Family and Fundraising

I took a couple of days off this past week to spend time with my cousin, Karen, and her family, who were in Colorado on vacation. They got into town Wednesday night and spent part of a cloudy, dreary day on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway while I was working Thursday. They came over to my house Thursday evening for spaghetti.

On Friday, we went to the zoo. It was cloudy and drizzly all morning, but the clouds lifted enough in the early afternoon, that we took a ride on the new Mountaineer sky ride before leaving the zoo. Next we went to Seven Falls where we climbed the 240 stairs to the top of the falls.

We did a little hiking at the top of the falls before heading back down the stairs. Then we took the elevator inside the mountain up to an observation area where we could see the falls in their entirety.

After Seven Falls, we stopped by church to look around and then headed to Solo's restaurant for supper, where we opted for in plane seating. I tried to include an active link to Solo's website here, but can't get it to work. Cut-and-paste http://coloradoeats.com/solos/ to see it. After dinner we headed to a Sky Sox baseball game. We had a few sprinkles, but overall it was a nice, cool night for a ball game.

Saturday morning started out nice and clear, so it was decided to drive up Pikes Peak to see it without the clouds that marred the view on Thursday. By the time we got to the bottom of the toll road, clouds were starting to build, so the folks at the gate recommended we drive straight to the top and make any stops on the way down. The views on the way up were great. There were clouds at the top that blocked any views toward the east, but there were still great views to be had toward the west.

We had some heavy rain on the way down, so our timing was good, but we didn't make any stops on the way down. Unfortunately, we didn't see the herd of bighorn sheep on the way down that we passed on the way up. Next we headed to Garden of the Gods. It was pouring down rain when we got there, but we planned to eat lunch first anyway. We found a dry table under the covered patio at the Trading Post cafe. By the time we finished eating, the rain had stopped and we had sun shining. We drove to the main parking lot and hiked around the central garden and up one side trail. The dark skies made for some dramatic photos.


After Garden of the Gods, we stopped by the Olympic Training Center. We missed the last tour, but enjoyed the interactive exhibit, the gift shop full of Beijing merchandise and walking around the grounds. They have an Olympic flame that they lit at the same time as the one in Beijing and will remain burning during the Games.

We came back to my house, where Karen made sloppy joes for supper. They had to leave early the next morning, so we said good-bye Saturday night.

Sunday evening, our chapter of the American Association of ZooKeepers (AAZK) held our annual Art on the Hoof fundraiser. I'm co-chair for this event, which always brings plenty of stress. I was worried about ticket sales, but some last minute sales made the event a success. We raised over $5500, and I didn't have to bring home much unclaimed art.