Day 5: Colorado Springs, CO to Casper, WY (Lions and Tigers and Giraffes, Oh My!)
In her trip report,
4300 Miles of Love: Yellowstone Tetons Style with LOTS of Photos, estherhead wrote, There comes a point in every vacation where things start to blend together and you completely lose track of time. That point came yesterday. It is a lovely point in a vacation. But often it is things going wrong that force you to enter that mode. The point where the plan must be adjusted, where you finally give up the control that makes your life at home work and go with flow of vacation. She hit it on Day 7, and we hit it on Day 5.
This is a day that I had really been looking forward to. Not only was I going to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, I was also going to meet my DIS board friend, babytrees! I didnt give the rest of my family the information that I should have, though, and looking back, it was pretty stupid of me. To me, I was meeting someone that I had already known for a couple of years. To my family, we were meeting a group of strangers. My family doesnt like surprises. Dh can be uncomfortable around new people. Most importantly, Girl never really outgrew stranger anxiety. I should have introduced my family to babytrees and her family before we even left home. But my family doesnt really understand this whole DIS board thing, so maybe they wouldnt have been any better anyway. Also, Im much better in writing than I am in person. Im not sure exactly how to say that, but I do have a little social anxiety myself, so its sometimes hard for me to say everything that I am thinking when Im actually talking to someone. This is getting to be rambling, so Ill wrap it up. Im going to gloss over the parts where my daughter was much ruder than she meant to be. I know, she knows, and babytrees knows, but overall it didnt spoil our day. Thank goodness, babytrees is intuitive and sensitive. I think we did a pretty good job of balancing my place between wanting to get to know her and her family better and helping Girl feel comfortable. We had a great day! I really hope she feels the same way.
One of my other mistakes that morning was thinking that I didnt need Daniel (our GPS). It was a pretty straight shot to the zoo from our hotel, so I decided to navigate and drive. The only problem was that the road was closed. So, trusty Daniel was pulled from the glove box and came to our rescue.
This is Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. We didnt drive up there (lack of time), but I am sure that the views are phenomenal. Look at that blue, blue sky!
If anyone is going near Colorado Springs, definitely carve out some time for the Cheyenne Mountain zoo. It was spectacular! We had spent the past month watching the giraffes and meerkats via the webcam at the zoos website (
www.cmzoo.org). We had already fallen in love with those giraffes. What is even better is that you can feed them! They are right there next to you and have such sweet faces, and it definitely was an experience that we will cherish.
I could have spent the entire day with the giraffes, but there was so much more to the zoo, that I eventually tore myself away.
The chipmunks were so much larger than any we had at home!
Ironically, the squirrels were much smaller, though I don't have a photo of those for you.
We wandered through the rest of "Africa"...
The elephants were inside that day, so we didnt get any really good photos of them. Girl loves elephants, though, and she was happy to get to see them.
This zoo is absolutely beautiful, and the views are stunning.
We continued to walk around the zoo and marvel at the exhibits, the scenery, and the animals. Girl continued to warm up to the strangers, and I was able to talk to babytrees more.
The wallabies were great. They were just hopping around out in the open. We were able to pet a baby wallaby that one of the docents was holding, too.
Another place that I could have spent the whole day was Rocky Mountain Wild. The grizzly bears had a terrific exhibit, and they were busy playing in their pool. They came right up to the windows and were so much fun to watch.
I didnt get any pictures of the river otters, but they were great fun to watch, too.
The mountain lions were easy to see.
The porcupine was so close that you could probably touch him if you didnt have any common sense.
We passed by the pony rides that Girl insisted that she wanted to do, but they werent operating. I think she was only half-joking. She never would have done the pony rides, but I know that there was part of her that wanted to.
It was nearing 11:30 am (MT), which was the time I was originally planning to leave. We just couldnt go without seeing the rest of the zoo, though. I realized that we didnt really need to see the Olympic Training center or the Air Force Academy. (If you ever go to Colorado Springs, please give yourself more than 30 hours!) I did need to find some food and shade for my rapidly melting family, though. It was way past their standard lunchtime, and it was hot that day. The heat wasnt as bad as it could have been, because the humidity was so low. I love low humidity! It was still taking its toll, and a quick break was in order. Babytrees and her family were also ready for a little break, so we went to the little restaurant and had some lunch/snacks. Girl really wanted ice cream, but she was too full after eating lunch. We told her that wed get some later.
To be continued (since I hit my image limit)...