It's hot in Dallas. Not just hot but REAL hot. So we left town on what we're calling a "workcation". So, one week we'll work and the second week we'll take vacation time. Where to, you ask? Some place cool...Colorado Springs!
It was 85 degrees at 7:30 am when we left Dallas. By the time we got to Amarillo, it was in triple digits. As soon as we crossed over into New Mexico, it dropped 20 degrees.
So the first week, we worked. We kept Texas time so that meant we were done working by 3:30 or 4, which was plenty of time to check stuff out. Our first visit was to Garden of the Gods where they have all these amazing rock formations.These spindly rocks in the center are the Cathedral Spires.
John in front of, what I think is, North Gate Rock. We didn't stay long before we heard raucous thunder. When got home, it was raining.
The next afternoon, our friends took us hiking in Ute Valley Park. So this wasn't just a walking trail like what we have at home. This was a hiking trail. We went up in to the mountain and it was fantastic. I think this was my first official hike!
Prickly pear cactus.
The hiking trail is not for the faint of heart. We saw people running up this trail and mountain biking at crazy speeds.
View from the top of the trail. We started at the parking lot below. What a great hike!
Less than a block from our house is the Shooks Run Trail. We tried to walk that at least once a day. On one our walks, we found this "cone formation". I just thought it was funny.
This is a view from the trail by our house. Look in any direction and there's an amazing vista.
Friday afternoon, we decided to go to Pike's Peak. We'd been before but it had been years and we heard they'd completely renovated the trains as well as the visitors center at the summit. The depot is in Manitou Springs.
Pike's Peak is the highest summit of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Named for Zebulon Pike who, in 1806, declared this the highest peak. It has changed names a few times but then in 1890, it was officially named Pike's Peak.
Waiting to board at the train depot. The views from the summit are supposed to be amazing. It from here (the summit) that Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful in 1893.
Windy Point. I think this is a hikers rest stop but not sure.
Ruxton Park - this is a four-home community where the caretakers who maintain the railway live. There's no "running to the grocery store" from here!
At the summit, it's 37 degrees and it's sleeting. There is no visibility and the sleet is pelting us in the face. Knowing that it's freezing at the top, there were people on the train that were wearing shorts and tank tops!
A quick selfie before we dash into the newly renovated visitors center. The railway to the top is a cog railway. It has a toothed rail track between the rail racks. The cog on the train interacts with the toothed track to keep the train from sliding back. The grade on the mountain is anywhere from 12 - 25%. A regular train can only go up a grade of 10%.
Inside the visitor's center, another opportunity for a photo.
Inside the toasty warm visitor's center was a display showing the history of the mountain, etc. I thought this was kind of funny. The display showed the oxygen level at the top of the mountain at 30%. After climbing just one set of stairs at the visitor's center, I could tell.
The remains of the original visitor's center. If you don't want to take the train to the top, you can drive up the winding Pike's Peak highway. Or, you can hike to the top and take the train back down. We had some hikers on our train on the way back to the depot. They started their hike at 7am. Our train left the visitor's center at 4:30pm. There is also an annual marathon that goes up and down the mountain.
And to end our tour of Pike's Peak, we are rewarded with a rainbow!
Our friend, Evangeline, is the Deputy General Counsel for the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. She gave us all this cool information about how the Olympics work, how the athletes train, etc. And, she took us on a tour of the US Olympic & Paralympic training center. The Paralympics are games where the athletes have some sort of disability. They might be blind, or perhaps an amputee. A lot of veterans are Paralympic athletes. I was confusing them with the Special Olympic athletes. Two separate entities.
The center is in Colorado Springs and this where some of the athletes train. They have state of the art facilities that are amazing. At the center, which used to be an old Air Force Base, there are buildings that house training for swimmers, wrestling, basketball, gymnastics, track & field, fencing, pistol shooting...the list goes on. Some of the elite athletes actually live at the training center.
In this building athletes train for basketball, men's gymnastics and, I believe, fencing. Check out our shirts - we have Team USA gear courtesy of Evangeline and Ariel.
