Unwind in Fort Myers

Driving the Florida panhandle on Interstate 10 has got to be one of the nicest drives! When we first got to Florida, we had to stop at the Welcome Centre to get a picture, let the dogs stretch their legs and get some FREE fresh Florida orange juice! Yum! Fun little fact, you can get fresh orange juice at most of the Florida Visitor Centres!

When we finally made it to Fort Myers, Zoey was sooo excited to be back home! We adopted Zoey in 2015 when we still lived in Fort Myers and her first home was Zach's parents house. She got out of the car, went to the spot she used to go to the bathroom and ran up the stairs. She was so happy and relaxed. We even found her sleeping in one of the dog houses throughout the day! 

Don't worry we put some blankets in there after to make it nice and cozy!

It didn't take Kona long to make himself right at home! 

Unfortunately, the weather called for a lot of rain, which is to be expected during the summer months, so we spent a lot of time indoors. When it was nice, we ran out of the house to enjoy the sun. Mainly in the form of eating out, shopping, and going to the pool! 

Some of the best pizza in Fort Myers is at Vincenzo's Pastaria, which is only a few minutes from Zach's parents house. We always go for the lunch special, which is 2 large slices of pizza and a soda for only $5.00!

Another great spot for a snack is Sweetberry Bowls! They have great smoothie bowls. I always get the Pink Rainbow Pitaya bowl and Zach gets the Sweet Dragon Pitaya bowl! They are so good and a perfect treat for the hot weather!

One of our favourite places to shop is Miromar Outlets, and since the weather wasn't the greatest, we did a lot of shopping! 

Zoey's absolute favourite thing to do is swimming, so she was in heaven while we were in Fort Myers! 

It was a lot of fun hanging out with Zach's grandparents, shopping, eating out, and just taking a few days to relax after travelling across the states to get to Florida. We loved going to all our favourite spots and reminiscing about when we used to live here! 

-S

Next Up: DisneyWorld

Cadillac Ranch and The Big Texan

Travelling through Texas is often quite daunting as the state is so BIG! It normally takes us two days just to skirt through the top part towards Louisiana. Yet, there is so much to see in Texas and better yet, so much to EAT!

This time I wanted to stop at a few places in Amarillo as we made our way through.

Cadillac Ranch is basically a sculpture made of Cadillacs that was built in 1974. The cars are embedded in the earth in a field just off the interstate (here), which makes for easy access. You get onto the side road, pull your car off to the side, and enter through a fence and walk out onto the field until you reach the cars. If you have dogs this is a great location for them to stretch their legs- on a leash of course!! They even encourage bringing spray paint to graffiti the cars! So fun! We didn't have any spray paint, but the cutest little boy offered us his can. 

After admiring the graffiti, we stopped for some lunch at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. At the Big Texan, they have a 72 oz. steak and if you can eat it, along with shrimp cocktail, a baked potato, salad, and a buttered roll, in under an hour, you get it for FREE! 
This challenge emerged in 1962 after the owner brought a bunch of tables together and told a group of cowboys that he wanted to see who could eat the most 1 lb steaks in an hour. The cost for the competition was $5 and whoever ate the most got the entrance fee waived. 
One cowboy took the lead when he ate 2 steaks right away and then requested a shrimp cocktail and baked potato to be served with his third steak. By the end of the hour this cowboy had eaten 4.5 steaks, the shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, and a buttered roll. The full history is available here. 

We so wanted to eat in, but the weather was scorching hot and there was no way we could leave the dogs in the car during the meal. I went in and ordered some food to go. When I got outside we found this eating area called the doggie coral that was fenced in with a picnic table, so we let the dogs wonder around and ate our lunch... in the scorching hot weather. It was fun and the food was very good. 

The Big Texan is basically a little old western community. In addition to the restaurant, they have a hotel, casino, shopping, brewery, and RV ranch. It is very unique! 

These two pit stops made for a great travel day! There is so much to see in Texas and one day we will spend the time exploring it all. 

