A Day of Gods and Men

Last night we arrived in Colorado Springs around midnight and gratefully collapsed into the soft and comfortable guest bed at Tom's cousin Amy's house. Hurray for mooching across America! This morning we woke up and enjoyed breakfast with Amy and Cafall (Cay-fall), their adorable Corgi puppy before heading over to the Garden of the Gods. The original plan was to bike our way around, since the small loop is between 3-4 miles and we thought that was probably do-able, even with the lower levels of oxygen.

Yeah....no. It was 95 degrees out, and just biking up the entrance road was enough to wipe us out. Plus, Tom's bike handles were a bit loose and they flipped upside down on him. We took this as a sign that it was just not to be, and coasted back down the hill, then walked our bikes back to our car in the parking lot. Beaten, but not vanquished, we decided to drive in and do the short little hikes inside the park.

It was a nice drive, and an even nicer walk. The heat was bad, but not bad enough to kill my enjoyment of the place, especially after I spotted a brush jay. Going to these places kind of makes me feel closer to my dad in a way and I wanted to get a picture of the bird, but some boy scouts chased it away. Le sigh.

I love the story of where the name came from, so I am going to share it with you- Back in 1859, two surveyors were scouting the area and, upon finding the rock formations, one of them suggested that it would be a good place to open a beer garden. The other responded, "A beer garden?! Why, this is a place fit to be a garden for the gods!"
The name stuck. =)

The formations really are beautiful, and it is fascinating to see them jutting up out of the ground, completely different from the other rock in the area.




For lunch, Amy made us home-made enchiladas (yummy!) and then when Casey came home from work, we headed to the movie theatre to wait in line to see the end. Yes, I went and waited in line for two hours to ensure that I got a good seat for the last movie of Harry Potter.





I wore my favorite Potter-themed t-shirt from Sam and Fuzzy and got a bunch of compliments.

I was highly anticipating the awesome-ness of Neville and Mrs. Weasley and was not disappointed!

As if that wasn't nerdy enough, on the way to the theatre we stopped so I could pick up the latest George R.R. Martin novel. Squee!

Tomorrow Tom and I are heading 14,000 feet up to the top of Pike's Peak on the Cog Railway.