Tag Archives: Denver

The air is thin up here… Engelsrud Vacation Part 2

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This is the second an final post describing our recent family vacation to Denver, Colorado. If you haven read the first part, read it here.

Wednesday

Once again, bright and early, we headed up to the mountains. This time our destination was due west, right up the interstate to the Argo Gold Mine for a tour. I was abit skeptical, but it proved to be a ton of fun. We got a brief overview of the history of the mine and then were left to go on a self guided tour of the site. We went in a mine…

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…and then we went through the old gold processing mill. This is where they take the rock they take out of the mountain, treat it with arsenic and other chemicals, and extract the gold. The process takes a lot of work and is very interesting…

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Once we worked our way through the entire mill, we all learned how to pan for gold and actually found some! The boys had a blast playing in the water and sand.

After the mill, we moved on to lunch at Beau Joe’s Pizza in Idaho Springs (this is a Colorado classic, if you are there, you have to go – it’s a rule.) After lunch, we drove up Loveland Pass and stopped at the top to show the kids the Continental Divide. The weather was great and the pass was beautiful…

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After that, it was down to Dillion and then back to the Hotel for some swimming and bed. Overall, a really nice day.

Thursday

Our last full day in Denver and we took the light rail downtown. It was a nice way to get downtown, the kids really liked the train ride and it was easy and fast. We basically walked up and down the 16th street mall, did a little shopping, and had lunch at Wynkoop in LoDo.

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We finished the day by heading back to the hotel and swimming for a couple of hours. The boys met two other boys there and together they all had a great time…

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Later that night we headed back to Jim and Joanne’s for dinner which once again proved to be a nice night. We walked to a different park and the boys were able to play more and just have fun. What a great way to end our week…

Friday & Saturday

Travel back to Woodbury. A long, long, long, long, long drive. Once again a stop over in Omaha and the home. Two long days of driving. All in all, the boys took it very well and cooperated. We really had a lot of fun!

We nearly melted… Engelsrud Vacation Part 1

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Well, our family vacation to Denver was a blast! Everyone had a good time, we put 2500 miles on the old wagon family truckster, and we got to do pretty much everything we wanted to do. Here is a brief overview, day by day:

Saturday & Sunday

Both of these days were spent in transit. Saturday night we stopped at lovely (read, “dirty and stinky”) Super 8 in Omaha, NE. We spent the few free hours we had before bed walking aimlessly around a Super Wal-Mart because, evidently, Omaha does not believe in public parks.

Sunday night we rolled in to Denver around 5:30 or so and checked in to our very nice, clean, and new Holiday Inn Express in Engelwood, CO – just slightly south of Denver. We went out for dinner, got some groceries, and went back to the hotel for some swimming and hot tubbing.

Monday

Let the fun begin indeed. Monday morning we set out and headed over to the University of Denver to meet up with some friends from when we lived in Denver. Not much had changed at the University and it was really good to see everyone.

After visiting for an hour or so, we moved on to the Denver zoo. Here is a picture from the zoo:

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We spent about 3 hours at the zoo, walking around in nearly 100 degree temps, so by early afternoon we were ready to move on and hopefully cool down. We left the zoo, abandoned our plan to have a picnic (too HOT) and hit the local Kentucky Fried Chicken. After lunch, we headed to Golden for a tour of the Coors Brewery. I know, this was more for Jen and I then the kids – but man, the beer was GREAT!

After Coors, there was dinner and more swimming in the hotel pool. Fun day!

Tuesday

Tuesday was a very busy day! We got up early (as we did almost every day) and headed down to Colorado Springs. Once we got there, we went first to the Cave of the Winds and took the tour. David was terrified to start with, but was able to overcome his fears and have good time in the cave afterall. He was convinced that the cave was going to fall in on top of all of us…

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After Cave of the Winds, we drove up to the top of Pikes Peak. We had planned on taking the train, but little did we know that you need to actually plan ahead and make reservations for such an excursion. We improvised and drove instead (and saved ourselves about $100). We stopped and had a picnic lunch on the way up at a lake along the road. The drive up was nice except for the last two or three miles where I think everyone was suffering from altitude sickness or delirium or something – everything got a little crazy. There was yelling, the kids were screaming, and I almost had to walk my butt down the Pike’s Peak highway.

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After Pike’s Peak, we headed through Garden of the Gods and then back to Denver for dinner with our friends, Jim and Joanne. Dinner, was great! We walked to a little park after dinner, the boys got to play, and we got to talk to other adults. Nice. It was late by the time we left, so no swimming in the hotel pool – just right to bed.

More to follow in Part 2…