After leaving CC, I went straight to Garden of the Gods, which is about 15 minutes from the campus. Garden of the Gods is an area of land originally donated to state by a private holder in the early part of the last century. Its main attractions are the massive red rock formations that jut up out of the earth some 300 feet. There are paths through the formations, and they all have cute names like "kissing camels" and "balancing rock." I drove up to the visitor center first just to see what was there, but soon realized that anything there paled in comparison to just getting out and seeing the formations. So I drove down to the parking facility near the main trailhead, and began what ended up to be about a two hour hike. I made my way down the center of the great red formations that form the bulk of the park's attraction. The place was surprisingly crowded, so I decided to take some trails that seemed a little bit less traveled. I ended up making a great loop back to the parking place, so I guess I got lucky. What really struck me about the park was the bird life. There were birds all over the place, and they were of all different varieties. I saw two vivdly colored blue birds perched on the inside branches of a small pine tree, and I watched them flutter around the limbs, playing with each other, for about 10 minutes. The hike itself was pretty standard, and not difficult or treacherour by any stretch of the imaginiation. The air was clear, and it was just great to be out in nature for the first time in awhile.

After the garden, I headed to a restaurant that Carol had recommended by the name of Wooglins. On the way, though, I saw a music shop that begged me to come inside, so I did. I ended up buying a three dollar album of a band named Midnite (spelling intended), and a cool poster from a local concert. Apparantly the store owner records concerts and sells them for cheap, but this time it was also to help raise money for his newly adopted son. After Earth Pig Music, I went to the restaurant and bought a delightful vegetarian sandwich from a very enthusiastic sandwich salesman. It was the perfect remedy for an empty stomach, and prepared me for the drive to Rocky Mountain National Park.

With the intention of reaching the park by about 7, I stopped by Golden, CO, to see if Liz and Noel (family friends from my mom's high-school days) were home. I pulled up to their house and knocked, but there was no answer. I called, and had no luck, so I left a note on the door telling them that I had dropped by. I decided to call another family friend, John Tolls, and he picked up and told me to come over for a visit. As I got into my car to go to John's place, I saw Liz coming up the road. I got out, and we visited inside for awhile before I got the grand tour of their new deck that has suffered some damage recently due to heavy snow the past few weekends. Liz seemed to be doing really well, and she even gave me some sweet stickers to put on the back of Rita the Casita. Too bad I missed Noel, but that leaves something for next time I suppose...

From Liz's place, I went to John's house in Englewood, on the southwestern side of Denver. His place is really something, and there are already a multitude of colorful flowers blessing his backyard. John is doing well, and I also got to meet two of his close friends from town, who were also splendid to spend time talking to. I hit it off with Tom, who had many, many things to say about the merits of vegetarianism, and who was just a great guy to talk to in general. We decided to order dinner from a local Chinese place, and over we talked about a wide array of topics ranging from the amount of water that is used when flushing a toilet to Obama's recent closure of loopholes for companies that hold foreign accounts. I'll give you one guess what the predominant sympathy towards Obama was. :)

After dinner, I was stuffed and pretty tired, so I ended up just planning to stay the night over here with the intention of getting up early tomorrow to go to the park. John and I talked for awhile remeniscing about life in Indonesia and discussing college life. By the end we both agreed that we need to go back over to Asia sometime soon. Hopefully that happens!

I am now in bed, ready to sleep and get up for a quick drive to Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park. More lata!