Austin came to Denver to attend a seminar for work. It started on Tuesday and went through late Thursday afternoon. His boss knew he was from this area and told him if he wanted to take Friday off and stay for a couple of days, he could. We were so excited!! The kids are on fall break, so we planned a trip down to Manitou Spring to see the cliff dwellings. They are some ancient Anasazi ruins and a museum. People are free to walk through the dwellings and touch the sandstone. We started off by going inside this tepee. It was quite roomy, we all fit inside at the same time!
Of course the boys had to ham it up in front of this sign.
The buildings are quite impressive! It would take so much work to build these dwellings without the machinery and tools we have today.
There were lots of plants and cactus on the grounds. This one was especially big!
The kids had fun climbing through all the doors and windows. These people must have been really small, all the openings were so little.
There are signs
to read that explain what things are and how they are used.
Little hallways and corridors connected the rooms.
Everyone was pretty silly and enjoyed roaming through the rooms. Austin and Blake have quite the sense of humor and add so much laughter to our family.
The windows are pretty small, but Austin managed to stick his bottom out of this one. He had been wanting to do that since we first got there!
Lots of windows for the monkeys!
Climbing through more windows.
This room was used for grinding corn into cornmeal. There were several rock stations all around the edges so that several people could be working at the same time. I am sure thankful we don't have to work that hard for our food now!
Austin was excited to go into the museum. The museum and gift shop were huge! They were practically as big as the ruins!
The museum and gift shop are located inside this building. It is neat how they have built the outside to look like it did hundreds of years ago. People are not allowed to go up the ladders or walk on the roofs, but there are two balconies you can go out on.
Of course the kids had to get in line with the Indian and mimic him. They look quite authentic.
Britta was interested in the jewelry display.
This elk has a deformed antler. The narration gave a few theories as to why that might have happened. Britta had to pretend she had antlers and was just like this elk.
This pottery was on display in the museum. The bowls have such interesting patterns. We had a fun afternoon being together.
A bum picture!
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