Alright enough side tracking, it was now time to hit the trails for a hike. When I was searching for locations near our cabin the one that popped up as the most popular, and also not too challenging for beginners was Red Rocks Park.

We had barely just driven into the park and were already taken back by the size and beauty of where we were. I found a parking lot that seems fairly close to a few different trails, and picked one that stated it was about 2 miles in length.

We figured it was best to take a before photo since by the end of this experience we may not be in as high spirits.

The trail wasn’t paved, but was well worn and easy to follow. We came across many different signs and marking helping to keep us on the correct path.

It was just really beautiful here and I found myself taking so many pictures and videos along the way to document it as best I could. Trust me however, as nice as these photos are, they pale in comparison to being there in person and seeing it with your own eyes.

We weren’t speeding through the hike and really took our time to enjoy where we were. In total probably look a little less than an hour to do the whole trail and thankfully it brought us right near where we had left our car. Before we left the park there was one other place I wanted to check out. This was the Amphitheatre that is wedge into rocks and is incredible. The only draw back was we had to walk up these very steep ramps that twisted back and forth up along one of the rock races.

This was another place that just seems out of this world. They host all sorts of different events here from early morning yoga, to music concerts, and more.

It’s hard to explain exactly how huge this place it but trust me it was amazing. I wish we would have been able to stick around for a concert or some event to see it in action.

My family opted to sit and rest back down towards the bottom of the amphiteathre but I had to clip a ton of steps to the top so I could access to Red Rocks Visitor Center.

Inside near the information desk was where I found two different machines. First was a collectible medallion machine with a wonderful vinyl wrap.

The coins had images of the Amphitheatre, Red Rocks park established 1941, the Denver Skyline, and a ferocious looking T-Rex. The reverse side of all the coins had the same design which had a little description of the Amphitheatre.

Just a few steps to the left and I found myself in front of the Pressed Penny Machine. Now if you look closely you may see a sticker near the $1.00 price tag that says “Out of Order”. I walked all the way up here and the penny machine was out of order. I did try it anyways but just confirmed it was not operational.

So it took a few weeks after we got home for my mail off letter to make its way back to the Visitor Center and a very kind staff member pressed the pennies for me once the machine was back up and running. The set of pennies has some fun designs including another wide image of the Amphitheatre, Red Rocks from Dinosaurs to Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Red Rocks, and a Dinosaur skeleton.

Our hike was a success and we even heard from comments from our kids on the drive back to our cabin that they enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately our trip to Colorado was coming to an end in a few more days, but we were taking this as a sign to try and squeeze in another hike or two if we could. Plus I still had quite a few more pennies on my shopping list we had to track down so be sure to stay tuned and as always Keep on Pressing!

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It had finally arrived, the day we were going to try and hike though some of the Colorado mountains. I had checked out a few that were rated for novices since we were a little worried about the high altitude. As luck would have it once I found one I thought would work best for us, I also found a couple penny machines that were located nearby. Stay tuned for an upcoming post about our adventure hiking, but for now let me tell you about these slight detours we took.

Dinosaur Ridge was our first stop and it included a small museum and separate gift shop. Now as I mentioned our focus on this day was our hike so we didn’t spent a whole lot of time here. There were some fun decorated stegosaurus statues all around the parking lot.

I quickly headed into the gift shop to grab some bottles of water for our upcoming hike, but that was secondary to tracking down the penny machine that was supposedly inside.

There was a lot of different dinosaur themed items available for purchase and I was honestly tempted by some of it, but wasn’t sure how I would get some of it home. This dino stuff can get pretty heavy.

Just beside a large fire place was where I found the four design manual pressed penny machine. The cabinet artwork was beautiful and I loved all the dinosaur images. Plus as you may have noticed in the photo above these still only cost $0.50 each plus my pennies. The images included some standard dinosaur designs, but all had Dinosaur Ridge included which was a plus for me.

Something that I thought was a great feature for collectors was this laminated paper letting you know about a 5th penny design available at the nearby Discovery Center. Thankfully I already knew about this second location, but this was really a wonderful thing to do.

