Exploring Local Coffee Shops: The Coffee Exchange

Exploring the Local Coffee Shops of the Colorado Front Range.

We are on a quest find the local cafes and coffee shops, tea rooms and diners, in search of delicious coffee, tea and local flare.

As I partner with my daughter, Maizy, we’ll each share our experiences and individual thoughts.  This week, we’re talking about The Coffee Exchange, located at 526 S Tejon, in downtown Colorado Springs.

Overview:
The Coffee Exchange is located downtown at Cimarron and Tejon. There are a variety of tables and plenty of space for a energetic downtown atmosphere, while still being cozy. The walls were covered in local art, and there was good reading material on the coffee tables near the back of the shop.  That is where we settled in for about an hour, on the sofas at the back of the cafe.  That gave us a wonderful view of the entire shop.  The Coffee Exchange hosts several types of community get together including open mic, game nights and Cuban night.  If you are in the Colorado Springs area, CHECK them Out!  The shop hours are:

Monday-Friday: 7am-7pm

Saturday: 7am-5pm

Sunday: 8am-7pm

The baristas are very friendly and helpful. During our first visit, Amy’s order was wrong and the barista was actually the first one to notice, as she passed our table.  She took it, and quickly fixed a new drink.  The coffee is Fair Trade certified.  And, while you can get disposable cups if you aren’t planning to stay in the shop they serve drinks in reusable mugs if you want to stay and hang out or work while you enjoy your drink.

Coffee, Mom:
The White Zombie is delicious. I did change up the drink just a bit, as I truly dislike white chocolate.  Milk chocolate was added instead.  The drink was smooth and delicious.  The white coffee has a full body, yet mild taste. The atmosphere of this shop is the best we’ve visited so far. While there is plenty of space for people to gather, it is easy to have a conversation and enjoy savoring a quiet cup of something delicious.  Or grab a book and start reading!

Tea, Maizy:
During my two visits I tried the White Zombie (with white chocolate) and an English breakfast latte with a pump of lavender. White espresso might just be my new favorite thing because it doesn’t taste like coffee and has a ton of caffeine. I don’t depend on caffeine usually to help me stay awake but there are times when I appreciate the boost. While there is a good selection of teas, tea lattes (not including chai lattes) are not technically on the menu. They were happy to make the English breakfast latte for me though and it was delicious. When the drink originally came out it was just the tea without any milk but the barista who originally took my order noticed the mistake and fixed it right away. The lavender was faint but added a nice element to the overall flavor without being overpowering.

My favorite part of this coffee shop was the art.  The walls are covered in local art, and it is fantastic, and some of it was simply sweet.

 

 

Starsmore Discovery Center

Starsmore Discovery Center 

This center is at the entrance to Cheyenne Canyon.  Starsmore Discovery Center is one of several nature centers in Colorado Springs.  Each one offers fascinating opportunities for children and adults to experience and understand the natural world.

In the late spring and through the summer there are beautiful gardens full of native plants, butterflies and birds.  Inside there are numerous displays, dioramas and hands on nature items as well as a bird watching area. There are areas for children to handle nature items, look at books or to color.

 

The center is open April to October, and hosts fantastic children’s events.

Outside you are likely to see squirrels, mule deer, various birds including Hummingbirds.  There is access to the North Cheyenne Creek, where we have enjoyed picnics and a little splashing in the water.

Heading into the Canyon, from the Discovery Center,  the road runs along the North Cheyenne Creek all the way up to Helen Hunt Falls.  This road continues around to Gold Camp Road and more hiking trails.  The Columbine Trail begins here, and just like the road leads up to the area around Helen Hunt Falls.

It is easy to see why this canyon is such a popular place for families.  I hope you find a morning, afternoon or a whole day to explore the area.

Starr Kempf Sculptures ~ Colorado Springs

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Art

The city of Colorado Springs is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States, personally speaking.  We have all the wonder of natural beauty: 4 distinct seasons, mountains, plains, sunshine, rain, snow, ice, lakes, rivers, creeks, etc.   And we have a wonderful eclectic community, including many fantastic artists.

If you take a drive to Cheyenne Canyon and Helen Hunt Falls on Colorado Springs west side, take a short detour as you leave the area.  As you leave the Canyon, just past the Starsmore Discovery Center, turn  right onto Pine Grove Avenue and go around the slight curve.  There you will be met by an amazing sight.

 

North Cheyenne Canyon & Helen Hunt Falls

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Colorado Springs, Colorado Staycation

Colorado Springs is full of delightful places to spend an afternoon.  As I continue to write Colorado Staycation posts I must include Cheyenne Canyon and Helen Hunt Falls.  Located in southwestern part of  Colorado Springs the Canyon can be found along the same route from downtown Colorado Springs to the Broadmoor Hotel and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

4 Letter Writing Ideas for Sponsorship Saturday

Over the past few weeks I’ve had so many ideas for letter writing, and have also seen several great ideas in blog posts and articles on the web.  Here are 4 letter writing ideas for inspiring and encouraging your sponsored children, today.  Use any of these ideas to write to your sponsored child today.

 

1.   Eleven Women Every Christian Should Know is an article written by Asheritah Ciuciu from the blog OneThingAlone.com  I think the information in this article is wonderful for inspiring and stimulating the imagination of our sponsored children, especially the girls.

 

2.   A letter about Beatrix Potter, along with one of her stories.  In January I was cleaning out our game/craft closet and found a little bundle of stickers with Peter Rabbit and other Beatrix Potter characters.  After a little searching I found the stories on the Project Gutenberg website, and printed two of the stories.  I am going to use information from biography.com to write the kids, and include a copy of one of her stories with some of the stickers.   Maybe you don’t have the stickers, but a letter with a story attached will be a real treat to your sponsored children.

