Chapter 1. Up, Up & Away!We were all set for our mini-vacation – the alarm went off at 5:30am, too early as always but we were exciting to get going. I had looked out the window right after waking up and was worried to see a lot more cloud cover than had been predicted… but they began to lift almost immediately and it looked like the sky might clear up in time. After packing up some last minute things, Lily and I grabbed a quick snack for the car and we headed out to Memorial Park to see the Balloons. We parked and headed out to the field – it was almost 7:00! The weather had cleared up nicely, we were going to get to see a launch afterall!

The first balloon we saw was a large yellow duck! It was almost all the way inflated, we hung out next to it and watched it take off! Then we wandered over by the lake – more were beginning to launch now and as usual many were going over the lake for a daring “dip”. Several got pretty wet – it always makes me nervous that they are going to submerge themselves too much and not be able to pull up again, but they seem to manage it somehow.

We finally walked back into the main field, and after watching a few more inflate and lift off we headed over to the concession area to get some breakfast. Brian got a breakfast burrito and Lily and I shared a funnel cake. I was glad we got to see the balloons launch, especially since we arne’t going to Albuquerque this year. Even though Albuquerque is a bigger, more exciting event, I like that ours feels a little more intimate, not quite so commercialized and you aren’t shoulder to shoulder in a crowd the whole time. We live in the perfect sized city – we get big events like this but they still have a small town feel to them.

By now Lily was asking to go to the Bounce House area, I knew it would only get more crowded as the launch window came to a close so we got tickets and jumped in line for the inflated obstacle course, which Lily wanted to do first. Probably wasn’t a good idea- there had been a heavy dew and everything was wet and muddy inside the course. That combined with the fact that it was pretty challenging, well long story short she chickened out right after getting inside. So that was one ticket of four wasted. She was a bit upset about the whole thing, but calmed down enough to go try a tamer bounce house. That went much better. One more bounce house and a giant slide later, we were finally ready to hit the road.

Brian and Lily played tag almost all the way to the car – the place was really emptying out now. We got a little confused coming out of the parking lot since the way we wanted to go was blocked off, after what seemed like an excruciating self-made detour (which somehow lead to us driving into a “non-public” street right in front of the World Arena…) we were finally headed in the right direction. Lily played her Leap Frog for a little while and colored some pictures. She decided that once we got back home she would sell them to make some money for her Chameleon fund!

Chapter 2. Down to the Depths

On the way to Canon City we passed the Museum of Tropical Insects, I am determined to come check that out one Saturday, but no time today. We watched the amazing scenery pass us, and within almost no time were coming into the outskirts of Canon City. We went right by our campground on the way to the Royal Gorge, but we were anxious to do some sightseeing before checking in. We bought our tickets at the gate and headed in – a park photographer took our picture, but later we decided not to go back to buy it. we did get a shot of Lily in front of the water clock though 🙂 The incline train was just leaving as we walked by, but there was no wait for the next one so we decided to make that our first stop. This way we could sit in the front! The incline goes down to the bottom of the gorge, right where the Royal Gorge Route Train goes through. We had tickets for that the next morning.

The ride is always longer than it looks – we just kept going down, and down, and down! Once at the bottom, we got to see some rafters go by – most of them were willing to stop paddling long enough to wave. I checked the time, knowing the Royal Gorge Route train schedule (since I had recently bought tickets) I realized that it was very likely we would see it go by any minute! Sure enough, there it came! How cool. It actually stopped right by us for a while, and I showed Brian and Lily the Vista Dome car that we would be in the next day.

Time to head back up – we didn’t wait to be in the front this time. Lily was a little nervous on both trips, but found it exciting nonetheless. We wanted to get to the other side of the canyon, but decided to let Lily choose whether we should walk over or take the cable car first…

Chapter 3. The Wild Side

After some thinking, Lily decided that she wanted to take the cable car – it was just getting ready to leave when we walked up, but was completely full. So we waited for the next one – the sign said it would be 30 minutes, but it was actually only 15. Being suspended 1500 feet above the ground is always a little unsettling, but the view can’t be beat and we were across in no time.

