Colorado Tour Day 6

Another beautiful day, clear skies, great temperature. We started our day at 6,000 feet and left the hotel traveling just minutes west to Manitou Springs. Joe and Al had their challenges maneuvering the narrow streets and roundabouts of Manitou Springs. They could probably make the buses do pirouettes if they needed to. We boarded the Leadville Cog Railway, climbing Pike's Peak to 14,100 feet. We passed Pike's Peak granite, a 2,000 year old tree, snow, one of the most productive gold mines in the US, and mountain goats before arriving at the peak. The boys sang America the Beautiful, God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner at the top. A perfect place to hear those songs and embrace the natural beauty of our country. On our way down we saw elk which was a first for some. A few minutes away from the cog railway we found ourselves spelunking our way through Cave of the Winds. It kept us cool as the above ground temperature rose to 88. We saw cave bacon, cave coral, stalactites, stalagmites, and as Ayden said, "stalagsights". There was a gift shop that took in some money from Minnesota too. Here the boys split up. Cantabile went to Manitou Springs for more shopping and Allegro went on to celebrate Allegro Night Out. Allegro ate at the Stagecoach Inn and had excellent burgers. They sang a thank you song that left the servers with their mouths open. One of them said it was the best tip they'd ever gotten. We jumped back on the bus and drove a couple minutes to Adventures Out West and ziplined 7 times each spanning over 200 hundred yards above a rocky gorge. We congratulated our bravery with smores and then went back to the hotel to wish Quinn Morrissey a happy birthday. The boys ate cake and ice cream because the smores weren't enough. We get a little extra sleep tomorrow then off to the Garden of the Gods and our last full day in Colorado.