13th Anniversary Trip

 Chad has been looking forward to our 13th anniversary for a long time. As soon as he found out that my first marriage lasted 12 years, he said that we needed to do something big for lucky 13. At first, we were planning an Alaskan cruise. That idea changed to a train ride across the country. Then, we thought visiting our friends in Florida and going to Universal Studios would be fun. (He can get free tickets to Universal Studios because of his job.) Eventually, we landed on a trip to Colorado Springs where we would stay in a historic hotel and play tourist. 

Friday night, we headed down to Colorado Springs and checked into The Mining Exchange. This historic hotel was probably the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed. We took advantage of the valley parking, checked in, and went up to our room. We were impressed right away with the amazing customer service, the cleanliness, and the many amenities. 

After checking out their art gallery, we changed into our nice clothes and went to dinner at Red Gravy, and little Italian restaurant around the block from where we were staying. This was the kind of place where we didn't feel out of place dressed up, but there were also people there in jeans. The food was good, the service was decent, and we lest happy that this was the place we chose.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to play tourist more. 

We started with hiking at The Garden of the Gods. We had stopped here with the kids when we did our staycation in 2022, but they didn't want to hike, so we just walked around one little area and took pictures. This time, we hiked what we could of a small loop (some of the trail was closed for maintenance). It was beautiful! I hope we go back to hike other parts of it in the future. We even saw a small heard of big horn sheep as we were leaving. 

Next, we went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We had heard plot was one of the best zoos. The kids have been talking about it since they went with their grandparents years ago. It was very nice, but smaller than we had expected, and some of the animals were inside areas we couldn't get to because of the cold. We were able to see a lot of animals, though as we made our way through this cute zoo build on the side of a mountain. 

Finally, we went to Ivywild School, a historic school that has been made into a food court. It was cute! The classroom were the restaurants and stores. For the most part, the school feel was still there. We got souvenirs at the small gift shop and ate deep dish pizza after roaming the halls of this unique building. I would totally recommend going if you are into historical buildings. 

This trip was perfect for us. We were able to do everything we planned, have good conversation, and not totally break the bank. I wish we could do stuff like this more often, but I guess it wouldn't be a big, special anniversary trip if we did. 

Thankful for Women of History

As much as I would like to see more women climbing the social ladder, I can’t help but see how far we have come. There was a time when women were nothing more than the property of their husbands. They were expected think and act as they were told to do. If they didn’t, there were consequences to be paid. Some of these consequences were done behind closed doors and others were more public. 

For the past few weeks, I have been reading about Elizabeth Packard. She dared to publicly have different beliefs than her husband. As a result, she was committed to an “insane asylum.” At the time, all it took to do this was a signed affidavit from the husband. Then, the fact that she no longer wanted to live with her husband, along with her trying to stick up for herself and other women, were used to keep her there. 

The book that I am reading goes into the general treatment of women who were deemed “insane” in the 1860’s. It was appalling and disgusting and inhumane. There have been times that I felt physically ill as I have read this book. 

I am thankful for women like Elizabeth Packard who fought for women’s rights, going against the grain. We don’t learn about them individually in school. I just happened to come across this book when I took Sean to Barnes and Noble last month. 

I am not one of those people who will say that we need to halt the progress of men/boys to let the women/girls rise above. However, I do believe that women should have the chance to excel fi they choose to do so. We should be listen to as equal contributors and be paid equally for the same work. We should have our strengths celebrated alongside the strengths of men. 

We have come a long way in giving women the rights and dignities they deserve as members of the human race. My hope is they we continue to do so in a way that honors us as women.