Colorado

We went to Colorado last weekend for a friend's wedding. It was the 2nd of 3 reunions this summer for all my college roommates. Plus The Husband had just gotten his brand new fancy camera and couldn't wait to try it out on some scenery.

We flew into Denver early Friday. Denver has a fantastic airport. It also looks like a circus tent.

Then we started off to Colorado Springs. We were staying at the Colorado Springs Marriott. The hotel was pretty nice. Unfortunately there was nothing in the area. If you're going to stay in Colorado Springs I'd recommend staying downtown. I saw a Hilton that looked nice.

We started off with some lunch and beers at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company.

Then we were off for the hottest day ever. It's barely broken 80 in Chicago this summer and here it almost hit 100. Plus the two beers at lunch didn't help. Nor did the greasy food.

We first headed to the Air Force Academy Chapel. There was a wedding going on in the main chapel so we didn't get to peek in. Very cool looking. I didn't enjoy the rest of the architecture around the campus. Too 60s/70s.

Second was off to Garden of the Gods. Very beautiful.

Then back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.The rehearsal dinner was held at a country club-ish place overlooking the Garden of the Gods. It was a beautiful setting.

Saturday started by loading our caravan up and setting out for Pikes Peak. It was a beautiful drive up there and there were some stunning views. The Husband stopped the car at every one of them. We decided we enjoyed the drive up more than if we'd taken the train.

The air was definitely thinner at the top and after being up there for a while several of our group got a little dizzy. Plus the temperature up there was 48 degrees.

Some crazy people in our group thought they wanted to hike it. I convinced them otherwise considering two of them are not in the best shape (ahem Husband I'm talking to you) and one of them has asthma and has a hard enough time breathing. Oh and from the website I consulted you're supposed to start at dawn (ummm not happening after our boozefest the night before) and it takes 6 to 10 hours to get up to the top, let alone come down.

Since it was looking fairly ominous when we got back we had to skip the pool and we headed out for lunch at Salsa Brava. This place was heaven. It was happy hour and margaritas were only $3.50.

Then we rushed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The last day a whole group of us including the bride and the groom went to the Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado for a tour. The tour was really good and they give you three glasses of beer at the end.

We had hoped to stop in Boulder but were running low on time. So we headed into Denver for a quick lunch at the 16th Street Mall. We ate a very late lunch at Marlowe's.

We'd love to return to Colorado sometime and hit some of the little ski towns in the summer in the future.