My Organized Nest

My husband and I took a nice ten day honeymoon right after our wedding. We had amazingly beautiful weather – especially for December. We barely saw any snow driving from Minnesota to Colorado Springs. We both enjoyed the drive for the most part. We took three days to get there and two to get back. The first evening we drove to Sioux Falls, SD. We saw a gorgeous sunset that night.

We stopped in Grand Island, Nebraska the second night. On the third day of driving, we drove past the first Pony Express Station in Gothenburg, Nebraska. We made a spontaneous decision to stop there since we were getting tired of sitting in the car anyway. Even though the building wasn’t open for tours when we were there, it was still interesting to look through the windows, snap a few photos and read about its history.

When we got to Colorado Springs, we stayed at a fabulous bed and breakfast called the Holden House. It’s a home built in 1902 which was converted into a B&B in the ’80′s I believe. It has three rooms in the main house, one room in a second house and two rooms in the carriage house. It’s located in Old Colorado City which is a historic area of town since it had been the capital of the Colorado Territory. The Holden House was all decorated for Christmas when we were there. Absolutely gorgeous!

This is the Carriage House where we stayed on the main floor.

The Carriage House has its own living room and kitchenette which are shared between the two rooms.

This was our suite, the Silverton.

It had its own sitting room with a TV and DVD player.

The bathroom was great because there was a large Roman soaking tub.

We visited downtown Colorado City which is filled with tourist shops, art galleries and eateries.

We also visited Garden of the Gods which was about five minutes away. The pictures were taken right before sunset.

We also went up Pike’s Peak. Pike’s Peak is over 14,000 feet high. We were planning on taking the train up but then decided at the last minute to drive up ourselves. It was certainly an experience to remember! It was a nineteen mile drive but it takes about an hour to get to the top because of the elevation, hairpin turns and icy roads. The side of the mountain that had the sun shining on it looked like this.

But then when you turn a corner onto the shady side of the mountain, the roads start looking like this! We were glad that we had 4 wheel drive.

This next picture was taken especially for my mom. She hates driving on roads that have bad drop-offs and don’t have any kind of barrier. Most of the time, there was practically no shoulder on the road and it got a bit scary when you could see hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain while you were driving on ice. (Then again, I had it good since my husband did all the driving.)

After a while, we hit the permafrost where no vegetation can grow. The only word I can use to describe it is desolate.

I think this was the worst turn (so bad in fact that they put up a tiny 8-inch tall barrier).

Check out the curves on this road!

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at some of our honeymoon pictures. Have a great weekend!

Tags: Colorado Springs, first Pony Express station, Garden of the Gods, Holden House, honeymoon, Old Colorado City, Pike's Peak