A couple of weeks ago my dad drove all the way out here to come and see us. It was awesome, we did a lot of fun things. The first day we went to the Fort Collins museum, where I learned that Fort Collins was originally established to fight off the Indians, however the Indians in this neck of the woods were not interested in fighting so they tore down the fort and established an agriculture school here due to the rich soil. Later that day we ended up in old down town in the middle of a crazy Halloween costume party. Except the party wasn’t for humans. Instead furry little creatures were dressed up (dogs) in all sorts of crazy outfits (see pic above). Alaina and I agreed that next year we would enter our dogs into the costume contest by dressing them up as little boat captains while we push them around on the boat we make. This is a fitting idea, as the breed of schipperke was once used on boats around Belgium. Also later that day we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park, and we saw a heard of rams! It was really cool. They were galloping up the side of a very steap cliff. I couldn’t believe how good there balance was!
The second day we took the bikes out and gave the puppies a bike ride. Later that day we went to the campus to see Barack Obama! It was insane. The line to get into the oval was over a mile long! They estimated over 45,000 people saw him there that day. It was cool feeling the excitement in the air, but it also was too bad we weren’t close enough to see him. Just too many people.
The last day we took a trip down to Colorado Springs. The tourist trap of Colorado! There is a lot to do there, and we only scratched the surface. However, we did see a cool place called the Garden of the Gods. Beautiful red rock features jett out of the ground giving a surreal feeling. There is a huge rock (several tons) which balances on a rock below with only a little area to hold it up. Its quite amazing (see pic above). Apparently this feature was created by strong water currents during the ice age. Later that day we saw a the ancient ruins of the manitou cliff dwellers. I have never seen anything like it. Stone buildings were literally gauged out of the side of a cliff for the Indians to live in long ago. Quite a number of Indians lived inside this “Cliff Mansion”, most were farmers, they had quite the assortment of medical herbs.
After my dad left it was back to the grind. I can’t believe this school term is almost over, and then we’ll be back to Oregon for a few weeks. Weather permitting we will leave here December 17th, looking forward to seeing all of you.
*unable to post pics, will post once I figure out problem.
-Matt