Brian wanted to do some of the trails on the other side but it was getting HOT, and were were hungry for lunch (not to mention that fact that Lily and I were wearing sandals) so we decided to head in the general direction of food instead. Though we found plenty distractions on the way. We went by some bison and elk – and Brian briefly considered doing the Sky Coaster (the one that drops you out of the sky for a swing over the gorge) but eventually thought better of it. On the way to the petting zoo we came across some Cowboys riding real cows! They were amazingly tame, Lily got her picture by one.

In the petting zoo there were Burro rides, of course Lily had to do that! We walked her around the trail once, and got our picture taken together. Then we went on into the petting area and gave some attention to the goats – most seemed more than happy to receive it. Though a few of them tried to eat my shoes. From there we went on the Cliff Terrace for lunch. They had really yummy french fries…Then it was time to cross the enormous bridge!

So across the bridge we went. I had forgotten how shaky the thing is! No surprise, being a suspension bridge. When the wind kicked up (and man did it ever) I thought for sure the whole thing was going to come down! But of course it didn’t. We stopped for a picture of Lily and I by the Colorado State flag – all the state’s flags are lined up across the bridge. Somewhere I have an old picture of Brian and I by the Georgia flag, that was taken when we lived there but were out here on a trip.

Safely across the bridge, we considered whether we wanted to stick around for more. We got some refills on our drinks and Lily climbed on some of the rocks. She was getting a little more daring than we were comfortable with – afterall there was a canyon on the other side! She is determined to be a rock climber when she gets bigger – which is fine – but not yet. Time to head back, it was getting hotter and hotter, and was becoming increasingly obvious that Lily was tired. This no-nap thing is pretty tough! So we left the park (getting a re-entry stamp just in case) and drove back to the campground.

Chapter 4. Campground Fun

We checked in at the KOA campground, and had noticed as we came in the amusement park next door, complete with a giant slide and go-karts! The KOA guy lead us to our campsite – I had requested one in the “Wilderness area”, we were a little disappointed to see that ours was the first one in that area, so it didn’t feel very secluded. but at least we weren’t right next to an RV. I was also glad to see that there was a least a little bit of shade in the tent spot – the heat was relentless! We started setting up the tent, but after a couple of minutes I felt a sting on my toe – and saw a very large ant crawling on my foot! I didn’t want to be a wimp, but I couldn’t believe how much it hurt! I ended up not being much help, mostly sat around holding my throbbing toe and trying to justify why I had been wearing sandals there in the first place.

Finally the tent was set up, my toe was still aching though. And it was still hot, of course – the pool we had spied on the way in sounded to good to pass up! So we headed to the bathhouse to change clothes. On the way Lily stopped to pet the horses that were near our campsite, this would become and automatic side trip everytime we walked through there for the rest of the weekend. I noticed that my toe was pretty swollen by now – who knew such a tiny creature could cause so much pain! We were in the water in no time though, and man it sure felt good to be wet and cool. Lily worked on her swimming, and started doing really well. I mostly sat back and watched – feeling rather content. The water had helped my toe immensely, the clouds had moved in to cool things off a bit, and Lily was having fun. Couldn’t have asked for much more.

After a while we got out, wanting to have enough time left in the day to explore some more. After getting dressed again we went to the Campground park – it was a rather old fashioned playground and so had some things Lily doesn’t normally get to do. Brian and I talked about how they don’t build playgrounds the way they used to – kind of a shame even though the new ones are undoubtedly safer.

We finally talked Lily into leaving so we could go to Fun Country, which was right next door. I couldn’t wait to try out the big slide! We walked over and bought our tickets – Lily wanted to go down in my lap the first time. At the top we got situated on our sacks, and for a moment looking down the slide with Lily on my lap I thought I must be crazy, but thought it couldn’t possibly be that bad, so I wrapped my arms as tightly around her as I could and pushed us off! It was quite a rush. We all wanted to go again immediately, fortunately the ticket was good for unlimited rides all day, so we spend the next half hour or so going again and again. Lily became comfortable enough to ride down beside one of us instead of in our lap, as long as we held her hand. I took a video going down one time – it only comes close to capturing the wild ride though! Some of the lanes were faster than others – on the fastest one you were almost guaranteed to launch off the slide at least once. In the end it was the stairs we became tired of, and decided to go to the on-site Royal Gorge Pizza cafe for some dinner.