3.   The weather!  Yes, how about writing about the weather you are having in your area?  Include some nature and scientific information and enlarge the child’s understanding of weather in the world.  In January I wrote about snow and had so much fun including some info about Snowflake Bentley.  Attached to those letters were some photographs of snow in Garden of the Gods.

4.   Something you have learned recently.  Inspire your sponsored children to pursue learning as a way of life, by sharing things that you are learning.  Right now I am doing a Lent study by the She Reads Truth team.  In an upcoming letter I will be sharing something I have discovered in the first days of that study.

It is my belief that by writing to the children in this way, that the child’s mind has the opportunity to gain a greater scope for the imagination.

We have a wonderful privilege and responsibility in writing to our sponsored children.  Think of it, we not only have the opportunity to invest in the lives of the future generation in our own families and communities, but also to invest in the lives of the future generations across the world.  Just as I have desired and sought to inspire my children to pursue curiosity, beauty, and excellence, I am hoping to do the same with our sponsored children.

Please, in the comments, share your ideas for writing to our sponsored children!

US Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs Stay-Cation

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Colorado Springs, Stay-cation

 

Colorado Springs is home to many places of beauty and interest. Stepping away from all the natural beauty one can find a dozen or more places that celebrate the strength and ability of mankind. The Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center one of those places and is located near the downtown area at

U.S. Olympic Training Center
1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909

Take pictures with the Olympic rings

 

Tours are offered daily, every half hour, for a small fee.  The tickets you receive look like this:

The Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center sits on the 35-acre complex that was formally the site of ENT Air Force base until 1976. It is one of 3 OTC in the United States. The US Olympic Committee headquarters are located just a little a couple miles away in the downtown area.

The center has sport venues and support facilities. Athletes in fencing, gymnastics, judo, modern pentathlon, shooting,swimming, tekwando, weightlifting and wrestling can stay at the site, train and receive support at the OTC.

During the tour you will be shown a short video of recent past Olympic highlights and a preview of the next games, which will be, at the time of this writing, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

After the video there is a tour of the site, including a couple of gyms, the shooting range and the swimming pool. While there we saw many athletes training in weight lifting and wrestling.

If you are looking for stay-cation activities and destinations or are visiting Colorado Springs for business or recreation, I encourage you to take a couple of hours and visit the Olympic Training Center.  You may leave inspired and energized to tackle the next activity you have planned with Olympic focus!

 

“Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Spring 2015!

What I’m Into July 2014

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What I’m Into (July 2014 Edition)

Read and Reading:

July was a good month for reading in my house. I posted about the books that I read. There is also a nice stack of books on my nightstand that I started or continued reading. The Valley of Vision was introduced to me while we lived in British Columbia a few years ago. I’ve picked it back up and am reading/praying through part 1. The other books I either started or continued reading are “Where There Was No Church”, “Pursue the Intentional Life”, “Sheba’s Song”, “Fields of the Fatherless,” and “What He Must Be”.

TV: Not much TV this month. We did spend a few evenings watching Star Wars Episodes 1-3.

Music: Before going to the Newsboys concert this month I purchased their “God’s Not Dead” album off iTunes. We also enjoyed seeing 1GirlNation open that concert, had the pleasure of meeting them and we purchased their cd.

Big project:  July has ended with a bang.  Many bangs of the hammer that is.  Our basement bathroom & 2 closets were demo-ed and also our kitchen and dining room…all the way to the studs.  So I’m cooking in the backyard and washing dishes in the laundry room.  It is all pretty exciting and I can hardly wait to see it all finished.  The project is scheduled to take about 7 weeks so I am sure my anticipation for it to be finished will grow with all those trips up and down stairs to do dishes and out door cooking.

Kitchen a little ways into the demolition

What I Love: Being home, having my family all around me.

I didn’t love this: Rain and very cool temperatures most likely cancelling our upcoming camping trip.  That said, I am very thankful for the rain.  Drought and fire brought loss of lives and many homes the past several years and I am so thankful for no fires and lots of rain.

On The Blog. While I bounce around and am not that great a writer, I am glad that I finally was able to put some words to paper and tell one of the dark parts of my story. It is with the hope that others may be encouraged to press on, despite the ugly hard places one may find herself.

In the blogosphere:

How to make iced coffee!

Poverty does not have the final say

 

This is just a bit of What I’m Into, July Edition 🙂

Summer Volunteer Work

Our youngest 3 daughters’ summer volunteer work includes acting as historical interpreters at Rock Ledge Ranch.  The ranch has 4 historical sites, with junior docents working each site.

Summer Volunteer Uniforms, period appropriate clothing

The ranch allows guests to visit the different time periods of our area and learn about the people who lived there, and what life was like at that time.  The historic buildings have been restored as close to their original state as possible.  The National Register of Historic Places added the ranch in 1979.

One benefit to my kids through their volunteering at the Ranch has been their deeper understanding of our local and state history.  Anything they now read about Colorado history, or even western US history, is greatly enhanced by their experience working at ranch.  They also apply what they learn outside the ranch to their conversations at the ranch.

It has been a rich experience and one our kids look forward to each January when they complete the application for the following summer.

Ticket Booth, TB Hut

If you are visiting the Colorado Front Range think about adding Rock Ledge Ranch to your plans.  Maybe you’ll get a tour led by some sweet junior docents and enjoy a peak into Colorado History.