Colorado Trip! Day 3

Another beautiful Colorado day! Today’s adventures started with quick lunch/brunch in Manitou Springs. Then we were off to the United States Air Force Academy to tour the grounds.

I intended on showing Kendall and Brian my old Elementary school where I went to first grade. However, with the enhanced security in place, the cadets guarding the roads wouldn’t let me go that direction by the stadium. So, we took in the B-52 exhibit, followed by the visitor’s center. We watched the short video, where Brian decided he probably didn’t want to be in the military with so many people yelling at you all the time! We checked out the exhibits and got a few items at the gift shop before taking the trail over to the chapel. Kendall particularly liked her Colorado snap bracelet and Brian liked his F-117 stealth fighter die-cast pull-back plane.

We did the customary overlook of the campus and then toured through both the top and bottom levels of the chapel. Along the route we saw many neat local flowers and animals (primarily lizards and birds). The half-mile hike at altitude and low humidity tuckered most out, so we headed back to the car for water and continuing the tour by auto. We started heading back South toward town and our next stop.

We then went to a place very special for Alison and I, it’s where I proposed to her here 14 years earlier, The Garden of the Gods. The red stone was as beautiful as ever and the kids wanted to climb everything that was safe, and unsafe, for them to climb. We let them do what fun things they could safely do 🙂 We saw a lot of birds, butterflies, and bunnies throughout the walk. We saw most of the major formations in the main part of the park, then did the customary touristy thing of hitting the trading post to get a few snacks and souvenirs!

At home we continued working on puzzles, puzzles, puzzles! We had to keep the biggest puzzle covered to keep the cats from knocking it onto the floor.