Short weekend away

Last weekend, Nathan and I had a quick couples road trip...had just decided to see a bit more of Colorado that we hadn't been to before. It was short but sweet. :) 

We headed out Friday afternoon and stopped in Denver to have a fabulous dinner at Magna Kainan, an elevated Filipino cuisine restaurant. Um, YUM! Having been raised on traditional Filipino food (my mom's dad immigrated from the Philippines in the early 1900s and her step mom came to the US a couple decades later), I was familiar with a number of the dishes. No disrespect at all to my mom and all the aunties and uncles but this food was amazing. :)

That's my Tito Boy Shot (the rum is from a woman-founded small batch distillery in the Philippines)...lumpia and skewers of prawns and chicken...our desserts of bibingka and pandam cheesecake...and pancit bihon (noodles) and kaldereta (crispy lamb in assorted veggies). It was delicious and the service was wonderful...highly recommended!

After that, we continued down to Colorado Springs and checked into our hotel...complete with a lobby that offered a free happy hour drink, had numerous games out to play, and sported a table with supplies for painting rocks. Fun!

The next morning we drove over to Manitou Springs and took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak. It was my first 14er! (Yes, I'm counting it even though I didn't hike it. So there.) We rode one of the two car trains (they also have newer 3 car trains) and had reserved the Engineers View Downhill seats. (So our seats were at the back of the train on the way uphill and at the front on the way down. I don't know how the other seats were but ours were great. I also recommend sitting on the left side of the train (when going uphill), as the views are better.)

At the top, we had about 50 minutes before our return trip. Given the timing, we grabbed some quick lunch and took just a few photos before getting back onboard. If we were to do it again, I'd not go at a meal time so that I wouldn't need to use that time getting food.

All in all, it was a lovely experience and we learned some great history and facts along the way from our conductor, Taylor. If you haven't ridden the Cog Railway, we recommend it. It's hard to believe how long it's been running and that people built it in the first place. 

After leaving Manitou Springs, we ventured to Victor, CO where we found the remaining wooden troll in Colorado. (We'd visited our first one in Breckenridge in October of 2023.) This one's name is Rita the Rock Planter. She's one of many by Thomas Dambo. Seriously, these trolls are so impressive!

From there, we continued south to the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge & Park. Due to the storms and lightning surrounding us, the gondola and ziplines weren't operating while we were there but we enjoyed the bridge and the views and the big horn sheep/rams. Again, impressed by the ingenuity...who thinks to build a bridge so high out in the middle of nowhere like that?! 

And then we found dinner in Canon City and checked into our hotel. The next morning, we decided to forego going back to the park to do the zipline and gondola and instead headed home. More on why in my next post...