Fast forward a few hours and we had successfully completed our 2 miles hike (next week you can read all about it). We were all pretty tired and certainly hungry but I wanted to try and press that last penny from the Discovery Center. It took a little while to navigate there and my family wanted to just stay in the car for some air conditioning and more importantly the soft seats.

I parked the car in the lot and headed into the small building. It had some fun decorations around the outside but other than that there wasn’t much going on outside.

Inside was a set of restrooms that seemed pretty popular. The rest of the interior was filled with history of dinosaurs found in this area of Colorado. I felt this would have a been a great place to bring a class of kids on a school field trip. There wasn’t a ton of things in here, but it was still a cute little pit stop.

Now I did mention the restrooms here and of course the dang pressed penny machine was right outside. Always makes for an uncomfortable situation when I’m taking pictures of the penny machine with people walking out of the bathroom. In any case, this was quite an interesting looking machine. I’ve used similar ones in the past with mixed results. These always seem to roll short and this was no different. Thankfully my dino penny pressed about 90% complete which I was happy with. I’ve seen much worse from these machines. The penny also included the location of Morrison, Colorado giving me another fantastic keepsake for this amazing trip.

We had some aches and pains to deal with from our hike but had a wonderful day over all. It was time to head back to our cabin for some rest before we headed back out for more adventures. Stay tuned and Keep on Pressing!

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It seems like a lot of time has passed since the last time we had a new set of pressed pennies released at Walt Disney World. That has changed just this week with the announcement from our friends at Presscoins.com with the news of a new penny machine over at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort.

This is a beautiful resort and it always seems so quiet and peaceful here. Plus you have my personal favorite resort the French Quarter just a short walk away, especially if you are craving some beignets.

The main gift shop at this resort is called Fulton’s General Store. It’s located in the main building near the lobby and food court area.

The store is pretty large with a wide selection of items, and there are even some animated characters on display that you can check out while you shop.

If you enter the store from inside the building near the lobby then you need to walk all the way towards the back to find the new penny machine. There is a door to the outside that is near the bus stops and the machine is right beside those doors. Also just note there is a second 3-design penny machine in this store but those designs have been available for quite awhile and are currently unchanged.

This new set of 8 pressed pennies I think is fantastic. I haven’t seen designs like this before and love the classic look to them. There are images of Steamboat Willie, Oswald and Ortensia, Mickey, Minnie, Pete, Clarabelle and even Horace. These are fantastic and this seems like a fun location for them to be found.

Is this the beginning of other new pressed pennies? Well I certainly think so. With the 100th anniversary coming to a close soon, all those designs will need to be replaced. It just remains to be seen if the old designs will return, or maybe if we are lucky they will release all new designs. Stay tuned and I’ll be sure to share all the updates as soon as we have them. Keep on Pressing!

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After my wife and oldest daughter had a down day at the cabin they were anxious to hit the road and check out the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. From the outside this place looked huge, and it was owned and operated by the Landry’s Company who you may be familiar with as they also run all the Rainforest Cafe restaurants. I was curious to see how it looked inside.

We had quite a bit of a drive from our cabin to the aquarium, so once we arrived and got inside we needed a quick pit stop. There was a long hallway where the restrooms were located and as you may guess I ran into two pressed penny machines. Always nice to start things off with some new coins for our collection.

The first machine was a standard 4-design manual model. It has been updated to the new price point, and also accepted credit / debit or digital payments. I’m not sure if I even need to mention this anymore since this certainly seems to be the majority of machines now.

A little further down the hallway was the second machine, this time the larger 8-design version. Touch screen, all the standard payment options. The coin designs were cute but seem to be similar to many other aquariums but these did include the location on each coin which I always like.

With those freshly pressed pennies stashed away in my pocket it was time to head in and see some marine life. Some of the rooms had really high glass ceilings that brought in a lot of natural light which was great. The exhibits were well detailed but some of the pathways were a bit narrow causing some congestion with guests.

The machines kept rolling at this place. We had barely left the first area of the aquarium and I came across a collectible medallion set. The cabinet design was cool and I really liked the different shades of blue. The medallions have images of a Coconut Crab, River Otter, Tiger and a Mystic Mermaid.

