31. August 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 39: Bar D Chuckwagon Suppers, Durango, CO · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
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The Bar D Ranch is about 10 miles north of Durango and is a fun, family friendly activity.

After our ride on the Durango & Silverton, we headed about 10 miles north of Durango (much of which was along the train route) to visit the Bar D Ranch.

These types of ranches are popular tourist attractions throughout the southwest. There are several in Colorado, including the Flying W Ranch right here in Colorado Springs. Our family had never done something like this, so it was a completely new experience.

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30. August 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 38: The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , ,
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Did I mention I love our camera? This is the money shot here…and we were glad we were towards the end of the train so we could get these views of the locomotive.

Dave had been telling me about the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for many years. Okay, perhaps over 20 years. It was the highlight of a Colorado trip he had taken as a teenager, and he was excited for a chance to share the experience with the boys and me. So we made sure to include this on our southwestern vacation.

In the summertime, it’s important to get the tickets well ahead of time. I visited my local installation tickets and tours office at the Air Force Academy and received discounted tickets about 4 weeks in advance. I also made sure to secure nearby hotel reservations. On a whim I made the family a reservation at a cowboy supper show for fun. I’ll write about the Bar D after this post. More »

23. August 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 36: The Color Fun Fest in Colorado Springs · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
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Color Fun Fest: Before and After. Like other runs of this type, the Color Fun Fest brings the elements of the ancient Hindu spring festival of Holi. Photo credit: Herb Keyser.

Last weekend I had the chance to participate in my first “color run.”

“Oh! Which one? The Color Run? Run or Dye? Color Me Rad? The Graffiti Run?”

No, none of those. I had the chance to participate in the Color Fun Fest 5K on its stop in Colorado Springs.

The event markets itself as a family-friendly combination of the ancient Hindu Holi festival with heavy electronica music. During Holi, which is traditionally celebrated near the vernal equinox, friends and families celebrate love and good friendship. One of the Holi traditions is tossing of colored powders.

You will feel this energy during the Color Fun Fest. Participants run a 5K race while having colored cornstarch tossed at them approximately every mile. It’s a relatively new event making its way around the U.S., and I think once it works out some growing pains, it has the potential to be a successful running event series. Read on for details about my family’s experience. More »

The Denver Mint is an interesting place to visit, but the security requirements are pretty stringent.

The Denver Mint is an interesting place to visit, but the security requirements are pretty stringent. No photography inside the facility, so I took a couple photos outside.

My sons have always been interested in money. Not only saving money, but also how money is manufactured and distributed. I have memories of looking at U.S. paper money and seeing the Federal Reserve Seal. The letter ties in with a location, with “A” being Boston, Massachusetts in the northeast and “L” signifying San Francisco in the west. When I was a kid, most of the dollars circulating in my part of the country had an “E” for Richmond, Virginia.

We enjoyed the trip to the American Numismatic Museum in May where we learned all about the history of money and coin collecting.

Getting to the U.S. Mint in Denver is much more difficult. Not only is it farther away, but the word on the street was that we needed 90 day advance reservations. So not long after moving here in June 2013 I hopped online at the U.S. Mint’s website to try to get a reservation. It always seemed to be filled on the days that our family was available to visit. I got on the website in October to try to get reservations for the holidays, but the mint was closed to tours during the holidays. More »

27. May 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 34: Colorado Springs Sky Sox with Timmy’s Little League Team · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
Timmy is #2.

Timmy is #2.

The first weekend of May, Timmy’s Little League baseball team did the Little League fan experience thing** with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the AAA Minor League Baseball team that plays right up the street from us. They’re the Colorado Rockies AAA affiliate team.

**It took me a second to sleuth around for the name of the program that Timmy participated in. It’s called the “Junior Sky Sox“.

This is very similar to what Timmy’s team did in Florida last summer with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos “Field of Dreams” experience.

This was also one the Sky Sox’s multiple Military Appreciation Nights, along with Timmy’s free ticket, the rest of us got discounted box seat tickets with our military IDs. That was nice.

Timmy’s team got to run out on the field with the Sky Sox players. It was very cute and I’m proud of how well the boys did. Alas, the Sky Sox didn’t win that night. More »

The American Numismatic Association Money Museum is located on the campus of Colorado College near downtown Colorado Springs. Here, Timmy is looking closely at the "error notes", bills with mistakes.

The American Numismatic Association Money Museum is located on the campus of Colorado College near downtown Colorado Springs. Here, Timmy is looking closely at the “error notes”, bills with mistakes.

On a day off of school on May 1st, the boys and I took a short trip down to Colorado College near downtown Colorado Springs to visit the American Numismatic Association Money Museum. More »

08. May 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 32: Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Colorado Springs · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,
The Western Museum of Mining and Industry is a fun 1/2 day trip in the Colorado Springs area. We learned so much!

The Western Museum of Mining and Industry is a fun 1/2 day trip in the Colorado Springs area. We learned so much! Here’s Timmy posing at a headframe with the Rampart Range in the background.

The boys had some days with no school in April and early May, so we did some sightseeing around the city. I have a list that I keep of things to do when the kids have no school, and this year we are working our way through the list quite nicely. It was a lovely day on April 21st, so we visited the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, which is right off I-25’s Exit 156, which is also the North Gate of the Air Force Academy.

It was a great time for Jacob to take the trip, since he is currently in the middle of his first research paper about geology. He had a chance to learn about the valuable minerals that exist in the Rockies, and what is done to extract them. More »

Standing at the top the Red Lady lift. The lifts at Crested Butte are named after former Colorado mines.

Standing at the top the Red Lady lift. The lifts at Crested Butte are named after former Colorado mines.

Our family took a Spring Break trip at the end of March to Crested Butte, Colorado. It’s home to Mt. Crested Butte Ski Resort, which is a family-friendly, classic ski resort, a far departure from the day-tripper-friendly ski mountains we’d been visiting this season. Enjoy the pictures I took with my brand new iPhone 5S’s kick-butt camera!

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This beautiful new facility opened in Spring 2012. It’s not completely full, there’s plenty of room to populate with more exhibits.

I’ve been remiss. 2 1/2 weeks since my last post. Things have been getting progressively busier in the Vollmer house as our boys have started their baseball practice with their new baseball program: Academy Little League.

The boys were out of school on Valentine’s Day, so we took the day and cashed in on part of the Christmas gift from my dear sister’s family: tickets to the History Colorado Center in downtown Denver. As I’ve written for the GeekMom blog, I love state history museums, and I’ve dragged our sons to the history museum for every state we’ve lived in since they were born. More »

26. January 2014 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 29: Ski Cooper (Not Copper) · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

The snow, the views, and the lack of crowds makes Ski Cooper (not Copper) a local favorite!

Our family took two day trips over two consecutive weekends to Ski Cooper, a small resort just north of Leadville, Colorado. The lift tickets are very inexpensive, there were never lift lines, and we took advantage of the boys getting to take two full days of lessons through the resort’s “Panda Patrol” program.

I have to make clear here — such as what I put in the title — that we did not go to Copper Mountain, which is often what Google hands back to you when you Google anything like “skiing cooper” or something like that. Copper is a much bigger, more vacation-resort-type of ski area, but is only about 20 miles north of Cooper. That’s not where we went. More »