Familie Schmitt has made yet another successful trek across the plains to Colorado. This was our third trip out west to the mountains. The first time was all the way back in 2004, right before we found out we were expecting Benjamin. The second trip was in 2009 when he was just 4 years old (read about that one here). And now we did the trip as a family of four and it was so wonderful.
As I alluded to in previous blog posts, we took a chance by attempting our drive out there over night. We left Tuesday at 9pm and arrived Wednesday at about 11am, Mountain Time. I took the first seven or so hours of the trip and when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, passed the wheel over to Mike just before 4am. Mike brought us all the way to Boulder. We were both surprised at how easy and painless the drive seemed. There, of course, we some moments when each of us were driving and we were sick of being on the road, but honestly it wasn't too bad! Both kids slept like champs and after we stopped in North Platte, Nebraska (NOT recommended) for a very early breakfast (6:00am), those of us not driving even got in a little extra shut eye. We made Pearl Street in Boulder our first stop and after strolling around the shops and playing in a fountain to cool off, we ducked into a local restaurant for lunch.
Next we took a drive up Boulder Canyon. Before we left, I had rented a new lens for my camera from BorrowLenses.com - a Tokina 11-16mm and I was eager to try it out on some mountains. The lens was great for capturing wide spaces, but the quality of photos wasn't as good as I get from my go-to lens, the "Nifty Fifty." I was happy to have it along though and it proved useful in large areas like Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods later in the trip.
For the first two nights we stayed in the Hyatt Summerfield Suites in Broomfield, which is directly between Boulder and Denver. It was a great location for exploring that area and the hotel itself was wonderful. They had a nightly welcome reception with appetizers that largely served as our dinner for those first two evenings and a great breakfast every morning as well. Our room was a suite with a partial room divider between the living room area and bedroom area. We also had a full kitchen, which served as Lucy's bedroom.
Before we left home we bought some tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. They played the Milwaukee Brewers. We cheered for the Rockies and they beat the pants off of the Brewers! It looked like it was going to storm during the entire game, but it must just have been some kind of crazy mountain weather effect, because it never rained - thank goodness.
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