You go to Colorado Springs, you go up Pikes Peak, that’s how this works. And, as someone that grew-up at altitude, I feel it my duty to acclimatize the low-land family to being less than three miles up 🙂 We headed out fairly early in the morning to avoid any potential late-day thunderstorms and/or clouds. That plan was good as when we came down later in the day, the peak was covered in thunderstorms. Brian really enjoyed tracking our progress by mile-marker on his map. We are up there a week before the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, so a lot of extra items were along the road as they prepared for the big event, but it did not distract too badly from the beauty of the mountain. Above tree line, there certainly was a lot of snow still. The large equipment was working hard to clear a lot of it away for the following week. We actually witnessed a few brave souls snowboarding down the mountain!
At the summit, we had to get our donuts and hot chocolate. Kendall definitely needed the energy boost, as the oxygen deprivation was definitely making her a bit woozy. Now, we go to many gift shops with all the places we go, but we usually never end up getting any of the personalized name-type items as it almost never happens where there is an item where we can find both kids names (spelled correctly). But, wouldn’t you know it, Pikes Peak delivered with “Kendall Ln” and “Brian Ave”, so, we had no choice but to get that for their rooms at home!
When we got out of the summit house, Brian went straight to finding snow to play in and making snowballs to throw. Most he just tossed off the mountain, but a few targeted yours truly! When it was time to take the traditional photo in front of the summit sign, Kendall still wasn’t quite feeling herself and refused to look at the camera for the photo. We even told her that if she didn’t turn around that she would be immortalized like that. Well, here is the immoralization 😉
On the way back down the mountain, we beat getting caught in the clouds. I was on driving duty from the summit down. Now, I DO know what I’m doing, however, this was a vehicle that I was not used to, who’s low gear was not nearly as low as I’d like, and who’s gross vehicle weight is high. To that end, I was quite nervous heading into the mandatory brake check (I used brakes way more than I like to, but still much less than average flatlanders do). But, to my surprise, my brake temperature was well below the cut-off and was even well below the average. I guess I can still claim decent mountain driving skills! Grandpa Roger and Grandma Cheryl packed the fishing gear, so we made a stop at the South Catamount Reservoir to toss the hook and line into the water. Needless to say, nothing was caught, but a good time was had by all, until the thunderstorms did catch up to us!
For fun food tonight, we made some home-made ice cream, which was a real hit with everyone. Especially so because everyone chose their own toppings!
As we head into the last night of our trip, it was imperative that we finish the mountain lion puzzle we had worked on all week. And, although we got punchy at the end, dad, Alison, and I did get it finished late tonight.
After the puzzle was finished, Alison and I stayed up a bit longer to recover from the final puzzle push. Well, a moth made it into the house and was attracted to the chandelier in the room. Not surprising, but what was funny was that every available cat became aware of the moth and became hyper-focused on catching it. Watching crazy cats became more of our entertainment than watching the television!
