Kentucky and Ohio

 I didn't blog this trip as we did it, so this is a recap of the fun. 

This was the first trip the kids and I have taken with my Mother-In-Law, without Hubby. It came together because both she and I wanted to go to see these things, and with the recent passing of my Father-In-Law and our homeschooling this year we all had the time to see something new. [Editor's note: The specific timing of the trip coincided with a trip that I had already planned to Toronto. More on that below.]

We started off with Kentucky. The main goal was to see the Ark and explore that attraction. 
If you are at all curious about it, it won't fail to impress. 

Even from a distance, it is huge!

Can't get it all in one picture! 

Walking to the entrance

We were lucky to be there when crowds were light and it was a really nice experience. We thought their interpretation of the Ark and Noah experience was really interesting. They posed some theories we hadn't considered before. All and all, very nicely done and thoughtfully presented. We enjoyed the grounds and even had a buffet lunch there at the Ark. Not all the shopping was open, again we hit it offseason. But we felt we got to see everything we wanted and truth be told none of us are used to the midwest heat. 

Inside: representations of how they might have housed small animals

More examples of what might have been inside

So amazing

Decided a panorama shot was in order to get it all

Day two, we went to the Ark's sister attraction, The Creation Museum. Another very nicely done experience. Lots to see and do, with beautiful gardens surrounding. We thought the combined experience was great and would easily go again if we can. 

Beautiful gardens

Day three we transitioned into Ohio. I have some family history in the state, so we started that day with a late breakfast at the Clifton Mill. I remember being here as a kid with my Dad and Grandma, returning with my kids was so sweet. We had the afternoon free and found a fun model train display to check out at EnterTRAINment Junction in Cincinnati. They have a huge display and some fun activities we even got grandma to do with us. 

Waiting for breakfast at the Mill

Map of EnterTRAINment train layout

Day four we got up early and drove out to The Wilds in Cumberland. Yup, we have been watching Secrets of the Zoo, how did you guess? Well, that and our local zoo has a new resident who was born at The Wild's, so we were really curious to see what this Wild Animal park was like. 

It is HUGE. We enjoyed the bus tour of the park. Between you and me, the driver/guide wasn't quite as knowledgeable as I was hoping, but I am a bit of a nerd with zoo stuff, so I may have just been asking too much ;) 
What a fun day it was. The weather was a bit breezy, which was great. 

I had an interesting experience this night... in the middle of the night I woke up. It took me a while to realize why. Off in the distance, I could hear a repeating horn or siren. Everyone else was asleep... it was maybe 2 am. It took me a few minutes to realize it might be tornado-related. So I called down to the front desk and asked. They calmly reassured me it was in fact tornado-related (I don't know my warnings, from my watches - so I can't tell you which it was). But that they were monitoring it and would for sure let everyone know if something was coming this way. If you didn't guess, that really didn't reassure me. I am a west coast girl... I don't know tornados, other than what Hollywood has shown me. So I took some time at the edge of my bed to contemplate my options. After some reflection and prayer (you know it), I made sure the kids and I all had easy/fast access to our shoes and clothes and eventually fell back asleep. I didn't wake my Mother-In-Law up. 
The next day at breakfast, I told them all what they had slept through. 

Last Day - The Columbus Zoo. If you have followed us much, you know we go to zoos... so this seemed to be a logical choice after our day at The Wild's. There were two things we didn't count on... 1. schools were out and 2. it was SOOOO HOT! 
But we gave it a solid try. One of us got a migraine, one needed a break from the heat and none of us saw the whole zoo, but what we saw, we liked a lot. 

The bears know how to stay cool!

Gotta ride the zoo train! 

It was a fun trip, to new places. My Mother-In-Law and I travel well together and have talked about planning another trip with the kids if we continue to homeschool next year. [Editor's note from the future: The idea of another trip and the world of 2020 didn't align well.]

[Editor's trip report:

While everyone else was in Kentucky and Ohio, I was on a solo trip to Toronto. They left a couple days before I did, and I returned the day after they did, but generally the two trips overlapped.

My primary destination was Canada's Wonderland, to ride roller coasters. So armed with a shiny new season pass and three days worth of "Fastlane Plus" which allowed me to skip most of the lines, that's what I did.

Side note: I was in Toronto for a couple days in 2016 for a conference, and while I was flying in I looked down and saw this huge rollercoaster and said to myself "Why didn't I know about that?" Later research revealed that the coaster that I saw was Leviathan which is the slightly smaller, slightly older sister coaster to Fury 325 at Carowinds which is still my current favorite. 

