Vacation 2015 begins & Mile High City

Wednesday, 8 June, 2015

As many of you know, a few years ago, I stopped keeping a travel journal of our travels and decided that a blog would be easier and easier to share.  And I love to tell a story with photos--if you don't like photos, this blog may not be for you!  So, here we begin with 2015.  Yesterday, we got up at 5:00 am (evidently, there is such a time!), and left the house by 6:00.

The family of four in the Honda Fit

Shelby's a little worried about sharing a seat with this boy for 16 hours

We drove through Iowa, Nebraska, and part of Colorado by trading off driving and reached Randy's aunt and uncle's house by 9:00, mountain time.  It took 16 hours with a few stops along the way to get gas, use the bathroom, and eat the sandwiches we brought along.  Lots of corn fields and other fields full of food our farmers grow for us as well as lots of cows, especially the further west we got.  Nebraska was very green, then we drove over the border into Colorado, and the landscape changed.  The ground was very dry with very little vegetation or trees.  And very few houses or exits.  And we were low on gas.  :(  We made it to a gas station in Crook, CO just after the low gas light went on--whew!  We then made it to near Denver and used the phone GPS to find Kurt and Bonnie's house.  Talked to them for awhile, then fell into bed.  They are absolutely the sweetest people I know and wonderful hosts!  There was a guest bed for Randy and I, a guest bed for Joshua, and Shelby slept on the air mattress.  All of us seem to have caught a cold from Anneliese and have been coughing and blowing our noses--so sleep was welcome, just not as uninterrupted as we would have liked.

Bonnie and Kurt

Woke up a little late (around 9:00) to a wonderful brunch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and peppers, hash browns, toast, and bacon.  yum!  By the time we finally left it was almost noon.  Our plan was to go to the zoo, go to the Denver mint, and walk around downtown before having dinner at Casa Bonita (a very cool restaurant).  Well, we got to the zoo, then about halfway through it sprinkled, then poured.  We took shelter, then began running from building to building (trying to make our way in the rain).  The buildings are not labeled very well and the map didn't have all of the things on it or labeled well so it was challenging.  We finally gave up and ran out and to the car.  We were soaked!  And, you know, even though we could have seen everything there at our zoos at home, and it rained, we had a great time because we were seeing it all together.

Snow Leopard

Red Panda

Tiger, obviously

Shelby with the giraffes that she doesn't find beautiful and I find very beautiful and graceful.

How does Shelby measure up to a polar bear?

And Joshua?

Randy is doing his polar bear imitation!

peacock

The polka-dotted creature is a ray!

Elephant, of course.  I think his name was Billy--their youngest.

Hippopotamus

Humboldt penguin

another one

Joshua with a lego lion--his favorite kind!

In the car, we had a small snack of some chips and almonds, then found that it was too late to go to the mint (and you needed reservations anyway) and the rain prohibited walking around anywhere.  So we decided to drive around.  The rain finally stopped, but it was very cold out (and our sweatshirts were at Kurt and Bonnie's house).  So we drove around downtown so that Joshua could see the buildings, then we found some old houses and found a sign that they were in the San Rafael historic district, platted in 1874).  Beautiful old Victorian houses with towers and turrets, little hidden balconies, and perfect little windows.  What was surprising, was that they were very close together, some less than a foot apart--yet with windows on the sides!  Some were a few feet apart, and some of the most beautiful and largest had, of course,  much more space between them.  One of the mansions had been converted to offices, and an absolutely gorgeous set of row houses from the 1890s (on the national register of historic places) was still being used.

Some of the less inspiring houses

Well, we were hungry by then and headed to Casa Bonita.  Casa Bonita is not somewhere you go for good food.  It has pretty mediocre Mexican food; you go for the place itself--the experience.  It is set in a strip mall, but you wouldn't tell it from the inside.  It is a labyrinth of rooms and passages.  Each dining room has a different theme, with the main room containing a three foot waterfall.  Little plays are done which usually culminate with someone falling into the water below.  They also have little diving shows.  The meals are large and each table has a little flag  You raise it if you need drink refills, more tortilla chips, soapapillas or anything else.  Those are all included with your meal.  In our room, we also had "entertainment" from the world's worst magician.  Then you walk around to see the other rooms, watch the diving shows, and walk through Black Bart's tunnel to find his gold.  It is all very kitschy, but awe-inspiring.  Our room had the world's worst magician performing, but it was fun anyway.  We declined the pinata event and the arcade room.  But we had fun walking all over--there is no rhyme or reason to it.

The front of Casa Bonita (beautiful house)

The fountain in front

Our meal

You can't see the waterfall very well behind them.

A hallway to one of the rooms

The cave dining room

The main room

The "stage" in the main room--you can't see the princess and pirate very well

The main room

The mine shaft room

Joshua making a picture of Casa Bonita on a penny

Toward the top on the rocks, you can see the diver in a black swimsuit

Joshua and Shelby

Who's taller?

We were at Casa Bonita for two hours, came back stuffed and talked to Kurt and Bonnie for a few hours, then decided to write this before getting some sleep so we can be on our way early tomorrow to Moab, Utah.