This is the torch on top of the building which is lit three times a year: For the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games and Olympic/Paralympic Day. Our guide said that when the torch was lit they'd get lots of calls telling them their roof was on fire... 
We met up with Evangeline and Ariel at their place. I got baby duty! Meet my new best friend, Gideon. He's absolutely adorable and so good. We just love him.
Sunday, our friends took us to the Golden Bee for lunch. This is an English Pub that is part of the Broadmoor Hotel. It's a 19th century pub that was dismantled in the UK, shipped here and reassembled. They have traditional pub fare. John and I split a blackened redfish sandwich that was delish!
When the waiter came to our table, he threw something at each us. I thought he was swatting a fly or something but he was actually throwing these bee stickers at our shirts! That was so cool.
The Broadmoor Hotel - this is the backside where the valet is. This resort is at the foot of the Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs and has a ton of buildings where you can stay. This was the main building. They had a pond in the back where you could paddleboat, a bowling alley and swimming pool. I think they also had a movie theater.
This is the view of the pond and Cheyenne Mountain. It was gorgeous back here. We took a stroll around the pond.
OH! and it had a library. The Pourtale library. It would be cool to stay here but only for a night.
After our stroll, we sat down for a cocktail on the patio. John, Evangeline, Ariel and Gideon who I think is the world's happiest baby. It was a great day. On the way home, Ariel took us for a drive up the Cheyenne Mountain...when it started to rain. 
Afterwards, Evangeline took us on a tour of her office: USOPC HQ. It's so cool! They have all this Olympic memorabilia. USA Basketball (an entity separate from the USOPC) is on the ground floor of their building. Look at the size of these shoes!
These are torches from previous Olympics. The second from the right is from the Rio games in 2016. The one to the left of that is from the Korean games in 2018.
John and I were goofing around in front of this Olympic backdrop.
The five rings everyone recognizes. This is the logo for the Olympics. The rings represent the five continents. The three swoosh like emblems are the Agitos for the Paralympics. The motto is "Spirit in Motion". The Agitos circle around a central point, which represents the athletes congregating from all points on the globe. The committee is trying to educate folks and generate interest in the Paralympics and I can see why. These athletes have amazing stories that are worth your time and attention.
The office houses several artifacts. This is some cool stuff: The wheelchair on the left is from one of the Paralympic basketball players. The pole in the middle is used for the blind swimmers to let them know when they're close to the turn around. The last wheelchair on the right, I think, is for racing. Seriously, these athletes have more ability than most people that have no disabilities.
Next was a day trip to Denver. It's only about an hour north of us so we decided to check it out. Gold was discovered in Colorado in 1858 and brought fortune seekers to the area. Colorado became a state in 1876. Denver is the capital and this is the state capitol building. The dome is gilded in gold, the primary metal of the state. It was originally topped with copper but the citizens objected and the miners gave 200 ounces of gold to gild the dome.
The grand staircase has 57 marble steps and 176 brass balusters. It's located in the center of the first floor and goes up to the second floor, where the house and senate chambers are located. We were going to take the tour but the security guard said the visitors desk was closed. We assumed there were no tours that day...but there were and we missed it.
The gallery for the house chambers is on the third floor. The grand staircase does NOT go to the third floor. To get up there, you have to climb the staircases located in the corners of the building.
They had these old telephone booths with no phones. I assume you're supposed to go in there an talk on your cell phone. Its a bit claustrophobic in there.
There are 8 of these murals on the first floor and they were completed in 1940. They depict the story of Colorado's water and its importance throughout the state's history.
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was consecrated 1912. Prior to the consecration, the spires were struck by lightening and had to be repaired. It was elevated to a minor basilica in 1979.
They have beautiful stained glass windows inside. In August of 1993, Pope John Paul II celebrated mass here. Then in 1997, the spires were, once again, struck by lightening. The repairs were made and the Cathedral has three daily masses and five on Sunday.
Next on our tour of Denver was the Molly Brown House Museum. Margaret Tobin was born in Missouri. She met and married JJ Brown in Colorado. JJ's company found the "Little Johnny" mine which produced a lot of gold. They became millionaires.
