Summer Staycation at Gaylord Rockies

Summer break has come to an end for us here in Colorado, but before we got back into the swing of the new school year we took one last vacation. Well, a staycation to be precise!

You may remember that we took a Staycation at the Gaylord Rockies resort in Aurora last Winter. You can see it here. It was such a great little getaway that we decided to do it again, this time visiting in Summer and making full use of the amazing outdoor pool facilities. 

Gaylord Rockies is the perfect location for a Colorado staycation, or getaway if you're not local. It's located close to Denver International Airport making it a great place to spend the night before a flight, or a first destination after flying in to Denver. The resort is huge and has something on offer for everyone. The rooms are lovely, there is a wealth of cuisine on offer in the onsite restaurants (and room service), there are fun family friendly activities for the kids, there's a spa and fitness center for those wanting a little self care, the landscaping is stunning, and last but not least, there are indoor and outdoor pool areas. You know those were the biggest hit with my kids, right?

Our Winter Break in Denver

Winter Break is here and well under way so I thought it about time I shared last year's Winter Break with you. Always on time! Ha!

If you've been following along on Instagram you'll likely recognize quite a few of the pics I'm sharing below. If you're not following on Instagram, make sure to click here to head over to my account and give it a follow. I tend to be much more up to date over there!

Anyway, last year's Winter Break saw us visiting Colorado for the first time. It was part scouting trip to see if we'd like living here and part Winter wonderland vacation. We arrived in Denver on December 26th (just after midnight) but because the Christmas spirit tends to hang around into January here in Colorado we didn't miss out on any of the Christmas festivities that make visiting at this time of year extra special.

During our week and a half in Colorado we experienced beautiful Christmas light displays, went sledding, walked on a frozen creek, stepped back in time with a visit to the gold rush era town of Golden, stepped even further back in time to the time of the dinosaurs, went ice skating, searched for pika statues in Estes Park, rode horses through the mountains, visited the amazing Ice Castles, found a frozen waterfall, and caught up with good friends. We packed a lot into that time, but it didn't feel rushed at all.

Here's a look at what we did each day on our trip...

Spring Break in the Desert

Last week Ava and Lola were on Spring Break so we decided to take a trip to show the girls a little of America's most stunning natural landscapes in Nevada, Utah and Arizona. I'll have in depth posts (and a gazillion photos!) coming about each place we visited, but for now I want to share an overview of our trip.

San Diego Zoo

Spring break is just a few weeks away and I've been busy planning an exciting trip to Nevada, Utah and Arizona. I'm so excited about it, but before I focus on our upcoming trip too much, I feel like I really should finish sharing our Winter Break trip with you.

Back in December we took a road trip down to Southern California. I've already shared a few of the places that we visited in Los Angeles and San Diego (including The Broad, Legoland and The Queen Mary) as well as a couple of general posts about our trip (which you can read here and here) but I still have plenty to share with you. 

So let's get back to it and have a look at a bit more of our Winter Break vacation starting with our day spent at San Diego Zoo...

52 Weeks: Week 51

Week 51: Los Angeles

We're almost to the end of the year. Can you believe that there are only a few days left of 2015?

We've been away on vacation in Southern California since the girl's Winter break started last week and I've gotten a little behind with blogging. Time to catch up starting with last week's installment of my 52 week project.

We started our vacation with a few days in Los Angeles. I'll have a few dedicated posts coming soon about places we visited, but for week 51 I'm sharing our stay at the Ace Hotel in Downtown LA.

Seattle 2014: Harbor Cruise

During our vacation in Seattle last Summer we took a sightseeing cruise on the harbor.

After spending quite a bit of time walking around among the city's buildings and along the waterfront it was nice to see it all from a different perspective. It was also a very hot, sunny day so being out on the water with a breeze was lovely. Look at that perfect blue sky. Seriously, the weather was absolutely perfect the whole time we were in Seattle. Maybe even a little too hot and sunny. I'm starting to think this whole "It rains non-stop in Seattle" business is a myth created to stop the rest of the country moving there!

Our one hour sightseeing cruise with Argosy Cruises departed from Pier 55 and took in wonderful views over the waterfront, the Seattle Skyline and the surrounding mountains including Mount Rainier.

Seattle 2014: Pike Place Markets

This time last year we were on vacation in Seattle and Portland. A whole year has passed and I still haven't really written about our trip. I think that's got to be some sort of record on my behalf there!

