A Week of Errands (With a Little Fun)

My parents came to visit us this past week, and it was wonderful to have them out here. They'd never been to Colorado and were welcomed with cool, but rainy weather- a nice change of pace from the 100+ temperatures we'd been experiencing. The rain definitely put a damper on the visit as we weren't able to get out and do a lot of the outdoor, tourist-y activities that the Springs has to offer. I had a few errands that I needed to run for school and my parents were nice enough to keep me company while waiting at the Admissions and Financial Aid offices. Also throwing a (happy) wrench into our visit was the early arrival of our household goods! We finally have all of our things, and we were pleasantly surprised with their condition. A few of our wooden pieces (china cabinet, dresser, and our bed) have some scratches and our couch has a small tear in the fabric in the back, but otherwise everything arrived in perfect condition. We are missing a small folding chair though, so hopefully that will turn up somewhere. The truck that carried our goods contained the things of three families, so it could possibly be at the other home here in Colorado Springs, or it could be in somewhere in California. Hopefully it's here, as it'd be pretty sad if my folding chair made it farther west than me! (I'll post some more pictures of the house after we finish unpacking, as it currently looks like a tornado ripped through a moving truck.)

We were finally able to get out this weekend with my parents. First, we took them to see Garden of the Gods. My mom took most of the pictures this day, so I'm including a picture of Tom and I from our first visit.


We finally caught a morning without rain yesterday, so we loaded up in the Jeep and headed up to Pike's Peak. The nineteen mile drive up the winding mountain road takes over an hour each way. It was a cloudy day, so we drove through some pretty amazing, dense fog and, unfortunately, couldn't get a good view from the peak. We're looking forward to returning, and perhaps hiking some of the distance in the future.

**Please excuse the bugs on the windshield, the Jeep has never been washed to my knowledge.**

Starting the ascent


Halfway there

Ready for the next 9.5 miles

Getting close

View from the top #1

View from the top #2

14,115 ft!