More to this life: 2010-06-13

Running amuck at the Air Force Academy - Wednesday, June 9

Donna, Margene, and Jena decided they wanted to do some shopping in old town Manitou Springs on Wednesday. That left me with four kids to keep busy while they were gone. No problem, we'll just see what we can explore here at the Academy! And it turned out to be a pretty good adventure. It turned out to be a good day weather-wise, too. Overcast skies kept the temperature down until after about 2 o'clock.

We went to the visitors center to find out what all we could do and where we could go.

We found plenty to keep us busy for several hours!

First there were all the exhibits in the visitor's center itself.

Including one of the gliders they use for training at the academy. We saw LOTS of these in flight from our vantage point at the campground.

Then we took the overlook path to the chapel. It's even more impressive in real life than all the pictures I'd seen.

Us on the steps of the chapel.

This place is big! It's 99 feet and 2 inches from the floor to the ceiling.

The design of the chapel was started in 1954 and the construction wasn't finished until 1963. Part of the reason may be the 24,000 pieces of stained glass in the walls and ceiling - and the placement of each one one was supervised by the architect!

After all the sculptures of planes on the plaza, we saw some real ones!

Like this B-52

and this A-10

and this T-38 trainer

After all that, it was back to the old reliable - the playground!

Gods and Cowboys - Tuesday, June 8

Well, I never thought it would be so much effort to keep folks posted about our adventure out west! Here I am almost a week behind. No, I didn't think I would have to post something EVERY DAY, but with three little ones along, it sure takes more effort. It doesn't help that what some campgrounds consider high speed wireless Internet is NOT. While there is access, it's s.....l.....o.....w..... and uploading just one picture can be agonizing!

But I digress.............

Today we visited the Garden of the Gods, and later went to one of my favorites - the Flying W Ranch and their chuck wagon dinner.

Garden of the Gods

This area of sandstone rock formations at the base of of snow-capped Pikes Peak. It's a pretty neat place with rock formations of a bunch of different names like cathedral rock, sleeping giant, balanced rock, and a one-of-a-kind dinosaur fossil.

This is known as the Tower of Babel.

Rock climbing is very popular here. They are very strict about having a permit and the right gear! This guy seemed to know what he was doing.

These two did not. They were yelling down and people on the ground were trying to guide them. they didn't appear to have any equipment with them, We later saw a fire department team and I wondered if they had to be rescued.

Can you make out the kissing camels?

This is Emi's favorite - The Sleeping Giant

Balanced Rock

He-man Justin can hold it all by himself!

Cathedral Rock.

After our time at the Garden of the Gods, it was on to ..............

The Flying W Ranch!

This working cattle ranch has been doing chuck wagon dinners during the summer for 58 years! They're good at it, too! They have a small western town set up and some neat shops to visit until the dinner bell rings.

Once that happens, it's all about the grub and the good ol' fashioned cowboy music and some good clean fun. The wranglers tell you all about what you're about to eat and then you get to experience it pretty much the way cowboys have for hundreds of years. They even use the metal plates and cups. It doesn't take those babies long to heat up once they put the piping hot beans, baked potatoes, and beef brisket on there. You're real glad they save one section of the plate for the applesauce and spice cake so you have a place to hold it without burning your hands!

The Chuck wagon Gang!

Abi and Justin got to see the farrier in action. They were shoeing this horse while we watched.

"Poppy, how does this work again?" They never did figure out the nail puzzle. ;-)

Go Climb that Mountain! - Monday, June 7

After a relaxing day on Sunday with the Bentons, the forcast for Monday was calling for a record high of 94 degrees. So we were left with finding ways to escape the heat for the day (even though it's a "dry heat").

What better way than indoors or at the top of 14,110 foot Pikes Peak? We decided to do both!

The indoor was a visit to the Focus on the Family Campus where we visited their welcome center, bookstore, and Whit's End. Whit's Emd is the world famoues soda fountain from the popular Adventures in Odyssey audio and video series.

The kids had a blast doing all the stuff in the Discovery Zone at Focus - but nothing was better than the A-Bend-A-Go, a three-story corkscrew slide.

All the actors (hams) are on stage and ready!

ASLAN

The other side of the wardrobe.

After spending time at Focus, it was off to Manitou Springs and the cog train to the top of Pikes Peak! Donna and I went up to the top once before when we were here, but we drove up that time and decided the cog train was definitely better than the two vehicles it would take to get this crowd to the top. I'm gald we took the train - I'm usually the driver and don't get to see much except the road. The road to the top is paved now, but there are NO guardrails.

Phil went with us but Margene doesn't think she ever needs to go back!

It may have been Phil's driving on the last trip that helped make up her mind.