Road Trip 2010--Days 7 and 8

Our original vacation plan for this year was just a long weekend in Glenwood Springs.  I had researched little places throughout Colorado and thought that that city seemed to be a good match for our kind of vacation.  When Esther decided to get married, our plans changed.  So, the decision to drive halfway back and spend the night in Glenwood Springs was quite exciting for me.  I even knew which hotel to stay in!

We spent the morning packing up at Amy's house and getting ready to go.  We were on the road by 11am and estimated that it would take us about 6 hours (with stops) to make it to Glenwood Springs.  We drove about 3 and half hours before stopping for a late lunch (we had a very late breakfast) in Grand Junction.  After our stop it was only an hour and half more onto Glenwood Springs.  Thankfully by this point in the trip Finn had resigned himself to being strapped into a car seat and was so tired that he could sleep about anywhere.  This trip was much less eventful than our trip out!

We arrived by 5pm, checked into the AmericInn, and immediately changed into our bathing suits to go enjoy their swimming pool/water park.  We all had a good time swimming, and Reid and I even enjoyed several trips down the water slide.  I had no idea that before our vacation Reid had never been on a water slide!  Now he can say that he's gone down two!  After we were done swimming, we changed into jammies and went out for a late dinner at the Dairy Queen Grill and Chill we had seen.  Seriously, this could be my all-time favorite Dairy Queen.  Good thing there's not one anywhere nearby or I'd be there every day.  It was a nice way to end the day.

Finally, it was the last day of our vacation.  We only had a three and half hour drive ahead of us, so we decided to enjoy the morning in Glenwood Springs.  We bought tickets for the tram ride and an 11:20am cave tour.  Kai was super excited to take the tram up to the top of the mountain.  In addition to cave tours there is the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, complete with an alpine slide.  The cave tour lasted about an hour and half and included a tour through two different caves (one that is "dead" and another that is "living").  I've been on many cave tours and this one was definitely different than I was expecting.  It was nice, just different.  The formations were beautiful.  Kai also made great friends with the tour guide.  He became her buddy and he loved the fact that he got to be at the front of the group.  Unfortunately, towards the end I had to leave with Finn as he was just hitting his breaking point--tired and hungry.  After the tour was over and Finn was settled, we walked around the park.  Kai was dying to go on the alpine slide.  We decided to wait and come back another weekend when we could relax a bit more and thoroughly enjoy our time.

The view from the tram

Kai touching "cave popcorn"

So, we hit the car.  Our first stop was lunch at the Dairy Queen Grill and Chill, and then we were off.  With only a couple of diaper change stops along the way, we were home by dinner time.  And boy did it feel good.  One of the best things about vacation is that it reminds you how much you enjoy being at home.  It was nice to get away, but it's certainly nice to be back.