Bill, Paul, and I went to Colorado Springs for a mini vacation this weekend.  Bill and I wanted to see if either of us were horribly susceptible to altitude sickness, and Paul came along because he’d never been to Colorado before.  We left the Pittsburgh airport on Friday afternoon.  We spent an 90 minutes circling over our connecting airport, watching lightning flashing in the clouds.  It looked just like it does in Fantasia.  That was sort of cool, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have–I had to pee, and they kept telling us that it’d be just another 20 minutes.  When we finally got to Colorado, our rental car agency was the only one with a line.  Then, we got lost trying to find our hotel.  We got directions at three different 7-11s.  But we did get there, and we got to bed.  

The next morning, we woke up, looked out the window, and got our first sight of the mountains.  The weather was sunny but cold, and we set out for The Garden of the Gods.  We wandered through their gift shop, then we took a walking tour.  It was one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.  It was so beautiful that it didn’t even seem real.  

After our walking tour, we headed over to the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway for our trip up the mountain.  Our seats were at the very front of the train.  It was awesome.  We made it to 12,000 feet, but had to stop there because of the snow.  It was actively snowing on our way up, and visibility was pretty low, but it cleared up a bit on our way down.  The elevation didn’t cause any of us serious problems.  

After that, we wandered around Manitou Springs.  There are mineral water fountains scattered all around the town, and we tried all of them that we could find.  We had lunch at the Colorado Custard Company, where I discovered my new favorite thing.  It’s called a volcano.  Paul and I shared a raspberry one.  It’s like a blizzard, but the center is filled with a pool of hot fudge.  

We went back to the hotel, where I wrote a few postcards.  I’m not really participating in Letter Month, but the idea of it helped me to actually get the postcards filled out and mailed.  It was pretty fun, actually.  

Then, we went out for a super fancy dinner at Mountain View Restaurant.  The food was amazing, and the Cheyenne Mountain Resort was stunning.  After dinner, we wandered around the grounds a bit.  We stood on the deck and looked out at the mountains, we looked at the art that lined their walls, and we enjoyed their variety of lovely fireplaces.  

Then we went back to our hotel.  

Sunday morning, we got up and went to Seven Falls.  The falls were frozen over, and the steps were closed because of the possibility of ice, but we got to ride the mountain elevator up and look around as the sun rose over the canyon.  

We drove up to The Cave of the Winds, where we took their lantern tour.  I love caves, and exploring by lamplight was really neat.  And driving so far up to go underground was incredible.  

Our final stop before we went back to the airport was the Manitou Pancake and Steak House.  I tried the green chili.  It was pretty good.  

Our flights home went smoothly.  The only problem was that we didn’t want to leave.  We’re going to have to go back.  ^_^