Colorado
My trip to Colorado started when my
aunt Ang invited us out to stay for a week. Of course we had to go so we planed
it in June. The trip was a long 12-hour drive from Hancock, Iowa to Broomfield,
Colorado. The whole way there, we were constantly going uphill. When we got to
Ang’s house, we said hi to her, and our cousin Mark, who lives there. We didn’t
do anything the first day because the drive was too long, and we wanted to
catch up with Ang and Mark.
Ang is known for her cooking, and the first day, she
smoked pulled pork and ribs. It was really
good. The next day, we went to Elich Gardens Theme Park in Denver. When I was
there, we rode on many rollercoasters, and rides I never have before. My sister
Alyssa and my step-dad, Randy, went on The XLR8R. The XLR8R pulls you 150 feet
in the air and drops you in a free fall style. My favorite was called the Mind
Eraser rollercoaster.
I
was too scared to go on it, so I watched from below. Then after they were done,
we did some more rides and headed back to Ang’s house. The next day, we decided
to go hiking on a mountain in Boulder. We saw a lot of clear water running down
the mountain, and a lot of pretty plants. The view was amazing and I wanted to
stay up there longer. Even though it was really hot, it was worth it.
We
also did a lot of shopping at cool stores that day. The next day was really hot
so all of us decided to go to the local pool. We had a lot of fun swimming and
it was nice to cool off. When we got back to Ang’s house, she smoked ribs and
we all ate and went to bed. The next day we started planning on going up to “Pikes
Peak,” by taking the “Cog Railway.” Ang bought our tickets and we headed out.
It
was my first time taking a train, and going up “Pikes Peak.” On our way up, the
conductor told everyone all about the land. He pointed out that the railway we
were riding is the highest “Cog Railway” in the world. He also said that most
of the trees on the mountain were over 2000 years old. The ride was very long
and my sisters were getting a little sicker the higher we got.
Thankfully I wasn’t feeling that bad, and was
still enjoying the ride. The conductor also pointed out that Katharine Lee
Bates wagon tracks were still there when she wrote America the Beautiful in
1893. I thought that it was very cool to see the wagon tracks even after all of
these years. When we finally reached the top of the mountain there was a
building there that everyone went into. My step-dad and I went outside after a
while to look at the view.
I
could see some clouds when I looked down the side of the mountain because we
were so high up. Out of nowhere it started to snow but I still stayed outside.
Then a few seconds later there was thunder and lightning at the same time that
it was snowing. It was the first time I had seen it snow and thunder outside at
the same time. They told us all to go inside because we could easily get hit by
lightning.
When
we were inside there were people making fresh doughnuts. We didn’t get any because none of us felt so well.
The weather outside was getting worse so we had to get back on the train, and
head back down. Once we got outside again we noticed how much it had snowed already
so we had to move fast. It was really cold so everyone had to put up there
windows to keep warm. The weather went from warm and sunny to cold a windy. I
thought that it was really cool how the weather can change so fast.
On our way down we still couldn’t
believe how pretty the view was. When we were getting to the end the conductor
started handing out books to everyone to see if they would buy it. We bought a
book and it came with a CD and a souvenir. The CD talked about the history of
the “Cog Railway” and extra information about it. We went back to Ang’s and
went to bed after the long day. The next day was sadly our last and we decided
to just stay at Ang’s and relax.
Ang made a really good breakfast for our last
full day there. We ended up playing a lot of board games and watching good
movies after that. We played Yahtzee and Mark ended up winning by far. My
sisters and I started watching movies while the parents were outside by the
warm fire. The night ended well and we had to go to bed early so we could wake
up and leave early the next day.
We said our goodbyes and left early in the
morning. The car ride back was really long with all the stops along the way. We
stopped at a little store and got some Colorado shirts to remember our trip. We
also got these weird suckers with scorpions in them. None of us actually ate
them but we just thought that it was cool to have.
When we were on the road we were going downhill
the whole time. We thought it was cool because on the way there we were going
uphill the whole time. As we got farther away the more I missed it already. Yes,
It was sad to leave but it was something we can always talk about.
We plan on going back hopefully sometime soon
and visit Ang and Mark.
