And Last But Not Least A Little Father-in-Law Time Too

It was Friday and my in-laws had been there for a week and were getting ready to leave on Saturday morning.  I went to work and came home.  We made some supper and were visiting outside in the backyard.  Dan's dad, Doug, decided that they were not going to stay for BBQ Days and that they would have an early departure at 5am to head back to Minnesota.  After the kids went to bed the adults hung out for a late night after dinner drink.  Dan and his mom finished up theirs.  I still had some of mine left and so did my father-in-law so we stayed up and were chit chatting.  It was about 10:30pm.  Doug all of the sudden jumps up and says that he's going to the bar.  What?!  I said "No", you can't go to the bar by yourself and it was already 10:30pm at night after a very long week and he had a long drive ahead of him the next day.  But, of course, he didn't listen to me and I wasn't going to allow him to go trudging around town by himself (I know, he is a big boy, but still).  He said that we would take his car and I said no, I'm driving and I need to drive my own car.  So we hop into the Tribeca and I sit there.  I tell him that Dan is going to hear me start my car and then get mad that we are leaving and didn't tell him we were leaving.  He says - why do you think I wanted to take the PT Cruiser, its in the street.  Put the bitch in neutral and roll it back.  Well then.  So, I did and she rolled out of my driveway and I started it up and off we went.  So we get to the bar and it is karaoke night.  Doug decides after awhile he is going to sing - again - What?!  Are you serious.  And he did and he did a great job.  I was completely dumbfounded.  So we rolled home at 1:00am.  Needless to say they did not get on the rode until late morning, but we had a good time so what the heck.

A Little Mother and Daughter-in-Law Bonding Time

Thursday night was time for me to take my mother-in-law for a little relaxation and fun.  The guys had been golfing the day before and had went out to eat earlier on Thursday.  We started out our night by going to the Centerra Mall.  First stop was a drink and supper and all by the choice of Jeannie.  She seldom chooses based on her own wants and I wanted this to be about her for once.  She chose Mexican Food so it was off to On the Border for some good food and a good margarita!  After we ate and had a little beverage it was time to do some shopping.  I can't go to a mall and not do a little bit!  I went to New York and Company and grabbed a couple of outfits to try on and I sent Jeannie over to the Cozy Cottage to check it out.  I found some clothes and she found some neat ideas for their cabin.  Since we were at Centerra I wanted to go to PF Changs and have an Asian Pear Mojito!  These are so good, I love them.  We headed out to the patio and I ordered two.  Seeing the fresh mint in the drinks sparked a conversation from my mother-in-law.  Some of her friends have a Kentucky Derby party every year with the hats and drinks.  The drink is called a mint julep.    We were enjoying our Mojito and the next time our bartender walked by I asked him abut this drink, the mint julep.  He said it was one of his favorite.  He told us what was in it and I said, What the hell, bring us 2!  I was in for the shock of my life.  The drinks came and the first sip about threw me off my chair.  Holy mother of pearl these babies are strong.  Both Jeannie and the bartender laughed at me.  I can only imagine my facial expression.  I took another sip and you pretty much just taste the bourbon- wow.  I told them both I was having a flash back of when I was sixteen years old and stealing from the liquor cabinets and you took whatever you could get and at one point it must have been bourbon.  We sipped our drinks and had a good talk, paid our bill and got the hell out of their.  A margarita, a mojito and a mint julep will put a couple of ladies on their butts!  We jammed to The Carpentars on the way home and had a blast.  This will definitely be one of my most memorable times with my mother-in-law!  What a fun night we had.  

(see below the pics on how to make a mint jelup, if you dare!)

Me and Jeannie and our Mint Jelup

Just for jokes and fun!

MINT JELUP

1. Gather 3 sprigs of fresh mint.
2. Measure 2 teaspoons of cold water.
3. Measure 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.
4. Gather about 1 cup of crushed ice.
5. Measure 2-1/2 ounces of bourbon.
6. Tear off the leaves of 2 of the mint sprigs and place them in the bottom of a tall glass.
7. Add water and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved and mint is bruised.
8. Fill glass with finely crushed ice and pour bourbon over the ice.
9. Stir and garnish with remaining mint leaves.
10. Serve with a straw under a magnolia tree.

