Durkin Family Reunion - Part II

Day 5 - Thursday, July 5th

We headed back down the mountains to Denver. We stopped on the way back to see Red Rocks again since Bryan missed it the first time because he was golfing. Whatever. It was still amazing. We hung out at George's until it was time to go to Tom's for dinner. We ate all the leftovers from our stay in Fraser. We had so much good leftover food to eat up. Evan put a slight damper on the party when he developed a fever, cough and runny nose. Man, that stuff can come on fast. He was better the next day after some Tylenol and some sleep.

Day 6- Friday, July 6th

We decided to take the I-25 route through Colorado Springs on our way back to Texas. We knew we were going to do the drive in 2 days instead of 1 like on our way up. So we also decided to get in a little sightseeing while we were at it. Our first stop was the U.S. Air Force Academy. Most of my good pics of this campus are on my film camera but I did get a few on the digital.

We saw the new freshman cadets doing some marching drills - at least that's what I think they were doing...lots of marching. I think Brennan was most excited about the plane. We did sneak a peek inside the Cadet Chapel. It was just about to close for a wedding...how gorgeous it was inside.We hiked back down the path to the car - Brennan wanted a silly picture. It was a beautiful morning to walk around...who knows, maybe Brennan will want to go there some day.

We then drove an hour out of the way to Canon City to see the Royal Gorge. Now I don't really have any great shots of what this truly was like...so check out this site to get an idea. http://www.royalgorgebridge.com/FactSheet.aspx I will say that I was desperately trying to be a "cool Mom" and go across this thing - which I did. But I was totally freaking out the whole time. It is over a 1000 feet up in the air, some wood slats beneath you (which you could see through) and some cables holding it up, the raging Arkansas River below. It was windy, it was swaying and it was really high up in the air. Cars can drove on it - but it made it bumpy and it moved when they did. So pretty much I wanted off the entire time I was on it. But I managed to live and nobody fell to their death - at least while I was there.

Here are my sweet babies on the bridge....they had no fear. Evan enjoyed the wind and Brennan was excited to see the train below and rafters going by. We skipped the cable ride over the gorge and the tram that goes down the side of the gorge to the bottom. We also skipped the dorky little train ride too. So we basically walked across and back - me more quickly than others. That night we only made it to Raton, NM where we found a Comfort Inn with a pool. We ate at the Icehouse Restaurant where every waitress was stopping by to talk to Evan and Brennan. I was annoyed by the waitress that said Evan had "left me some presents" - I guess saying he had a poopy diaper...I checked, he didn't. So was she saying my baby was stinky? Anyways.

Day 7 - Saturday, July 7th

We were so lucky to discover that that weekend in Raton was the 12th annual Balloon Rally. So we stopped on our way out of town to see the dozens of hot air balloons.

We also got some pics on this caboose that was at the Visitor Center. It is from the Santa Fe Railroad which I think began somewhere near Raton or something like that. Anyways, we made it home to Dallas at 6pm that night. We had a great time and saw so many wonderful things. We are pooped and it will be a while before we decide to drive in the car for an extended period of time.