Ok, so I did actually share a highlight post after our trip and one about the Gum Wall while we were in Seattle, but I have so many more photos I want to share with you guys so I think it's time to get back to it.   A year is long enough, I think!

One place that we visited regularly in Seattle was Pike Place Markets. Our hotel was located close by so the markets were a convenient place to stop by for breakfast, lunch and coffee. Ok, maybe the coffee part wasn't always so convenient given the long queues at the original Starbucks! We couldn't visit Seattle and not go to the original Starbucks even if it did mean standing in a queue for half an hour for our morning latte. Of course, the original Starbucks isn't the only place to get coffee at the markets if you need that caffeine hit without a wait.

Sierra Nevada Snow Fun

Following on from my last post about our visit to Mono Lake back in May comes our unexpected snow stop on our way home a day later.

As we drove through the Sierra Nevadas on our way home from our visit to Bodie and Mono Lake we noticed that there was still a lot of fresh powdery snow on the ground. Kim and I decided that we'd try to find a spot to safely pull over so the kids could have a little play in the snow. We weren't sure if we would actually find anywhere so we didn't mention it to the kids. I didn't want to get their hopes up. Imagine their surprise when all of a sudden they realized that we were pulling over into a small parking lot in a snowy forest area! They were absolutely ecstatic!

The spot where we stopped for a little snow fun was Sonora Pass, 9624 feet high above sea level. Judging by the number of hikers in the parking lot this seems to be a popular starting point for hikes in Toiyabe National Forest. While it would've been lovely to go for a hike in his wintry wonderland, we weren't prepared for it so we kept our stop brief. On a side note, don't you just love the retro National Park signs throughout America?

Mono Lake

Remember back in May when we went on a trip to a ghost town and went panning for gold? It was a long time ago, right? Well, we also spent some time checking out the amazing Mono Lake, but I got a little distracted with planning our Australia trip, then taking the Australia trip, and then having three kids at home all day, every day, so I never got around to sharing it with you.

It's time to play catch up and finally share our visit to Mono Lake with you...

Back in May we visited Mono Lake after spending half the day at the nearby gold mining era ghost town of Bodie.

Mono Lake is famous for its amazing limestone tufa towers. The tufa towers are calcium carbonate structures formed by underground fresh water springs welling up in Mono Lake's alkaline water. These tufas should be under water, however in 1941 the City of Los Angeles started diverting water from streams that feed Mono Lake. Over the years this caused Mono Lake to drop by 40 feet, exposing 17,000 acres of exposed lake bed. Since 1994 Mono Lake and its tributaries have been protected and the water level is slowly rising again.

Cleland Wildlife Park

Kangaroos and koalas...

That's the first thing most people think of when you mention Australia, right?

We couldn't travel all the way to Australia and not meet some of the country's most well known furry residents. Ava had seen kangaroos and koalas on many occasions before our move to California, but for Lola and Mathilde these marsupials were just something they'd seen in books or on tv. So, during our time in our home city of Adelaide we headed to the hills and visited Cleland Wildlife Park.

Fourth of July in Australia

This year we celebrated Fourth of July with a big party at my parents' house in Adelaide, South Australia. Even though we were out of the country we still wanted to celebrate America's birthday with our little American girl. Plus it seemed like a great excuse to throw a big party with friends and family!

Despite the fact that it's Winter here in Australia, we were lucky to have a great day weather wise. Not quite the Summery weather we're used to for Fourth of July, but the sun was shining and the rain stayed away. Perfect for a back yard party.  

Panning for Gold

Over the Memorial Day long weekend we went on an adventure that including a little gold prospecting and visiting a real life ghost town.

Today we're going to have a look at our gold prospecting adventure with the aptly named Gold Prospecting Adventures in Jamestown, a little town a few hours east of the Bay Area.

Panning for gold was such a fun way to spend an afternoon. The kids really enjoyed it, especially as it was a warm day and they ended up drenched from the creek! The highlight of course, was finding gold.

52 Weeks: Week 21

Week 21: Long Weekend Getaway

This past weekend was a long weekend for Memorial Day here in America. Kim had the Monday off work so we decided to go on a three day trip to the High Sierras region of California. I'll have more detailed posts coming soon about each of the places that we visited over the weekend but for now I wanted to share a quick look at our adventure.

On a side note, here's a strange thing about working in America that my Australian friends might find interesting... While there are quite a few public holidays each year, your employer decides which ones you get off. And I don't just mean for people working in stores or restaurants that may happen to be open on a public holiday, I mean for everyone! Your employer sets how many public holidays you are entitled to each year and then they chose which holidays those will be. How weird is that?