The reverse side of all the coins was the same and had the Downtown Aquarium Denver, CO logo along with the Shark mascot and a couple sea stars.

We continued enjoying each section of the aquarium. Some of the tanks were enormous with amazing panoramic views inside.

They did even have a pretty big section for some land animals including a couple tigers. The theming in some of these areas honestly reminded me of the Rainforest Cafe dining rooms. I’m pretty sure the foliage was real, but some of it did seem like it could be fake just for ease of maintenance I guess.

My kids found a touch tank that is always a favorite of theirs. Plus we found some smaller tanks with some very unique creatures I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Eventually we came to an area that had a stingray “petting” area, a little snack bar and more importantly for me at least the last two pressed penny machines. The designs in this set included the shark mascot, an Eel, some type of big cat, and a couple turtles.

I quickly passed by the creepy looking shark donation container but tossed some money inside just to make sure he didn’t attack me. The last machine had penny designs of an octopus, scuba diver, snake and a couple sea horses.

At this point we had finished the entire aquarium but their restaurant had been calling my name. Earlier in the day I checked online and was able to secure a reservation just to make sure we could eat there. Our timing was almost perfect but the kind staff were happy to seat us anyways.

The restaurant was themed to look like we were in among some a coral reef. You could see a bunch of smaller tanks along the entrance walls, but inside there were very large tanks for our viewing pleasure during our meal.

My wife enjoyed a friend shrimp platter, and I decided to stick to land and ordered a chicken tortilla wrap. These were fine, nothing special but as we have become accustomed to at our local theme parks it seems like we were more paying for the ambience than the food. After our meal we checked out the gift shop for a few souvenirs and then hopped back in our car to head home for the day. I was pretty impressed overall with this aquarium and was happy with the total number of pressed pennies and medallions I was able to pick up as well. Now it was time to enjoy some quiet time at our cabin before heading out on our next adventure. Stay tuned and Keep on Pressing!

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My youngest daughter and I had be out exploring Colorado and the greater Denver area all day but wanted to try and visit one last spot before we headed back to our cabin. We drove up into the mountains with beautiful scenic views extending all around us. At the top we found our final destination the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave.

After parking our car we headed towards the Museum and headed inside. The first floor had the admission counter and some amazing artwork along the walls all depicting Buffalo Bill.

I’ll admit that I don’t know much about Bill Cody so it seems like I was in the right place. At first I thought the museum seemed a bit small on this first floor but was amazed once we headed downstairs.

There was display after display filled with the history and whole life story of Buffalo Bill Cody. Starting from his childhood all the way up to his death and everything in between. It was really fascinating and I wished I could have spent a little more time there but our day was quickly coming to an end.

Right next door to the museum was the Pahaska Tepee. Inside was a small restaurant and quite an extensive gift shop.

There was a lot of Buffalo Bill items, but then it continued into anything and everything you could imagine. Colorado themed souvenirs, mood rings, bumper stickers. You name it, they probably had it inside.

Off to one side of the store there was a small room with a separate entrance and exit. This is where I found the two pressed penny machines I had researched about online before our trip. Both machines only had one design each, thankfully they were different designs. The first machine had a penny design of Buffo Bill on his horse. Unfortunately the machine rolled a bit short and the top of the design was cut off.

The second machine was right next to the first one and pressed my penny with an image of an Elk among some trees and the amazing mountains in the background. This machine also rolled a bit short cutting off the left side a bit. As you may be able to see in the photo above there was also a medallion machine available but one of the designs was out of stock. I’ve since tried contacting the gift shop to see if it’s available again but so far to date that medallion design of Buffalo Bill seems to be permanently unavailable. If I ever do acquire it somehow in the future I’ll be sure to follow up with additional photos.

With the pennies pressed and out day pretty much over we had just one last stop to make before we headed out. Behind the gift shop and up a small hill was where we found Bill Cody’s final resting place. It was quite the sight, surrounded by a wrought iron fence and made up of large white stones. We paid out respects to this American legend and then started our way back down to our car.

