For the second part of our trip, we drove down to the Colorado Springs area to a cottage we had rented in Manitou Springs. We stayed at the Town N' Country Cottages where we had a two room cottage that was just perfect for our needs. Lucy and Benjamin stayed in the living room and we had a bedroom all to ourselves. We swam in the pool and Benjamin loved the little playground they had.

We did a bunch of the typical touristy stuff while in this area like hanging out at the Manitou Springs Penny Arcade, driving up Pikes Peak and visiting the Royal Gorge and Garden of the Gods. Here are some highlights:

We also took a slightly adventurous driving route from the Royal Gorge to Cripple Creek called The Shelf Road. It is a gravel road that is just what its called, a shelf along the side of some mountains. The drop-off down to the bottom of the canyon is quite close to where you drive and the scenery is stunning. Mike and I always seem to get ourselves into adventurous driving when we travel (Saddle Road in Hawaii, Ring of Kerry on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, etc etc), so we jumped at the chance to try this route out. We had a blast driving it! We stopped to take a few photos of the scenery and I even shot a video of how crazy the road was (to be posted at a later date).




We had such a wonderful trip and created so many family memories. We all look forward to our return to Colorado very much. It was a sad time leaving those amazing mountains behind for the corn fields of our midwest.