In August, we took a trip through Middle America combining a big city, a train ride, three national parks, and two baseball games. Lots of fun, including ...
1. Chicago -
We rented bikes and rode along the lakeshore, saw places where Mom and Dad used to live, rode the El, went to the top of the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower), and took a boat ride along the river and into Lake Michigan:
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| Going through the lock into Lake Michigan |
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| On Lake Michigan |
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| Henry pondering the depth of the lake |
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| Henry on the el platform |
2. Amtrak to Colorado -
We took the "California Zephyr" from Chicago to Denver - it leaves Chicago @ 2pm and then arrives in Denver @ 9am the next morning. The rooms are tiny. The food was surprisingly good. And we'd never seen so many stalks of corn!
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| All Aboard !! |
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Corn rows through Iowa
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| Crossing the Mighty Mississippi |
3. House in Westcliffe
We stayed in a small town in Southeastern Colorado for three nights. Beautiful house with an amazing view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
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| Our house - big deck, lots of windows |
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| It would rain everyday at 3pm. Then the sun would come out - on this day, complete with a big rainbow |
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| Great view |
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Relaxing on the deck
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4. Great Sand Dunes National Park
The biggest sand dunes in the US are actually in Colorado. It's a beautiful park, and you can not only hike to the top of some dunes, but then also take a sand sled down again.
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| The biggest beach in Colorado |
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| The car after being in sand all day |
Click on the video to see Jack sledding down a sand dune
5. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
A small but beautiful national park in southern Colorado - amazing scenery and a nice hike.
6. Rocky Mountain National Park
One of the most popular national parks is a couple of hours out of Denver. We took a beautiful hike to Bierstadt Lake.
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| Joseph at Bierstadt Lake |
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| Close-up of Henry on the hike |
7. Rockies Games at Coors Field
To end the trip we spend two days in Denver. We went to a Rockies-Nationals game one night, followed by a Rockies-Mets game the following day. The boys got lots of autographs and Jack caught a homerun ball during batting practice.
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| Nats fans at the Nats-Rockies game |
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| Jack with the ball he got in the bleachers during BP |
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| Henry (#11) and Jack (#34) getting Clint Robinson's autograph |
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| Jack with Jeurys Familia |
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| Folk Hero Wilmer Flores signing for Henry |
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| Yoenis Cespedes had a huge night - 3 HR - as the Mets win, 14-9 |