Anyway, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all spent at Canada's Wonderland, with a couple of side trips, including a visit to the Toronto Zoo (which is massive, and apparently being a zoo volunteer at our local zoo, and having an excellent ability to read a map put me in a good position to help other visitors find various things there). On Wednesday, I worked from my company's Toronto office.(I actually needed to meet with a couple people in that office anyway, so the timing worked out well), then I flew home that evening.

At Canada's Wonderland, my favorite coaster was Leviathan (unsurprisingly), but interestingly, the most fun I had was on Yukon Striker. Here's why: Yukon Striker had been open for only about a week when I was there. It is also a B&M dive coaster. That means that the seating is arranged in 3 rows of 8 people across. Since I was a single rider each of the dozen or so times I rode it, it meant that I was usually between two different groups of people who were all riding this roller coaster for the first time. That added enough to the experience that even though I still like Leviathan more as a coaster, Yukon Striker was a more fun experience.

Some random photos from the trip:

Breakfast on my first day at Canada's Wonderland.

Leviathan in the distance

Yukon Striker as viewed from Behemoth

Wolf puppies at the Toronto zoo

Red panda at the Toronto zoo

We hope to try to return to Toronto as a family in the summer of 2021. (Assuming, of course, that travel has returned to somewhat normal -- I'm writing this in September of 2020.)]

Colorado - out and about heading home

We slept in... I don't know that we meant to. I could blame it on the time zone as Colorado is Mountain time, but more likely we all just needed a little extra sleep. We missed breakfast at the hotel and decided to just check out and run by Panera for a little something to hold us till lunch.

After Panera, we headed back to Boulder. We had talked about doing the Celestial Seasoning Tea Factory Tour. But the factory isn't actually running on the weekends, so instead we decided to just buzz over and check out the shop, and see where it was for next time.
The shop was filled with delightful bits and bobs. Many adorable tea lover trinkets and LOTS of tea. We picked up a few boxes of flavors we don't have at our local store.

We decided we will return the next time we are in the area on a weekday and do the whole tour experience. On our way out I spotted something in the field... what could that be... Prairie Dogs?
Yup... soooo many!!! I was totally taken back by how many, how close to us, and well them just being there, to begin with. Once we spotted them there, we saw them all over the place. Amazing.

From here we were off to the Denver Zoo.. you know us and zoos.
It was an easy drive but parking was insane... it was clear that something was going on at the zoo.... and it involved people in costumes and candy from what we could tell. We were lucky enough to notice the Denver Museum of Nature and Science almost next door and decided that was a better fit... It really was!

Parking was easy peasy and the museum was WONDERFUL. We saw quite a bit of it and really enjoyed our time.

This wrapped right into time to head home. We returned our rental, checked our bags, and picked up some dinner before boarding our flight home. An uneventful three hours later we were waiting for our bags at baggage claim.

We had a bit of unwanted excitement getting to the car when our oldest rolled his ankle. It was a first for him (not for me or sister), but we got him through it and home for ice and rest. He will be on sprain ankle protocol for a few days... I think it is just strained, but the difference is currently lost on him.

Besides the ankle, it was a great weekend adventure. We all enjoyed Colorado and look forward to going back.

Colorado - Another beautiful day with a train

We had a weird night last night... either one or the other kid was up for one reason or another. It was a bit like a really sleepy game of whack-a-mole. As soon as one was quiet, the other would pop up.
So this morning, we decided to eat a big breakfast.... we ventured out to a local place called The Egg and I.  You may have guessed they do a lot of egg based dishes. We each ordered something different from French toast to Huevos Rancheros. Overall it was tasty.
After breakfast, we ventured over to Boulder for a short driving tour of the town. We may go back tomorrow for more exploring.

Another beautiful day in Colorado.

Then we enjoyed about an hour of rest in the room, which I really needed after my night of whack-a-mole

Our afternoon plans involve a train ride in Georgetown, about an hour away. Another beautiful day for driving through Colorado. We noticed that we were going higher and higher into the mountains and began to wonder how high we would get today. HIGH, is the answer. Very very high for us sea-level people.

The Georgetown Loop Railroad is currently doing an Oktoberfest themed round trip ride from Georgetown to Silver Plume and back. See pictures for elevation!!

We also got to sample some local root beer, which hubby enjoyed on the train.

