CHEYENNE, WYOMING OVERNIGHT

We spent the 4th of July in Cheyenne. (Now you see how far behind I am-between poor internet in the mountains and the old lady being tired from sightseeing all day-the blog has suffered. I apologize!) Anyway, we went to a diner to celebrate the holiday.





We sat and waited quite a while until a storm passed.

When we got back to the campground, a ditch was full of water.

CATHEDRAL BASILICA IN DENVER

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver was so large, it was difficult to get a closeup picture.

It has an attractive front door.

The inside was just beautiful-right up there in my top three. Simple elegance at it's finest!

The windows were awesome-over 50 of them!

The young, passionate priest was a breath of fresh air. After Mass, I told him I'd like to take him along on our travels, so we could hear him every Sunday!

HAMMOND'S CANDY

We toured Hammond's Candy factory, where they make old fashioned candy such as ribbon candy, candy canes and lollipops.

It's really hard work making candy canes because the piece they work with weighs about 70 pounds, and it's done in 90 degree heat. This man is about to carry the candy over to the machine that pulls it.

Notice how the candy turns white as it's pulled.

Then he puts it on a heated table where he puts strips together to make stripes. Soon he'll wrap that around a great big hunk, cut it, and curve the ends, to make the candy canes.

Here's the finished product-they come in all colors and flavors.

Care for a lollipop?

It was a fun tour!

THE REAL THING

Here's the actual amphitheater with a view of Denver.

I zoomed in on downtown.

The left side of the seats.

The right side.

One has a fossil.

There were flowers growing in the rocks.

An awesome place!

RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATER

We were at the amphitheater in 1974 and things have changed, along with the many famous stars that have appeared there. The rocks along the way are awesome and you need to drive through one of them.

The colors are amazing.

The visitor's center was new to us.

The indoor theater shows a film of a lot of the acts that like the acoustics, and performing there.

Some of the performers donated their musical instruments for people to see.

Here's a scale model of the amphitheater.

FRIENDS OF THE SHRINE

Right behind the statue, on the hillside, were six mule deer. It was hard to get a picture of all of them in the tall grass and they were doing a little frolicking.


It was time to eat.

MOTHER CABRINI SHRINE

Since Mother Cabrini is one of our American saints, we thought we'd visit her shrine up in the mountains near Buffalo Bill. She founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and they have a small convent there.

The windows in their chapel depict scenes of Mother Cabrini's life.

Further down the hill is the shrine's chapel where you're able to get water from a spring that Mother Cabrini found.





Most of the time we were there, it was raining and lightening, and had many steps, so we decided not to walk up the hillside to the Sacred Heart statue.

Here's a closeup.