Tips:

1. If you don't drink alcohol try a nice mint iced tea instead.
2. 2 or 3 drops of mint flavoring can be added in step 6 instead of the mint leaves. The mint flavoring will have a stronger mint taste.

Final Destination - Garden of the Gods

After a one hour drive we arrived in Colorado Springs and headed to Garden of the Gods for our final  touring spot.  Although this spot to me is small and you can drive through it rather quickly and once you've seen, you've seen the outdoorsy type person could probably spend hours and days hiking and climbing and just hanging out in this location.  It was really windy all weekend and it was no different when we got here.  We stopped quickly at the tourist center and looked around and took some pictures.  We decided to do our scenic route via the car.  We drove around and let Dan's parents take pictures and check out the rocks.  We did stop at one location and walked around a little bit, however, none of us had shoes for hiking, my sandals were not cutting it in this terrain. 

We had a 2 hour drive back to our house and our mini-vacation was over.  It was a fantastic Memorial Weekend and I hope that my in-laws enjoyed it.  I was happy to still have another day off of work to enjoy a nice long weekend.  Of course their vacation was not over.  They were in town to watch our kids for the week since our daycare was closed so it was now time to put them to work!  I enjoyed being the tour guide and setting all of this up.  It's not too often I get to do trip planning.

Canon City - Next Destination - Prison Museum

WELCOME TO THE COLORADO PRISON MUSEUM

Cañon City, in southern Colorado, is the home of the Museum of Colorado Prisons, a showcase of the atmosphere and exhibits of days, staff and inmates gone by.

A visit to the the Royal Gorge Region isn't complete without stopping and "doing" time in this historical cell house that was the original Women's Correctional Facility constructed in 1935.

http://www.prisonmuseum.org/

We woke up the next morning and had our nice hot breakfast, it wasn't too bad at the hotel.  I packed up all of our stuff into the suitcases and we did a double-check of the rooms and we were off to our next stop - the prison.  It was only a few miles from the hotel which was nice.  They had a bunch of old items outside the prison to look at and in one small area they had one of the old gas chambers.  They had pictures of the gas chamber were they took it out from its original location and had information regarding how it worked and when they did executions.  It was a little frightening, but very interesting.  Once we toured the outside of the area we went inside to take our tour.  The front desk staff was excellent and super attentive to the kids and Katelynn with her millions of questions.  You basically go into each cell and it has newspaper articles and other items pertaining to a specific piece of history for the prison.  There is no tour guide, but they do have audio that walks you through everything and has interviews from old staff and people talking about specific instances or prisoners or workers.  I listened to a little bit of it, but was distracted by the kids and we walked around and just did our own thing.  It was a little unnerving and eerie after being in the building as time passed.  There is a basement area where the women prisoners ate and prepared meals among other things.  There were a few areas that we weren't allowed in.  The kids did extremely well walking through this building and not touching items they weren't supposed to and I was a little shocked by it.  This had to have been pretty boring for them.  Dan's parents seemed to enjoy the tour as well.  Dan and I were done so we took the kids to the outside area and had them picking up pine cones while we waited.  One of the prisons in Canon City is within a few feet of this prison and we could here the inmates talking and here instructions being called over the intercom, it was a little strange.  We took some pictures and then packed up and we were off to our final destination - Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  A one hour drive north from Canon City.

Doug - you finally got caught!

The Gas Chamber

Yep - I look a little to happy to be in prison!

Dan - you are cornered - surrender yourself!

