Colorado Springs-Part III

On the second day we headed out of Colorado Springs to Royal Gorge.  The price of admission included unlimited rides across the gorge in a gondola.

The views were amazing!

The three pictures above were taken from the gondola.  It seemed too beautiful to be real.  I often found myself thinking, "How did God come up with this?  It is just so overwhelmingly beautiful!"

The girls and I crossed the bridge without Michael.  He lost his glasses and decided to retrace his steps, so rode the gondola back to the other side. The girls and I kept on going.  In my opinion he missed out big time.

Again, AMAZING!

Here are our favorites from the trip. Kate's favorite part was purchasing an overpriced rock from the Royal Gorge gift shop.  Liz's favorite was swimming in the hotel pool.  Michael's favorite part was not shaving for four days!  I think he was channelIing his inner mountain man.  

I have so many favorites.  Maybe it was the 16 times Liz asked if we were there yet before we were even on I-80.  Or, when Kate had a meltdown because we bought Liz a pair of flip flops and not her.  (I'm still hearing about that).  I really, really liked that the hotel room actually was two rooms and each had its own TV!  This meant Michael and I slept separately from the girls and when they got up in the morning, they could just watch TV.  Yes, staying at Embassy Suites was definitely a game changer.  If we travel again, there must be two rooms separated by a door and each must have its own TV!!  Anyway, I digress... I really enjoyed Garden of the Gods and could have spent the whole day hiking different paths.  I also enjoyed the frigid temperature of the pool at the hotel.  Royal Gorge was stunning and I was pleasantly surprised by how unaware the girls were of being 1,000 feet in the air with just a cable bridge under our feet.  This just goes to show that the lure of soft serve ice cream and the gift shop was all consuming.  I also thought Michael did a great job of navigating (see yesterday's post about Mount Baldy.  Also, did I mention that Michael likes to look at the phone GPS while driving on the interstate?  It is one of his best travel qualities.  And, he often stops in the middle of roads, to be sure we are headed in the right direction.  Oh don't worry, he puts on his flashers.) Pike's Peak was amazing as well.  Even though the altitude made it hard to breathe and our ears were popping, I'd do it again and hope to make it all the way to the top.  And, did I mention Kate was car sick on the ride home. I guess, what all this rambling is saying, is that I LOVED it all!  Travelling is hard.  Travelling with Michael is even harder.  Travelling with Michael and Kate and Liz is the hardest.  BUT, it was worth it.  Thank you Michael for planning this trip!