These are the types of days that I really have a lot of fun with. It’s tiring and sometimes I feel like I don’t always give adequate time to each of our stops alongs the way. I was able to mark off quite a few places on my wish list for this trip all in this single day and felt quite accomplished but very tired. We couldn’t wait to get back to the cabin for a nice home cooked meal with the rest of our family. Don’t worry though we still have plenty more days on our Colorado Trip and I’ve got plenty more penny machines to visit.

Keep on Pressing!

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Continuing my adventure day with my youngest daughter we found ourselves in need of a sweet treat and thankfully on my wish list was the Hammond’s Candy Factory. There were two different parts to this, one side was where you went for the Factory Tour (and also the Penny machine), and the other side was the candy store.

We first headed inside of the Factory Tour section and after a short wait were guided into a back area with a large wall of windows that looked inside the active candy factory. There were candy makers working on all different types of sweets. Back out in the waiting area is where the penny machine was located, unfortunately during our visit it was out of order. More on that a little later.

First we needed to do some shopping for candy and their retail store had us covered and then some. The walls were lined with all different kinds of sweets, as well as tables and other displays just jammed packed with confectioneries.

There was even a large bulk candy display along the back wall. I thought this was all Hammond’s creations but there was a lot of items here you would find in your local grocery store or candy shop with a similar offering.

There was still a lot of items that are made by Hammond’s in the factory we had just visited a short while ago. We picked up all different types of sour candy, chocolate covered items like pretzels, and different types of candied fruit.

I think in total we spent almost one hundred dollar on candy for our family to enjoy during the rest of our trip. There was one Hammond’s item I wish I had picked up more of and that was their humongous peanut butter cups. I love Reese’s but they didn’t hold a candle to these monsters. The Hammond’s versions were at least twice as thick, and had way more peanut butter. I only got two one for my wife and myself to enjoy but that was a mistake. During the rest of our trip I was hoping to get back here for a few items to bring back with us to Florida but we just couldn’t fit it in our schedule.

Before we leave Hammonds let’s review the penny machine over near the tour part of the building. As I mentioned this machine was out of order during our visit. I did try it anyways, but the slide was jammed so I couldn’t even get my coins inside to test it. I also asked a couple of the staff members if they had extra coins available but they did not. Although they did mention that was great idea so maybe that will be something they offer in the future if you ever visit and it’s not working, never hurts to ask.

After our trip I waited a few weeks before sending a package to Hammond’s with some coins asking if someone could help press the pennies since the machine was not working during my trip. It didn’t take too long before I received the pennies back in the mail. The designs on each coin are all themed for the Candy Factory and store which is such a great touch and makes for a fantastic souvenir.

As my daughter and I sat in our rental car eating probably a bit more sugar than we should have, we were giggling and just having a great time together. Our day was still young and we had quite a few other places to visit before heading back to our cabin. Stay tuned for where we visit next and as always Keep on Pressing!

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For many locals around a Disney theme park or for someone that visits the parks often enough, an annual pass is quite appealing, although a pretty expensive luxury now a days. On the west coast in Disneyland their annual pass was renamed to Magic Key a few years ago that left some fans with contradicting feelings about the program.

As I mentioned the cost is very high, they limited the number of “Keys” available, the number of days you can reserve to enter the park, as well as penalties should you book a day to visit and not show up. All of these things seem to make it harder for fans to visit.

It hasn’t been all bad news, I mean you still get plenty of access to the parks, overall the price per visit would be much less than buying individual tickets and you can also visit a special lounge.

Inside the Disney California Adventure park you can visit the Magic Key Terrace with some nice covered areas to sit and relax, grab some food or just get out of the sun for a bit.

Plus now it was just announced by the Disney Parks Blog that starting October 27th, 2023 you can get a special set of collectible medallions just for Magic Key holders. The new machine is available at the terrace during regular operating hours. Key holders must be dining at the lounge to access the machine and they do recommend a dining reservation. There is no mention of how long these will be available, or if there is a limit on how many can be purchased.

The set includes coin designs of the Disneyland Flag Sign, the Partner Statue with Walt and Mickey, Sleeping Beauty Castle, and the Pixar Pal-A-Round wheel. All coins have the same reverse image of the Magic Key Logo in the center, and Disneyland along the bottom.