We ordered our pizza and had to wait a bit for it, mostly we were thirsty but didn’t get our drinks until the pizza was ready too. Oh well. While waiting we looked at the History of KOA Directories poster on the wall – pretty cool. Earlier we had talked about how much fun it would be to have a roaming retirement – sell the house and get an RV or camper and just spend all our time traveling to different campgrounds – we could see the whole country. That would be the life! I can’t imagine ever getting tired of seeing new places. I must be a wanderer at heart.

After dinner we stopped by the slide for a few more runs, and on the way back to the tent went to the camp store and got a snack and drink. Finally it was time to turn in for the night, it had been a incredibly long day! Once settled into the tent, Brian and Lily found their usual camp-out silliness and it was a while before either of them would go to sleep. Sometimes it’s hard being the only responsible one 🙂 But then again this whole thing WAS my idea…

Chapter 5. All Aboard!

We woke up just a little bit before our 6:30am alarm, quiet hours had ended and there were already the faintest stirrings of life in the campground. We crawled out of the tent to go get dressed, on the way to the bathhouse I stopped to marvel at the sunrise lighting up the mountains. It was simply spectacular. Unfortunately I had already taken my camera battery out to charge in the bathroom, I made a mental note to get a picture of the sunrise the next morning though. We had thought to eat breakfast at the Chuckwagon in the campground but after realizing the night before that we had no cash, we knew we would have to go into town.

The drive into town was very pretty with the sun still beginning its climb into the sky. We went to Waffle Wagon but it turned out they didn’t take credit cards either! No problem, there was an ATM at the gas station next door… except that it didn’t work! The world was conspiring against us, I was sure of it…but we drove down the street a little ways and found one, then headed back to the Waffle Wagon for breakfast at last. On the way into the restaurant Lily found a Quarter and immediately put it to good use in one of those quarter vending machines – she got a small rubber monkey. At least it was something to entertain her while we waited for our food! Which by the way we ordered way too much of…our bellies were full though and it was time to go check in at the Santa Fe Depot!

Nothing in Canon City is far away, and within minutes we were there. It was still a little early so after picking up our tickets at Will Call, Lily played on the playground for a few minutes. I went to stand by the gate since I wasn’t sure if there were assigned seats, there was nothing on my ticket to indicate that there were. I really wanted to be on the side next to the river, and had noticed when the train went through yesterday that the Driver’s right side was the place to be.

Finally the conductor made the famous “ALL ABOARD!” call and we were hustled toward the train! We weren’t even sure which car to go to at first, but got it sorted out and climbed on in. We were the first ones inside our car, and found that name cards had already been set out on all the tables. Ours was not on the side I had been hoping for, but I soon became suspicious when I realized that our side of the train was almost full, while the other side was empty except for a few standby passengers who had bought their tickets at the last minute. I pictured the train again in my head from the day before, I was sure I had it right…

We were in the Vista Dome car, which has full windows that wrap up over the ceiling. It had cost a bit more but I figured it would be worth it for the added visibility. We ordered drinks, (hot chocolate and juice) but weren’t hungry for anything else since we had just eaten. Finally we started moving! It was such a smooth ride, this was going to be a lot of fun! Almost immediately I realized that we were going to be on the river-side afterall. The train must have been on its way back when I saw it yesterday, that would explain the confusion.

Soon we were riding into the canyon – saw lots more rafters on the river! The whole atmosphere was very relaxing, and the scenery was breathtaking. After a little while we walked outside to the open air car – it was more crowded but still really neat to feel the wind and smell the fresh air. Getting to the open-air car required passing through several other cars – that was a little freaky during the parts where e had to go between cars! And since the Vista Dome cars only really use the upper level, it felt like we were passing through secret tunnels on the bottoms to get through. We had just missed going under the Royal Gorge bridge while walking to the open-air car, but I knew we would see it again on the way back. After a few minutes I was getting hot so I went back inside while Brian and Lily stayed out. On the other side of the canyon the train stopped to switch directions and head back. Brian and Lily came back about that time. Later we went to the outside car again, just in time to see the bridge pass over us – it looked tiny from down there! And of course there were more rafters to wave at – hopefully when Lily gets older we can try that adventure too.

