Summer Vacation: Day One and Outakes

I think our summer vacation this year might have been that "one" special time in our family history. It was perfect!  Breathtaking location, fabulous fun events, and a great bonding time for our family.  Everyone left with a pocketful of memories (no one had the same favorite thing) and a few rocks from Loveland Pass!  No one wanted to come back to reality and we are all dreaming up ways to move to Colorado!

Our first day on the road was just my husband and us girls as Mr C was still at Church Camp near Pike's Peak.  We'd planned a short day including a stop along the way for P to conduct some business.  A great start to our vacation which included both a visit to a coffee shop/bookstore in a town square and a dip in the pool at the hotel outside Denver.

P and I had some great time to talk and knit as we drove across Nebraska (I knitted, he drove) while the girls were watching movies, sleeping, and doing artwork. It was sad to see the cornfields looking so dry and drought stricken. For a non farm girl, even I could tell you which fields were irrigated and which were dryland crops. Now that's saying something.
I think the girls were wishing we had a small town mainstreet in our town.  They loved the combo bookstore and coffee shop and thought that playing checkers while drinking hot chocolate and lattes really is the life!  I was just grateful to get out of the cars for a bit and stretch my legs!

Of course there were a few funny out takes from our first day on the road:

1.  Miss A while we were driving saw a plane in the air; she yelled out " look it's a seed dropper!" In other words, a Crop Duster.

2.  Miss M, as we were talking about our visit to Keystone and our plans for the week, asked if I thought she would "see the Rocky Mountains from our Condo."  Guess it's a good thing we finally took this girl to Colorado.  She didn't realize that Keystone was in the middle of the mountains! 

Finally, after a long day in the car, we were happy to see the outskirts of Denver ahead.  It was nearing dinner time when we saw, much to our delight, a sign for Chick Fil A. We exited the Interstate and Miss A comments on the beautiful Holiday Inn Express right next door and says she wonders if that's our hotel. I look at my "beautiful map" I've printed and said, "no ours is a few miles down the road."  We have a great dinner with fabulous ice tea and head a few miles down the interstate to our hotel's exit. 

The closer we get the more concerned I am with the "neighborhood" and the more I'm thinking I must have been crazy to book a hotel in this area.  Following the directions leads us to a La Quinta with a few semi's parked outside and run down parking lot next door. The girls are nervous, I'm desperate to find the Holiday Inn Express I booked online, and P is not looking too happy.

We call the number I have printed off and they answer La Quinta. Now I'm freaked. The hotel changed hands a few months ago and the map quest has not been updated. Thankfully, there is no reservation in our name at this hotel.

I call Holiday Inn 800 and ask for the Brighton H.I. and they give me a different number.  I call desperate to see if they have a different hotel and reservation for us; yeah, they do.  I ask for directions and the nice gentleman says that they are located right next to a hospital and a Chick Fil A.  Phew!  Miss A comments that it's too bad I didn't just listen to her in the first place.

Let's just say the hotel was fabulous and the I think everyone in the car was happy when we finally arrived at the real hotel!  Plus, the next morning after a great time in the pool and a fabulous breakfast, we stopped  off for a tall glass of Chick Fil A Iced Tea.  Perfect!