I know you’re sitting there looking for something fun to do. I also know that you’re wanting to get in the Christmas spirit. And oh my goodness, look at you sitting there looking at your screen somewhere in Colorado. Wow. I have a recommendation for you!! Check out Ice at the Gaylord!
This is the second time my family has gone to see Ice at the Gaylord and we had a great time again! The first time my family visited the Gaylord, the theme was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. All of the ice sculptures revolved around the story of Rudolph. Within the Gaylord’s Christmas village, they had a dedicated area that was kept at 9 degrees (if not colder) where we were immersed in the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Super cute. And we had to wear these fun blue parkas while we went through the exhibit so we stayed nice and warm.
This year, Charlie Brown was the theme! So we got to see Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the gang. Some of the most iconic scenes of the Charlie Brown Christmas movie were displayed in ice. There was an ice slide in what would be Charlie Brown’s school auditorium. You could crawl through Snoopy’s dog house and take pictures. We really enjoyed it.
In the past when we visited the Gaylord, we stopped at one of their restaurants for dinner. The food was good even though there was a pretty long wait. This year, we decided to skip out on the food, but we enjoyed walking around the property and seeing all of their Christmas decorations. They have this giant Christmas tree in a beautiful open area that overlooks the mountains. They also have a really cozy, huge fireplace with giant stockings sitting over top of it. I love it honestly.
So if you’re looking for something fun to do, check out the Gaylord Resort and all it’s fun Christmas stuff. They have tubing, ice skating, a Cirque de Soleil show, and of course, the Ice exhibit thing with Charlie Brown that I talked about! We’ve had a good time and I think you’ll enjoy it all too. We actually went just after Thanksgiving so they’ve been running for a while and I think they keep Ice open through New Year’s Day at least!
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. 😊
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!
This past week, my aunt and uncle visited from New Mexico and it was wonderful to see and spend time with someone other than my dad, mom, and sister for a change. While they were here, we spent some time in Idaho Springs and Georgetown and also at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. I go, you go, we all go to Argo! Let me share. 🙂
My aunt and uncle drove in Monday afternoon and that evening was a pretty chill one. We hung around the house and caught up with one another. After all, the last time we saw each other was around Thanksgiving! We usually see each other over Christmas break and sometimes spring break, but things were different this past year, and so those visits didn’t happen. Fortunately, we were able to make this work, with all of the craziness in the world, especially with this virus.
Tuesday morning, we drove up to the small town of Georgetown to catch the Georgetown Railroad Loop train ride. We were required to wear masks at the park, which was an experience in itself, but it felt wonderful to be with family and to be outside! We were the first on the train and it was fun to pick where we sat before anyone else got that chance. We chose to sit in an open top car, which was ultimately a great choice because we got to experience a little bit of a breeze and the sun which was nice. I didn’t realize how much I missed the beauty of the mountains until this train ride. Colorado is a beautiful state and I feel so lucky to call such a gorgeous state my home. Following the train ride, which was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, we stopped for lunch near a lake where some fishermen were hard at work. It was a pretty spot and the chicken croissant sandwiches were a perfect lunch that day. Side-note: If you’re ever looking for something yummy to try, I HIGHLY recommend the chicken salad and croissants from Costco. That’s a pretty good meal if you ask me.
Following lunch, we drove about twenty minutes back to Idaho Springs for a tour at the Argo Mill and Tunnel. This was a place that reallllly taught me not to judge a book by its cover. Driving in, I’m not going to lie, I thought the tour was going to be horribly boring and lame. It was actually quite the opposite. The Argo Mill was the only mill in the United States around the time of the gold rush to pump out any gold products with 95% efficiency, which is a REALLY high number, especially for its time. The Argo Mill was able to produce so much gold because they used a combination of mercury and cyanide to pump out A LOT of gold. The mill’s interior was built from the wood of EIGHT redwood trees and still stands today. Most if not all of the mill is maintained to this day and it was incredible to see how permanent, strong, and truly powerful the mill was. I can only imagine what it looked like in its glory days. While there, we had a wonderful tour guide, named Brooks, so if you ever get a chance to check out the Argo Mill and Tunnel, I recommend it and if you can get Brooks, he’s a super knowledgeable guy, both on mining and on the Argo itself!
There were two stories I really enjoyed from our time at the Argo. The first was about a teacher. At a time when the mill worked consistently, women were not allowed to work there let alone travel in the mine. There was a young woman who could not get to teach at her school without traveling through the Argo Tunnel, so she took a mine cart to then get to a platform that would take her to her classes. There was one day where her skirt got caught on a part of the wooden platform as she was headed up from the tunnel and to escape doom, she twirled out of her skirt, exposing the wire hoop under. Luckily, someone was able to lend her another dress and she got to class. Now, THAT was dedication. The second story was about a water burst at the mill. There are a series of pockets or wells near or under or around the Argo Tunnel and while working in the tunnel, it was assumed that there was twenty feet of dirt and rock between the tunnel and wells, when it was actually only ten. There was a bunch of water in the wells and the pressure was so great that it burst through the layer of rock at an insane velocity. Four men working in that area were killed. Three miles down the tunnel, near the entrance, another man was working and heard the sound of the water coming. Fortunately, this man made it out, but the water had caught up to him by the time he made it to the mouth of the tunnel. I’m horrible, haha, I don’t remember any names! The water shot out of the tunnel at such a velocity that it crossed the valley and sprayed across the valley at the same velocity and with the same insane amount of force for six days. It was apparently, A LOT OF WATER. A really, really, really, strong and supported concrete wall now holds back all of that water.
Stories like these and more are some of the things you will hear about and learn about if you take a trip up to the Argo Mill and Tunnel. While the mill may really not be the most exciting thing in the world, it was certainly interesting and a good change of pace from what I usually like to learn more about.
The next day of my aunt and uncle’s visit we went up to Rocky Mountain Arsenal and walked around Lake Mary and Lake Ladora. It was pretty, but very dry. It was also hot because we made the foolish mistake of heading out around 10 am, when the sun was already really starting to beat down. Thank goodness for water bottles though, am I right? While the views were great, and the company was even better, let’s just say that I was really happy to get out of the heat. When we got home and when my mom got home from work, we had a really good dinner and then played Just Dance together on our Nintendo Switch. It was a lot of fun.
My aunt and uncle had to head out on Thursday morning which was sad, but it had still been great that they got to come. And if you guys are reading this, we look forward to having you again and I’m so glad we got to spend a couple of days with you!!
If you get a chance to and you’re in Colorado, check out the Georgetown Loop Railroad, Argo Mill and Tunnel, or Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Or all three! Do what you please. 🙂 Have a good week and I’ll see you next Sunday!
