Around the beginning of the year, Elena asked me if I wanted to go to Colorado with her and Brigette (not my sister Bridget!) to visit our friend and Brigette’s cousin, Anna, who is a nun in Colorado. I said, If the plane tickets aren’t super expensive, sure. I roped Emma into going and missing Jesse’s birthday. We found reasonable plan tickets and we were set to go to Colorado the first weekend of May.

Since we were flying out of Cincinnati at 8 am Thursday morning, we stayed at the Marriott Hotel on Wednesday night and did their park and fly. I felt more comfortable leaving my car parked at the hotel than the airport for three days. When we got to our hotel room we couldn’t get the lock to turn on our door, so we called Maintenance. While we were waiting for them, we fiddled with the door and suddenly the lock was sticking out but the door was open. So. We were in worse shape than before. Maintenance showed up, looked at the door, hit the handle, reset everything, and started to walk out. In shock we all called out, “Wait, wait, come back, show us how you fixed it.” Amused, Maintenance explained that the lock on the door doesn’t do a darn thing, once we close the door the lock will automatically come out. He left and we laughed at our foolishness. I’m sure he went back to his buddies and told them the whole story. 

At 6:15 a.m. Thursday morning we took the shuttle to the airport, got through security without anyone getting pulled aside or anyone’s bags being checked. We got some Chick-fil-a for breakfast then boarded the plane for the three hour flight that would land us in Colorado at 9 a.m. The flight left on time without a hitch, and into Colorado we descended. The view of Colorado as we landed was of farm land and I was wondering, where are the mountains?? Denver is not in the mountains so honestly, kind of lame.

Let me tell you, the signage in the Denver airport sucks. I don’t usually have a problem navigating airports, but I felt lost in this one. It took us about an hour to get to our rental car, mainly because we didn’t follow the directions we were sent until we ended up in the wrong place. When we finally found our car and had just opened the door, someone trying to find a parking space popped their head out their window and asked, “Are you leaving?”

I hesitated for a second then said, “Yes.”

With this rando sitting in his car waiting for us to leave, we threw everything in the trunk and pulled out of the parking space then said, “We need to take pictures of the car.” We pulled to the side and Brigette took the required photos then we were finally on our way. 

If you’ve heard of the horse at the Denver airport, it’s outside, its not inside, and its not that impressive when you get right up next to it. 

Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs was our destination but having been up since 5 a.m. and it being about 11 a.m. our time, we were hungry. We picked Chipotle but they didn’t open for another 45 minutes so we found one about halfway to Colorado Springs to stop at. When we got to the Chipotle there was a Sprouts right across the parking lot and since that was something Brigette had wanted to check out, we said we would go there after we ate. As we got out of the car, Brigette made a comment that she had been expecting to not be able to breathe at all since the elevation is so high, but she could breathe just fine. Laughing, we went into Chipotle, got our bowls and watched some high schoolers get their lunch, maybe they were college students, and discussed the hairstyle of high school boys.

After lunch, to the Sprouts we went. I guess it was kind of like Whole Foods? Not really sure, but we got water. Back on the road to Colorado Springs and my first nap of the trip. 

Of course we hit up the visitor center of Garden of the Gods first. Bathroom, water, gift shop! We purchased our overpriced souvenirs, got the 10 cent bag, did not get the $80 sweatshirt, Emma scanned the QR code of the map with her phone and we got back in the car. The map, guys. The map. Worse than the crap maps. It was practically useless since it was the size of my thumbnail due to it being on the phone. After a wrong turn, we got pointed in the right directio, and headed towards the rocks that had to be Garden of the Gods. Follow the Rocks was our slogan for this portion of the trip. We got onto a road and pulled off for a trailhead that wasn’t even on the map, and started walking to explore the rocks. We all agreed it was over hyped. Everything we saw, everyone we talked to said Garden of the Gods was amazing. I was expecting rocks everywhere and dirt paths and a snake or two. The paths were nice, you could take a stroller on them if you wanted, and there weren’t actually that many rocks, but a lot of dead shrubbery. The rocks were cool and we did enjoy exploring them but after about an hour or so we were ready to leave. I think you can drive through the park a specific way and listen to something that explains everything, and that probably makes it more interesting, but as it was, we were left scratching our heads a little. If you’re in Colorado Springs go, but don’t expect to be blown away.

After that we went to a Colorado Springs Visitor Center because Brigette read you could get cups to drink the hot spring water. The Center was under renovation and Karen gave us copious amounts of brochures. I started checking out, not remembering why we were there but knowing Brigette had a reason. I saw a pamphlet for Old Colorado Springs museum and picked it up even though I knew we weren’t going. Then I saw a pamphlet for where you could do candle making and picked it up thinking, I’ll get this for Emma. At one point Karen left the room to get more pamphlets and another woman popped out of a door and asked where aldkfjasld was. None of us really heard what she said and offered, “She went to get more pamphlets.” 

She said, “No, a dog.” We all looked at each other wondering what was going on and said we hadn’t seen a dog. 

The woman disappeared and Karen came back.

Back in the car, we looked at the pamphlets of the places to eat Karen liked and decided two of them were too fancy. One of them was in an airplane and we all had a weird feeling about that so we ditched that as well. 

Helen Hunt Falls was next on the list. People said Seven Falls is a must do but a shuttle is involved and its $20. Helen Hunt Falls is supposed to be just as good, free, and no shuttle. We were sold. On the drive there Emma and I spotted two mangy dear, shouted in surprise and told Elena and Brigette, “They were…deer? They were very mangy.” 

I exclaimed, “Take care of your deer Colorado!”

The waterfall was pretty cool and there was a pleasant short hike around/up to it.

At this point we were all exhausted so we checked into our hotel and decided to go to some small Italian place for supper. There was no one in this whole restaurant but they sat us at an odd table and later sat a couple right next to us. The tables were so close they were practically pushed together. Again, there weren’t many people here, the couple could’ve had the privacy they craved but the people running this place seemed slightly dazed. Brigette paid with a 50 dollar bill because she wanted it broken and the waiter had to get change from the cook. Yes. We saw the whole thing go down. 

Knowing we were doing the Manitou Incline the next day, we crashed early.