Appleseed: Our Marvelous Mainland Trip Days 1-4

Finally The trip pictures!

Our trip will have to be broken down into sections, since it was so darned long and we did so many cool things!

So here goes. The first place to explore was the airport. We sat closest to the windows so we could see our plane and watch the ground crew doing their thing. We also happened to sit by an airline employee who was taking our flight, and she was kind and gracious enough to field all of Jimmy's questions about the airline and plane itself. She then gave them each stickers and when we boarded, took us up to the cock pit to meet the pilot and co-pilot. It was hard to tell if the boys were not impressed or just stunned by all the instruments up there because they were pretty quiet. Unfortunately, I never did get her name, so where ever you are, Miss Nice Lady, I thank you!

We were greeted in the airport by Grandma Sue and Auntie Jen who escorted us home and tucked us in after dinner (we were all pretty exhausted!)

The next day we all went to Heritage Square amusement park.

Of course the first thing we did was ride the train!

Joey wanted to ride the carousel next, which he did, several times!

There were plenty of rides in the park just right for my two go fast boys! Thankfully, Auntie Jen and Grandma Sue like the rides, too, so Motion-sick Mama didn't have to ride!

Jimmy's favorite was the Ferris wheel. Because, he says, it was the biggest one.

The next day we drove to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. On the way we got a good view of a naked Pike's Peak. I thought it was neat how clear the tree line was without the snow at the top...

At the zoo the biggest attraction was to feed the giraffes. There were plenty of giraffes, more than we had ever seen in one place! We each got a turn to feed them crackers that kinda looked like wasa bread...

Jimmy feed a giraffe that thanked him by sneezing on him! Giraffe snot! Eeeewwww!

There were many other neat things in the zoo, as well, like hippos, a gorilla mad at the rain, lions, and chipmunks!

There was also another carousel!

You can see all the way to Kansas!

Day three brought us to The Aquarium.

Lots of fish, sharks and other sea life there to see, including really big ones like this grouper.

And for some reason, there were tigers there, as well...

One of the favorite things at the aquarium was the opportunity to feed and touch sting rays.

Jimmy says they feel like a cat with no hair that's all wet. That's pretty accurate!

Day 4 brought us to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

We came here just to go to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. Unfortunately, it was not all that great for kids, although they did like the big mock engines inside...

The also liked playing with the piston and tie rod display, making the wheels turn. There was an upstairs meant for kids, but it was for kids older than these two.

Upstairs there was also a viewing gallery where you could watch the trains in the yard. A double-stacked container train was the favorite. The building in the back there is the steam shop, where the 844 and the 3985 are housed. We were going to get a tour of that later in our trip, but the boys didn't know that...

Behind this one you can see what is left of the round house. We were also going to go in there on our way back through, but the boys didn't know that, either (sneaky Mama).

He could have stayed there all day!

But we got hungry and went over to the cafe at the end of the depot building, where we were able to enjoy our grilled cheese out on the patio right next to the tracks.

Next we took a trolley tour around Cheyenne. It was really interesting and fun, one of our stops took us to the western transportation museum ( I think that's what it was called) with all sorts of buggies and coaches inside.

This one was the only one you were allowed to get inside and pretend to drive.