Early in the week, our friends Steve and Tawn and their kids Clay and Ruby joined us for dinner in the RV. They, too, are on a bit of adventure, having moved from Indy for a two year teaching stint at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. This is the family that kindly secured us a camping spot on the base.
Amy and the girls got to see more of the base than I did. One of their stops was at the Cadet Chapel, known for its really cool architecture:
Aware of Emily’s interest in airplanes and space, Steve was kind enough to give Amy and the girls a tour of the aeronautics and astronautics labs at the Air Force Academy.
On Tuesday night, Amy and I got a rare evening out: Steve and Tawn invited our girls over for a pizza dinner and game night while Amy and I did a dinner hike at Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs.
I took Wednesday off, and we all gussied up as best we could for the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The girls were really excited about having a reason to dress up:
With the President in town for this event, security was tight:
Scanning the crowd for mischief-makers:
The Secret Service kept watchful eyes on the crowd as well:
The soon-to-be-graduated class of Air Force cadets:
After all of the cadets were seated and a few other dignitaries were introduced, the President made his grand entrance:
The Air Force Academy gets a presidential visit for a graduation once every 4 years, so it was fortuitous timing that this coincided with us being in Colorado to see it.
More Secret Service, and SUVs ready to whisk the president away should any trouble break out:
There were over 1,000 cadets graduating this day – it took a couple hours to get through the list of names. The President saluted and shook hands with every single one of them.
One of the USAFA graduation traditions is to let children onto the field to catch the cadets’ hats after they throw them in the air. There was supposed to be $20.12 secured inside each hat for the kids to keep (as well as the hat.)
After baking in the sun for a couple hours, some sweet, sweet cloud cover rolled in:
In a show of precise timing, right as the class of 2012 was officially dismissed, the Thunderbird F-16s roared over the stadium:
…and hat’s were thrown in the air:
…and there was much rejoicing:
With the ceremony over, the President began to work the crowd on the field:
…and after a while made his exit:
I’ve read that the President’s limo is so weighed down from bomb- and bullet-proof materials that it only gets about 8 miles-per-gallon. I know the feeling, Mr. President…I know the feeling.
Emily and Natalie with the hats they caught (and they each had $20!)
After the graduation ceremony, the Thunderbirds put on a pretty cool air show:
As if there hadn’t been enough excitement from watching an Air Force Academy graduation, seeing the President of the United States, and watching the Thunderbirds do aerial acrobatics in their fighter jets, Emily’s loose tooth fell out from eating popcorn:
At the end of the afternoon, we visited the Olympic training center, also in Colorado Springs:
We saw the facilities for gymnastics, volleyball, shooting, wrestling and swimming.
It was a quick but interesting view into the rigorous lifestyle of Olympic hopefuls, especially considering the summer Olympics start in a couple months.
We ended the day with a fantastic dinner and wonderful company at Steve and Tawn’s house. We are so appreciative of them for an exciting week and truly one of the highlights of this trip.
We left Colorado Springs on Thursday and headed toward Boulder for Amy’s “Bolder Boulder” 10k race on Monday.
Apparently, Boulder does not welcome us RV folk — there are no RV parks to be found in the entire city. (This is the first major city in America we’ve found that does not have RV parks.) The best we could do was a fairgrounds RV park in Golden, CO, about 45 minutes from Boulder. Oh well.
On Thursday night we drove to Boulder to meet my Uncle Walter and Aunt Sue, who flew in from Florida the night before. Like the half marathon in Santa Barbara, CA back in November, Walter will be running the race with Amy on Monday.
Staying at the fairgrounds here in Golden wasn’t completely random: it’s the current temporary home of our long-time friend and former babysitter Shawna and her husband Matthew. Shawna is a traveling nurse, so she and Matthew are living semi-nomadically in Colorado. It was pretty cool to meet up with them; their “house” is literally just a few spots away from ours right now. We had them over for dinner on Friday and we’ll be hanging out with them some more before we leave in a few days.
On Saturday, we drove back to Boulder to spend time with Walter and Sue. Amy was happy to troll through the Boulder Farmers’ market:
A particularly hard-working street musician:
Emily and Natalie were thrilled that Walter and Sue’s hotel had a nice pool:
We did a Sunday morning hike up some local hills that overlooked Denver:
My beautiful 12-year-old:
Walter and Sue joined us in the RV tonight for the traditional pre-race pasta dinner:
After dinner, Walter entertained us with stories about him and my dad growing up. Some of them I had heard, but many were new. It was good to hear stories and remember my dad.
Amy and Walter have an early morning tomorrow for their race, so she will be going back with Walter and Sue to stay the night at their hotel.
The girls and I will need to leave the RV around 6:30am to see Amy finish around 7:45. These races are always pretty crazy, and with over 50,000 runners (no, that’s not a typo), I expect nothing less from the Bolder Boulder. But it’s also pretty exciting, and Amy loves her races. So, go Amy go! :)