The hour-long ride was very nice and we were glad we took the time to go. Back in town, we picked an old family favorite for dinner - the Old Spaghetti Factory. This location, Westminster, is just a year old .. so all the bread knives are still sharp. After eating our fill we spotted something on the way to the car.... balloons! 

There was some event across the highway and they had about 8 hot air balloons doing a balloon glow. We hung out for a bit to enjoy the sight. 

Back in the room, we all wound down... The bed is calling.

Colorado - Caves, Animals and a little shopping

Well, the title pretty much tells our day, so....

Just kidding, I will go into more detail ;)

Amazing landscape!

We breakfasted at the hotel, which is the Holiday Inn Express Broomfield. Plenty of seating for breakfast which I always appreciate. Food was fine, nothing to really talk about one way or the other.
And we hit the road. We are off to the Colorado Springs area for a few activities today.
We drove about an hour and a half to our first destination, The Cave of the Winds.

Check out that view!

Entrance to the Cave of the Winds area

None of us did the crazy zip-line ride or swing - this time. We all did the Discovery Tour of the Cave. It was a really nice tour taking us and a dozen others through the intricate tunnels and caves. The path was paved and it was all lit. Even had ample handrails along the way. I am not one who would look forward to caving.. neither is our son. But this tour looked like something I could handle and we have all ridden enough trains over the years for him, we figured we could make it today. Our young lady and hubby really enjoyed it and hope to return again someday for a more adventurous tour.

On the tour we were told to remember that on the tour "right is right and left if lost", in hopes of not losing any of us along the way. I found the phase delightful and have been using it a lot.... a lot a lot. At least one of my kids is already sick of it.

Some pics from in the cave...

After the tour and customary stop at the gift shop we headed to lunch at Noodles and Co. Still don't have one at home, so it's always a treat.

Next stop - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

Before we get into the zoo can we talk about elevation?
We live in LOW country... we are talking sea level people, so the Denver area is quite a change. I knew this going into the trip and driving past Mile High Stadium twice today, I commented on it.
I really felt it in the cave. We had some steps here and there on the tour... not too many, but we were all winded.
And now we get to the zoo......

6714 Feet!

So, this zoo is on a mountain. And instead of being spread out horizontally, it's vertically, up the mountain. Which is cool... but, hold on, let me catch my breath.... tiring.

Our young lady was feeling the elevation/altitude when we got to the zoo. So we paced ourselves and worked on getting her hydrated.
Being zoo fans (you know we are) we really enjoyed this unique layout. Starting with feeding the giraffes.

This was soo cool.

Soo Amazing!

We followed the path around. The zoo closed early today for an evening event, and by the time they were closing we were ready for a rest. I'd love to come back someday and spend more time.

View back towards Colorado Springs from the Zoo

MOOSE!

On the way back to our hotel we made a stop at the Castle Rock Outlets. I was interested in a specific store we don't have back home and picking up a pair of shoes for one of the kids. We got our items and continued on our way.
Dinner tonight - Infinitus Pie. This place only makes single person size pizzas. So you get to pick exactly what you want . It turned out to be great. The kids both thought the red sauce was a little spicy, but they had a train running around the restaurant, so somehow that made up for it a little.

Dinner Venue

We picked up some cookies on the way back to the room and were able to relax and plan tomorrow.

All in all a really fun day. We all need to drink more, but we will get the hang of it.

Colorado for the weekend!

Hubby spent the bulk of the week in the Denver/Boulder area for work, so we decided to join him for the tail end and make a long weekend out of it.

The kids and I flew into Denver this afternoon and hubby picked us up. It was cool to see a bit more of the Denver Airport, we have had a handful of layovers in Denver over the years, but today we got to see baggage claim! Already it's a trip of firsts ;)
Ok, sarcasm over, I promise.

From the airport we headed toward Boulder. Our residence for our mini Colorado adventure is actually in Broomfield. The first thing I was struck by was the landscape. I think I have always assumed this area would have a similar feel to the northwest, but it feels a lot more like Albuquerque to me - high dessert, and HUGE sky.

We more or less missed lunch so an early dinner was our only real plan for today. We hit the local CPK for a familiar meal. The restaurant was hosting the local police department and their fundraiser for the Special Olympics. We had a really nice conversation with a few of the officers about it and after our meal our young lady got a tour of one of the squad cars. The officer who talked with her was wonderful. It was a real treat.

Tour of the police vehicle.

They carry a lot of stuff!

After dinner, we picked up a few items and returned to the room to relax. Looking forward to getting out and exploring Colorado tomorrow.