33 Colorado Vacation Day-by-Day

Hey, guys! I finally got a chance to go through my "real" pictures from our 2nd anniversary vacation to Colorado! Like I've mentioned, taking pictures on the trip wasn't as big a priority for me as enjoying our time together, so there aren't a whole lot of photos to share. Anyway, let's get to it: here are the highlights from our trip!

Saturday

Josh and I wanted to get as far as we could on our first day of driving, so we drove 12 hours, alternating between Catching Fire on tape and the new episodes of Adventures in Odyssey. We stopped somewhere in Kansas for the night, where we were recognized by some Blimey Cow fans in the lobby! That was crazy cool.

Sunday

We drove the 6 hours to downtown Denver, where our amazing Bed and Breakfast Inn was located. We got settled in, went out to dinner at Duo (our first "farm-to-table" restaurant experience and it was AMAZING), and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but I just have to mention how amazing the "breakfast" part of our B&B stay was, too. Made by the ex-chef owner of the B&B, he used all local, fresh ingredients and seriously wowed us with his spinach & mushroom omelet with goat cheese. We've talked about that breakfast several times since returning home!

Monday

Aren't those pictures FREAKY?! The Denver Museum of Nature and Science had an exhibit about health, which included this aging machine. Super weird! We also really enjoyed the planetarium, the dinosaur exhibit, the mummy exhibit (we love Ancient Egypt!), and we watched a film about tornadoes in the IMAX that blew our minds. Seriously, it was awesome. That evening, we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp and we got all the trivia questions right. We're pros ;)

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we had a few hours to kill between our check out time at Queen Anne B&B and our check-in at the hotel in Colorado Springs, so we drove up to Estes Park! The drive alone was worth the trip - I've never seen anything so majestic. We ate lunch at a casual cafe, hung out near a beautiful stream, and checked out a few of the little shops along the strip before we reluctantly headed back south.

Wednesday

This was our actual anniversary, which we spent in a fun and casual way, true to our relationship ;) We visited the Focus on the Family Headquarters first - mainly for the Adventures in Odyssey exhibits! (That bell Josh is so excited about in the picture above is the original bell used to make the sound effect of Whit's End's door bell!) It was so fun (we are big fans, as evidenced here and here). We even got to eat some ice cream in Whit's End!

After spending the morning with Connie, Eugene, Whit, and the Imagination Station, we decided to go see a movie (Premium Rush - we really like Joseph Gordon-Levitt!) before we picked up some groceries and ate dinner at Whole Foods. We had a blast together this day.

Thursday 

We just chilled in the hotel watching Netflix most of the day. We did go out and look through a couple of board game shops (because we all know how much Josh loves games) and that was pretty fun! 

Friday

Josh and I agree that this was one of our favorite days in Colorado. We got to meet our long-distance friend Bethany and her family, and we spent the whole day just hanging out and getting to know them. They took us to Tokyo Joe's for lunch, Bethany showed us around Parker (I think she almost convinced Josh to move there on the spot), then she had to work at Joe's Crab Shack so we hung out with her mom, Wanda, until Bethany's short shift ended. We did visit her at work for dinner, though! And after she got off, we goofed off until late into the night. It was super fun - and really nice to have a little "family time" while we were so far from our own families.

Saturday

On Saturday, we visited Garden of the Gods Park. It. Was. Beautiful. We got some souvenirs at the welcome center (earrings for me, a CO bumper sticker for Josh), then we drove through the park, marveling at the big, beautiful, red rocks. I really don't know how to describe them, so I'll just say we were both kind of awe-struck.

On our way into the park, we passed a little sign advertising an exhibit/event called The Bible Through History.. so of course we had to stop in and see what that was about!

An ancient Hebrew scroll of Isaiah | Dea Sea Scroll fragments | a super-miniature Bible from 1819

Turns out there's a castle right on the edge of The Garden of the Gods Park. And it doubles as a Christian retreat center most of the year. They happened to be hosting this traveling exhibit that started the day we were there, with all sorts of awesome Bibles on display, including "...Dead Sea Scroll fragments new to America, ancient coins and pictographs, medieval rabbinic scrolls, an original 1611 King James Bible, Tyndale manuscripts, Martin Luther’s hand-written commentaries, and many other rare items related to the Bible..." (source) This was definitely one of the coolest things we got to do on our trip, especially since we came across it in such an unplanned and last-minute way. 

Sunday

In hindsight, visiting the Royal Gorge Bridge on Labor Day Weekend was probably not the best bit of planning on our part, but we managed to have a great time despite the long lines :) These pictures do not do it justice.. that gorge is mindblowingly deep! 

Unfortunately, we had to leave early because of hunger - there wasn't any food for sale in the park that wouldn't make me sick - so we missed out on the incline railway. The lines were super long and I am legitimately bummed that I missed out on that. Next time, I guess! We did get to ride the aerial tram all the way across the gorge - definitely worth the hour's wait!

There were also a bunch of animals from he area in the park, which was cool because I'd never seen buffalo, reindeer, or antelope in person before. I only mention them because this picture of one of the antelope is too priceless to keep to myself:

Monday (Labor Day) 

We were going to take the cog railway up to the top of Pike's Peak, but we were both worn out so we decided to just rest up for our trip back home. We lounged around the hotel room, did some packing, watched Netflix together and just had fun. 

Tuesday

The morning of our departure, Josh kept saying things like, "Do we have to leave?" and, "Let's just buy a house so we don't have to drive back and we can live here." He is in love with Colorado. Eventually I did talk him into returning to Tennessee, so we drove 13 hours - through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and staying the night in Illinois. We listened to a good chunk of Mockingjay, pausing only for lively political and existential conversations brought up by the book's contents. We were exhausted by the end of this day and so grateful for the hotel's comfy beds.

Wednesday

Woke up in Illinois, drove the remaining five hours through IL and Kentucky to Nashville, and got through almost the rest of Mockingjay. We made great time and were able to stop by to see a dear friend before he deployed overseas the next day. We were very grateful to get to see him before he left! It was totally worth postponing the long-anticipated reunion with my own bed ;)

So there you have it! We had such a great time. It was definitely our favorite trip together by far.

What was the best trip you've ever taken?