(Trip write-up by Kris)
During Kristy's spring break 2002, I took a week off work so we could drive up to Colorado. We wanted to see some sights, visit Kristy's sister Jenny, and attend a Dream Theater concert. Here's the breakdown:
Thursday, March 7 - We headed out when Kristy got off work at 11 pm. After 5 hours of driving, we stopped at a Motel 6 in Amarillo for the night.
Friday, March 8 - We got to Colorado Springs around 4 pm. It then took 2 hours to get to our hotel in the Aurora area (a suburb on the south side of Denver). It should have taken us only half an hour or so, but near blizzard conditions had slowed traffic on the freeway to almost a standstill. Along the way we saw about 3 different accident scenes and actually witness 1 accident. Nobody was hurt. People were just sliding into each other. We decided to stay warm and just hang out at the hotel that night.
Saturday, March 9 - Road conditions were much better. The snow had stopped. Kristy's sister Jenny and her fiance Allan met us at the hotel. It was nice for them to have time to hang out with us. They stay busy. Jenny works, goes to school, is pregnant (due in August), and is planning a wedding. That's a lot to handle. We went to the mall and wasted time... just visiting. That night we went to the movie We Were Soldiers.
Sunday, March 10 - Jenny, Allan, Kristy, and I drove out to Hanging Lake. You may have heard stories about it from my dad. We went there last summer. I found the 2.4 mile round trip hike to be a lot of fun. The girls were less impressed. Icy conditions made parts of it very hard to sustain verticality in tennis shoes.
Monday, March 11 - Kristy and I attended a Dream Theater concert. For this first leg of the tour, promoting the new album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, they were only doing about 10 North American shows. Denver was the closest to Dallas. The timing worked out great, so we went. They played for an amazing 3 hours and 20 minutes. Songs played included The Glass Prison, Through My Words, Fatal Tragedy, Lines in the Sand, The Killing Hand, The Great Debate, Take the Time, 6:00, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, Beyond this Life, Six Degree of Inner Turbulence (42 minutes long!), Home, The Spirit Carries On, and Pull Me Under, as well as individual solos scattered throughout.
Tuesday, March 12 - We joined back up with Jenny and Allan for lunch at 3 Margaritas/Anthony's and then made our way out to the Butterfly Pavilion. The building had a large greenhouse, simulating a rainforest environment, that housed hundreds of butterflies from around the world. There was also a "Crawl-a-See-Em" room with insects and other creepy crawlers. I got to hold a tarantula. That night we had dinner at Michelle and Rudy's, where Jenny used to live. Michelle made some really good spaghetti.
Wednesday, March 13 - Kristy and I headed up to Boulder. We visited Boulder Falls and took a 3 mile leisurely hike around some trails near Chautauqua Park. We ate dinner at Zio's, Kristy's favorite restaurant. There isn't a Zio's in the Dallas area, so it's quite a treat when we can squeeze it in.
Thursday, March 14 - We came home. The drive was long and boring.