Anyway, back to the story...

I've been keen to visit a ghost town for such a long time. A friend recently took a trip through the High Sierras and visited the ghost town of Bodie. When I saw the photos on Facebook I just knew that we had to go there. Bodie is a real life ghost town that boomed back in the late 1800s gold rush and then died off as the gold petered out. The whole town is now a State Historic Park and has been preserved in a state of  "arrested decay", existing just as it did when the last residents left.

A Few Days in Los Angeles

On our recent trip to Southern California we spent a couple of days in Los Angeles.

I'll be honest. LA isn't my favourite place but I figured we couldn't travel all the way down there and not see any of the city. Ava and Lola had only briefly visited Los Angeles in the past (a quick breakfast in Hollywood with my sister on the way to Disneyland and a transfer at LAX when we first arrived from Australia) and there were a few things they were pretty keen to see.

Ava and Lola couldn't wait to visit Santa Monica Pier, the stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame, the handprints and footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and La Brea Tar Pit. But most of all, they couldn't wait to buy cupcakes from the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM! Ok, I was pretty excited about the cupcakes too!

The girls enjoyed Los Angeles and I must admit that I actually kind of warmed to it a little too. You won't be seeing us moving there any time soon but my opinion of the city has improved a little!

Here's a look at our time in Los Angeles...

Windmills & Christmas Trees in Solvang

On our recent trip away over the Christmas break we visited Solvang, a Danish inspired village in southern California.

I'd been eager to visit Solvang since I first read about it a year ago. A little slice of Scandinavian cuteness right here in California, Solvang is a popular tourist town. The town's center is filled with quaint European style architecture: wood shingled roofs, windmills and half timbered "fachwerk" (I only know the German name) abound making for postcard perfect streetscapes. The town was originally established in 1911 by a group of Danes however most of the Danish inspired architecture dates from the period following World War 2, much of it built with tourism in mind.

Visitors from Home

The last few weeks have been pretty busy for our family. We had our trip to Seattle and Portland, Ava went back to school this week and our good friends Marta and Mark visited from Australia.

I have lots of posts about our trip coming up soon so for now lets have a look at the fun we had with Marta and Mark.

Seattle: Gum Wall

Greetings from Seattle!

We arrived yesterday for our week long vacation to Seattle and Portland. Yay!

I just had to share this place that we visited yesterday. It's equal parts disgusting and amazing. I'm talking about the infamous Gum Wall in Post Alley under the super touristy Pike Place Market.

That's right... it's a wall covered in gum. And not just a little bit of gum either. Great big globs of the stuff!

Flashback Fridays: Amazing India

Here it is... The first installment of Flashback Fridays, a look back at our past adventures around the world. It's a long one (unlike the trip itself) so make yourself a hot drink and be prepare to look at a tonne of photos - followed by hours of researching Indian vacations online!

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Back in October 2009 we were lucky enough to be able to take the trip of a lifetime to India with a group of friends. A good friend was getting married in Kerala, a tropical paradise in the south of India so we all tagged along for an amazing cultural experience.

Despite the fact that she was only two and a half years old, and that everyone thought we were absolutely crazy, Ava came along for the trip with us. It turned out to be the most wonderful experience for her and more than five years later she still talks about the trip regularly.

Ava in India

Here's a look at our week long adventure in India. Prepare for lots of photos...

Ava's Travel Journal

We've already had a look at all the fun we had on our recent trip to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec and New York but now I thought I'd show you our trip from Ava's perspective.

As Ava was away from school for almost two weeks she was given a pack of school work to keep her busy and to prevent her from getting behind in her work. Part of her work pack was keeping a travel journal. This was a great way for Ava to document her favourite parts of our trip and to practise her writing.

Here's a look at our trip through Ava's eyes...

"I went on an airplane. I flew to Ottawa. I watched 1 show then I went to sleep."

New York City: Part 3

Our last full day in New York was a busy one. We certainly crammed a lot of fun into a short time!

We started the day with bagels and coffee (how else would a day in New York start?) and hopped on the subway to Brooklyn. Seeing Manhattan from across the water is always amazing and the girls were pretty excited that we were a little bit closer to the Statue of Liberty. They desperately wanted to  go visit their favourite green lady up close however we just didn't have the time on this quick trip. Our view of her from Brooklyn was a pretty good one and the girls were happy with that.

Ava's favourite green lady

What a view