All along the canyon we rode past an old wooden pipe that was completely fallen apart. I wondered how long ago it had been built – it had obviously taken a tremendous amount of effort and now it was in shambles. kind of sad and spooky to see. Finally we were pulling back into the station – it had definitely been a worthwhile attraction! The train ride was actually what had started everything – I mentioned one day that we should go do it sometimes, then thought we might as well stay overnight… and before long it had turned into a full mini-vacation. But needless to say, the ride was the highlight of the trip for sure.

Chapter 6. Beating the Heat

Lily played on the playground one more time, and hurt her knee a little. After leaving the train station, we walked next door to the Dinosaur Depot. We had to cross the tracks to get there – it was a little spooky crossing with the train right there but we knew it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Man was it ever HOT! Isn’t summer almost over???Fortunately the museum was nice and cool. The lady at the counter explained a bit of how everything was set up, and told Lily she cold get her picture taken sitting on a dinosaur leg bone! They had found it in several pieces and put it back together – being of a common species it had no real scientific value, so they let people touch it, climb on it, sit on it, etc. Pretty cool since it is a real fossil, not just a cast like so many. We explored the exhibit room, the lady came in and explained a few more things to us. They have on the wall a full-body Stegasaurus skeleton fossil, one of the most complete ever found! All of the fossils on exhibit here were found in nearby areas – Colorado was a hotbed of dinosaur activity millions of years ago so fossil finds in the area are not uncommon.

After looking at the fossils, we headed upstairs to the Discovery Room, Lily searched for micro-fossils in a (not real) ant-hill, dug for fossils in a sand box, and Brian and I put together a really big dinosaur puzzle. It was getting to be lunch time, so we left the dinosaurs behind in search of food…

We had to walk around the parking lot again and back across the train tracks – the 12:30 train hadn’t left yet even though it was almost 12:40, but we could tell as we hurried across that it was ready to go – sure enough it began crawling toward the crossing just after we were on the other side. Took it a few moments to get going though. We waited to watch it go one last time before getting in the car. It was positively scorching outside. Trying to get the car cooled off was an almost hopeless endeavor, our best bet was to get to a cool place for lunch quickly. Unfortunately the cafe we were looking for didn’t seem to exist, so we made a quick change of plans and drove back to Mr. Ed’s, one of the other places on my list. Lily was already asleep, but woke up just enough to stagger inside.

It was a very relaxing lunch, nothing fancy but cool and quiet with decent food. On the way back to the campground we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some cold treats, anything to beat this heat! We were ready for another dip in the pool for sure… but first Brian and Lily had to investigate the ant hill near our tent, and of course Lily had to visit and feed the horses again. There was some grass growing just outside their fence that they really liked, so it was common for campground guests to pick some to give to them as they went by, Lily was no exception!

Once again, the clouds started rolling in once we were in the pool – what a relief! Lily was tired though, and didn’t do as well swimming as she had the day before. She was especially having a hard time holding her breath at all, so we eventually decided to move on to something different, at least by now it had cooled off to a more tolerable temperature. We headed back to the tent and got dressed to go back out for the evening…

Chapter 7. Around Town

I had been planning on hiking some of the Arkansas Riverwalk Trail the next morning, but on the train we had heard about another trail, called Tunnel Drive, that sounded really cool. So I was thinking we could go see the Riverwalk area this evening and then do Tunnel Drive in the morning. The clouds that had moved in earlier were still threatening to storm, but we headed into town anyway. I didn’t care so much about actually hiking the Riverwalk anyway, I just wanted to see it.

We parked in the same area for the train, and crossed a foot bridge into the park. Lily made a beeline for, not the playground surprisingly, but the riverbank. It was lined with rocks and our climbing-crazy kid immediately started walking out on them! I thought for sure she was going to tumble into the water several times, but she proved her balance was better than I was giving her credit for.

After a while she was ready to go play, there was a really tall metal slide (that I didn’t manage to get a picture of…) She practically ran up the ladder, then paused at the top looking suddenly a little nervous. But after a moment’s hesitation announced that it looked “awesome” and came flying down. She went several times (bumping her leg pretty good on one round) before running to the newer part of the playground, which required skills she was more used to.

Then it was on to the duck pond – some of the ducks were hanging out on the side. When Lily went over to see them she inadvertently ended up herding them back into the water! It was a pretty funny sight. She and Brian played some more tag and hide-n-seek for a while, then I began to feel raindrops. I had known it was only a matter of time, at least we got to have some fun first. I had on my list an Italian and two Mexican restaurants so we let Lily pick. She wanted some of both, but finally decided on Mexican.