-S

Up Next: Florida

Great Sand Dunes National Park

When Zach and I were in Yellowstone, we purchased the annual national park pass. We wanted to try and get as much use out of it as possible. The American the Beautiful Pass is $80 and grants you unlimited entrance into national parks and recreation areas for the year. Entrance per vehicle into most parks averages around $30 per vehicle. So if you are planning on visiting at least 3 national parks in a year or going to the same park at least 3 times the annual pass is worth it! Plus we live right on the border to Montana and like to visit Glacier National Park when we can, so this pass really saves us money! 

On our way to Great Sand Dunes National Park, we took a detour to the Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City, CO. This is America's highest suspension bridge! Unfortunately, it costs to walk across and it is NOT dog friendly. If we were going to walk it, we would have wanted to do it together, instead of having to take turns so someone could watch the dogs. We could still appreciate it from the parking lot though! 

When I heard about Great Sand Dunes National Park, I really didn't think that such an expansive area of sand dunes would be all that great, and really didn't think it would be as big as I had heard. WRONG. I was so wrong on both accounts. 

When we first caught a glimpse of the sand dunes below the Sange de Cristo Mountains from a distance, they looked like a mirage, and I was a little skeptical about their professed majesty, but the closer we got the more we were blown away by their magnificence. 

The sand dunes were formed by water and wind, and as water evaporated, sand was left behind. As the wind pushed the sand towards the mountains, it can to a stop and started accumulating.

During the warmer months Medano Creek forms from melted mountain snow, providing relief from the hot, dry conditions present during the summer. Unfortunately, it dries out as the summer heat prevails. 

This is one of the few National Parks that is dog friendly. We took Zoey and Kona out and started traversing the great sand dunes, until we were all too tired and hot to go any further. 

This may not look all that magnificent, but search for the little black dots at the base of the dune... those are people!

Hot dog

Sand tornado 

I promise Zoey comes on these adventures too. I normally walk Kona and Zach walks Zoe.

Doesn't the sand look fake!

After spending some time at Great Sand Dunes, we decided to go out in search of a hotel. Along the way, we kept seeing signs for Zapata Falls, so we decided to check it out. So the road up to Zapata falls is pretty awful. Like I feel like you should only be able to drive a truck or quad up this boulder scattered road. We took it super slow and I kept telling Zach that my awesome Explorer could handle it. I put the Explorer in Sand Terrain Management Mode and let the SUV work its magic. It was a pretty bumpy ride, but we made it to the top no problem. Ok slight problem- all the bumps caused Zach's throbbing headache to only get worse. 

This was the hiking trail, but just imagine the road looking like this with bigger rocks and a larger surface area. CRAZY!

View from the Zapata Falls hike

Since Zach stayed in the car with the dogs I had to run up the trail in search of the falls. Unfortunately, once you get up the trail you have to wade through some water and maneuver over slippery rocks in order to get an awesome view of the waterfall, which I didn't have time to do. It definitely made for quite the adventure! 
-S

Up Next: Cadillac Ranch and the Big Texan! 

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods was a dream. If you like hiking and super cool rock formations that shoot high into the sky, then this is the place for you! It's also free to visit! Bonus! This park is also dog friendly as long as you keep your dogs on a 6 ft. leash. They even have an off the leash area here. 
Garden of the Gods is located in Colorado Springs, CO and was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, regardless we woke up bright and early so we could get to the park before the crowds did. It was an absolutely beautiful day and aside from a few early morning bikers and runners we were there alone!
There is a scenic road that leads you through the rock formations and plenty of opportunities to pull off the road and take pictures or hit the trails! Which is exactly what we decided to do. 

The only ones on the trail! 

So pretty- almost prehistoric like

So happy to be out on the dog friendly trails.  

We love Colorado and feel like it is the perfect state for the outdoor adventurist. Garden of the Gods has a great Visitor Centre and provides the opportunity to mountain bike, hike, and rock climb. For more information check out their website here for park info and a map of all the trails. 

We will definitely be back to Colorado Springs, as we didn't even skim the surface of all there is to do here. 

-S

Up Next: Great Sand Dunes National Park