Chieko decided on Sunday, March 30, that we should go to Colorado Springs to visit Jamie and gang over Conference weekend. I think the reason was to see Kali, who had surgery on April 1, but for whatever reason, I'm always game for taking a couple days off work and taking a road trip.
We left Thursday evening, drove through beautiful Wyoming mostly in the dark and stayed in Laramie. We then drove through blowing snow on a blue windy day, went to the Denver Art Museum to see the Impressionists exhibit (Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne), and arrived at Jamie's in the early evening on Friday.
The Austin's house is beautiful. Two stories with a basement (so three stories). Vaulted ceilings. Large kitchen. Large family room. Larger family room downstairs. Four bedrooms upstairs. Three and a half bathrooms. They've also done a lot of work tearing down wallpaper and painting to make it their own. Chieko and I decided that we need to buy a new house.
We stayed in the guest house in the back.
The guest room is larger than it looks from the outside.
On Friday evening we ate really good Italian food (I had veal with sun dried tomoatoes, artichoke hearts, and garlic in a garlic cream sauce) in Old Colorado City, the old heart of Colorado Springs.
On Saturday we watched the Solemn Assembly session of conference and stood with our quorums and groups to sustain our new prophet.
We then visited the Valley of the Gods, an Arches-like park in the Pike's Peak foothills that was dedicated for free public use by the children of the founder of Colorado Springs. There are a lot of towering rocks and rock walls that are popular among serious climbers.
The Austin kids broke all the rules and got arrested and went to jail in Texas. Well, Caleb did fall and got a fat, bloody lip.
In the late afternoon, when the sun was low enough to light up the stained glass windows, we visited the Air Force Academy, where the biggest attraction for visitors is probably this chapel.
These are the stained glass windows.
On Sunday we watched Morning Conference then went to Seven Falls, which is seven waterfalls, one after the other. It's also in the Pike's Peak foothills behind the Broadmoor Hotel, which will host the 2008 Senior Open golf tournament in July.
Most of us climbed about 170 stairs to a viewpoint and gift shop (some people and their two younger kids took an elevator in a shaft cut in the mountain), and then we climbed another 224 stairs to the top of the falls.
Chieko and I were supposed to drive home on Monday, but wunderground.com said both possible routes--I-70 and I-80--were to have an 80% chance of snow, and we'd taken Chikeo's BMW, which does not have snow tires (but it cruises along really nicely at 80+ mph and averaged 31 mpg over the trip). So, darn, we had to stay an extra day.
On Monday we visited the Olympic headquarters and the Western Mine and Industry museum. The Olympic headquarters was very interesting. We saw a few athletes training on weights, and some visiting junior athletes competing in a .22 rifle competition. We also got snowed on pretty heavily with big corn-snow during the outside part of the tour.
On the way home on Tuesday we stopped at Oshima Ramen in Denver--ramen is always a must for us. Unfortunately, the ramen was mediocre, skinny noodles, very thin pork, and not a lot of food. We left Denver at noon, stopped for gas in Green River, UT, drove through hard rain in Spanish Fork Canyon, and made a detour to Santaquin to eat dinner at The Family Tree. We were home at 9 p.m.
Don't you wish your elementary school was in a city with always-clean air and Pikes Peak in the background? This is Kali and Caleb's school.
