July 17, 2009

on the oregon trail: day 14

We slept in a bit on Tuesday . . . at least until Mom started calling! We hadn’t told her we’d be sleeping in, so she thought calling at 8 would be fine; I think she was a bit confused when I answered my phone with my sleepy voice.

We had coffee at Wild Boar Coffee, just off the Colorado State campus. I really liked my coffee; Val thought hers was good but not great. It was the last coffee we had on our trip.

When Val looked up the Salt Lake City Starbucks, she also looked up a Panera Bread in Denver. Again, she didn’t find directions; she just looked at a map and tried to figure it out. That would have been OK, except that many downtown Denver streets are one-way. Once again, I pulled out the trusty atlas and got us there.

Stephanie had never been to Panera before, so the guy at the counter gave her a free cookie. We enjoyed our wonderful soup and bread and headed off toward Colorado Springs.
Steph loves Panera!

When I started planning this trip, I decided we should definitely visit Focus on the Family. The visitors center was interesting, but the Whit’s End/Odyssey portion was slightly disappointing. It would have been great for an 8-year-old (or for a young family), but we weren’t all that thrilled. Don’t get me wrong—there were lots of interesting things to see—but I had high expectations that weren’t quite met.

After Focus, we went to The Garden of the Gods. Spectacular! We only spent about 45 minutes there, but we could have spent hours!
The formations at The Garden of the Gods were breathtaking!

Steph was wearing a KU shirt yesterday; while we were walking down one of the trails at The Garden of the Gods, we passed two college age guys who started chanting, “Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk!” It was hilarious.

We found a Chick-fil-A for supper! We don't have them, so this was a real treat :-)

Finally late in the evening, we crossed into Nebraska! We got Blizzards in North Platte, stopped at one last rest stop, and then drove like mad to get home, arriving at midnight.
At our last rest stop, Val & Steph show their elation at being back in Nebraska.

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