Tag Archives: Manitou

Colorado – Day 3

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On day three of our trip we ventured onto the Air Force Academy and went EVERYWHERE. That’s not even an understatement either, we literally went to every part of the base. Hannah’s dad was an Air Force pilot so she has a military ID which allowed us to get into anywhere we wanted to without being searched. It was kind of spooky, especially when we pulled up on a check point and a man with an automatic weapon stopped us. Not something I’ve ever experienced before, it was crazy. First we stopped at the gift shop (naturally) and then walked over to the chapel. We explored the Chapel and surrounding area, unfortunately the AFA was on Spring Break so we didn’t get to see anything cool.

The stained glass makes the interior of the chapel so magical and beautiful; and check out that organ – AMAZING!

After visiting the chapel we hoped back in the car and drove to the next location on the tour map. It was an awesome over look of the school, pardon my crazy hair, it was SO windy out! So windy in fact that we had trouble walking without getting blow around.

After the lookout we stopped by the football field. Hannah was timid to approach, unsure of whether or not we were allowed. I ventured confidently, deciding that if we do get in trouble we can just flash her id, tell them how her dad and my uncle both attended the academy, fake cry a little, and if none of that worked and we got arrested – hey! At least I would know what it would be like to get arrested on a military base, right? (My mom would not appreciate this…) Alas we did NOT get arrested and were even met by a father with his two daughters down on the field. He gladly took our picture and then Hannah attempted to do a cartwheel on the field.

Next we stopped by the sports center and were able to find Hannah’s, Dad’s hockey team picture, so cool. We wandered around there and then it was time to head out, we HAD been at the AFA for 4+ hours at this point.

By the time we finally left the Academy we were starving, as we had missed lunch in our excursion around the base. We wandered into downtown Manitou, a fabulous small town area, and ended up at PJs Bistro. Let me tell you the food was AMAZING. My favorite meal of the whole trip, hands down. It ended up being a polish restaurant and our waiter was excellent in recommending dishes for us. Hannah had the Hungarian goulash with potato pancakes and I had the Perogies. SO GOOD. I wish I could go back, just for this meal.

After eating we went shopping in the area and the headed back to our hotel, totally worn out again from our adventures.

Happy Traveling,
Jennifer

To view more pictures from our trip – go here. To read about our other adventures visit – Day 1 and Day 2.

Colorado – Day 2

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Since we hadn’t planned any of our days before arriving in Colorado it left us with the freedom to decide on a whim. We had pulled a bunch of flyers for things from the airport and our hotel. We decided to go to the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in the morning. We got super lost on our way there, no thanks to our Garmin and iPhones, but once we got there it was so worth it! We got to go 1,000 feet underground in one of those tiny miner cages. When I say tiny, I mean tiny, and there were six of us in there. Needless to say we got VERY close to our friends from Ohio. Our tour guide was so good and at the end of the tour each of us got a piece of rock with gold in it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going out there. Hannah and I both picked up some awesome jewelry from their giftshop as well.

They had the greatest hand painted typography around the grounds, below are my favorites.

On our way to the Gold Mine we passed this Swiss restaurant which had Hannah fit to be tied as she LOVES Swiss food. So of course on our way back we stopped there for lunch. I couldn’t help but laugh when they presented a whiteboard in front of us for their menu, haha. Hannah had the schnitzel and I had the salmon club sandwich, both meals were absolutely fantastic.

After lunch we decided to stop by the Cave of the Winds. We were hoping to get to go on the lantern tour, but it was sold out. The tour we went on was still very cool, had had the most fantastic views from the parking lot.

After Cave of the Winds we stopped by Garden of the Gods. This was one of the best parts of the trip for me, it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and we had so much fun climbing up the rocks.

There were so many fantastic photo opportunities, we just couldn’t stop taking them! This was a moment that we both wished we had a tripod with us, so we could have taken more pictures with the two of us. Instead we played a lot of “your turn, my turn, oh quick wait take one for me to instagram!”. We had an absolutely blast!

We found this little nook that decided to climb up into to take pictures, we quickly learned that it was much easier to climb up, than down. We had a good laugh about our efforts to climb down without falling.

Then we got a little braver and took pictures laying down on the side of the rocks, where on wrong turn and we would have tumbled all the way back down. It was so much fun, we never wanted to leave. In fact we stayed so long that by the time we got back to our hotel all the restaurants had closed (it was Sunday) and we had to resort to ordering Papa Johns, it was so worth it though.

This is my absolute favorite picture of Hannah from the entire trip, it captures her personality perfectly.

Happy Traveling,
Jennifer

To read about Day 1 – go here. To view more pictures of our trip – go here.