the States: colorado: colorado springs

The drive from Crested Butte to Colorado Springs was just as beautiful in reverse. Maybe even more so because I didn't have to worry about rain or low clouds. It took a little longer to get to my destination in Colorado Springs because there was construction on one part of the highway, and I couldn't go around.

This next part of my travels was another reason I'd come to the States this summer: a full on Garmisch-Partenkirchen reunion with one set of friends. (Between Crested Butte and Colorado Springs I was in Colorado for about a week. I used the hashtag #garmischappreciationweek for all the photos of the week.)

A couple friends had taken it upon themselves to choose a weekend, choose a place, and choose accomodation. The rest of us simply sent in the money, and figured out how to get to Colorado Springs.

The rental house was huge, and absolutely perfect. It was on the edge of town, and had no close neighbors. I was one of the first to arrive, I got to pick my bed. Not too long after I arrived, others started showing up. Soooo many hugs and smiles and general happiness.

It's hard to describe the friendships that started in GaP. Back then we were all young and somewhat naive. We traveled together, partied together, worked and lived together. People from Garmisch are the last ones who saw me drink a beer. (I figured out near the end of my time there that I'm allergic.) Back then we all lived in the same building, so you never had to go far to find someone to hang out with. Of course, this also means everyone knew everything about everyone else, there were very few secrets.

Some of us hadn't seen each other since we lived in GaP, and yet it felt like no time had passed at all. We've all sortof grown up, and even though I hadn't seen these folks much since, I'd still trust them with everything.

The first few hours were filled with greetings as new people arrived, and general catching up. It had been 14 years since some of us saw each other, there was a lot to talk about. Lots of laughter, dancing, etc...

At some point meals were discussed, and it was decided that the professional chefs in the group (3 out of the 15 people were professional chefs, how awesome is that?) would be cooking dinner that night, and everyone would chip in for the food.

Since I love grocery shopping, I went with two of them. I don't know if you've ever shopped with people who know food, it's fun. They had all kinds of ideas, and were ready to buy out the entire store, hee hee. For each item we had to remember that there would be 15 people, so we needed more than it seemed. One carton of cream cheese wasn't going to be enough, nor was one bag of chips. Megan was almost exactly right about the total cost at checkout, even though she hadn't been writing prices down as we went along. Eric and I were totally impressed.

Since this was a reunion of people who can drink, we also had to go to the liquor store. Colorado has strange laws about alcohol; you can't buy it at a grocery store, you have to go to a liquor store. That part of the trip didn't take nearly as long as the food part.

The rest of the afternoon and evening continued with hanging out, catching up, making new memories, etc... Groups of people talking changed around, everyone moved around from time to time, life was good. At some point all three cooks started preparing dinner.

Since this was a real house, and there was a real dining table, it was set properly. It was neat to sit down to a family dinner all at once. The food was set up family style in the kitchen, we all served ourselves. Again, the conversation never stopped, with lots of laughter throughout the evening.

I suppose it sounds like nothing much happened that day, but it was amazing to see all those people after so long.

There was soooo much catching up to do, with all of them. I think I finally went to bed around midnight, but I don't really know.

The next morning some people were up earlier than others. Courtney actually went to work out! She was the only one of us that motivated, the rest of us felt pretty good about getting up before noon. Even though we were all awake early enough, it took a while for everyone to get showered and dressed and ready to go.

Just as everyone was ready to go somewhere, we looked at the clock and realized it was lunch. We had lunch food in the house, and that seemed like a much better idea (since it had already been paid for) than going out to a restaurant.

Two cars worth of people finally got out the door after noon sometime.

The destination for the day was the chapel on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy. (USAFA.) I'd seen it before, but it is really eye catching, and we all needed to get out of the house for a bit. The drive to the academy was easy, and the two cars were let in after quick checks of our drivers licenses.

We parked and walked through a platz like area (which I'm sure serves some purpose but I have no idea what it is) to get to the chapel. On the platz there are a couple memorials as well as some model airplanes.

I'm not terribly good at describing how things look, I'm hoping my photos will do the talking for me. The shape of the chapel is basically a giant triangle. It is divided into two levels; the top level has the Protestant Chapel, while the lower level has areas for Catholics, Buddhists, and Jews.

 The Protestant part of things is what usually gets all the attention, for several reasons. One, because it is the biggest, and the most cadets attending services here. Two, the interior is quite unique, it isn't like your average Protestant church. The stained glass lets in light and colour, and the whole thing is really geometric.

The bottom level is also beautiful but doesn't get as much attention. The Catholic chapel has walls of stained glass as well, I loved the colour and warmth. The Jewish and Buddhist areas are smaller, but still very nice. As far as I could tell, they didn't want visitors tromping through the Jewish and Buddhist areas, though the Protestant and Catholic areas are open.

After checking out the chapels we looked at the surrounding areas. I pointed out the dorms in which the cadets live, each of them for four years. We could see cadets rushing around with big trunks, maybe they were moving in before the start of the new year? We probably should've visited the visitors center and asked someone.

We could see dark storm clouds rolling in pretty fast, so we decided it was time to go. No one wanted to go back to the house just yet, so someone looked up a microbrewery close by, and that was our next stop. I went with raspberry lemonade, the rest of them went with something alcoholic. From the moment we'd all laid eyes on each other the day before, conversation had yet to stop.

After that we drove back to the house. It was early evening, so the cooks came together and figured out a plan for dinner that night.

The original plan had been to go out to a restaurant, but everyone had really enjoyed the family meal the night before and preferred to stay in. Plus, we had plenty of food left, no one wanted to waste it.

For the next few hours people hung out again, some in the hot tub, some in the living room, etc... At some point the cooks did their thing again, and put together another amazing meal. Eating as a group again was just as awesome.

Not long after dinner we gathered outside around the natural gas fire. Layna had prepared about 100 trivia questions about our time in Garmisch.

Some of the questions were about specific things that had happened, others were about the town itself, and still others asked for stories about our experiences.

We played in teams, which made it all really entertaining. Funny to find out who remembered what, and who had forgotten what. Heaps of laughter, and we all learned a bit as well.

In addition to the trivia questions Layna had put together a slide show of old photos. Watching all of those was hysterical. We were all really glad again that social media didn't exist when we lived in GaP. Or maybe we would've left our phones at home, who knows.

I don't know what the people who live there now do when they go out.

I finally went to bed around 0100, I think I was one of the earliest. How do people stay up so late?

The next morning we all got moving a bit faster than the day before, but not by much. We didn't have to officially check out until 1600, but everyone was ready to go long before that.

To get our deposit back we had to clean up of course, strip the beds, wash the dishes, that sort of thing. Since nearly all of us had spent at least a few minutes in housekeeping or waitstaff while in GaP this was easy enough to do.

Around 1215 everyone gathered out front for one last group photo. I love having a tripod.

Most of us went from there to brunch at a restaurant where Erik knows the owner, though some split off and drove back to Denver. Basically it was another hour and some for us to hang out with each other.

After that, it really was over. I'm soooo glad this weekend was planned, and happened. Hopefully we don't have to wait another 14 years to get together again!