The Olympic Training Center is open 365 days a year. Best to avoid Sundays, as that's when the athletes take the day off and many buildings are closed.

fmpden, your remarks are rude. Yes, I live here. Why would I pretend to? What's up with your attitude?

Also, I said "near 18th and California". If you actually live here, you know that 19th and Stout is a block away, which I define as "near".

It's completely unpleasant for you to attack me for giving my advice. I still say FREX is a good alternative. My niece used it last month, as I said.

The really nice dinosaur museum is very near CO Springs at Woodland Park. It was a lot of fun, and very instructive. They are doing bones there also in their lab.
http://www.rmdrc.com/

fmpden, you do seem a bit crochety about all this. Having been on the receiving end other times from you (I apparently don't know where my children live--duh!), maybe dial it back a little.

And we really wanted to get to Royal Gorge last year when we did the dinosaur trip. It looks SO beautiful.
http://www.royalgorgebridge.com/

Thank you for the Dinosaur link Gretchen. Definitely a must for us!

With Royal Gorge/Canon City, I'm not sure that we'll do it. People on this board (not just this post) have been mostly thumbs-down on the experience. I'm not sure I want my kids to do that adventure ride either.

The only question I haven't had time to research is if we want to do a tame whitewater rafting trip, if that is where we should go. From what I've read so far it sounds like Buena Vista is the start point. Any thoughts on that?

White water rafting is generally pretty IFFY by the end of August. This year might be a little different given the huge snow pack this but it could be gone by August. And it can be more dangerous at that time of year because of the low water and more rocks exposed. BV is the start point for Brown canyon -- one of the better areas but it is not a beginners run. Clear creek through Idaho Springs is more of a float trips as are some areas around Vail and Glenwood Springs.