Molly was also a survivor of the Titanic. She was in lifeboat 6 and was said to have taken an oar to help row the boat to safety. The survivors were picked up by the RMS Carpathia.
Molly was a philanthropist, an advocate for women's suffrage and an actress.
A mural of Robin Williams as Mork from Ork. The sitcom Mork and Mindy was set in Denver.
Next stop Denver Art Museum. It consists of two buildings: This is the Hamilton Building.
Exhibit outside the Hamilton building.
This is the Martin building. The two buildings are connected by a skyway.
We spent most of our time in the Hamilton Building where they had an exhibit of paintings. This is a Claude Monet. They also had paintings by Pissaro, Cezanne, Renoir and Van Gogh.
Another exhibit that they had was the photography of Georgia O'keefe. I didn't realize that she did photography. I thought she only did paintings like the one above.
The last exhibit that we saw was of Armor. The exhibit was the Age of Armor and it was on loan from the Worcester Art Museum. It was pretty cool. And so ended our day in Denver.
The next day it was back to the Garden of the Gods. The first time we went, we just kind of stumbled upon it. We didn't spend much time there.
This time we got out and did a couple of hikes. This is the Balanced Rock Trail.
We hiked over to Balanced Rock. That was a good starter.
Then we found a much longer and more strenuous trail. It was fun! (Except for all the horse poop. The horses used that trail as well and we needed to be mindful of that.)
This sign is on the trail that we walked on most nights. I kept seeing it and wondered what the heck because this is a residential neighborhood. Back in the day, this area was a dairy pasture. There was a barn here which housed the Highland View Dairy in operation from 1923 - 1929. It was bought by Sol Cox and the name changed. Sol operated the dairy until 1954. The building was torn down in 2012 but the sign remains.
The guides that give the tour are athletes that are training at the facility. Anna, our tour guide, is an aspiring triathlete! She doesn't live at the training center but she does train here.
This buildings holds the cafeteria where the athletes can eat during the day. It's not open to the public but since we have friends in high places we got to check it out and have lunch. It was great! They had a little bit of everything. Apparently, on Tuesdays, they have Pad Thai. Our guide said it was the best Pad Thai she'd ever had. That's a bold statement but the Chef that prepares it is from Thailand. Unfortunately, today was Saturday so we had salad, roasted chicken, mac & cheese, meatloaf and ice cream.
I've learned so much about the Olympics! It's fascinating and I know that I've barely scratched the surface.
One of the things on our bucket list is to go to a baseball game at all the different ballparks. We were only an hour from Denver so we decided to see a Rockies game at Coors Field. It was raining on the way to the game. Luckily, it stopped by the time we walked into the stadium.
Our friend, Ariel, went with us. We had a quick drink at the Seven Grand which was a cool little bar close to the stadium.
Our seats at Coors Field. I don't know what the heck is going on with my hair...but the guys look good.
We took a walk around the stadium and it reminded me of Globe Life Park, the old Ranger's stadium. The concessions here were pretty good. They had Nathan's hot dogs! Sadly, they were out of chili.
The Rockies were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies won 11 - 7. There were fireworks after which assisted in our departure. Everyone stayed to watch the fireworks and we were out of the parking lot and on the highway before they even started.
It's Fourth of July and it was John's turn to play with Gideon. We met up with Ariel, Evangeline and Gideon for lunch at White Pie. Our options were limited because a lot of the restaurants here are mom and pop shops and not open during lunch or on holidays. This place? Deeelish! In fact, it was so good, that I didn't even take a photo. We just dug right in.
After our visit, we went for another walk. We have a double rainbow! I haven't seen a rainbow in years and now I've seen two over the last 10 days! Three if you count the fact this one is a double.
This is the old Supreme Court. It was located in this building until 1977 and then moved to another location.
This was only a small sample of the cool stuff that had on display at this museum. It was incredible.
Sadly, the next day it was time to go home. It was a great getaway and a successful experiment of the "work-cation". We loved seeing our friends and exploring Colorado Springs - Olympic City USA.