Canon City - Hotel Time

Back to at the hotel we told the kids that we would take them swimming.  I was trying to wear them out so they would go to sleep at the hotel.  The entire day was super windy out, but really hot and we all wore jeans for the day.  The pool was outdoors and low and behold as soon as we get dressed and get out there the sun gets clouded over.  The pool was supposed to be heated, but without the sun I didn't want to get in and neither did Dan, it was so cold.  We let Katelynn swim around in the shallow end and we got in up to our knees and kind of dipped Junior in and out of the pool, it was just freezing.  After swimming we changed the kids into their pajamas and Dan said he wanted to take his wife out for a drink.  I can't complain about that, especially since he asked me.  Grandma watched the kids and we headed to check out the well drinks.  We had a couple and talked to the bartender for a bit.  He had a ton of knowledge of the town and the hotel and celebrities.  We headed back to the rooms and then Dan said he would stay with the kids and me and my mother-in-law went to have a drink. We had a great time talking and had a shot and drink before we went back to the room.  Time to get some sleep because you never know how early those little buggers will wake up the next morning!

John Wayne's room suite he stayed in when filming True Grit (the original one).

Canon City - Stop # 3 - Royal Gorge Train Ride

The Royal Gorge Route - Colorado's Premier Train

https://www.royalgorgeroute.com/

Climb aboard Colorado’s most scenic train for a journey through the spectacular Royal Gorge. Since 1879, these tracks have followed the winding, tumbling Arkansas River deep within the soaring, 1,000-foot granite cliffs of Colorado’s grandest canyon. But this is no fast-food, thrill-ride, adrenaline-pumping, cotton-candy experience. The Royal Gorge Route is, by design, a wifi-free, really-good-food, live-in-the-moment among friendly faces and stunning scenery kind of thing. That’s probably why 100,000 folks ride this historic train every year—and why the Royal Gorge Route Railroad is considered one of America’s Top Trains. Trains run up to four times a day on this remarkable 24-mile roundtrip journey through the Royal Gorge.

Our big adventure of the trip was finally here.  It was time to ride the train!  I'm not sure who was more excited, Doug, Jeannie or Junior?  We drove to the train station and Junior was just hysterical, Train, Train, Choo Choo, Choo Choo.  Katelynn and I went into the station to get our tickets quick.  We took some pictures at the gate and climbed aboard.  We were in one of the Dome cars so we could get the best view of the Canyon.  We basically had 8 seats since the seating is 4 to a table and no one was seated in the other 2 seats. This worked out well with the kids because they were able to sit with Grandma and Grandpa and then would take turns sitting with Dan and I.  We started out with some margarita's for the adults, Katelynn had a shirley temple and Junior had orange juice.  We had an early supper on the train as well.  This helps with little kids too, to keep them busy.  The train ride is 2 hours long and it takes a lot to get my kids to sit for that long.  You are able to walk around the train and the outside cars are pretty nice to go and hang out outside and enjoy the views. They were packed with people from the train.  Dan's parents really enjoyed the train ride.  After 2 hours, great scenery, and supper it was time to head back to the hotel again.

Canon City - Next Stop - Westminster Abbey

Our next stop was to the Westminster Abbey Wine Tasting Room for some free wine tasting.  We, well the adults at least, were excited.  We pulled into the Abbey and it was beautiful.  We wound around to the back and they had a lovely building next to some of their grape vines that you could walk around and some picnic tables and a large grassy area for the kids to run around.  It was a little hectic inside with so many breakable items within Junior's reach.  We walked around their little shop and then up to the wine tasting.  We started with the red wines that were more fruity and skipped all the dry.  I would have tried them all except I knew Junior would not have made it too long in there and didn't want Dan and I chasing him around and accidentally break something.  We all loved the first wine,  insert name, and then we each kind of liked one different one for our second favorites.  Dan's mom and I loved the Apple wine.  I could just sit back and drink that on a nice hot day on the patio and read a good book, yum!  Doug liked the Port wine, that was an after dinner drink and definitely a sipping wine with a lot of alcohol in it.  We each bought a couple bottles of wine and then went outside with the kids and checked out the vineyards.  We just relaxed outside for a bit and let the kids run around and took some pictures.  Had we known that there were picnic tables and such I would have suggested that we buy our lunch and bring it with us, buy a bottle of wine from the abbey and enjoyed a nice picnic outside.

