Sunday - Colorado Springs

Upon finally waking and getting our day started, we ventured out to find our activities for the day.
A wonderful surprise--in the car as we're pulling out of the parking lot. It was as though the gods smiled on us and said, "We have another special request. Up next, we have...PANAMA!"

Erin:  First item on the agenda Garden of the Gods.  I've always had a great appreciation for nature, but Garden of the Gods was AMAZING!  Just ask Julie.  We had intended a nice hike through the park enjoying the red rocks, but instead it was a halting tourist nightmare.  The nightmare was none other than myself.  Armed with a camera roughly the size of a toddler, I forced us to stop every ten feet or so in order to snap a picture.  In wide eyed awe, every time I turned around I magically transformed into a one eyed 30x zoom monster.  OH LOOK!!! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!!   CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK.  After being subdued by my travel buddy, I managed to make the rest of the trek with only periodic stops to don my photolens mask.  When we made our leave I rode the breaks all the way down the mountain (canyon trip, yes yes I know) only to find my self squealing to a halt in order to take a few select snap shots from the side of the road.  Julie had no choice in the matter as I ran with reckless abandon out of Thor with the car keys in one hand and my trusting child sized camera in the other up a steep incline for one more picture.  My mission complete, we lunch!

Julie: We had a wonderful lunch in Downton Colorado Springs.  Our meals had vegetables - we were elated! After that, I had a hokey idea to visit the Ghost Town Museum.  Things we learned from the museum:

1) Someone spent a ridiculous amount of time and money collecting an amazing collection of turn-of-the-century items.
2) Erin is not a trick shot with a 50 cent shotgun while shooting a buffalo's butt or a tin can
3) If they tell you you're panning for gold and they mix in sparkly confetti into the sand.  It's not gold! No matter how long Erin sits hump-backed furiously sifting sand and examining every speck within the trough. There will not be any gold.
4) You've seen stagecoaches - these people managed to fit 11 people inside one of those
5) Ocarina's are real and not just exclusive to Zelda
6) Erin looks awesome in a buffalo hat

Erin:  I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but I am a military aircraft nerd.  I like them, I can name them, I do not know how to fly them.  Blame my Popsicle, it's his fault, too many air shows when I was a child.  There is some prime real estate in Colorado Springs, the US Government seems to own 90% of it.  Nestled at the foot of the Rockies stands a pretty amazing campus.  We imagined what it would be like to attend a school in such a picturesque setting, then we realized, we would have to attend a military school (dreams abandoned).  Instead I snapped pictures like a psycho tourist.  My first target, the chapel.  If you've never seen it, it's pretty astounding, google it.  It's like a wondrous multi-religious metallic version of vertically stacked tortilla chips.  Beyond the holy nacho structure I found multiple statues of historic aircraft, I geeked out in grand fashion.  After naming ever plane and snapping pictures I provided Julie with historical accounts of WWII bombing campaigns.  Once I woke Julie from her nerd induced nap, we wandered our way back up the path to the visitor center.  On the path we noticed a rustling in the brush just beyond the path. Now, we had been notified frequently about not feeding the wildlife. We waited patiently for a snake, squirrel, or honey badger to dash out. Julie had high hopes of a degenerate hijacker to appear in search of a fruitless hunt for Cheetos. After several tense minutes, we decided to dash up the path  back to the safety of the visitor center to shop for gifts for Popsicle.

Julie: The rest of the evening was mainly uneventful except for our evening visit to Altitude Drunk.  Again, things we learned were that jalapenos in a margarita can be extremely painful, anecdotes about coworkers related to spicy foods and sour cream can be extremely funny (please ask either of us for the full uncensored story), and that attempts by Julie to heavily salt chips for her own pleasure, then stealing said chips and visibly and actively scraping the salt off will push Julie off the edge.  Julie likes salt. Please don't f*#k with that.