Co Vacation Part 5: The Final Chapter

I can tell how inpatient I am waiting for pictures to load to the blog since it has taken 5 posts to cover a week of camping! Oh well, I took a lot of photos.  So we left off after our busy day in Telluride and awoke very well-rested the next morning, even sleeping in until 8:30!  Unheard of when camping for us.  We had a little breakfast than broke camp and began our long day of driving.  Our Tomtom (GPS) said it would take 8 hours to get to Colorado Springs, we assumed it was lying as it hadn't been that reliable during our "off the beaten path" adventuring.  We drove through some very pretty areas including Gunnison and the surrounding state parks. 

We discovered some very remote areas that may be fun to explore in the future as well.  The 6 hour drive (in your face Tomtom!) wasn't too bad, I'll take driving through the mountains for 6 hours over driving through Nebraska any day of the week.  We arrived at Eric's brother's home in Colorado Springs ready to stretch our legs and check our facebook and email that had been neglected for a week.  Oh, and it was also sort of a Lab party

The dogs definitely tired each other out!  We had a nice catch up with David and a nice hot shower in a real bathroom (rather than the campsite showers where you feel obligated to wear your flip flops dorm-room style!). 

The next day we packed up and headed out for our last official day of vacation.  Now, let me tell you the tale of Billy's.  We are from IL and WI, so if you are not familiar with the delicacy of a proper Italian Beef sandwich you are missing out on heaven.  We have not been able to find a replacement for this deliciousness in the 6 years we have been out here.  I do make it in the crock pot every now and again but it's just not the same.  We heard rumor of an all-you-can-eat Italian Beef restaurant down in Colorado Springs from a friend of our.  So, naturally, we were very eager to try this.  Now, we heard about this at least 4 years ago.  And every time we are down there visiting David we have tried to go.  What kind of restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays?!  We ran in to that problem a couple times, once they were close for remodel, and I think there were a couple other  random events that all worked against us getting our Italian Beef.  Well, not anymore. 

AND they had REAL Chicago-style deep dish pizza, the kind with the sauce on top.  It was worth the wait and we ate ourselves sick.  Thanks Billy's for living up to the hype!

We continued our brewery-visiting and discovered a real gem hidden in in the Springs.  It was called Rocky Mountain Brewing.  They don't distribute except from their tasting room, the assistant brewer was pouring our beer and getting all beer-geeky with Eric, and their brew was delicious and creative.  We really enjoyed ourselves there. 

I loved the warehouse views all around, very small-businessy feel.  Plus they welcomed Cassidy  in to the tasting room and spoiled her with dog treats made from their spent grains.  I absolutely recommend this brewery to fans in the area.  Bristol Brewing is also very good with good folks, but as we had already been there we had to visit somewhere new.

We decided to spend our last night a little pampered and got lucky with a Living Social deal at a lodge nearby in Monument.  We checked in to The Sundance Mountain Lodge  and were very enthralled by the quaint, locally-owned, establishment.  They had very environmentally -friendly policies, the rooms were comfy, clean, and had local art on the walls, and the grounds were very sweet with all sorts of fun little nooks, ponds, hammocks, statues, etc.  Best of all they had a pool and hot-tub which we immediatly enjoyed.  Come to find out while walking the dog there was a brewery right next door!  So we could walk and actually enjoy more than a taster or two! 

Pike's Peak Brewing also had a great atmosphere, obviously a local favorite.  They even had a rare style of beer on tap that Eric needed to study for his Cicerone certification!  We met some neat guys to chat with and their beers were also very solid.

We ended our evening at the  hotel bar and restaurant where we shared a yummy dinner (because we were still kind of full from Billy's) and listened to the karaoke that we were lucky enough to witness! 




We headed for home the next day but not without a stop at my favorite outlet mall on the way!  It was a great vacation and we already are planning were to visit next.  After 26hrs of driving, 1100 miles, 8 mountain passes, 5 different places to lay our head a night, and 5 breweries, it was good to be home. I think Stella may have missed us too

This would have been a better photo for the official "Hug Your Cat" day!

I could tell that our vacation was a success as I felt rested and ready to go back to work to see what I missed.  Now we are just gearing up for fall and football season as the nights get cooler and it's dark when I leave the house in the morning.  It's been a pretty busy summer and I can honestly say that it wasn't wasted at all, as we sometimes are left feeling that way since summer goes by so fast.  I hope all of your summers were also delightful and wish you a happy Fall to come.  And GO PACKERS!