Trip to Colorado and wearing the Victorian Mourning Dress

My husband and I went on a get away for our Anniversary to Colorado and did a few fun costumy things while there. 

The first night we drove about 8 hours in the rain to Fort Collins. Fort Collins has a very cool little pub called Dungeons & Drafts.  The food is very good and the drinks are excellent, as well as themed for geeky, nerdy things. For example, I had a Butter Beer (Harry Potter) and a Frost Mage (World of Warcraft) for drinks and my husband had The Cap (Captain America) and a sonic screwdriver (Doctor Who).  The whole place is reminiscent of a Dungeons and Dragons Inn and they encourage people to dress up in any costume.  In fact you get 10% off if you do.  Finally they have a game library from which you can borrow games to play with your friends while you eat.This is a really fun place and we would love to go back again.

Dungeons and Drafts

Game Library

 The main reason for the trip however, was to go to the Emma Crawford Wake and the Manitou Springs Coffin Races.  These are annual events in Manitou Springs.  The Wake is held at the Miramont Castle and is basically a short dinner theater that moves from room to room in the castle.  It is historical and intended to educate about wakes in late Victorian times and the effect on the whole household.  After the wake, dinner is served.  Many guests dress up, so I wore the full Victorian Mourning gown and my husband wore his full Victorian.  Unfortunately, we only got a background shot with my husband in full dress.  We also did not take pictures during the wake to avoid distracting the other guests or the actors.  Still it was a lovely evening.

Men's basic without the hat and coat

Back of my dress and my husband in full dress

Dress back

Dress front

 Since we planned on attending the Coffin Races the next day, we stayed in a very cool Victorian Bed and Breakfast called the Avenue Hotel. I highly recommend this place, the breakfast was amazing, the rooms are really beautiful and the owners are wonderful.  We were so comfortable there and had such a lovely time.  A friend of mine and myself wandered around the house and took pictures. Also the front yard was wonderfully decorated for the coffin races so we took some spooky pictures.

The next day we had our amazing breakfast from the Avenue hotel and then went off to tea at the Miramont Castle and to watch coffin racing.  The basic idea is that the coffin (shape and style up to the team) must contain an "Emma" (again the dress for Emma is up to the team) and must be pushed by 4 people.  The teams run in heats of 2 coffins and the winner has the best time.  Some people did go for speed but most went for style.  For example, there as a Viking entry with the coffin as a ship and a giant sail, which added a great deal resistance for running.  Other really crazy ones were: Khaleesi from Game of Thrones in the coffin pushed by 3 large dragons (wings are also bad for running and the heads appeared really hard to see out of) and Drogo; the fast food guys (again Jack in Box giant ball head is not good for vision or running); the news crew with news helicopter coffin; as well as lots of amazing Halloween themed groups.  Also many of the crowd were dressed up.  I tried to get pictures but there were way too many people to get good clear shots of the coffins.  However the whole event was simply a ton of fun and I hope to go again.