We woke up to a brisk mountain morning air and were happy to
have a warm shower to jump in to even if it was the type of shower that you
felt more comfortable wearing your flip flops.
We were well rested and excited to start our fun filled Memorial Day and
hoping that we could fit all of our plans in.
We started out early and headed straight to Garden of the
Gods. I had been there as a young buck
with my family and remembered that it was fun to play around on the red rocks
protruding from the earth. We stopped by
the Visitors Center to get an idea of what we should do. Garden of the Gods is not a State or National
Park but is a very amazing place with mountains surrounding red-orange rock
formations. In the state of the art visitors' center, they had this cool way to increase donations with each of
the 50 states having their own box and a Top State list for the past week,
month, and year. Colorado had the
obvious advantage for donations but I was happy to see Illinois was in the top 5. Indiana and Missouri were not on the list but their clear donations box both seemed to have a few dollars.
We figured out our plan of attack with a few hikes around
some rock formations with names like “The Kissing Camels”, “Three Graces”, “The
Siamese Twins”, and “Cathedral Spires.” Because
we were out early there were not a ton of people on the trails yet which was
nice to be able to enjoy some quiet as well as the beauty. There were a few tourists taking pictures
with their iPads, which is even sillier looking than you can imagine, even if
it theoretically is a good idea. We saw
this phenomenon a few more times and it was just as funny every other time as well.
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| The Kissing Camels |
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| Siamese Twins |
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| Garden of the Gods |
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| Climbing on the Three Graces - Megan was nervous/mad at me for going that high. |
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| Relaxing at the Siamese Twins with Pikes Peak in the Window |
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| Air Force Academy Chapel |
After stopping at the trading post and trying some more free
fudge samples we wanted to check out the Air Force Academy. We thought that heading there on Memorial Day
was a good way to honor those that had given their lives for our American freedom. After some confusion getting on to the
grounds we made our way to the chapel, museum, and visitors’ center. The chapel is an amazing place that is
stunning with the backdrop of the dark mountains and blue sky. The museum and visitors’ center had a great
display on life as a cadet at the academy and we both enjoyed the movie that
gave a more in-depth look at the history and life at the Air Force
Academy.
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| Picnic Spot at Palmer Park |
We had brought lunch supplies with us in the cooler and had
planned on having a picnic somewhere and after the Air Force Academy we were
both hungry and ready to eat. After some
searching for a picnic table or anything within Palmer Park, a city park in
Colorado Springs, we finally gave up and decided to just eat on the ground. It was really windy and we needed to hold
everything down but the views looking back towards Garden of the Gods and Pikes
Peak were well worth it. We had some
turkey sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and chocolate pudding snack-packs. We could have been 10 years old and no one would know the difference.
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| Megan - Olympic Champion |
Being replenished, we wanted to hang out with some Olympians
at the US Olympic Training Facility. We
still had 60 days before the London Olympics began, plenty of time for Megan and
I to get into tip-top shape. The
facility has a hall of fame that was growing and if it received the upgrades
and attention it deserves it could be awesome.
As it is right now, it lacks pictures, movies, inspirational stories,
and only had a few athletes enshrined.
The rest of the place was very well done. It had some promotional videos for the
upcoming games, impressive world record displays including the amazing Mike
Powell’s long jump world record marked off on the ground. At the gift shop, we both picked up a 2012 US
Olympic shirt to be ready to support the red, white, and blue.
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| USA #1 |
After we did our shopping we jumped on a tour of the
grounds. The facility receives zero
money from the government and is 100% run off of donations, mostly corporations like McDonalds, GE, Home Depot, and Deloitte. There were huge facilities for wrestling,
swimming, weightlifting, volleyball, gymnastics, gun ranges, and a few others. I remember a story about how the wrestlers
would climb over the wall to break in to the weight
room at night to get in
more workouts. Now that is dedication.
We were feeling good about ourselves after being so near
greatness that we treated ourselves to some strawberry smoothies from a Dutch Brothers drive thru on our way
back to camp, where the guy working there complimented me on my awesome hair. I think Megan threw up in her mouth as she cursed the man for saying nice things about my flowing locks. Back at camp we drank the
beers we bought from New Belgium Brewery and ate leftovers from the night
before as we sat by the fire and discussed life.
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