brought my aunt and uncle back to my hometown and we spent that day driving for the most part but then just relaxing once we got home. Boo and Bobo were sure glad to have us back.

Friday, we visited the Denver Botanic Gardens. I have been in the past, and while I did enjoy it then, this time was even better because things were actually blooming and very much so alive. It was great to get to walk around and see all the pretty flowers and plants. My sister and I also managed to find this bamboo forest area we hadn’t seen before so that was fun to find! To end a pretty good day out, we grabbed Crumbl Cookies and celebrated my aunt and dad together. Family is so important to me and to be able to share moments like those that we did mean the world to me.

We said goodbye to my aunt and uncle yesterday morning and since then, life has been pretty quiet and chill again. It was so good to spend so much good time with my aunt and uncle again and I look forward to our next get-together. There will be lots of game nights and dance offs and stories and giggles, just like always. 🙂 Colorado Springs, thanks for a good time! Have a good week everyone!

August 15, 2021
Top Ten Things to Do in Colorado
I absolutely love my home state of Colorado and I think that if you’ve never been to the Centennial State, you should make an effort to stop by sometime. Living here my entire life, I would say that I’m comfortable giving suggestions on what you should come do.

10. The Cherry Creek Mall. The Cherry Creek area of Denver is definitely a more upscale area and it’s always fun to wander around the Cherry Creek Mall. They’ve got a variety of great stores to shop at and some really great food places at the mall and around it. If you get a chance to, you should definitely stop at the Cherry Cricket. They’ve got great burgers and it’s an iconic restaurant in the area.

9. Butterfly Pavilion. If you enjoy seeing bugs and being around them, this is a great place to visit. The Butterfly Pavilion has a large variety of creepy crawlies and cool little bugs for all to see. You can even pet and hold Rosie the Tarantula if you want to. I think the coolest part of the Butterfly Pavilion is the big pavilion where all of the butterflies are actually held. You get to walk into this giant room and you’re surrounded by butterflies. Just be careful not to step on one! They’re literally everywhere.

8. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. I’m going to be honest here and let you know that I have yet to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but I’ve had enough friends go to tell me that it’s a great zoo. I’ve heard the exhibits are great and you even get to feed giraffes if you want! That would be a lot of fun.

7.Red Rocks. Red Rocks is another beautiful place to visit in Colorado. Concerts are held at Red Rocks frequently and in the mornings they even have work-out sessions and yoga sessions if you’re interested. Sometimes, I’m pretty sure they even have movie nights at Red Rocks. Red Rocks is one of the most stunning venues in Colorado and I highly recommend seeing a concert of some sort here.

6. Mesa Verde. I haven’t been to Mesa Verde in a long time but the last time I went, my family and I had a blast. Mesa Verde is a national park and it was the former home of the Anasazi Indians. They built beautiful structures and homes into the rock and what’s left of them is absolutely amazing. Mesa Verde is a place that does require a lot of hiking and even climbing so I would recommend bringing your good walking shoes here. The views are breathtaking and I think you’ll be impressed with all that Mesa Verde has to offer.

5. Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. As a child, I spent hours on end at both of these places and with them being right next to each other, I felt like they had to be a package deal. The zoo is AWESOME. Not too long ago, they added an Asian tropics complex which is now home to the elephants and several other animals. In the past few months, they also added a sweet new tiger exhibit. Our zoo has a lot to see and exploring the zoo is a fun way to spend the day. The Museum of Nature and Science is also a lot of fun with a variety of exhibits ranging from dinosaur bones to a bunch of animal exhibits to a fun health and discovery zone and much more. Every so often we have special exhibits which travel around the nation and those are a lot of fun to go through. In the past we’ve had special exhibits on the Mongols and Genghis Khan, the Mayans, pirates, and most recently Vikings.

4. The Denver Botanic Gardens. There’s a lot of pretty places in Colorado and I would say this is one of the prettiest. The botanic gardens are home to a HUGE variety of plants and exhibits. The gardens are all gorgeous and this is a fun place to relax and take a scenic walk. I think the rainforest dome and building is the coolest, partially because some of the plants are so big plus there’s a cool tree house to scope out the area.

3. The Denver Center for Performing Arts. The Center for Performing Arts hosts a variety of shows from big shows off of Broadway to symphonies to operas and also ballets. The complex is beautiful and the theaters themselves are pretty as well. Definitely see a show if you come to Denver.

2. Boulder, the Flatirons, and the Pearl Street Mall. Ok, Boulder can get a little weird, I’m gonna warn you. For the most part, Boulder is pretty great though. I would recommend spending time walking around the Pearl Street Mall which has a good variety of shops and places to grab some food or a sweet dessert, like the Cheesecake Factory. Boulder is a beautiful city in that our mountains are literally right by Boulder and the view is absolutely gorgeous. If you have time while in Boulder, you should try and squeeze in a hike to Chautauqua Park which is absolutely beautiful.
1. Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is the most amazing park in the state of Colorado, well at least in my opinion. The landscape is beautiful and the rocks themselves are magnificent and gorgeous. I would recommend walking throughout the park and if you do this, make sure to bring lots of water, good walking shoes, and a jacket, just in case the weather takes a turn. Also, bring your camera or phone to take plenty of pictures, because you’ll definitely want to take pictures.
Truly, this is just the tip of the iceberg in all that you can do if you visit Colorado. If you’re interested, you could also visit the Capitol building, Mile High Stadium, Coors Field, and really the list goes on. There’s so much to do in Colorado and I hope you come to see the beautiful Centennial State! 🙂
July 2, 2017