I was up until after 1:00 last night finishing up all my work. Lily has also been exhausted from how hard she has been pushing it. Both she and I felt we were hit especially hard this week and it was delicious to sleep in. Then we packed up and were out the door for Colorado Springs by Noon.
Why are we going to Colorado Springs this weekend? Well, I am supposed to fly to India in one week and as I was applying for my India Visa a few days ago, I learned that India will not allow me to travel there if my Passport expires within 6 months of the dates of my trip. I immediately called the US Passport office and learned that the only way for me to make my trip is for me to get an expedited in-person Passport appointment, and the closest place for that to happen is at Aurora, Colorado. And so a few days ago, I scheduled my appointment and walked upstairs and announced to the family that we were going to go to Colorado over the weekend.
The drive to Colorado Springs was 9.5 hours and as always, Lily picked out an amazing audio book for us to listen to. She picked The Hobbit orated by Andy Serkis. He is the one who did the voice and acting (the CG was based on his movements) for Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. His oration was jaw-dropping, especially when it got to the parts with Gollum! But really, every voice was incredible and he brought the book to life in the most wonderful way. The older ones in the car really loved listening to The Hobbit
On the way to Colorado Springs we saw some gorgeous scenery with the leaves changing:
We also noticed (I believe from our map) that Colorado National Monument was right on the way (near Grand Junction). We are suckers for National Monuments, so we decided to go.
It reminded us so much of Mesa Verde. The topography was so gorgeous and the red rock with greenery reminded us of Sedona. We went on a very short hike (Otto’s Trail).
At first, I was a bit annoyed three of the kids were taking so long to walk because they were filling out their junior ranger books while walking. But then I thought it was cute and I took a video. Eventually, I took the books from thee little kids because we were on top of a fingerlike narrow pass on the mesa with cliffs on both sides, and the pathway was starting to get more narrow (hence the need to focus on where they were going). There were railings at the tip of the finger and it was amazing to look out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/R0nLboVYtwY?feature=share
On the way back, I made fun with Clarissa a bit when she was complaining about how long it was (Round trip it was 2/3 of a mile):
It was a such a great half-way break to stretch our legs and get some sun. We then ate at QDoba in Grand Junction and drove the rest of the way to our lovely AirBnB which Lily booked for us.