We thought this sign was a little funny.
Here we are pulling into a church and there is an advertisement for beer and a poker tournament!

The Westminster Abbey - Canon City, CO 

Next stop was to the liquor store because we didn't have anything to open our wine with and there was time for a beer before the big finale of the day - the Royal Gorge Train ride.

We checked into our hotel - the Quality Inn and Suites and hung out.  Kids always love hotels.  They ran from room to room and we had sliding glass doors to walk outside.  The stayed at the Quality Inn and Suites.  I would recommend this hotel.  They have a great atmosphere, staff was friendly, nice grill and bar and signs of the celebrities that have stayed at their hotel on the door of the suite they stayed in.  If you go to the bar ask for a list from the bartender of the celebrities and movies that were filmed in Canon City.  Pretty interesting to browse through over a beer or cocktail!

In-Laws Visit and Canon City Vacation - Stops 1 and 2

My in-laws from Minnesota came to visit over Memorial Weekend and stayed for the week to help us out by watching the kids for the week since our daycare provider was on vacation.  They arrived on Saturday evening and after the long drive we just had a nice lazy afternoon and planned our trip to Canon City.
Sunday morning the plan was to leave the house at 8:30am and it actually happened!  My husband was starting to get a little antsy to get on the road, but I was packing, planning, and double-checking everything and had to remind him that I was still on time for our original departure time.  Canon City is about a 3 hour drive for us and we all loaded up in the Tribeca.  The kids were in the 3rd row seating, women in the middle and the men up front to drive and navigate as men should.  The drive went pretty well and Dan's parents enjoyed driving through Denver and seeing the Rockies Stadium and the Bronco's Stadium while passing through.  It always amazes me how quickly you can drive straight through Denver (if there is not a back-up of traffic of course).  I seem to want to compare it to Minneapolis / St. Paul and it is nothing like it.  Denver is compact and Minneapolis is spread out - anyways - back to vacation time.
We pulled into Canon City and decided it was first time to have lunch.  We saw a sign along the road for a place called Big Daddy's Diner , 1950's style.  We were able to get right in and it was right next to the train station and the dinosaur museum.  Junior was especially excited to see the train and Katelynn was thrilled that her meal came with a free ice cream sundae.  The kids didn't eat all that much, but enjoyed their chocolate milk.  We were all happy to be out of the car and start our adventures!

1950's Big Daddy Diner -

Dan, Jeannie, Junior, Doug, and Katelynn

Royal Gorge Train getting ready for it's 12:30 departure.

Junior

Grandpa and Junior

Doug (my father-in-law) and Me

After lunch we headed over to the train station to watch the train depart and then over to the dinosaur museum so the kids could play around and just to see if there was anything interesting in there.

Doug (Dan's Dad) decided that he would pay for our entrance fee to the dinosaur museum and pulled out a credit card and handed it over.  The lady swiped his card and looked at it and handed it back to my father-in-law and said "Sir, this credit card has been expired for 12 years".  (What the?) He looked a little baffled and looked at his credit and said, Well, this shows how often we travel and go out, I have cash does that work?  We laughed so hard about this all week with them.
The dinosaur museum in Canon City is definitely not a must see.  There wasn't much in there to do, just a few things for the kids that they got bored with and a few things to look at for us.  We maybe spent 15 minutes in there.  If you lived around Canon City and had a play date or wanted a day out with your kids then I would say, Yes, go to the dinosaur museum.  They have puzzles and activities for the kids to do and you could spend an hour digging around and reading stuff.  However, if you are on a time crunch to see everything in a couple of days I would pass this up, it's not worth it.

Katelynn searching for ants.

Digging out dinosaur bones.

Juniors attempt to find ants.  Not sure that works so well.

2nd attempt to find them.  Hmmm ....

Nothing like sitting on a bone.

Next Stop - Westminster Abbey Wine Tasting Room.