Vacation - Here to There

After visiting with M for a bit on Wednesday morning, we hit the road headed north.  Our end destination was Longmont (where my cousin Krystal lives), but there were plenty of things to stop and see along the way.  We stopped at Pagosa Springs to get an earth cache (yes, we did some geocaching on this trip too...) and stretch our legs.  That's a cool little town, and someplace we're both interested in going back to visit!

From there, we stopped at the Continental Divide to get a picture.  I think this is the third time during this trip that we've crossed the Divide.  Of course, the other two times were in New Mexico, and there wasn't quite this much snow.  Apparently we'd been gaining quite a bit of elevation in our drive...

We also wanted to stop at Royal Gorge.  According to the literature, it sounded almost like an amusement park or some form of Pleasure Island (the one in Pinnochio, not Fantasy Island) - including a tram, bungee jumping, and other food and entertainments.  Unfortunately for us, we were too late to enter the park, in part because we went to the wrong entrance first (the south side is closed this time of year).  But Greg was able to get pictures of the bridge from just outside, and he got some nice scenery shots from our jaunt to the south side.

 

 

And then it was decision time.  Greg really wanted to see Garden of the Gods, which is on the way, but it's dusk now so there'll be nothing to see until daylight.  Do we continue on, so I can see Krystal?  Or do we stop and see some magnificent scenery?  We opted to do both, in a way.  Travel on to Longmont, that night and I'll visit with Krystal the following day while Greg retraces part of our route to visit the park.  A win-win for everyone!

We stopped in Colorado Springs to get dinner.  As luck would have it, there was a brewery - so we stopped at brewery #4: Brewer's Republic.  Not sure if this one really counts since they don't brew their own beer, but they do get the beer from a local brewer.  I had a mighty tasty lemon-grass brew (and am a bit disappointed that I didn't get to try the curry beer they had a while ago) and the pizza was very tasty!  Interestingly enough, we met some people who currently live in Colorado Springs but are from Alaska and are getting ready to move back. Shout out to Erin and Klark - look us up when you get to town and we'll go do something fun...  =)