This is something I’ve been hoping Disney would do for a long time, albeit preferably here in the Florida parks. But this is a start and hopefully we will see more of these Passholder er.. I mean Magic Key holder coins in the future.

Keep on Collecting!

The next day of our Colorado trip had arrived. My wife and oldest daughter wanted to stay at our cabin for a low-key relaxing day. However my youngest is a bit more like me and was anxious to get out on the road and explore. I had quite a few places on my to-do list for the day. I wasn’t sure if we would get to all of them, but we would certainly try. Our first stop this day was located in Golden Colorado called the Colorado Railroad Museum.

The main museum building that included the gift shop was modeled after 1880s style railroad depot. Inside there were quite a few exhibits, historical photographs and a model railroad that we will take a look at in a little bit.

After purchasing our tickets we headed outside to the sprawling 15 acre property with amazing collection of trains, trains cars and so much more.

Most of them were available for guests to get right up close and personal, with a few even allowing us access inside. A couple trains we were able to walk down the narrow hallways and explore the kitchen, dining car, standard seating and even a first class car.

Unfortunately the Coors train car was not accessible which seemed surprising since the Brewery was not too far away.

It was incredible to be able to just wonder around and walk up onto the railroad tracks and just see all the details and incredible engineering it took to make these iron beasts move along those tracks.

They even had a railroad turntable that apparently was in working order. During our visit they weren’t running it which I would have loved to see in person, but never the less it was still very impressive to see up close.

Another interesting place we were able to explore a little bit was the building where they restore, rebuilt and give general maintenance to the trains. During our visit the front large doors were open so we could see their current projects, and there was also an area around back that you could enter inside to see the actual work being done.

After we had finished exploring the outside grounds we headed back inside the main museum building and downstairs is where there was an incredible model railroad. Ever since I was young I’ve been fascinated with model railroads and this one was great. The scenery, buildings, and landscapes were so fun and of course the trains running their routes was mesmerizing. I could have stayed there for hours watching it.

Eventually we headed back upstairs and found the pressed penny machine. It had a nice simple wood cabinet, and worked very well. The penny designs in this set included the Museum logo, a couple train images and their mascot Spike the Dog.

This was an incredible place to visit and I’m so happy we were able to visit. There were still quite a few other places I wanted to check out this day so we couldn’t linger too long. Stay tuned for future articles about where we headed next. Keep on Pressing!

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This was the second part of our first full day in Denver. Earlier we had visited the Denver zoo which you can read about here. After that we weren’t quite ready to head back to our cabin and instead decided to visit the nearby Museum of Nature & Science.

It was only about a five minute walk from the zoo, through a little park before coming across this beautiful sight. I’ve mentioned in the past that I love museums, doesn’t matter if it’s for art, science, industry or history. My favorite however is a Nature museum.

We had one in Ottawa where I grew up and it was a place we visited quite often and is where I fell in love with dinosaurs. So I was excited to get inside and see what they had to offer here. Immediately upon entering we were confronted by this big guy and I knew we were in for a treat.

This place was huge, and I truly wish we had enough time to explore the entire museum, unfortunately we only had a short amount of time so we had to pick just a few sections to explore.

We headed all the way up to the top floor and figured it would be easiest to work our way back down. This was where they had a special exhibit going on that was all about bugs. Now I’m not the biggest fan of bugs, so usually I’ll just try to steer clear.

They had some very interested interactive exhibits, and even an area where you could tough a few creepy crawlers. That I did not partake in, although the little ones in attendance seemed to really enjoy it.

After having our fill of bugs, we headed down to the Wildlife Halls. This is another favorite of mine in all Nature museums.

The size and details of these scenes in incredible, and even just the total number of animals instead each display is amazing.

The museum hours were quickly coming to a close and we didn’t have much time let so we wanted to make sure and visit one last section and that had to be the prehistoric dinosaur exhibit.

This area just brought me back to my childhood. The fossils on display were immense and it always blows my mind just how big and small some of them where.

I could have spent hours in this area, but still enjoyed everything we saw here.

