Colorado Day 3

Friday, July 31st

Dad and Eric made another water run early this morning.  Sarah and I were the next one's to get up in the cabin.  As we were getting ready to eat breakfast, Sarah glanced out a window and yelled for me to "come look now!"  I raced to the window, not knowing what I was about to see... and there were two fawns and their Mama.  I quickly got the camera and tried to quietly open the cabin door so we could go out and watch them from the front porch.  They heard the door opening and began to hop and run to the side of the cabin, but not before I could snap a few quick pictures of them.

Mid-morning we decided to go back to the North Pole to let the kids finish riding some of the rides that they had missed riding on Wednesday, due to Mom's fall.  We started off with the Candy Cane roller coaster.  After the coaster had gone around one time Phoebe gave the operator the thumbs down sign and he promptly stopped it so that she could get off.  Silas also decided to abandon ship when the ride stopped for Phoebe.  Neither of them liked the coaster much.  Sarah however moved up to sit with me and we rode the coaster a few more rounds together, whooping, hollering, laughing and wheeeing all the way.

Popee rode the tea cups with the kids.  He was in a tea cup with Phoebe.  They tried to NOT spin their cup.  Sarah and Silas rode together.  They started out spinning like crazy, but Sarah quickly stopped the spinning and just hugged Silas.  He didn't enjoy the fast spinning.  Maybe he should have ridden with Popee and Phoebe....

Silas enjoyed a bunch of small kid rides.  Sarah tolerated them with him.

Until they got to the boat ride... Sarah was too tall for this one, so Phoebe took over the big sister duties.  The boats were one ride that Silas and Phoebe had been looking forward to going back and riding.  They were amazed that the boats were in REAL water!

Next up a replay of the highest Ferris Wheel in the world... I refused to ride again, along with my Mom and Phoebe.  The riders looked like they liked it, especially the two who leaned forward on their bench for my picture....

It was a warm day.  Phoebe started using a small backpack for shade as she waited for us to ride a few more rides.

We made it back to the Scrambler.  Mom really wanted to ride.  Dad and I strongly discouraged this though, advising her to wait till next year.  She finally agreed with us and stood on the sidelines this time watching Sarah and I ride her favorite ride.  Next year Mom, I will gladly let you ride with Sarah, AND I will help you up into the Scrambler car this time.  XOXOXOXO

We stopped at the Carousel on our way to the exit for one more spin around it.  Sarah picked a horse to ride.  Silas picked a reindeer and Phoebe picked a sleigh.

The very last ride for us was the Sky Ride.  Sarah wasn't happy about this ride, but the rest of us enjoyed it.  There are some great views of the park and the mountains from the Sky Ride.

Later in the afternoon we headed to Cripple Creek and Victor. Colorado.  On our way there we saw a herd of Elk.  Eric and I counted over 80 Elk in this herd, some with large antlers.  They were down in the valley (2 pictures below) and we used binoculars and a good zoom lens on my camera to see them better.

Our first stop in Cripple Creek was the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad.

We took a ride on train #2.  All four of the trains are old steam engines.  It was raining some as we got on the train so we rode in the first covered car right behind the engine.  Dad wanted to ride with the front door open so that he could smell the smoke... and boy did we ever smell it.  Yuck.  I finally had to close the door.  I couldn't take it anymore.  Double yuck on that smelly smoke from the steam engine.

It was a very interesting train ride filled with lots of Cripple Creek and Victor history from our engineer.  We also had some great views of old mines and heard tales of the gold found in them.

After our train ride we ate a late birthday dinner for Dad's birthday at a Mexican restaurant in the Bronco Billy's casino in Cripple Creek.

Then we headed on to Victor where there is still active gold mining happening today.  We could see some of the mining equipment used in today's mine,  Below is an old tire off one of the trucks used to haul rock out from the mine.  It was huge!

While driving through the town of Victor we saw two foxes eating dinner on the side of the road.  One scurried away, but the other just kept right on munching on his food as we slowly drove right past him.

It was another good day in Colorado filled with wildlife sightings, smiles, and beautiful views.  I am so thankful for my time spent with my family in one of my most favorite places on earth.