20 years

Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Springs - now a beautiful B&B

 20 years ago (June 8th) I nervously walked down the aisle of Randburg Baptist Church in Johannesburg, South Africa to start the adventure of a lifetime.  Neither of us were particularly young (Daph was 30 and I was 29), nor did we have a clear idea about the challenges of cross-cultural, international marriage. But who thinks about any of that when you're in love and eager to start your new life together?  20 years, three continents, three countries and three children ago  -  what an adventure this has been!  It hardly seems possible today, looking back, that at one point during our engagement I got cold feet and actually wanted to back out.  I would not trade my life nor my marriage for anything now - Daphne and our three girls make my life complete.  We love living in Conifer, but in all honesty it wouldn't matter where we were living because we're a family, and wherever we are, together, is HOME.

Daphne had no idea what I'd planned to celebrate our 20th anniversary - all she knew was that we were going away for the night.  One of our friends unwittingly let the cat out of the bag a couple of days beforehand - but since Daphne's never been to Glen Eyrie it did not ruin the surprise for her.  We arrived at Glen Eyrie last Thursday,  just in time for the 1:00 Castle Tour (part of my very clever planning).  The tour included the fascinating story of the building of the castle in the late 1870's by General William Jackson Palmer - who also founded the city of Colorado Springs.  Palmer was undoubtedly a genius, as his castle was a showcase for many modern conveniences that were literally decades before their time - such as electricity, a central vacuum system, and a built-in fire protection system throughout the castle.  He even conceived of a centralized intercom system to communicate with the castle staff and with his family wherever they might be within the castle walls.

Tea of Two... so posh

After the tour we sat down for a real English Cream Tea in the "Music Room" (do I know my wife, or what?), complete with scones & Devon cream.  I resisted the temptation to drink my tea with my pinky in the air ;  I was too busy scarfing down the scones and cookies.  Most of the patrons were well dressed, which made me feel a little self-conscious in my shorts and Auburn T-shirt.  But who cares, right?  I was with my bride, and that's all that counted for me.

After the Afternoon Tea we decided to hike up to the waterfall that's about 1 mile above Glen Eyrie in the canyon. Since the castle is built literally next door to the Garden of the Gods,  the rocks all around the Glen are beautiful.  We were hoping to see some of the big horn sheep that hang out in the canyon and down on the grounds, but they weren't cooperative that day.  When we got back to our room we started looking on the internet for some places to go for dinner, and one of the first ones I found was the Flying W Ranch only 10 minutes away.  I'd never heard of it before, but apparently it's a working cattle ranch and a replica old-tyme Western town.  They do a western dinner show each evening, with a "Cookhouse" dinner of beans (reminds me of the movie Blazing Saddles), steak, baked potato and apple sauce. 

These 5 cowboys had awesome harmony and great senses of humor

The Western Show consisted of five singing cowboys who all have day jobs (apparently) working on the ranch, and then do the shows in the evenings.  There were four guitars and one fiddle, and man could those guys play!  We enjoyed a great evening of country-western music, and got to meet a Greek Orthodox priest and his wife from New Jersey who'd come to Colorado to attend a pastors' seminar at Focus on the Family.  Amazing how quickly you can get into a deep, personal discussion when you meet another believer.  This guy shared how he'd gotten so disillusioned with the politics in the church that he'd been on the verge of leaving the ministry altogether.  They both thoroughly enjoyed the seminar and they looked and sounded refreshed and ready to head back into the fray.  A great testimony for Focus on the Family.

The next morning we drove literally next door to the Garden of the Gods.  The park covers a pretty small area, but the rock formations are out of this world.  I cannot imagine how they were formed sticking vertically up out of the ground - gigantic, thin wafers of red rock.  We saw a couple of climbers making their way up one of the faces, and I took a few pictures.  I love to climb, but these guys were in a whole other league.  There's a sign down below that says, "If you're not a technical climber using proper gear and a permit, STAY OFF THE ROCKS!"  I was pretty surprised that they let anyone climb, knowing the damage that it does to the rocks.  It also looks fairly dangerous, as the rocks seem to crumble easily.  No Thanks.

The  rest of the pictures are of the park.  Who knows how many millenia it took for these rocks to end up in the position they're now in?  One more reason why I'm an "Old Earth Creationist".