After finishing up with the dinosaurs we then headed back down to the main floor. We chose to skip the gift shop, but I did find the pressed penny machine just outside the store.

The machine miraculously was still only fifty cents and I was able to use my own pennies. Thankfully I came prepared with some coppers to press. The cabinet had a nice blue design, and the marquee design was like nothing I’d seen before on a machine.

The pennies in this set had images of Saturn with some starts, an Egyptian burial mask, a Mammoth, and my favorite the T-Rex skeleton.

We had a great day at the zoo and then this fantastic museum, but we were pretty exhausted by this time and still trying to get on the correct time zone. After a quick dinner we headed back to our cabin for some much needed rest before we headed back out for some other experiences and plenty of new pressed pennies so stayed tuned. Keep on Pressing!

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Earlier this summer my family took a trip to Colorado, and here we are many weeks later and I’m finally getting around to sharing the adventure with you. We had booked a cabin in a place called Bailey that was about an hour outside of Denver. We were up in the mountains with a nice piece of property and plenty of peace and quiet. It was unbelievable and we truly enjoyed being there. However, every so often we would venture out to explore. One of the first places we decided to check out was the Denver Zoo.

Something I found interesting about this zoo is it had underground parking. I’ve visited lots of zoos over the years, and I think that was a first.

Once inside the zoo was quite large and sprawled out in various directions. There was plenty of shade which I always appreciate, but the temperatures during our trip were beautiful and with no humidity like we suffer from in Florida I was in heaven.

The exhibits were fun and of course had plenty of all the usual animals you would expect. We stopped for snacks and ice cream along the way, and even took a quick ride on a classic carousel filled with colorfully decorated animals. The zoo had a decent crowd during our visit but nothing like we are used to at the Disney parks so we really enjoyed the slower pace of our visit.

Hopefully this goes without saying, but I was sure to keep an eye out for any elongated coins. They were scattered pretty throughly throughout the park. The first machine we found was the one pictured above, the cabinets were very familiar however the marquee was quite a bit different. I wasn’t sure why there were two images of each coin design, and why one of them was filled with different colors. It was a bit unique and I must admit it caught my eye so who am I to complain. The machines had been updated to the newer payment system accepting either cash, credit or digital payments. Each machine was pre-filled with zinc pennies and cost $1 each to press each penny.

Some of the machine locations I had researched on pennycollector.com were not in the same locations during my trip. It’s still on my to-do list to make some updated notes for other collectors to reference but this was one of those machines. Originally it was listed as being near the carousel we had ridden however the machine was no where to be found. Eventually I came across is near the primate section of the zoo.

The next machine was in the correct location but on the complete opposite side of the zoo near a section called the Elephant Passage. It was kind of hidden behind a large bush and I almost walked right past it. Thankfully my elongated coin spidey-sense was tingling helped me spot it at the last moment.

Finally the last machine was found over near the giraffe exhibit. By this time my family was pretty tired, we were still trying to get adjusted to our temporary time zone, and the higher elevation. They were resting a bit in one of the quick service restaurants having a light lunch while I quickly trekked through the last section of the zoo we hadn’t visited yet. After pressing the set I finished walking this last area and then headed back to join up with my family.

Before we headed out we did make a quick stop in the gift shop. My youngest fell in love with a cute plush animal so we adopted that and while in line to check out I saw they had some generic Penny passport books for $6 which was pretty reasonable. I didn’t pick one up since I already have one of these versions, and at this point in my collection I prefer to get ones only if they are customized for the location I visited.

Those of you eagle eyed readers may have noticed among the penny machine photos that the bottom of each machine had a number. I found four machines, but seemed to miss machine #2. I inquired with a few employees at the zoo and they insisted that there were currently only four machines. Could I have missed it, well it’s certainly possible but to toot my own horn that doesn’t happen to often. I’m pretty good at finding all machines and knowing the common locations that the vendors like to place them. If any of you have visited the Denver Zoo and have any information on Machine #2 please let me know in the comments and maybe we will have to go back sometime again in the future.

Stay tuned for more posts about our Colorado trip. We had plenty of other things on our list to do, and of course lots of pennies and even some medallions to collection along the way. Keep on Pressing!

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