Off into the Wide Blue Yonder

Earlier in the week we ventured out bravely into the world. 60 degree weather in December is so scary to have! We took K's family out to Hammond's Candies for a tour. It was fun and we got some cool pictures from the building holding suckers. Funny times and the candy was so yummy. Stop in and they have delicious samples!
The tour is short but the candy shop is the largest in the state and is fantastic. They have chocolate covered candy cane pieces. They have candy canes filled with chocolate. They have those creamy peppermint pillows. They even make their own kind of turtle chocolates.

Then a few days later we took a trip down to Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. First things we drove to the edge of Pikes Peak. It is a toll road now and it costs quite a lot to go up there. Now we are charging to see the free peaks that God created, isn't that nice!

Right next to it is a place called The North Pole. It is a mini amusement park that is decorated with Christmas themes. It is open from May to Dec. 28th so we just missed that.

So on the way out we stopped at Miramont Castle in Manitou Springs. It is a Victorian mansion. It has something like 64 rooms (used to). It was saved by a family who took a second mortgage to buy the property. Now it is a National Historical site. It is said to be haunted by 7 friendly "spirits". I'm a non-believer in that kind of stuff, but the crystal ball reading volunteer that was the cashier at the place was into it. The house was amazing. It has fabulous Victorian features like windows, doors, door nobs, fireplaces, wallpaper and other things. It even had some Victorian age furniture that J'alee felt the need to sit into a 2000 year old rocking chair. I am just lucky it didnt break! I wont load the pictures on here but they will be on the family snapfish site to view.

Next we stopped across the highway at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. There was an anazazi tribe that used to live there. It was a bit price there too but it was fun. We got there around sunset and it was beautifut to see the rocks on the dwellings and looking out to the rocks on the other side of the valley. It was fantastic.

The kids were running around everywhere and getting quite dirty. I couldnt help but think while we were there how many different Indians where there living with their children. How many men or women were cooking, or protecting the family. It talked about their dental health and I wondered how many of them must have lived in pain. Some of the exhibits talked about how much of what was there was looted by people and that was why everything was missing. I couldnt help but look back at our culture and where we are now. We didnt like the Indians much back then but now Indian lore, artifacts, jewelry, traditions and homes are and we cherish that. We pay 9.50 a person to see where they lived now instead of looting it.

After that we stopped off in the a heavenly place, Garden of the Gods. Feel free to laugh at my weak pun there. But seriously they are red rock formations. Much like at Red Rocks and the Cliff Dwellings. The rocks are great and we stopped to look and take some pictures. There are some of the sunset behind us so the picture is a tad blurry. But it was fun. We took some of the kids sitting on top of some rocks. Of course we were concerned with safety so I held the kids in place while they took some pictures.

We stopped at a rock formation called The Kissing Camels. We thought it would be fun to be kissing, though we drink more and spit less (bottom right). The camels are onthe right side at the top middle of that picture.

Last we stopped at Seven Falls. It was night before we got there so the pictures arent the best. Im still a rookie when it comes to night pictures. We got there and it was free admission and decorated with Christmas lights and you could donate to charity if you liked. We did which is nice. There are seven different types of calls at the end of a box canyon (a canyon wall on three sides). It is said the indians used to hunt and chase their prey into the canyon so it couldnt get out. Makes hunting a lot easier. It was quit chilly at this point especially because it was over 6200 feet high. Brrr! The falls had colored lights behind them and changed to different colors. We got pictures when they were white and it turned out the best then.

All in it was a great couple of days! We had lots of fun and were very tired afterword. We then toasted as we watched the rebroadcast of the ball drop. Happy New Year everyone and thanks for reading! Feel free to make comments that are clean in language and appropriate, and free from advertisement.