We found Viva Vallarta first, and it didn’t look too busy so we headed on in. It was like a tropical jungle inside! i only got one picture which doesn’t do it justice, there were trees everywhere with animals in them! Okay not real ones, but Lily was sure she heard some of them making noises 🙂 It was a really cool atmosphere, I was glad we had ended up here. We were really tired by the time we were done though. We made our way back to camp and collapsed into our tent.

A gentle rain had started falling soon after we got back, which was nice because it put out some of the campfires around us… Brian is particularly sensitive to the smoke, and the proximity to other campers usually presents a problem since they almost always seem to want a campfire. Never mind the fact that it’s 90 degrees outside!!! As usual, Lily got her second wind as soon as we laid down, but entertained herself quietly for the most part reading a Disney Princess magazine that she had brought along. She finally grew sleepy and fell asleep holding mine and Brian’s hands underneath our pillows 🙂

Chapter 8.Ballerina Bees and Alien Ants

We awoke on our last morning to another beautiful sunrise, this time I got a picture. Lily made one last stop to see the horses and tell them bye – she told me later that one of them had said bye to her and told her that it loved her 🙂 Once dressed we headed over to the Chuckwagon for breakfast, having gotten some cash the day before. Breakfast was yummy, and we found out that this was the last day they were serving it of the season. The campground itself would be open one more month. After breakfast we made one last stop by the playground and enjoyed the scenery for a few more moements, then it was back to pack up the tent and break camp.

We all pitched in and soon had everything loaded up. We stopped by the store to check out and get some snacks for the road, then it was on to Tunnel Drive for our hike!

We found it easily and hiked up a big hill to where the trail really began. Tunnel Drive Trail is aptly named – there are three tunnels at the beginning! The last of which was rather long. We had fun playing with our echos in there…

The trail winds along one side of the canyon up above the railroad track. It was just before 9:30, I figured we should be able to see the 9:30 train go by before too long. As we hiked along we saw several strange types of very large bugs – one looked like a giant flying ant. Brian was convinced it was an alien species 🙂 Lily got a thorn in her hand at one point while climbing on the rocks. And had several instances of pebbles in her shoe and other minor problems. She must have been a little tired still – it wasn’t turning out to be her best performance on a hike. But she had some really good moments too. We passed several other hikers with friendly dogs, and enjoyed petting them.

After about a half hour we rounded a corner where the cliff face we were walking beside opened up in such a way that there was a really nice view of the canyon below. I was thinking this would be a really nice place to see the train from, and then we heard the tell-tale toot! There it came! We waved at the people in the open-air car, and many of them waved back. That was good timing indeed.

We continued on to the end of the trail, then turned to head back. It was here that Lily saw what she claimed were “Ballerina Bees”. Apparently she had dreamed about them last night, and here they were! Amazing…We finished the hike back, it was time to find lunch and head home. We drove to 16th St Cafe, but they were closed for the holiday. So we went for our second choice, Pizza Madness. However, once we parked we saw the Dragon’s Gate Chinese restaurant, and Lily and I talked Brian into going there instead. A little mix up in ordering (completely my fault, I admit it) caused us to get way more crab cheese wantons than we needed, but Lily did a good job taking care of several of them. After lunch we hit the road, Lily was asleep almost instantly. The drive back was just as scenic, but we were a little more worn out now. At some point we called to check in with Brian’ parents, they weren’t up for a visit so we continued straight on to Petsmart.

Nala got a surprisingly good “Pawgress Report” from the Petshotel, and was of course delighted to see us again. Back at home, Lily decided to follow through with her plan to set up a Picture shop – she spent a really long time getting everything set up outside. I had gently warned her that this might be hard, but she was determined. As I suspected though, she didn’t get any customers. She did finally agree to let me buy one, but I had to walk up from the street like a real customer. Her first entrepreneurial experience, hopefully next time will be a little more successful. But it was cute anyway. Later that night we ordered pizza, our favorite Boriello Bros. was also closed due to the holiday, so we tried out NYPD pizza instead. We watched the new Ariel movie that had just come out on DVD, then called it a night. What a weekend!